HSCC THUNDERSPORTS
Friday 15:57 - 16:24 RACE 18 Sunday 16:15 - 16:55
Big , fast and noisy sports-racing and GT cars of the 1970s will make a fantastic spectacle at The Classic in Sunday ’ s race for the HSCC Thundersports category .
Thundersports is the Historic Sports Car Club ’ s series for 1970s sports-racing cars , and the title will evoke memories of the popular Thundersports series of the 1980s . First run in 1983 , the series was open to a wide range of sports and sports-racing cars and that ethos is reflected in the HSCC race series .
In the 1990s , the Thundersports tag was taken up by the HSCC for the RJB Mining Thundersports Championship and used for a decade . Former Grand Prix driver Mike Wilds was a Triple RJB Thundersports champion in the Chevron B31 / 36 owned by the late Richard Budge and a Pre ’ 80 series later grew out of the RJB Championship .
This will be the seventh season of the HSCCorganised series of races for some of the most spectacular sports and GT cars active in historic racing . Cars of the type used in the World Endurance Championship , FIA GT Championship and FIA 2-Litre Sports Car Championship will race , along with Can- Am sports-racing cars from the heyday of the category in the 1970s . Just as in period , Sports 2000s are a key part of the series with a dedicated class covering all Ford Pintoengined cars from the start of the category in 1977 right through until 1990 . GT cars from the era are also encouraged to join the grid in their own classes , while an invitation class can be home to other appropriate cars .
One of the great features about Thundersports races is that they are a home for the Can-Am cars that raced in North America , and Europe to a lesser extent , in the late 1960s and early 1970s . Can-Am was the most outrageous racing category of all time . There were few , if any , technical regulations and the cars just got more and more powerful and faster and faster .
McLaren set the Can-Am benchmark as marque founder Bruce McLaren and his team mate Denis Hulme did much of the winning in ever more spectacular McLaren M8s , with the Chevrolet engines growing and growing to peak at more than 8-litres . We are fortunate to have several Can-Am cars racing regularly in Thundersports and one of the stars cars will be the stunning McLaren M8F raced by Dean Forward .
When the 2022 Thundersports season kicked off here at Silverstone in May , despite a slight threat of rain , racing veteran John Burton was peerless in his Chevron B26 . Burton , who raced this type of car in period half a century ago , pulled away from the similar car of James Schryver for a fine win , while third place was the subject of a great battle between the mighty Lola T70 Mk3B of Alex Montgomery and the nimble two-litre cars of Jamie Thwaites ( Chevron B19 ) and Gary Furst ( Lola T212 ).
101