Classic back firing on all cylinders

Britain’s unpredictable summer, coupled with Silverstone’s fabled microclimate – which made Friday qualifying a lottery, served up intermittent heavy rain on Saturday afternoon, and did not deliver a totally dry track until late on Sunday – failed to deter competitors or the Classic-starved faithful who have waited since 2019 for their fix. They witnessed some world-class driving in the trickiest of conditions. Martin O’Connell’s victory in Saturday’s 1950s sportscar race into darkness in a diminutive Lotus 11 (see right), and Ben Mitchell and Danny Winstanley’s apparent toppling of the establishment in an ultimately controversial Jaguar E-type 60th Anniversary race, were among the highlights

Sunday’s Jaguar feature, with 43 starters, will live long in the memories of onlookers sheltering in trackside grandstands or watching coverage streamed worldwide. Poleman Nigel Greensall led initially in Jonathon Hughes’s roadster, hotly pursued by Mitchell, Alex Brundle (sharing Jaguar’s new Lightweight series development car with dad Martin) and Winstanley. Gary Pearson, Jon Minshaw, Miles Griffiths (in John Clark’s