October 2020
Content from the
October 2020 Issue....
The New Zealand Silver Fern Rally
In another blow to historic rallying the planned Silver Fern Rally has been cancelled due to the on-going COVID-19 travel restrictions. The marathon biennial event relies on entries from Europe to make it viable and with those now not possible the organisers had no option but to cancel the 2020…
Rallye des Princesses
Since 1999 Viviane Zaniroli has been encouraging women to get behind the wheel of old sports and GT cars and compete in their own right. The resulting Rallye des Princesses regularity rally, inspired on the old Paris – Saint-Raphaël Féminin, has been a great success over the ensuing 20 years,…
Rallye Monte-Carlo
Though some things have changed much will be the same on next year’s Historic Monte, which takes place on 30 January – 3 February. Though organisers have foregone the multi-national starting points in 2021 after the trauma of this year’s COVID epidemic, the challenge will be as tough as ever…
Monterey
Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR), organisers of Daytona 24 Classic and Sebring Classic 12 Hour, amongst many others, has been named the new sanctioning body of the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca (WRLS). The previous sanctioning body was the Historic Motor Sports Association. In the new multi-year…
Bentley Recreations
The Blower Continuation Series is a run of 12 newly-built recreations of one of the most famous Bentleys of all time – the supercharged 4½-Litre ‘Blower’ Bentley raced by Sir Tim Birkin in the late 1920s. Forming the world’s first pre-war continuation series, Bentley Motors is creating 12 cars amid…
Classic Sports Car Club Thruxton
Hancocks’ 40 minutes of Classic K glory Father and son Anthony and Ollie Hancock’s fine Mintex Classic K race victory at Thruxton on July 26 was the super-fast Hampshire circuit’s season-opener and the historic element of the Classic Sports Car Club’s belated 2020 season start. Lithe Lotus Elans are ideally…
Patrick Quiniou
We have lost another friend this month with the passing of Patrick Quiniou, after a long spell of ill health at the age of only 65. A whole generation of French racers will have great memories of Patrick and the race meetings he organised, most notably the Grand Prix…
Jon Dooley 1946-2020
“A lot of investment of self goes into a winning car at this level. It involves keeping going beyond reason when things do not go so well.” It is with the upmost sadness that I write that Jon Dooley, a friend of 35 years and someone with whom I have…
NK HTGT racing gets underway
The 2020 NK HTGT season finally got underway at Zandvoort on the weekend of 12-13 September with two 45-minute races in the Kronos organised Benelux Open weekend. Despite COVID restrictions in the Netherlands, some 25 teams were raring to go, sharing the track with Triumph Competitions. Qualifying was interrupted by…
Championnat de France des Rallyes VHC
Bumper entries mark the resumption of the French rally season Rallye de la Châtaigne After the long break between the Touquet Pas-de-Calais rally in March, and the second round of the French Historic Rally Championship, the Rallye de la Châtaigne finally got under way on 19-21 August. The 2020 edition…
Tour Auto
Three Cheers for Favaro Jean-Marie Biadatti reports The 29th edition of the Tour Auto Optic 2000 had to be postponed to September because of the pandemic and the continuing health situation led some competitors to withdraw at the last minute. There were nevertheless 195 competitors still at the start, with…
The Swedes get Started
Mantorp Classic Festival Bengt-Åce Gustavsson reports on the first two race meetings of the Swedish season This year is like no other, and for the Swedish RHK historic racing cup, this has meant that this year’s first two competitions were postponed from spring to autumn (Kinnekulle and Karlskoga) and one…
French National Championships Rounds Two and Three
Historic Tour – Dijon – Charade What was meant to be a well-spaced calendar of five meetings, leaving a long summer break for “les vacances”, turned into an action-packed month of August when first, Historic Tour Dijon, the second in this year’s series, took place on 15-16 August, and Historic…
Thruxton Historic
Postponed from its original June date, Historic Promotions’ Thruxton Historic event delivered lashings of nostalgia on 15-16 August. An eclectic mix of cars – the oldest dating way back to the 1920s, when the Brooklands Automobile Racing Club, forerunner of the current BARC was in its pomp – entertained spectators…
Historic Grand Prix Zandvoort
Banking on the dunes In any other year, this season’s Zandvoort Historic Grand Prix would have run the risk of being labelled uninspiring, if not bland. But in fact, it was a kind of miracle. Here was a motorsport event that went ahead on its planned date (September 5-6), with…
Masters Historic Festival
Masters Racing made a triumphant return to Brands Hatch in late August with a programme full of drama and spectacle, says Rachel Harris-Gardiner Historic Formula One provided a mix of familiar cars, with some interesting newcomers, including former FIA Formula One World Championship racer, and Sky Sports F1 speaker, Johnny…
VSCC Mallory Park Formula Vintage
It’s been a while, but vintage racing was back, with the VSCC Formula Vintage race meeting at Mallory Park on 23 August. And what a way to start. Mallory Park is one of the UK’s most attractive venues, its twin lakes giving it a unique setting, think Interlagos transplanted to…