October 2022
Content from the
October 2022 Issue....
New Venue for Targa Sixty Six
Targa Sixty Six was started in 1991 by Brian Redman for owners of classic and modern high performance cars that do not necessarily wish to race them, but who like to drive at speed under controlled conditions, in the company of others with like interests. After 31 consecutive years at Palm Beach International Raceway, the event is moving two hours south in 2023 to Homestead-Miami Speedway. The move comes following the sad news that PBIR has closed its doors after 57 years of operation.
Peter Auto 2023 Calendar
Peter Auto will have a busy season next year, including, exceptionally for the second consecutive year, the Le Mans Classic, which will then be back to its biennial schedule. Patrick Peter’s team has been busy putting together a full race calendar for 2023:
SVRA’s Most Ambitious Schedule Yet
Since Tony Parella acquired the major stake in The Trans Am Race Company, LLC in 2017, his SpeedTour concept has grown and grown. Marrying affordable modern motor sport with his previously acquired SportsCar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA). One of the largest historic racing clubs in the world, spectators are attracted by the mix of vintage and modern racing.
Goodwood Members’ 2023 Dates
Goodwood has announced that the 80th Members’ Meeting will take place on the weekend 15-16 April 2023. Celebrating its 80th occurrence since its foundation in 1948 at the historic Goodwood Motor Circuit, the Members’ Meeting welcomes the Goodwood Road Racing Club (GRRC) members and their guests to enjoy a weekend of racing action, demonstrations, off-track festivities and fireworks.
French Historic Tour Championships Shake-up
In a recent meeting of the Steering Committee of the FFSA, it was decided to create a new French historic championship, splitting in two the current Championnat de France FFSA Historique des Circuits GT/Tourisme. Back-dated to the beginning of this season, there will be two French GT/Tourisme champions, one for drivers of pre-1990 cars, and one for drivers of post 1990 cars, leaving competitors in the GT Classic, Saloon Car, Roadster Pro Cup and Youngtimers GTI Cup to fight for their own title, while the Racing 65, Racing 81, Maxi1300 and Lotus Trophy drivers will compete for a separate championship.
Rock Around the Clock
The final countdown to the 30th anniversary edition of the 2 Tours d’Horloge, the only true 24-hour race for historic cars, has begun, with Eric Van de Vyver and his team ready to welcome over 40 crews to the Paul Ricard circuit on 4-6 November. A real test for the 24-hour event, the 6 Hours of Magny-Cours, run in March, saw victory for Sébastien Crubile and Pascal Duhamel at the wheel of the Pascalou Racing Porsche 930 Turbo, with which the team will try to achieve the double with the reinforcement of Romain Rocher who competed in the 2 Tours in 2021.
Motogiro
For vintage bike enthusiasts, the Motogiro d’Italia is to motorcycles what the Mille Miglia is to car drivers. It is the re-enactment of the oldest and most prestigious Italian motorcycle road race. Born in 1914, it also ended in its pure racing form in 1957, the year of the abolition of all road racing in Italy after the terrible accident at the Mille Miglia.
Frazer Nash Centenary
Amongst the Frazer Nash Club centenary celebrations owners and supporters of the marque gathered at Tom and John Duffins’ nostalgic Stonehurst Farm in Leicestershire on the weekend of 12 August for various driving activities and tests, and a gala summer ball. George Scholey took this evocative photo of Patrick Blakeney-Edwards putting his Frazer Nash single seater through its paces.
Simon Diffey Award
The winner of ‘The Simon Diffey Heritage Motorsport Apprentice Award 2022’ (see our September 2022 issue) was announced at the Goodwood Revival after a month of discussions, deliberations and interviews with employers. The Award Patron, Simon’s wife, Sarah Jane Adams-Diffey, and the Directors of the Heritage Skills Academy (HSA) are announced that Miss Emilia Brown, an apprentice and employee from Jim Stokes Workshops Ltd (JSWL) has been selected as the worthy inaugural winner of ‘The Simon Diffey Heritage Motorsport Apprentice Award’.
