by Paul Lawrence
Andrew Coles
With the notable exception of a live audience, the 2021 Donington Historic Festival had it all -huge grids, wonderful racing, fine spring weather and an unrivalled paddock atmosphere as everyone loved the chance to go racing again. A sense of a growing return to normality and an undiminished passion to go racing was everywhere in the paddock.
In many ways, the tenth edition of the event set the bar for the future. The race programme was covetable, attracting a diverse programme of racing machinery from the 1921 aero-engined Parker GN pf Justin and Ben Maeers to the fire-breathing 1989 Nissan Skyline of Jonathan Bailey and Andy Middlehurst.
Across the socially-distanced paddock there was a wonderful feeling of renewal and optimism as teams and drivers went racing, some for the first time in many, many months. The atmosphere of the whole event was outstanding even without spectators present, however two-days of racing were expertly live-streamed around the globe by Historic Motorsport TV.
Saturday 1st May
Jaguar Classic Challenge
The opening round of the Jaguar Classic Challenge got the Donington Historic Festival’s racing programme off to the perfect start with a fabulous grid of more than 30 Jaguars battling over an hour around the sweeps of Donington Park. Ultimately, it was Jaguar ace Gary Pearson, who proved the best of the pack and he took a classy victory as the series made a tremendous debut under the wing of Motor Racing Legends.
Oliver Flower
Things were predictably tight in qualifying first thing on Saturday morning. The E-type of Mark Donner and Andrew Smith topped the times by a third of a second from the similar car of Jonathan Hughes. Donner was quick to point out that Smith had set the pole time and Donner would start the race knowing that his target was to lose as few places as possible before Smith took the car over for the second half of the race. Solo racer Pearson was third fastest, just ahead of John Clark and Miles Griffiths. John Pearson, the younger of the Pearson brothers, was fifth fastest but troubled by a misfire that would lead to an early retirement in the race when it could not be cured.
In the E-type’s 60th anniversary year, the pack make a wonderful sight as it streamed down the Craner Curves on the opening lap as Hughes took a short-lived leads from Pearson. Even a brief mid-race safety car period could not unseat Pearson during a tremendous performance that underlined his status as one of the best historic racers. However, in his wake fine battles raged all down the field. “The E-type was lovely,” said Pearson. “The safety car closed things up and I had to get my head down again. It is so nice to race a good E-type round here and it was just a wonderful grid of well-prepared cars. This is such a nice event with good grids and a relaxed atmosphere.”
Andrew Coles
While Pearson started to edge clear, Marcus von Oeynhausen worked into second and led the chase of the fleeing Pearson. Meanwhile, a fine battle raged over third as Hughes found himself fully occupied by the challenge of Andy Newall (in Rhea Sautter’s car) and the soon-to-retire John Pearson.
With the Gomm/Keith-Lucas car in the gravel at Coppice, a mid-race safety car period cost Pearson some of his lead as the pack closed up and many cars headed for their mandatory pit-stop. From the green flag, Pearson quickly re-asserted control and was 11s to the good after an hour of racing.
After the pit stops, the Donnor/Smith car was up to second as Smith built on an excellent first stint by Donnor. Sadly, it came to an end at three-quarter distance when Smith headed for the pits. “We just started getting some white smoke out of the car. Mark drove a good first stint and we were on for a good result,” said Smith.
Their retirement put the Oeynhausen car into second but Marcus was being hunted down by Chris Ward, who had taken over the car of Richard Kent. Ward closed in quickly and dived ahead as they braked for Coppice. Oeynhausen tried to re-challenge under braking for the chicane but skittered down the escape road as Ward gave him room.
“I got off really well but then made two mistakes,” said Marcus as he completed the overall podium with the car he has owned and raced for 24 years. Hughes was a solid fourth from Costas Michael and the impressive Shane Brereton. Best of the Class D cars, in seventh overall, was young Jack Minshaw and his uncle Guy.
A little piece of history was made when four members of the Minshaw family contested the same race for the first time. Jon, the eldest of three brothers, went solo in his E-type while his son Jack and brother Guy raced another of Jon’s cars. Jason shared the E-type of Martin Melling and it was the first time the four of them had been on the same grid together. Jack and Guy won the family battle in seventh place, winning Class D with Jon chasing them home in ninth, just two and a half seconds back. In between the Minshaw cars was Jamie Boot, while the top ten was rounded out by Sautter/Newall.
