Historic racers celebrate Touring cars’ golden era

Historic racers will celebrate the golden years of British touring cars with grids at two big motoring events this year.

The Historic Racing Drivers’ Club will showcase the various makes and models that defined Britain’s premier Touring Car Championship from 1958-1966 at Silverstone in April and Donington in May..

The race, called The History of the BTCC 1958-1966, will take place on Silverstone's Grand Prix circuit (supporting the Brticar24 event on 25 April) and at the Donington Historic Festival (3 May).

Pre-1960 cars will come from the HRDC's Touring Greats series and will feature entries such as ex-BTCC star Mike Jordan's rapid Austin A40 (emulating Doc Shepherd's A40).

And 1990 BTCC Champion Robb Gravett will share the drive of an HRDC Academy Austin A35 with his son, Bradley - recreating the precocious style of Graham Hill's 'Speedwell' entry.

Later era cars will revive the titanic battles between Mustangs, Galaxies, Cortinas, Jaguars, and Minis, which hallmarked the BTCC as a perennial crowd-pleasing championship.

Julius Thurgood, HRDC race director, first created the format for last year’s Donington historic. ‘Although given only five weeks’ notice to build the event, such was the take-up that we fielded a full grid!

‘Feedback after the race was so positive that I took the decision to run two races in 2015, with an ongoing view to building the format into a regular HRDC series.’