New Chairman for NKHTGT
Roelant de Waard will be taking over the reins as Chairman of the highly popular Dutch Championship HKHTGT series. Bert Mets handed over the reins during the club’s dinner party at Anderstorp, but it will not become official until the annual members meeting prior to the ‘23 season. In a short speech,
Les Legend Boucles @ Bastogne 2023
Having formalised a Classic 65 category – with mandatory roll bar – instead of the usual Classic 60, the Royal Automobile Club de Spa, organisers of the Legend Boucles @ Bastogne have confirmed the event will be back in its traditional format on 3-5 February 2023 with a highly anticipated return to Place McAuliffe…
Winter Marathon
Entries for the 2023 Winter Marathon open on Saturday 1 October (with the usual 10% discount for those entering by 31 October) and will close on Sunday 18 December. This will be the 35th edition of this popular winter event based in the Dolomite ski resort of Madonna di Campiglio.
Watch Out! Here comes the Neige et Glace
With one of the hottest summers on record coming to an end, it’s time to think about snow and Ice. Known as France’s ‘little Siberia,’ the area on the edge of the Swiss border, between the Doubs and the Jura offers everything necessary for a successful winter rally, where slipping and sliding is guaranteed.
East Africa Safari Rally
First run in 2003, the dates for the next East African Safari Classic Rally for pre-1987 cars have been announced as 9-18 December, 2023. Entries open on 3 October 2022.
The nine-day event will cover some 4,000 kilometres of rough terrain that include 2100kms of timed special stage sections. Starting and finishing in Mombasa, after a hiatus due to COVID, the route will again take competitors for stages in Tanzania. Previous winners of the Classic include motor sport legends, the late Björn Waldegård, Ian Duncan, Stig Blomqvist, Rob Collinge, Carl Tundo and most recently, Baldev Singh Chager.
Historic Irish Tarmac Rally Championship
The seven-round Irish Championship series was decided on 19-20 August with the double-points Ulster Rally. With four of the leading contenders still in the running, Neil Williams and Anthony O’Sullivan started at the top of the leaderboard in their RS 1800-spec Ford Escort after a perfect performance on the Cork 20 in July, their third top-score of the season.
Winter Romania Historic Rally
The seventh Winter Romania Historic Rally has been announced for 19 to 22 January 2023, as in past years, on the same forest roads of Comandaü, in Transylvania, in one of the coldest regions of Romania. For this seventh edition Paul Lacombe and his team are concocting a route to include four days of racing, traced in a loop, around the city of Covasna.
FIA Historic Rally Championship – Round Seven – Rally de Asturias Histórico
Northern Spain was the setting for the seventh round of the FIA European Historic Rally Championship on 1-2 September with most of the front-runners in the various Categories present. Unpredictable weather saw tyre choice play a large part of the first day’s stages, when heavy rain started on the second stage and continued intermittently throughout the day. Italian driver Zippo in his Audi Quattro, this time navigated by Nicola Arena,led the way overall and in Category 3, winning all the day’s stages outright to end the leg with an advantage of over a minute and half to the rest of the field.
Classic Silverstone
Something or somebody different in the winner’s circle, especially when the natural order is overturned, is always appreciated by dyed-in-the-wool motor sport enthusiasts bored with samey World Championship Formula 1 races every other weekend. The Classic at Silverstone provided just that when Ben Mitchell beat the period-dominant March 782s to score the first Historic F2 victories for a French Martini chassis built at Magny-Cours.
Anderstorp Race Festival
The Swedish Racerhistoriska Klubben and the Anderstorp Racing Club jointly organised the fourth round of their 2022 championship at Scandinavian Raceway Anderstorp, their first visit to the southern Swedish circuit since 2013. Close to 200 drivers participated, including the guest grid NKHTGT from Holland with their pre-’66 GT and touring cars. Some Swedes took part in the Dutch heats and some Dutch took the opportunity to enter the Swedish races where they enjoyed driving on the 4.02-kilometre ex-F1 circuit in very mixed weather conditions. Indeed, it rained all day on Saturday, while on Sunday there was some sunny respite between showers.
Dix Mille Tours
As the August holidays came to a close, the 12th edition of the Dix Mille Tours on the Paul Ricard circuit ran on the same weekend (26-28 August) as the Silverstone Classic in blazing southern sunshine enjoyed by an audience of 15,000 spectators and nearly 460 cars from the clubs, coming to take advantage of the sinuous roads of the Var that lead to the circuit on its plateau above the resorts of Bandol and St Cyr-sur-Mer.