Oliver Flower
Woodcote Trophy/Stirling Moss Trophy
The Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy and Stirling Moss Trophy grids came together to form a bumper field of pre-1961 sports cars.
Andrew Coles
The hour-long race on Saturday afternoon was typified by battles and spirited driving all the way down the field. At the head of the action, it was the Lister Costin of James Cottingham/Olivery Bryant that took the Stirling Moss Trophy spoils while the famous HWM Jaguar of Gregor Fisken and Sam Hancock emerged to win the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy in style.
A wonderfully varied and bumper grid of 1950 sports cars gathered for the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy and Stirling Moss Trophy race and in qualifying the Tojeiro Jaguar of Cottingham and Bryant headed the times with a handy margin over the Lister Jaguar Knobbly of John Spiers and Tiff Needell as Lister variants packed out the top 10 qualifiers.
Best of the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy cars in qualifying was the HWM Jaguar of Gregor Fisken and Sam Hancock, in a very impressive seventh overall. Second fastest was the Cooper-Jaguar T38 of Fred Wakeman and Patrick Blakeney-Edwards. As regular winners of the Woodcote Trophy, Wakeman and Blakeney-Edwards knew they faced a tough challenge from the famous HWM, once crashed on the 1955 Mille Miglia and later raced for many years by Kirk Rylands.
The opening laps of the race featured a sensational battle as the Tojeiro Jaguar of Cottingham worked hard to fend off the Lister of Chris Ward. Lap after lap they ran nose-to-tail as they battled through the slower traffic and it was a fantastic spectacle while it lasted.
Ward, in the car owned by racing newcomer Peter Osborne, stayed out as long as he could, which gave him the lead for a number of laps after Cottingham pitted fairly early in the window. With a clear track, Ward was able to up his pace and build a lead of around 12s. “I was really pleased with the Lister on a full fuel load,” said Ward. “I didn’t get a lap in qualifying.”
However, after the pit stops 2017 Le Mans GTE-Am class winner Rob Smith, who took over the Lister from Ward, just lacked the seat time in the car to fend off the charging Bryant, now at the wheel of the Tojeiro. “I tried to hold him off but I just needed a bit more time in the car,” said Smith. “I learnt a lot today!”
“The fuel filler cap came loose and so we pitted early,” said Bryant. “It was a great privilege to drive that car. I ran it at Goodwood eight or nine years ago. James did all the hard work against Chris Ward.”
Gary Pearson ran a secure third in his Lister Jaguar in his second hour-long race of the day while a class-winning fourth overall was a fine debut result for the Richard Bradley/Gareth Burnett Lotus 15, now owned by Michael Birch after previously being raced by Dion Kremer. Charlie Martin/Justin Maeers (Cooper Monaco) and Peter Ratcliffe (Lister Knobbly) rounded off the Stirling Moss Trophy top six. Needell parked his Lister at Starkey’s Bridge with propshaft failure and enjoyed the rest of the race from a marshal’s deck chair.
In the under 2-litre drum-braked class, Ben Adams unfortunately spun his Lola Mk1 into the tyre wall at the Old Hairpin and caused a red flag with 10 minutes to run and the class victory went to the similar car of John Chisholm and Sam Wilson.
In the concurrent Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy, a fantastic performance from the HWM Jaguar of Fisken and Hancock proved too strong for everyone else, despite the very best efforts of Blakeney-Edwards and Wakeman. Typically, they never stopped chasing but could not match the pace of the famous HWM.
“There was a lot going on out there,” said Fisken of the increasingly brakeless HWM. “We just ran out of stopping power but we didn’t run out of fun.” Did he try to conserve the brakes to give Hancock something for the later stages? “No, I drove it like I stole it!”
Andrew Coles
“Just being here is a joy,” said Wakeman. “It’s been so long since I was in a racing car,” said the American racer. The Cooper actually got ahead during the pit-stops as the HWM lost around 14s with a slow stop, but Hancock was able to pull it back and was helped when Blakeney-Edwards had a quick spin on some oil.
Other notable class winners in the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy included Rick Bourne/Malcolm Paul (Lotus MkX), John Clark/Gordon Mutch (Cooper Bobtail) and David Cottingham/Adrian King in their wonderful Ferrari 500 TRC which, remarkably, was the only non-British built car in the race.
