YOKOHAMA TROPHY FOR MASTERS SPORTS CAR LEGENDS
Friday 18:30 - 19:00 RACE 10 Saturday 18:10 - 19:00
Technical and visual variety has always been the name of the game at Le Mans , although perhaps somewhat less so with the multitudes of similar ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 cars on the grid today .
Lack of variety certainly wasn ’ t the case in the period between 1962 and 1974 , the era covered by the Masters Sports Car Legends , as it featured open-top and coupé versions of lightweight and slightly less lightweight prototypes , powered by engines going from BMW 1800cc four-pots to big 5-litre Chevy V8s ( or even bigger ), all next to the GT cars .
The Yokohama Trophy for Masters Sports Car Legends will be the sixth round of an eightround series , following earlier outings at Donington Park , Brands Hatch , the Red Bull Ring , Zandvoort and the Nürburgring , and fortunes have swung back and forth between the nimble 2-litre open-top prototypes and the thundering V8-powered coupés . It will be the same roll of the dice at Silverstone , as vying for overall victory will be cars from no less than three classes : the over-2-litre Rodriguez class for ’ 66- ’ 71 cars and the 2-litre Marko and Stommelen classes for ’ 70- ’ 71 and ’ 72- ’ 74 cars respectively .
Having dominated the Rodriguez class for years , the Lola T70 in its Mk3 and more evolved Mk3B guises will be the predominant car in the category . The Mk3B won at Brands Hatch in the hands of series veterans Leo Voyazides and Simon Hadfield , and at Zandvoort with local heroes David and Olivier Hart , and the car will certainly love the Wellington and Hamilton Straights at Silverstone . Expect Andy Wolfe to be right up there in Jason Wright ’ s car , the same applying to the Steve Brooks / Martin O ’ Connell machine . Chris Beighton was on the podium at Brands while Gary Culver ran it close before retiring . Meanwhile , the ‘ non-B ’ Mk3 can be recognised by its curvier lines , and specimens of this earlier Lola design are brought by Patrick Smyth and Nick Sleep / Alex Montgomery .
However , the much more agile open-top 2-litre prototypes will put the twisty bits of the circuit to their advantage to gain ground on the big coupés , so an overall winner from either the Marko or the Stommelen ranks can ’ t be ruled out . Two families of designs are the primary machines in these two classes – Lola ’ s T210 / T212 / T290 / T292 series and Chevron ’ s B16 / B19 / B23 run of cars . Andy Willis won at Donington in a T212 , and is back at Silverstone , sharing the car with Austrian Stephan Joebstl . Diogo Ferrão from Portugal will bring his T292 in local Portuguese livery , a car that he will share with its preparer Martin Stretton . Meanwhile , Tom Bradshaw has been Chevron ’ s big gun , not just this season , but in the past few years , as his B19 has taken numerous poles and overall wins already . Bradshaw is joined at Silverstone by two more very quick B19s , Jonathan Mitchell ’ s similar
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