Historic Motorsport Features

Into July. This afternoon I'm off to sunny Snetterton where, Barton Racing, the team I work with, will be testing Thursday. At lunchtime I'll leave and head down to Le Mans for the Classique. Three days later it's home for twenty-four hours before driving to Goodwood and Festival of Speed. Finishing on the Sunday, next stop is the Nurburgring for more testing. Then home again for a breather before...

Annual track jamboree for GoMW members  Words by Ken Davies. Images by Ken Davies and Michael Stokes Each year a must-do date in my diary is the Guild of Motoring Writers Big Day Out at Castle Combe circuit. Initially formed by a group of Fleet Street motoring hacks as a dining club in 1944, such was the enthusiasm of the new membership that its remit quickly became wider ranging and at the ...

A testing time  Words and image by Peter Baker  With Easter 2025 closing in fast Prescott Speed Hill Climb, following tradition since 1938, opened its doors, inviting those planning to race this season a chance to go testing. And seeing as the weather promised sunshine and blue skies (last year, oh, how it rained!), I booked a place. For a long time I have wanted to put my Alfa Romeo B...

F1 - The Exhibition at the ExceL Centre London  Words and images by Ken Davies  After making its debut in Madrid, August 2023, followed by Vienna then Toronto, F1 The Exhibition opened at Excel, the international exhibition and convention center in London’s charismatic Royal Victoria Dock, on 23 August 2024, and was extended by popular demand until 2 March 2025.  Packed with g...

An Unlikely Navigator  I am an American ex-pat who moved to England for love in 2022. As a painter who mostly stares at the sky when I'm travelling, I was dubious when my husband Peter Barker asked me if I’d like to navigate for him on the 2025 Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. He said that all we had to do was not come in last. As I love classic cars and roller coasters, and can read in ...

More luck than judgement  Words and image by Peter Baker Owning anything Italian tends to create a journey studded with anticipation and adventure, be it a multi-choice coffee maker or motor car. Logic in this hot-blooded country, thank goodness, always gives way to style and emotion. Whether the right coffee blend ever arrives or a car doesn’t, is more down to luck than judgment. Thu...

Respect required – Words and picture by Peter Baker I’ve just driven two laps of the historic 13.6-mile Nordschleife circuit in the rain and, let me tell you, my respect for those Grand Prix drivers who took on the challenge during the Sixties overfloweth. In 1968, Jackie Stewart won the German Grand Prix by a margin of four minutes. And he was nursing a broken wrist at the time In ...

Alfie takes me to Spa-Francorchamps  Words and pictures by Peter Baker  Spa. There and back. Then there and back again… It was all going so swimmingly well. Alfie, my 2008 Alfa Romeo Brera S, fresh from a major overhaul, had covered some 400 trouble-free miles when, for no apparent reason, the poor thing just stopped. Luckily, though very dark, and very wet, it was after the eve...

The great Jo Gartner's Lola-VW T620  Words and pictrures by Roman Klem Eric Broadley (Lola Cars Ltd.) was a manufacturer who tried to supply every possible class of racing. And so it happened that, in 1978, his products not only won the famous Indianapolis 500 (Chaparral-Lola T500, Al Unser Senior), but at the same time also started in lower formulas, such as Formula Super-V. Broadley was p...

Paul Ricard v. vineyards  Words and images by Peter Baker Paul Ricard is another circuit now ticked off my must visit list. Situated in the Provence area of Southern France this interestingly different 3.63-mile circuit, opened in 1970 and named in honour of its constructor, is unique in that conventional run-off areas utilise high-grip, bright blue and red-painted abrasive strips, effective...

Maser joins the stable  Words by Peter Baker It’s been an Italian two or three weeks, car-wise. Firstly, my Alfa Romeo Brera S has been given a good seeing to, and I can report ‘Alfie’ has not only been fully serviced, but granted another 12 months stay of execution by way of a fresh MOT. Big news, though, is the purchase into our household of yet another Italian gem, by na...

Peripatetic Peter  Words and images by Peter Baker.  Click to view Gallery. My life is in an uncontrollable spiral, but whether that is up or down, I’m not quite sure. Take last weekend for example. Following a hectic day entertaining folk at Goodwood on behalf of Barton Racing it was hot foot to Spa Francorchamps, where the team ‘s TVR Griffith was suffering last minute ...