Andrew Coles
Amon Cup for Ford GT40s
Jeff Bloxham
Saturday’s racing closed with the inaugural Amon Cup for Ford GT40s featuring a representative grid of cars, which will be boosted further once the European contenders are able to get to the UK. After an absorbing 80-minute race, it was Gordon Shedden and Miles Griffiths who took a classy victory.
The cars made a rousing sight and sound as they raced into the early evening on a bright spring day Donington and the noise of the squadron of GT40s echoed of the mid-1960s at Le Mans.
Oliver Bryant, racing solo, finally topped the GT40 times in qualifying, less than four tenths of a second faster than the car of Andy Newall and James Hanson. In fact, little more than a second covered the top five cars in a remarkably closely-fought qualifying session.
The prolific James Cottingham/Andrew Smith partnership was third fastest from David Cuff and DK Engineering’s Harvey Stanley. Meanwhile, British Touring Car racer Gordon Shedden and Miles Griffiths were back in fifth in Philip Walker’s car, albeit only just over a second away from the pole time.
Jeff Bloxham
“It’s the car we won the 2019 Spa Six Hours in,” confirmed Shedden. “We also raced it at Goodwood last year, but I’ve not raced it at Donington before. It gets you back into racing,” he said of the ideal warm-up for his return to the BTCC at Thruxton the following weekend.
After a relatively steady start in some early battling, Shedden worked his way to the head of the field. But first, the Scottish ace had to find a way around both Cottingham and Stanley and the three cars running in close formation at the head of the field made a fabulous spectacle. By the end of 30 minutes, with 22 laps done, Shedden was ahead with a small gap to Cottingham while Bryant had slipped to fourth behind the Hanson/Newall car. “I had a misfire from the start, so didn’t have much pace,” said Bryant, who later retired the car at mid-distance with a suspected distributor drive failure.
Shedden duly handed the lead car over to Griffiths to complete the job and they ran out convincing winners, with just under 19s in hand after 62 laps. By the time Griffiths took the flag, Shedden was on his way to the airport for a flight back to Scotland. “To be fair, Gordon did all the hard work,” said Griffiths. “We’re very happy to be here: it’s a great event.”
Andrew Coles
In the battling behind the lead car, it was the GT40 of Newall and Hanson that came through to second, pulling clear of the Stanley/Cuff car as the race progressed. It was Hanson’s first race in the car and they later had to nurse the car home as an anti-roll bar top link had broken and significantly impacted the handling.
The other notable retirement came at the one-hour mark when the Cottingham/Smith car, which had been struggling with worsening brakes, retired with gearbox problems.
With the top three places becoming increasingly settled, attention in the final half-hour turned to the progress of the Tarek Mahmoud/Nigel Greensall car. Given his lack of GT40 experience, Mahmoud did a fine job in his stint and then handed the white car over to the versatile Greensall to bring it home.
Greensall gained a place to run fifth when the Cottingham car retired and now had the Von Oeynhausen car in fourth place as his target. Initially, the gap was more than half a minute but Greensall, racing a GT40 for the first time, was clawing back chunks of time and set the fastest lap of the race as he hunted down his prey.
With 10 laps to spare, Greensall rushed through to fourth and then eased back his pace, knowing that the third-placed Stanley/Cuff car was too far ahead. It was still an impressive drive and Greensall loved the experience. “That’s my first race in a GT40 and it was such a delight! How cool is that? It’s a pure race car.”
Andrew Coles
Sunday 2nd May
Mad Jack
Andrew Coles
The ‘Mad Jack’ for Pre-War Sports Cars was as popular an element of the Donington Historic Festival as ever and in the early laps, five glorious Pre-War cars battled like Formula Fords.
As the race developed, the fearsome 100-year-old Parker GN of Justin and Ben Maeers took control at the head of the race and Justin was rightly bursting with pride when his son brought the car to the chequered flag.
A field of nearly 30 cars was full of quality and variety and it was the Parker GN that claimed pole on Sunday morning by 62-thousandths of a second. Based on a 1921 GN chassis, the car first competed at Shelsley Walsh in 1922 and steadily evolved until someone decided to install a 6.2-litre aero engine. It has a glorious patina and just cries out to be driven in full-blooded oversteer. Now back to fine fettle after suffering a cracked crankcase last Autumn, it took pole by a tiny amount from the Frazer Nash Supersports of Tom Waterfield and Eddie Williams.
