Cars spanning 98 years, across 20 races, and fine Porsche 956/962 demos, characterised the 2022 Classic, but last Saturday’s sensational opening Historic Formula Junior tour and Sunday’s epic Pre-’66 Touring Car curtain-closer starred. Both will linger in the memories of spectators and petrolheads watching live streaming around the world.
Having lost his mother Julia to cancer in May, factory McLaren GT racer Michael O’Brien set out to fulfil her wish for him to win both Junior races at Silverstone in the SpeedSport Brabham. All looked lost on Saturday when an electrical glitch left it 15mph down on the Hangar Straight and Cam Jackson tore ahead in Peter Arundell’s 1962 Monaco-winning Lotus 22. By maximising his steed’s corner speeds brilliantly – but principally by reading lapped traffic better than rivals – O’Brien snatched an unlikely victory from Howden Ganley’s protege Horatio Fitz-Simon at the final corner. American Tim de Silva was third, his first podium appearance of the event, while a misfire suppressed Jackson to fourth. “I never stopped believing,” said O’Brien, who wept in father Mike’s arms as the enormity of the team’s achievement sank in.
Overnight work and a systems check at the local Turweston airfield sorted O’Brien’s power deficit and he hurtled to victory on Sunday, clear of 13-time winner Sam Wilson (whose Gerard Racing Cooper broke a drop gear on Saturday) and
