TONY DRON MEMORIAL TROPHY FOR MRL HISTORIC TOURING CARS
Friday 10:12 - 10:39 RACE 3 Saturday 10:20 - 11:05
Saloon car racing - call them Touring cars if you prefer - have always resonated with spectators because , to a greater or lesser degree , they resemble the production machines in which they arrived at the venue . Or simply aspired to owning if their football pools or lottery numbers came up .
For motor manufacturers , especially their marketing departments , this important connection could translate into sales if exploited properly . “ Win on Sunday , sell on Monday ” was the motto some clung to , even if the racers were souped-up ‘ homologation specials ’ with optimised specification under their skins .
Motor Racing Legends ’ tin-top race , branded the Historic Touring Car Challenge , showcases the evolution of the genre , spanning four decades of technology . One household name is pretty much a constant : the Ford Motor Company ’ s blue oval badge features on Lotus Cortinas and Escorts of the 1960s , Group 1 and 2 Capris - plus American cousins in the form of rorty Boss Mustang - of the ’ 70s and Group A Sierras of the ’ 80s Super Touring epoch . Their ultimate flame-belching RS500 evolutions , with around 560bhp on tap from two-litre turbocharged engines .
This year ’ s Classic Silverstone encounter celebrates the life of popular journalist racer and proud BRDC member Tony Dron who died last November , aged 75 . The versatile Dron competed in Formula Ford and F3 - despite being exceptionally tall - before finding his forte in closed wheelers . Tony piloted a factory-supported Triumph Dolomite Sprint in which he scored a brilliant win over the three-litre Capri V6s in the high-profile British Grand Prix support race here in 1977 .
Dron , after whom the Group 1 section of MRL ’ s series is named , also raced successfully at Le Mans and the Nurburgring Nordschleife . He completed his extraordinary CV with three major Goodwood Revival victories on the trot in a priceless Ferrari Dino 246S .
The quickest cars in the pack are the Nissan Skyline GT-R R32s , technical tours de force packaged around turbocharged straight six engines developing over 600bhp , harnessed in all conditions by four-wheel-drive . Nicknaned ‘ Godzillas ’, the model dominated the All Japan Touring Car Championship from 1990- ’ 93 , winning every race . Jonathan Bailey ’ s emerald green Team Nismo Kyoseki example is a veteran of the ’ 93 series in its homeland , driven by Toshio Suzuki / Akira Iida who won the Tsukuba round and finished joint third in the points table , having earned four other podium places . It is shared with one of Britain ’ s foremost Skyline specialists , St Helens Nissan dealer Andy Middlehurst whose 40- year racing career is highlighted by multiple victories at Monaco ’ s GP Historique and in the Goodwood Revival ’ s Glover Trophy F1 race in his hero Jim Clark ’ s 1962- ’ 63 Lotus 25 .
The other Nissans are retro-builds from Stockport engineer Ric Wood ’ s concern . Wood has shared his blue Calsonic tribute car with BTCC racers Adam Morgan and Jake Hill , and Freddie Hunt , son of 1970s Formula One
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