Third on the grid was unusually low down the order for six-time winners Patrick Blakeney-Edwards and Fred Wakeman in their Frazer Nash TT Replica, but they were less than a second adrift of the pole time. Well in touch, too, was the Talbot 105 of Gareth Burnett, out for the first time in three seasons.
Sue Darbyshire and Ewen Cameron boldly forged their diminutive Morgan three-wheeler into sixth fastest among the leviathans while Rudi Friedrichs was only seventh in his Alvis Firefly, one place up on the 1939 Aston Martin Monoposto of Lotus Europa racer Jim Dean and co-driver Steve Skipworth. It was Dean’s first experience of the Pre-War car. “I’ve been double de-clutching the Ford Ranger pickup all week as practice,” he said.
The opening laps were completely sublime and presented the best spectacle so far in a ‘Mad Jack’ race as five cars formed an incredible leading pack. Wheel-to-wheel, side-by-side and nose-to-tail, they made a truly wonderful spectacle around the sweeps of Donington. Friedrichs tigered his way to the front of the pack from Maeers, Burnett, Waterman and Wakeman and it was magical while it lasted with committed yet respectful racing. Gradually, as the race developed, they split up a little, but it was still a memorable race.
Out early on went prime contender Burnett in the Talbot 105 when a stone went through the radiator and his race was over. “That was such fun to drive. The Talbot is great in the quick corners,” said Burnett.
Meanwhile, Justin Maeers was working his way to the front and he then handed the 6.2-litre aero-engined Parker GN car over to his son Ben, who was even more impressive as he guided the car to victory and lapped faster than his father.
With 10 minutes to run of the 40-minute race, Friedrichs led but managed to lose 13s on lap 20 and Maeers scythed ahead. However, young Ben could not relax for a moment as Friedrichs came back strongly and had Blakeney-Edwards in his wake. At the flag, just five seconds covered the top three cars and Blakeney-Edwards set the race’s fastest lap on the penultimate lap of the race in his bid for glory. But a famous victory went to the Maeers family. “I’m so proud of him, it’s been a day to remember,” said Justin.
Friedrichs was elated to claim second: “It was a great battle with father and son. I knew it would be tough to keep PB-E at bay!” Blakeney-Edwards countered with: “Rudi was really on it. It’s proper seat of the pants stuff round here.” Co-driver Wakeman agreed: “One of the most exciting things is driving a Frazer Nash flat-out down the Craner Curves!”
Cameron and Darbyshire were a giant-killing and class-winning fourth overall in the Morgan and just held off Richard Pilkington’s Talbot T26 by less than a quarter of a second. Best of the strong Bentley contingent was the fifth-placed 3/4.5 litre of class winners Ewen Getley and Robin Tuluie.
Historic Touring Car Challenge with Tony Dron Trophy, U2TC and STCC
Jeff Bloxham
The opening round of the Historic Touring Car Challenge also featured the Tony Dron Trophy and the U2TC/Sixties Touring Car season opener, so there was a vast and varied grid of racing saloon cars in action for an hour.
Not to be out-done by the sports cars and single-seaters, the Touring Cars produced another fabulous race from a packed grid. Once again, battles raged all the way down a field that included star names like Le Mans winners Guy Smith and Touring Car aces Steve Soper and Andrew Jordan.
The early laps were mesmerising as a gaggle of fire-breathing Nissan Skylines, Ford Sierra RS500s and a Cologne Capri made a wonderful spectacle. Gradually they became spread out a little and early leader Ric Wood was soon a retirement when his Nissan Skyline cut out with an electrical glitch and coasted off the track at Starkey’s Bridge. Meanwhile, the similar car of Simon Garrad went clear and looked set for victory until struck by transmission problems on the exit of Redgate and Garrad, too, pulled off at Starkey’s Bridge.
“It was absolutely fine and then out of Redgate I picked up the throttle and there was a horrible noise from the transmission,” said a frustrated Garrad. “I got caught napping at the start and went back to fourth.” He then took a couple of laps to battle his way the front and was looking good when the transmission problem struck on lap 17. “I thought I’d done all the hard work and I’d back off a bit. It was lovely to drive.”
Instead, the third Skyline of Jonathan Bailey and Andy Middlehurst ran strongly for the distance, and Middlehurst’s work to build an early lead to ensure that Bailey was able to bring the car home for a fine victory. A mid-race safety car that gave them a march over their rivals helped make certain of a first win for the Bailey car. Nissan dealer Middlehurst raced a less developed Skyline in the mid-1990s but this was his first experience of the full-on Group A car.
