It’s the back end of the year, the major championships are reaching their conclusion often in far off places which means there is less motorsport for us to head out to in the UK. Add to that the likelihood that there will be a chilly breeze, it will rain on you and that it will be freezing cold means it is time for the two major Formula Ford events of the year.

We reported on the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch a few weeks back – now it is the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone.

Organised by the HSCC, it’s now a firm favourite in the calendar for racing action in a series of short races on the Silverstone National circuit.

This year, the programme also included well supported Monoposto, Ginetta and Allcomers races. The only downside for the enthusiastic spectator photographer was, well, the usual one at Silverstone – the fences.

All the shots you see here are taken through the fence. Given that the National circuit has barely any clean shots, our guide may be of assistance - A guide to taking motorsports photography through safety fencing.

A further frustration for the spectator snapper was that the inside of Brooklands and the shot back to Brooklands from Luffield were both fenced off for the construction of a karting circuit – due to completed by May 2025, we understand.

Saturday was, somewhat usually, spent sans camera, and in the company of a good friend – just being spectators. The camera was left at home and we simply had a day enjoying the close racing. Sunday was just me and my camera. An attraction of smaller events at Silverstone is that you can drive round to your chosen location.

I started behind the Village grandstand taking panning shots on the Wellington Straight with the 70-200mm zoom. The shot of #33 is unedited and shows the shadow of the fence; by the time I shot the #19 and #23 I had got my act in gear and with a little editing grabbed a couple of decent panning shots.

By getting close to the fence by the access gate for the marshals and using the 500mm prime there is a good shot of the cars exiting Becketts. There is a slight softness from shooting through the fence and the back drop would probably only please a scaffolder …. Yes, there were a lot of Alfas in the Allcomers – this is qualifying !

With the Walter Hayes Trophy semi-finals up next, it was time to get across to Luffield. With my usual spots out of bounds and no clean shot from the terracing due the higher fencing introduced earlier this year, I was off to the exit of the corner.

You can get close to the fence and, whilst there was a good crowd in the BRDC grandstand at Brooklands – open to the great unwashed for the day – there were few of us on the terracing to capture the fast and furious, wheel to wheel, generally well-behaved action

There’s a fairly limited set of shots that can be taken but the Allcomers provided some variety – my shots focused again on the Alfas.

The three WHT finals followed – each catering to a different age of cars.

Rory Smith won the Grand Final of the Hayes Trophy Silverstone 2024 to match his win in the 2020 Festival.

You can find the full results of the WHT here – TSL Timing HSCC Walter Hayes Trophy

Coverage of Sunday at the WHT is on YouTube here – the final is at around 6:30:00 - and is well worth a watch -