SILVERSTONE
GRAND PRIX
RACE REPORT

Excitement and Drama at Equipe’s Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit Weekend.

Our annual visit to the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit never disappoints and this year featured not only the third round of the Equipe Historic Championship but our annual six-hour race.

The six-hour providing changing fortunes as the race progressed and worthy winners. A big thank you to all of you who joined us across all our categories and races, your support is always a large part of what makes an Equipe Classic Racing meeting such an event.

Equipe 6 Hour
Our second six-hour race was the highlight of Sunday’s timetable and, as ever with endurance races, featured some great racing, superb pitwork to get cars back into the race after issues and drama in the final minutes. The yellow Shelby Cobra of Nick Sleep and Alex Montgomery was on pole, with the potent Jaguar E-Type Semi-Lightweight of Guy Grant and Mark Hales alongside.
Hales took the lead on the opening lap in the Jaguar with Sleep running second, while an early casualty was the Cobra to be shared by Nigel Armstrong, Mark Freeman and Stephen Skipworth which retired from third after six laps with loss of drive. Hales pitted the Jaguar after 90 minutes of racing for fuel, Sleep staying out and the Jaguar started by Nick Hyett moving into second, the Lotus Elan 26R started by Cliff Gray now third.

Sleep was able to stay out in the Cobra for another 45-minutes before coming in for fuel after 55-laps, having, in his words ‘run it empty’. The Jaguar was in again on lap 70 for Guy Grant to hand it back to Hales, the Cobra now the only car on the lead lap, while a great performance and sound strategy for the MGB started by Mark Hope and shared with Brain Lambert and Ian Rowley saw that car running third.
When the Cobra made its final stop with an hour and 49 minutes left, the Jaguar was able to reclaim the lead, but that car would have to stop again while the Cobra was aiming to run to the end of the race. On its 100th lap the MGB pitted from third with a water pump issue that would see its fine run ended by a lengthy pit stop, the ex-Le Mans Morgan Plus 4 of Keith Ahlers, James Bellinger and Christian Bock now third before in turn being hit by an engine valve problem.

Into the last hour the Cobra had a two-lap lead over the E-Type, the MGB and the Morgan both in trouble while running consistently and gaining ground in fifth was the Ford Falcon of father and son team Richard and George Frankel, who moved into fourth passing the MGB as it stood in the pits.  The Morgan came out to try to reach the end of the race but stopped on the Hanger Straight, the Falcon taking third on its 104th lap.
In the very final minutes the lead Cobra began to slow, Sleep pulling off coming onto the Hanger Straight, the car out of fuel. Grant went past to reduce the deficit to just one lap but was greeted by the chequer flag before he would move onto the same lap, the Cobra the winner on distance completed. Grand and Hales having to settle for second while the Frankels were a delighted third in their Ford Falcon.

The Ford Mustang of Tom Woodcock and Gavin Crawford came home fourth, a fine debut for the car in its first ever race, while lead MGB was the car shared by Marc Yates, John Pearson and Hugh Lafferty, which overcame various issues to finish two laps clear of fellow MGB racers Babak Farsian and Simin Cripps.

A performance worthy of note was that of the Marcos 1800GT of Harvey Blake-Jones and Andy Waites, who after issues only got to start the race well behind everyone else yet managed to work their way into the top ten, claiming ninth at the end. The true grit and determination of this team epitomises everything about endurance racing and teamwork.
“The car likes a drink!” said Sleep. “We just ran out of fuel, I was thinking for the last hour it was going to be tight and we didn’t quite make it, but it was a real pleasure to win and we took it on distance covered!”

“It is a huge responsibility racing this car,” said Montgomery, “I wasn’t sure what the gap was between us and the Jaguar, so I pushed but it is an amazing car to race.”

“The car was brilliant,” said Grant about the second placed E-Type. “Best it’s ever been and going as well at the end as it was at the start, lovely race and really enjoyed the day.”

“The Cobra had the legs on us but we could keep with them for a bit,” said Hales. “We have to manage the brakes on the Jaguar, but the car was great and ran faultlessly.”

“I started the car but it is all really down to Vernon who prepares the car, it was faultless,” said third-placed Richard Frankel. “What an amazing day, we had decided yesterday qualifying didn’t matter and we just took out time in the raceand worked our way forwards.”

“We had to start from the back but did really good pitstops and worked our way forward,” said George Frankel. “I didn’t realise we were in P3 so what a day!”

The Equipe 6 Hour is a huge test of human as well as mechanical resilience and the fact that we didn’t have a single safety car lap throughout the race is a true testament to everyone involved.

We’ll do it all again in 2027.