Andrew Coles
Second, and the best of the RS500s was that of Craig Davies and Steve Soper, which chased hard after the Nissans until the safety car cost them dear. “I lost a minute and I was never going to catch it up,” said Soper. Davies had still enjoyed himself: “It was a great race and there was a lot of good racing. As usual, Motor Racing Legends put on a great show.”
Andrew Coles
Third overall, having run strongly in the early lead pack, was the wailing GA Cosworth-powered ‘Cologne’ Capri of Adrian Wilmott and Mark Farmer. They out-distanced the Sierra RS500 of Paul Mensley while Tom Houlbrook was fifth in his class-winning BMW M3. Sixth, and making it two Jordan Racing Team Capris in the top six was the RS2600 of Simon Evans and James Littlejohn which was less than a second behind the M3 at the flag.
Father and son John and Jack Young took a commanding win in the Tony Dron Trophy spoils with a fine run in their Chevrolet Camaro, finishing well clear of a clutch of Capris headed by that of Marcus Jewell and Ben Clucas.
In such exalted company, two Lotus Cortinas rounded out the top 10 and headed the U2TC pack as the car of Roy Alderslade and Andrew Jordan saw off soloist Guy Smith. The 2003 Le Mans winner admitted that he could not live with the Jordan car but did enjoy a great battle with his 1990s Formula 3 team boss Richard Dutton. Running his fresh Ford Escort Mk1 for the first time, Dutton topped the Sixties Touring Car field and had a ball racing with Smith. “We had a fabulous race with lots of oversteer. I never thought I’d be able to keep up with him,” said Dutton, after finishing just a second behind his former charge.
Jeff Bloxham
Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup
Rob Overy
The headlining three-hour Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup race on Sunday afternoon was an endurance race that had it all! There was action from the off for the capacity fifty car grid. Drama when oil went down – a safety car period to test the pit crews – a winning car that might not have done another lap and an against-the-odds podium for a driver in his first endurance race.
Following the runaway success of the Silverstone, Royal Automobile Club Historic Tourist Trophy race last October, there was a thirst to continue with format of a three-hour showdown for Pre –’66 GT, Touring and 50s Sports Cars. Following the announcement of a race at Donington Historic Festival in its new guise of the Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup entries flooded in and a capacity grid featured AC Cobras and Jaguar E-types to Lotus Elans and Porsche 911s – the GT field was complemented by a gaggle of sports-racers and touring cars to provide a gloriously diverse grid.
Andrew Coles
The final result proved to be a resounding win for Roger Wills and Tim Harvey in Roger’s ex-Bruce McLaren Lotus 15. They expertly guided the little Lotus to victory against some very potent GT machinery but it was touch and go at the finish as Wills felt a problem on the final lap. He suspected that the crown wheel was failing and it’s questionable whether the car would have managed another racing lap. “It’s a beautiful car to drive,” said Harvey, one of two BTCC champions on the podium.
Into second came the Daytona Cobra Coupe of Andrew Jordan and Roy Alderslade despite picking up some body damage during early drama on an oily track. Jordan did a mighty stint and then Alderslade drove the race of his life to bring the car home second. Only some smart thinking by the Jordan pit crew got the car back into the race after it was damaged during the oil incident.
The stage was set during qualifying on Sunday morning when Jordan put the Cobra on pole by just 14-hundredths of a second from the Lotus, while the Jaguar E-type of Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen was third best but destined not to start after earlier problems. Heading the smaller-engined cars in a very creditable seventh overall was the first of the Lotus Elans in the hands of Simon Evans and James Littlejohn, while other class pacesetters include Malcolm Paul/Rick Bourne (TVR Grantura) and prolific weekend racers Rudi Friedrichs and Gary Pearson (Jaguar C-type).
Wills slotted the Lotus 15 into the lead from the rolling start as the vast field streamed down into Redgate. The AC Cobra of Chris Chiles and the Evans/Littlejohn Elan headed the chase of Wills while Alderslade slotted in behind but was being caught by the flying Aston Martin DP214 of Ben Short until the Aston cut out and pulled off on the inside at Redgate.
