Three grids from the Historic Sports Car Club will form a key element of the Thruxton Historic (June 22-23) as the high-speed Hampshire track hosts a weekend of historic racing.
Two races for the HSCC Historic Formula Ford 2000 Championship will bring these fabulous slicks and wings single seaters from the later 1970s back into action at Thruxton.
To date, the championship has been about two drivers and it is defending champion Graham Fennymore who comes to Thruxton with a slender championship lead over arch rival Samuel Harrison. Between them they have won all six races to date and their battle is set to run and run.
Harrison didn’t finish the second race of the year at Snetterton when a stone punctured his radiator, but his blinding natural speed took him to victory last time out at Donington Park, despite starting 17th on the grid. leading the chase of the top two are drivers like Ben Glasswell, Jordan Harrison and Andrew Storer, and another fine grid is further evidence of just how successful this category was in period and is again now.
Chris Moore was one of Britain’s rising young stars of the mid-1960s and raced competitively in one-litre Formula 3 before sadly losing his life to a brain tumour at the age of just 25. In his memory, his mother and brother presented the Chris Moore Memorial Trophy to the BARC, which was then awarded to the winner of a Formula 3 race for a number of years.
This weekend, the Chris Moore Memorial Trophy will be awarded to the aggregate winner across the pair of HSCC Historic Formula 3 races. The 2024 season opened with a non-championship race at Goodwood for the Derek Bell Cup. That race was won by GT racer Michael O’Brien in a rare Titan Mk3 but when the championship season started at Cadwell Park in May it was Jon Milicevic who took a double win in his Brabham BT21B as Ross Drybrough led the chase in his Merlyn Mk14.
Now, these fabulous cars head to Thruxton for rounds three and four of the 12-race season and the sight and sound of the one-litre F3 cars will be a highlight of the weekend.
The HSCC’s Guards Trophy Championship makes a rare trip to Thruxton with a fine array of 1960s sports-racing and GT cars for a 50-minute mini-enduro race.
The Chevron B6 and its successor the B8 are as popular today as they were when first built more than half a century ago. Nick Thompson and Sean McClurg have been long time Guards contenders in their B6, while several B8s will also grace the grid. Father and son Hugh and Mark Colman have a B8 but the most famous car on the grid will be the ex-David Purley B8 of Ted Pearson, which he will share with single seater ace Callum Grant. This will be Pearson’s third race in the car that was raced successfully in period by Purley, who went on to race in Formula 1 before losing his life in an aircraft accident.
The later B16 is another sublime design from the late Derek Bennett and the father and son pairing of Ross and Charlie Hyett will field their B16 at Thruxton.
Sports racing cars are always popular in Guards and at least three Lotus 23Bs will be on the grid, including the car in the very capable hands of young Benn Tilley. Darren Wilson and Ashley Hudson also run 23Bs, which was one of Colin Chapman’s sports racing designs from the early 1960s.
The mighty Shelby Cobra of Graham Moss, the Lotus Elan of Dorset’s Paul Tooms and the mighty McLaren M1A Can-am of Andrew Wareing and Adam Sykes all add wonderful diversity to the Guards grid.