Top 10: Things to see at the Silverstone Classic 2016

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James Hunt Anniversary

It’s exactly 40 years since hard driving, fast living James Hunt overcame all the odds to win the FIA Formula One World Championship in 1976 – a dramatic feat which will be celebrated at this summer’s Classic.
 
A special display curated by his two sons Freddie and Tom, will include a number of James’ most notable road and racing cars plus rarely seen trophies and memorabilia from the flamboyant Englishman’s title-winning season.
 
The celebrations at Silverstone are appropriate, too, as Hunt savoured more Formula One success at the superfast Northamptonshire venue than at any other circuit worldwide. As a much-loved underdog, home hero Hunt scored a hugely popular maiden F1 win at Silverstone in April 1974 when racing for the locally based Hesketh team.
 
Two years later, Hunt ignited his championship winning campaign with a second confidence-boosting International Trophy victory, this time for his new team McLaren. And it was at Silverstone, as reigning champion, he won his only British Grand Prix after an epic dice with John Watson in 1977.

Both Hunt’s 1976 title winning McLaren M23 and his 1977 British Grand Prix winning McLaren M26 will be on show in Pit Box 16 within the International Paddock. The victorious Hesketh 308/1 and Hesketh 308B in which Hunt won his first GP at Zandvoort, Holland in 1975 will both racing in the two FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship races.