Roman interviews Bruno Giacomelli  Words and pictures by Roman Klemm Desenzano del Garda, 9 March 2024 - Festina lente! In the late 1970s, he was the future champion, experts considered him the ‘new Clark’, in the junior classes he went from title to title. At the end of the 1980 season, he and his Alfa Romeo were one of the fastest combinations in Grand Prix. Formula 1 dismis...

Friends of Prescott hosts Gina Campbell  Words and pictures by Peter Baker  What, with one thing and another; a trip to Sebring in Florida, a successful run on Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique in Doris the Daimler and a long weekend with Barton Racing in Spain, already under my belt, it’s fair to say, 2024 is going to be another cracking year. Downside, less competition outings for y...

Roman interviews Joachim Althammer  Words and pictures by Roman Klemm Monaco + Goodwood = Salzburgring! The existence and organisation of historical events usually depends on the enthusiasm of clubs or individuals. The prototype of such an enthusiast is 64-year-old Joachim ‘Achim’ Althammer from Freilassing, Bavaria. In order to organise his Rallye Edelweiss Classic and the Ros...

Joachim Althammer’s Hartmann Type 2/0007 Formula Junior  Words and pictures by Roman Klemm The idea of motorsport enthusiast Count Lurani regarding the introduction of a simple and thus affordable monoposto class (Formula Junior) was primarily intended to discover new Italian talents. But, at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, this class became widespread throughout Europe. In Germany, i...

Roman interviews Hans Clausecker  Words and pictures by Roman Klemm Hans Clausecker, the guy in the Rescue Porsche Eighty-three-year-old Hans Clausecker won't be found in any Formula 1 Grand Prix statistics, yet he has started in several of them - as a R (Rescue)-Porsche driver, running at full throttle behind the enraged field, being equipped with rescue tools, fire extinguishers and a do...

Twenty twenty-four, here we come  Words and pictures by Peter Baker Almost before I could catch my breath after Christmas, yours truly was booked on a plane to Sebring in Florida, where Barton Racing (with whom I work) had entered their newly-built Toyota Supra GT4 EVO for the up-and-coming Harry Barton in six, close together races. Good news. We gained five podium places. Click to view the...

Roman’s most lasting 2023 experiences  Words and pictures by Roman Klemm. Click top right to view Gallery. Perhaps the most important phenomenon of the 2023 season was the fact that even the FIA adapted to ‘normalisation’ and, after three years of humane and moral darkness, gave up on the ‘Corona reprisals’. Those who wanted to make money had already raked in e...

Racing ahead  Words and pictures by Peter Baker Racing at Silverstone, Portimao and Sebring. A quick recap. For reasons I’ve yet to fathom, yours truly has attached himself to a young, up-and-coming race team, known by one-and-all as Barton Racing, specifically their ambitious stars, Harry and George. Anyway. We did well at Spa-Francorchamps, finishing 10th in the Spa Six Hours Endura...

Roman interviews Kommerzialrat Egon Hofer  Words and pictures by Roman Klemm. Click top right to view the gallery. “The Ferrari 250GT SWB is like a prima ballerina who leads you around the dance floor.” Herr Kommerzielrat Egon Hofer from Salzburg may not be familiar to every motor sport fan. But he is a welcome and respected guest among fans of historical sports and among the o...

Roman interviews Jo Vonlanthen  Words and pictures by Roman Klemm25th of October 2023 ‘We were treated to the sights of Jo Vonlanthen´s GRD doing odd things on occasions’. That is how Ian Phillips described the Swiss newcomer’s achievements in his Formula 2 seasonal-survey in the December 1973 issue of Autosport. Not very flattering. But Vonlanthen even made it to For...

Ken interviews Pauline Gullick  Words by Ken Davies. Pictures courtesy of Pauline Gullick Pauline recalls 12-Car rallies, East Africa, James Hunt and.… knitting!   Stuart Turner’s oft quoted analogy between rally co-driving and high-speed office management is very apt and perhaps one of the reasons why, when women take to the co-drivers seat, they become extremely success...

Not even James Hunt did this to the McLaren M23  Words by Roman Klemm. Pictures by Jo Vonlanthen Thanks to the generosity of former F1 driver Jo Vonlanthen, I was allowed to execute another of my ‘sit-in-tests’ of race cars. This time in the sensational car of the 1976 World Champion James Hunt - the McLaren-Ford M23. It ended in a bad accident - the heaviest one of my career as ...

70 Years of Formula 1 - Words and photos by Roman Klemm. Click top right to view photos. "Couldn't you get more cars like this for a bigger exhibition?" asked the manager of a large Zurich shopping mall. ‘Glat’, a racer was signing autographs next to his racing car.  The small event took place in the mid-seventies and caused great interest. The little guy had to sign everything p...

