For fans of historic car racing, there’s a packed schedule to look forward to this year. Paul Lawrence is your guide

2023 HISTORICS SPECIAL

Flap out the M&S rug and make an early start on the corned beef sandwiches at Donington Park’s Craner Curves in late April

ALAMY

Donington Historic Festival

DONINGTON PARK, LEICESTERSHIRE, APRIL 29-30

The Donington Historic Festival is one of the key early season historic racing festivals in Europe with two days of action on the fabulous Donington Park circuit.

This is very much a Motor Racing Legends event and that organisation provides the bulk of the races. Though there are some off-track attractions, it is nothing like the scale of the Silverstone Festival. This one is largely about good quality racing.

For the casual spectator, longer races are not always appealing and the DHF includes a series of one-hour races and the three-hour Pall Mall Cup as well as a couple of shorter contests. The Pall Mall Cup on Saturday afternoon features a field of pre-’66 GT and pre-’63 sports racers with AC Cobras, Jaguar E-types and Austin-Healey 3000s usually setting the overall pace.

Other highlights are the ‘Mad Jack’ Trophy for pre-war sports cars and the excellent Historic Touring Car Challenge with Cologne Capris, Batmobile BMWs, Sierra RS500s and BMW M3s.

HSCC International Trophy

SILVERSTONE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, MAY 27-28

Although the Silverstone Festival is the headline historic race meeting at Silverstone, each May the Historic Sports Car Club takes over the Grand Prix circuit for an excellent weekend of racing.

The event is named in memory of the former non-championship F1 race and the programme is a typical mix of HSCC categories ranging from the Aurora Trophy for powerful single-seaters, including Formula 5000s, down to more humble road sports of the 1960s and ’70s.