Historic Saloons at the British Grand Prix

Historic saloon cars will feature as a support race to the 2008 British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday 6 July following confirmation that the Historic Sports Car Club has been invited to organise a race for pre '66 cars.

The race, which is likely to run after the Formula 1 feature event on Sunday afternoon, should provide an exciting race from a huge variety of cars. It is sure to be a popular feature of the weekend for the capacity crowd and represent a rare opportunity for saloon car racers to compete at such a prestigious event.

"We are delighted to have been invited to organise the historic support race at the British Grand Prix meeting for the third year running," said Grahame White, chief executive of the HSCC. "We can start 48 cars on the Grand Prix circuit, and I am hopeful that we can fill the grid very quickly."

The race will include the type of cars that competed in the early years of the British Saloon Car Championship, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this season.

Any drivers interested in entering the race should contact the HSCC office as soon as possible on +44 (0)1327 8584500.

Biggest Silverstone Classic Yet

Nearly 700 cars and 900 drivers from 20 different countries are entered in 21 races for the end of July Silverstone Classic race meeting. Such has been the demand for entries that nearly all grids were full two months before the event.

Six Hours at Euro Speedway

The V de V Organisation has announced an additional race on its calendar for historic cars. A six-hour race at Germany’s youngest racetrack, the Eurospeedway Lausitz located near Klettwitz in the state of Brandenburg in Eastern Germany will take place on the weekend of 22-24 August. This will run to the usual V de V format with GT and Sports classes for early period E cars, up to cars of period H. Contact V de V Organisation on Tel: +33 1 69 88 05 24 or Email Info(at)vdev.fr.

F5000 Celebrations

Round One of the Formula 5000 Drivers Association 40th Anniversary Historic Races was held during the weekend of 31 May-1 June at Infineon Raceway as part of the Wine Country Classics.

Overall winner and first place in Class B (post-1971 cars) was Hamish Somerville in a 1974 Lola T400. Winner of Class A (pre-1972 cars) and finishing fourth overall was Bruce Leeson driving a 1969 McLaren M10B. Second in Class A went to Steve Davis driving a 1969 Eagle MK5 and third place went to Tony Adamowicz driving the recently restored 1969 Eagle F5000 car with which he won the 1969 F5000 Championship title.

In Class B, second place went to Roger Williams driving a 1974 Lola T332. Roger is visiting with his car from Auckland, New Zealand and plans to participate in all future rounds of the 2008 USA F5000 Championship. Third place in Class A went to Paul Hoey driving a 1973 McRae GM1.

According to Seb Coppola, president of the Formula 5000 Drivers Association, which is organising the 40th Anniversary races and celebration, “We had a great field of Formula 5000 cars participating in our first round. It was wonderful to see and hear a full field of Formula 500 cars racing on a major circuit for the first time in more than three decades. The drivers, the race fans and everyone involved with the event enjoyed the scene and atmosphere immensely. The excitement will intensify as we move on to our next event at Road America.” He added, “We were also extremely pleased to have 16 former drivers, who drove in the original Formula A/5000 series, participate in the festivities. In addition to Tony Adamowicz, we were pleased to have Elliot Forbes-Robinson reunited with and racing his 1974 Eagle 74A during the weekend races. These pioneers shaped the heritage of Formula 5000 and we are very proud and appreciative of their contribution to motor racing”

Other former F5000 drivers at the event included: Barry Blackmore, Michael Brayton, Jim Dittemore, Ron Dykes, Bruce Eglinton, Eric Haga, Arlen Koops, Davey Jordan, Jim Law, Randy Lewis, Scooter Patrick, Lou Pavesi, Rex Ramsey, and Dave Wolin.

	Tom Smith and Tom Jones are still leading the championship photo Stefan Eckhardt

ADAC Classic Trophy – Nürburgring 500

They did not score the points for the class win in the second round of the long-distance series for Touring cars and GTs up to 1971, but Tom Smith and Tom Jones still lead the series in the points, after their 500k marathon on 23 May. The well- organised ADAC Classic Car Trophy was part of a grid of more than 200 cars in the ADAC Egons 500 on the combination Grand Prix track and the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife.

In the highlight round of the season Allen Tice and Chris Conoley were the quickest in the pre-‘66 GT up to 2000 cc class in qualifying and also marked the fastest time in the race with under 11 minutes. But due to problems with their Marcos 1800 GT they managed only to come home third. Brian and Mark Lambert won the class with their MGB and left Tom Smith/Tom Jones behind. But the two Toms lead the Trophy with 20.22 points. Michael Martin is in second place in his Porsche 914/6 GT. Assisted by Ralf Kelleners, he won his class and came forth overall 20 seconds ahead of Markus Niestrath and Klaus Hormes in their Alfa Romeo GTAm.

With a clean lights-to-flag sweep Georg Berlandy and Dominik an der Heiden won outright in their Porsche 911 ST. The second place went to the former champions Pedro and Luis Sanchez in another Porsche 911 S. The winners of the first round in Hockenheim, Claudia Hürtgen and Michael Roock, retired after three laps. Overall winner of ADAC Egons 500 was Daniel Schrey in his Porsche 911 Carrera RSR. Next round is a three-hour race at Zolder on 4-6 July.