Roman interviews Alfredo Filippone  Words by Roman Klemm. Images by Roman Klemm and Alfredo Filippone's archive This is how the biography of Emilio de Villota was born In addition to the popular drivers, who are being chased by dozens of autograph collectors, many unknown key personalities of motorsport also move around the pits of world circuits. One of them is the inconspicuous Alfredo ...

Perfectly pitched for everyone  Words and images by Peter Baker Another successful year for the organisers of Goodwood Revival, led by The Duke of Richmond and Gordon, with seam-bursting crowds evenly split between shopping, socialising, or simply watching the on-track action, historic motor racing at its very best. And it was very hot, with record-breaking temperatures reaching into the lo...

Testing a Dallara-Alfa Romeo F388 and the famous Ferrari 212E Montagna  Words by Roman Klemm. Pictures by Riccardo Ferrua and KR Egon Hofer In 2021, I was allowed to ‘test’ two Formula 3 cars from the ‘70s, prepared by Autoluce, at the Historic Minardi Day in Imola. This year, this ‘sit-in-test’ traditionally continued. Company owner Daniele Ferrua offered the...

Roman interviews Gerhard Fridau  Words and images by Roman Klemm Gerhard Fridau - Dr. Helmut Marko’s secret magician Mr. Gerhard Fridau is a relatively inconspicuous participant. However, observant visitors to Red Bull's historic events must have noticed since decades that this Austrian from Graz was never absent when Messrs. Mateschitz and Marko presented the history of motorsport t...

Discovering the good old world of racing  Words and images by Roman Klemm. Click top right to view Gallery. 5 August 2023It's only been 25 years since six friends decided to form Motorsport IG Bad Muhllacken (Austria). At first, they just toured the world's famous motodromes together, but in 2016 decided to brush up on a relatively unknown sporting history of their home track: the Bad Muhll...

Roman interviews Daniele Ferrua  Words and images by Roman Klemm Autoluce: The legacy of Ferrari and Maserati in Modena Do you want to buy a superbly prepared car from one of the world's most renowned manufacturers, or even want to invest in a racing car in perfect condition with an equally meticulously recorded history? Then you are at the right address, at Mr. Daniele Ferrua's Autoluce ...

Britain’s premier rally show bounces back after two difficult years  Words and images by Ken Davies. Click top top right to view images. In a break from tradition, Rallyday changed to an early July date this year following a few tough years. First in 2020/21 suffering the effects of the pandemic followed by the funeral of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II falling within 36 hours of the 20...

Klaus Ludwig almost destroys DTM Legends  Words and images by Roman Klemm. Click to view Gallery. 8-9 July 2023 It is a nice tradition of the DTM that the programme offers fans and popular ‘Legend’ races with cars from the 1980s and ‘90s. Norisring was no exception. The prospect of driving on the short and fast track, this time attracted a greater number of former stars: ...

Off to Spa in style  Words and image by Peter Baker  Attending Spa Summer Classic, supporting Barton Racing. And I have to say, I felt quite relaxed. Mainly because our team boss, Carl Barton, donned his chauffeur’s hat and drove us the 900-odd miles there and back behind the wheel of his brand-new Range Rover. Yours truly was spread out in the back and playing with all the toys....

The legend of legends at the Red Bull Ring  Words and images by Roman Klemm. Click top right to view Gallery  1 July 2023Beware, I would not like to complain about something that the Austrian organiser offers to motorsport fans as ‘candy’ somehow on top of modern F1, F2 and F3. Red Bull could treat the audience the same as they do elsewhere – and show nothing from spo...

Rambling onto Le Mans  Words and image by Peter Baker  One day I’ll survive the M25 without slowing down. Ha, pigs might fly. At least the detour allowed a pleasant, if somewhat protracted, tour of the Surrey Hills, an area that as a five to 10-year-old I got to know very well. Ah, Newlands Corner, a favourite family picnic spot jogged the memory. Day’s out in the Ford Angl...

At home in Haarlem  Words and images by Peter Baker  I’ve not been to Zandvoort in Holland for a few years, by golly it’s changed, thanks to the return of the Dutch Grand Prix. No longer a cuddly and friendly circuit, all the gravel traps have doubled in size, as has the amount of safety fence. Even us photographers have lost the freedom to roam, having to now shoot through ...

