The first event - the Christies Historic Festival in 1990 - was well received by racers and spectators alike. The event developed a wider range of activities – car club display areas, trade mall, evening concerts – from the start which attracted more than just the racing fan in the family.

These days it is a major event on the historic calendar attracting over 100,000 people over three days and around 120 car clubs, many of whom get their moment of glory with a parade lap round the full grand prix circuit.

For this report, I am concentrating on the racing – my major interest of the weekend – and two in particular – the Yokohama Trophy for Historic Sports Cars from 1962-74 and the Aston Martin Trophy for Endurance Legends (1995-2012). The star appearance this year was the UK racing debut of the Bentley Speed 8 – a sister car to the 2003 Le Mans winner.

The races on Saturday evening are designed to evoke a sense of Le Mans and run into the dusk. Given the rather damp day we had endured to that point, there was no Silverstone sunset with glorious warm light to enjoy. We headed to the Village grandstand which is marked E on the PistonClick Silverstone circuit guide - Silverstone Guide

Starting with the 70-200mm zoom gives a broader view of the cars clipping the kerb through Aintree.

Swapping to the 200-500mm zoom and moving to the best seat in the house – top row, left hand edge – provides a good indication of who is really taking advantage of the low kerb -  BTCC-style where the right hand wheels are just on the tarmac !

Others take a more conservative line – respecting the value and rarity of the car. You don’t often get to see the Alfa Romeo 33TT3 racing these days – and the short wheel base so useful on the Targa Florio is perhaps less relevant on Silverstone’s wide open spaces.

Towards the end of the race, I headed down to the area behind the grandstand which provides a spot to shoot the cars as they head down the Wellington Straight – it’s through fence but as you are now down at track level it gives a pleasing photo with, for Silverstone, a good backdrop. I will be returning here …

Once the brutal Lola T70s, gorgeous little Chevron B8s and dominant McLaren M6B (#89) of the Banks brothers had finished their race, it was time for the most modern machinery of the weekend. I reckon I had seen pretty much all of these (or their team-mates) in period. 

There was a real French flavour to the race with three Pescarolo LMP1s and two Peugeot 908s, albeit that a clash between Emmanuel Collard and Kriton Lendoudis following an apparently unseen yellow flag near the end of the race left the Peugeot heavily damaged at the front and both out of the race. Much unhappiness ensued.

In the prototype ranks there was also the lovely Dallara SP1 and the even more lovely Lola Aston Martin in Gulf colours. The Porsche Spyder #34 is a second tier P2 class car that usually ran in Penske’s yellow in the US – but appeared in purple and white when winning its class at Le Mans.

Victory went to Kennard / Cantillon (#10) in their Pescarolo as darkness drew in. Sadly, the sister car of Constable (#99) was delayed and not classified

In the GT ranks, meanwhile, there were also cars from TVR, the BMW M3 from the US and the Morgan Aero which, as you can see, needed an early bath

Of course, most fans had stayed to watch the Bentley …

This was only the first race for these cars and they were back out again on Sunday afternoon to delight and amuse. For this race I was at Luffield shooting through or over the fence. The Bentley was again centre stage and it was dry !

The Dyson Lola of Tandy raced in the US (but originally came from Huntingdon) and is now a regular sight in Europe. Like the Gulf Lola Aston Martin, it is a pretty car that predates the more recent, less flowing designs for prototypes. The final car here, #25 is the MG Lola from the second tier P2 class

Victory went again to the #10 of Kennard and Cantillon but, as the Lola Aston Martin proved it doesn’t always go to plan - fortunately without significant damage to car or driver.

You can check out David Harbey Photography using the links below. Here you will find loads of great pictures from the other races at the Silverstone Classic 2019.