A couple of laps later, after the opening 20 minutes, there was major drama as a huge oil slick was dropped from Starkey’s Bridge up through McLean’s and Coppice. There were numerous spins and incidents as the safety car was quickly deployed to bring the field under control while the marshals went to work. Alderslade’s Cobra suffered panel damage to the front left after he tangled with an Austin Healey 3000 while out at Coppice went the Cobra of Ben Gill/Ian Dalglish and the Jaguar E-type of Michael O’Shea/David Hall/Tom Smith.
The early safety car prompted a run of pit-stops as teams re-worked their race strategies and when the safety car peeled into the pits to mark the resumption of racing, it was 1992 BTCC champion Harvey at the wheel of the race-leading Lotus, with a 10-second advantage over 2013 BTCC champion Jordan, now in the slightly battered but still effective Daytona Cobra. This pair of cars was able to put a lap’s advantage over the rest of the field, which was led by the Evans/Littlejohn Lotus Elan and the Richard Kent/Chris Ward E-type.
By half-distance, at 55 laps, Harvey had stretched his lead to 30s and by the time Wills and Alderslade took over their respective cars, the gap was approaching a minute. “That’s as quick as it will go at the moment,” said Jordan as he climbed out of the Cobra after a hard-charging 80-minute stint. Now Alderslade, in his first race in the car, had a 65-minute stint to bring the car home.
Alderslade’s brief was not to try to chase Wills in the Lotus but rather to concentrate on holding second as the Kent/Ward E-type was a potential threat, with Kent in for an 80-minute run to the flag. More oil at Redgate and even a few spots of rain simply added to the challenge.
Kent set about chasing the Cobra and managed to pull back half of the minute deficit, but Kent had his own concerns. “It wasn’t picking up out of the corners, notably at Redgate,” he said of a misfire in the E-type. Third place was still a great result, the better part of two laps clear of the class-winning E-type of James Cottingham/Oli Bryant/Harvey Stanley.
Sadly, with 40 minutes to run, the Evans/Littlejohn Elan was forced out by a broken rear wishbone and so the best of the Elans, in a fine class-winning fifth overall, was the car of Andrew Haddon/Shaun Lynn, which had half a minute in hand over the similar car of Stephan Joebstl/Andy Willis. On the same lap was the AC Cobra of Chris Chiles senior and junior. Richard Meins and Chris Lillingston-Price brought their E-type home eighth from the invitation class-winning Ford Mustang of Jon Miles, Dave Coyne and Mark Wright. Rounding out the overall top 10 with another class-winning performance was the Austin Healey 3000 of Doug Muirhead and Jeremy Welch.
Paul/Bourne (TVR Grantura) and Friedrichs/Gary Pearson (Jaguar C-type) both came away with well-deserved class wins, with Pearson on-track for well over hours across the weekend. The final class winner was the Ford Mustang of Georg Kjallgren and Jeremy Cooke as 33 of the 47 starters took the chequered flag after three-hours of racing.
Andrew Coles
Wills was elated at the result for his famous Lotus: “It was such a cracking race. Tim did a fabulous job in his stint and the car held together. We had a gearbox issue on the last lap and we just got over the line.” Harvey added: “This is a race I’ll remember. It is a big ask for a little car and it’s just got this little touch of magic and it is a real pleasure to drive it.”
Given his lack of experience, Alderslade had turned in one of the drives of the race. “I’m absolutely exhausted! The experience in the race was absolutely fantastic. Endurance racing is something new to me and it was thoroughly enjoyable. It’s the first race we’ve done in the car and the highlight of my racing career. I couldn’t ask for more.”
Finally, Jordan was delighted for his co-driver and whole team: “It’s a real credit to the guys who put this together. I’m over the moon for Roy, but we’ll have to get it to the body shop next week!”
Andrew Coles
The inaugural Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup race had been a resounding success and the second race of 2021, at the Motor Racing Legends event at Silverstone Grand Prix circuit on 30 – 31st October, is now eagerly awaited.
This was the tenth anniversary running of the Donington Historic Festival and it without doubt saw some of the most exciting races in its history. Motor Racing Legends delivered the sublime Amon Cup, with Chris Amon’s son, Alex Amon, on hand to present the awards in memory of his late father, and the stunningly successful new Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Cup as well as the debut of the Jaguar Classic Challenge as part of the MRL portfolio.
The event will be back in 2022 and so will the fans. If the 11th edition is anything like as good as the tenth, it will be worth the wait.