Through the ford to the Festival  Words and images by Peter Baker I’ve been going to Brands Hatch since I was wearing short trousers and riding a bicycle. In 1964 yours truly blagged himself a ticket for the European Grand Prix, won by my hero Jim Clark who, incidentally, I’d had the good fortune to meet earlier, in the paddock. Sadly, I was also at Brands Hatch on 7 April 1968,...

Junior reporter Ben Lawrence on the Plains Rally 2023  Words and images by Ben Lawrence. Click top right to view Ben’s images Richard Tuthill and Dale Furniss claimed victory on a very dusty Plains Rally, on Saturday 20 May. The British Historic Rally Championship headed to Bala for the third round of the championship with a big number of historic crews to take on the four classic No...

MG excels at Castle Combe  In amongst attending race meetings where ‘how much rain we’ve had’ has been the main topic of conversation, last Wednesday I took myself off on a track day. Namely, the Guild of Motoring Writers Big Day Out at Castle Combe. My MG ZTT was not best pleased, but in the end joined in and gave me a day full of jolly good fun. In fact, it is surprising...

Junior Reporter Ben Lawrence on rally North Wales  Words and images by Ben Lawrence. Click top right to view Ben’s Images Rally North Wales, Saturday 25th March 2023The second round of the British Historic Rally Championship, marked Joe Price and co-driver Chris Brooks' return and win in only Price’s second rally in four years. After a tight and action-packed day in the forests ...

Just dessert for Doris  I’ve been winning prizes. Or, to be more correct, Doris the Daimler has. Having spent a nerve-racking three days at Race Retro awaiting the outcome, on the Sunday, together we were announced ‘runners up’ in the closely fought reis insurance Pride of the Paddock competition, returning home with a rather fine piece of engraved glassware. As most of y...

Fittipaldi, Stuck and Wolf visit Elvis in the Alps  Words and images by Roman Klemm. Click top right for Gallery  Such a group tour probably does not meet often. The people who followed the invitation of the Egger family to their car museum - ‘Oldtimer-Youngtimer-Sport-Movie Cars’ at Otztal - on a sunny day in February 2023 embodied two F1 world championship titles, two victo...

Advertising Feature  Motorsport UK Coaching Qualification for Graham Raeburn  {ICR}Graham Raeburn of Rally Navigation Training Services is the only qualified coach specialising in historic road rallying. Graham, an experienced rally navigator and organiser is now a Motorsport UK licenced coach. The licence was awarded after successfully completing a Level 2 Coaching Motorsport course&nbs...

Junior reporter Ben Lawrence on the Riponian Rally  Words and images by Ben Lawrence. Click top right to view Ben’s Images. Held on Sunday 12 February, the 2023 Riponian Rally was the first forest rally of the year and first round of the British Historic Rally Championship. The day was made up with three classic Yorkshire stages run twice. Roger Chilman took the overall victory in th...

Reflections after retirement Words by Peter Baker Considering my early demise from Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique 2023, apart from the actual moment of retirement, what I did do I thoroughly enjoyed. The six-month planning process for example, putting it all together, was an unbelievable experience. Getting the car prepared, finding studded tyres the right size (which were never used), persuading...

Junior reporter Ben Lawrence at the Cotswold Clouds Classic Trial  Click top right to view Ben’s images  The 2023 Cotswold Clouds Classic Trial, organised by Stroud & District Motor Club, was held on Sunday 5 February. The day consisted of 13 Hills and two tests, with a bumper entry of 80 cars ranging from Austin 7s to modified BMWs and VW Beetles. The first hill of the day w...

Junior Reporter Ben Lawrence at the Clee Hills Trial  Click top right to view Ben’s images The annual Clee Hills Trial is a spectator and competitor favourite. It has a 80-mile route, including 11 hills, based around Wenlock Edge and the Clee Hills in Shropshire. There were 80 competitors spread between two- and four-wheel, vintage and modified vehicles. The first hill was Harton Wood...

A visit to Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth  Words by Ken Davies, images by Texas Motor Speedway and Ken Davies. Click top right to view Gallery. I wasn’t thinking of NASCAR, or its 75th birthday, while tracking the busy 35W freeway near Fort Worth airport earlier in January. The exit lane said Texas Motor Speedway, so I magnetically followed the signs until I pulled-up in front of the...

Roman’s most lasting 2022 experiences  Words and images by Roman Klemm. Click top right to view the Gallery Another year and another racing season are behind us. The year was particularly rich on journeys for me. Because of the feeling that ‘nothing has to stay the way we were used to’, I took what came along - and that included 20 weekends on circuits (and the same amount ...