Competitors from the Historic Sports Car Club’s Guards Trophy have been invited to play a key role in the Mondello Park Historic Festival over the weekend of 12/13 August 2023.

The pre ’66 GT cars and pre ’69 sports-racing cars will have two non-championship races at the Irish track. There will be an hour-long race on Saturday and a 40-minute race on Sunday for the Irish International Grand Prix Trophy, which dates back to 1929 and the road circuit races at Phoenix Park in Dublin.

To make the event as attractive as possible for UK-based racers, the organisers from Mondello Park are offering a free entry as well as support with transport, accommodation and carnet costs. The first 10 places are already taken and the organisers are looking for a field of at least 20 cars to make the event the success it deserves to be.

The weekend will start with four 20-minute test sessions on Friday, followed by 30 minutes of qualifying on Saturday morning and the opening race on Saturday afternoon. The races will run to usual Guards Trophy regulations with a mandatory pit-stop and the option of two drivers. The date falls neatly in the existing Guards Trophy calendar between the Brands Hatch Superprix in mid-July and the Croft Nostalgia event in early September.

HSCC Guards Trophy chairman Hugh Colman said: “This is a fantastic and unique invitation for Guards Trophy drivers and other HSCC drivers with suitable cars. We will be guaranteed a warm welcome with the opportunity to race outside the UK on a circuit that few, if any of us, have been to before.”

The Historic Festival at Mondello Park will be a major event in the calendar of the Irish track with racing, displays, demonstrations, classic motorbikes and a host of off track attractions.