Thruxton Retro - The Longest Day: Thruxton Circuit, Saturday 21st June 2025
Three weeks after our scintillating GT & Sports Car Cup season-opener on Silverstone’s Historic Grand Prix circuit, the invitation series for Pre-1966 Grand Touring, Pre-’63 Sports Racing and Pre-’66 Touring Cars revisits Britain’s fastest racetrack as centrepiece of the British Automobile Racing Club’s long-established but renamed for 2025 Thruxton Retro. What better way to celebrate the longest day of the summer, June 21, than with a 90-minute contest in GTSCC AC Cobra racer Alex Thistlethwayte’s increasingly well-manicured playground, 2.356 miles of unalloyed joy which has tested the world’s greatest drivers - including F1 champions Jochen Rindt, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart in F2 cars - since 1968.
Our previous visit to the fabled Hampshire airfield venue was in August 2020, when Mark Holme and Jeremy Welch pulled off a remarkable victory in SMO 746, the Austin-Healey 3000 last raced there by John Gott - the motorsport mad Northamptonshire Police chief - in big-winged Modsports guise in the early 1970s. That resonated with competitors, spectators and marshals who recalled its straight-six soundtrack as if yesterday. Welch also finished fourth in Doug Muirhead’s big Healey, TON 792 ‘The Chairman’s Car,’ which Denis Welch Motorsport is currently rebuilding.
Welch is back to defend his crown, partnering Swede Nils-Fredrik Nyblaeus’ Healey. Also in the field five years ago were the similarly-mounted Crispin Harris/James Wilmoth (Crispy Moth Racing), Mark ‘Pangio’ Pangborn/Harvey Woods and Bristolians Chris Clarkson/David Smithies, who finished fifth, ninth and 10th respectively. They all return on Saturday, but David is bringing his rumbling Tour de France-liveried AC Cobra Daytona coupe to share with North Borneo [Sabah] born buddy Chris.
GT4 winners in 2020 were Nick Sleep and Joel Wykeham, third overall in the former’s Shelby Mustang GT350 behind Keith Ahlers/Billy Bellinger in the quickest of the three Morgan Plus 4 SLR aerodyne coupes. Sleep teams up with Alex Montgomey, no stranger to the car, on this occasion. Top GT2 honours were earned by Malcolm Paul/Rick Bourne in Malcolm’s TVR Grantura Mk3. The most successful class combo in series history extended its run at Silverstone last month and will be tough to beat again.
We also welcome back John Clark, Simon Drabble, Nick Finburgh and Brian Lambert from 2020’s 25-strong field. Former British Saloon Car Championship racer Clarky - 13th with Gregor Fisken in a GT3 Jaguar E-type five years ago - brings another rapid and versatile compatriot, Alasdair McCaig, to co-drive his GT4 roadster. Local man Drabble, who joined forces with son Alex in an unusual Reliant Sabre Six, has now taken the MG B route long favoured by veteran Lambert, who has wife Barbara back on board rather than legendary Cornishman Iain Rowley, also a Modsports racer of yore. Finburgh, who previously co-drove Marc Gordon’s Lotus Elite, is now in the fabulous Cooper-Climax T49 Monaco which he shares with Ollie Crosthwaite.
Winners at ‘The Home of British Motor Racing’ were Chris Chiles and his sprightly octogenarian father Chris, who rate their ‘against the odds’ sixth victory together in the family’s gruff AC Cobra 289 among their toughest. Five of their GTSCC successes have come at different circuits - Albi, Oulton Park, Castle Combe, Donington and Silverstone - so a Thruxton gold would make a poignant addition to their quiver.
They face strong opposition in GT4, with Jaguar E-type duos Alistair Dyson/James Dorlin, Mark Burton/Jason Minshaw (in MRM team boss Martin Melling’s stunning low-drag coupe) and John Clark/Alasdair McCaig, second, third and fourth respectively at Silverstone, determined to put the Ford V8-powered snake back in its basket. Young modern GT star Dorlin flew last time out and will relish Thruxton’s sweeps to showcase his talent. In addition to the Smithies/Clarkson coupe, another Cobra in the mix is local man Peter Thompson’s, with Triumph SLR graduate Jon Payne co-driving.
Nobody can afford to overlook the 26R spec Lotus Elans either. Four-time GTSCC winners since 2020, the agile lightweights, 1600cc Ford twin-cam engines screaming, will be flat out round the back of the circuit, having carried greater exit speed then the big bangers from the important Campbell-Cobb-Segrave complex of corners which immortalise the names of the bold British land speed record breakers. Classic Formula Ford champion Ben Tinkler shares Steve Jones’ example alongside that of Historic Formula Junior champs Chris Drake and Nic Carlton-Smith.
Six wonderful Austin-Healey 3000s dominate the GT3 entry. Apart from those already mentioned, the ultra-rapid Jack Rawles lines up with Alexander Hewitson, Richard Locke shares his silver blue ex-Sebring car with Matt Green - like Jeremy Welch a renowned seat juggler - and Bruce Montgomery joins the fray. Ranged against them are Rob Newall and Oliver Marçais in Sir David Scholey’s feisty hard-topped Jaguar XK120, the oldest car in the pack.
Challenging past masters Malcolm Paul/Rick Bourne for GT2 supremacy are the MG Bs of Simon Drabble and hotshoe Murray Shepherd (son of long-time AC ace Andy), James Topliss and Oak Richardson, and the Lamberts, who have been coming to Thruxton for more than 50 years. Simon King and Richard Plant’s Morgan Plus 4 Super Sport impressed en route to a competitive third in class at Silverstone, where the sister car of debutants Sharlie Goddard/Graeme Smith showed well too.
In the Sports racing splits it will be interesting to see whether Nick Finburgh/Ollie Crosthwaite’s Cooper T49 has the reliability to match its undoubted pace on the super-fast circuit. As at Silverstone a Lotus 11 ‘roller skate’ is also entered, this time Andrew McAlpine’s.
Finally, another TC1 duel is likely between Alice Locke/Matt Green in the ex-works/John Fitzpatrick Broadspeed GTS coupe which demonstrated a slight top speed advantage in prevailing over the Dorset Racing Mini Cooper S of Ellie Birchenhough/Nick Topliss/Karl Jones at Silverstone.
With fine hospitality for competitors and guests sponsored by Automobiles Historiques, valued support from insurance gurus Gilbart-Smith Associates and Dunlop tyre distributor HPT and hot competition for race awards kindly presented by the Royal Automobile Club and Baltic Watches, the scene is set for a weekend of convivial family fun on and off the track. Live music on Friday and Saturday evenings will turn the clocks back too!
