Silverstone Classic 2017

The 2017 Silverstone Classic drew to a close after three days of nonstop action on Sunday July 30th with another record-breaking day seeing 100,000 spectators going home with wide smiles on their faces, despite some changeable weather conditions.

This huge event, by far the largest of its type sees racing from eight decades of glorious motor sport history over the course of the weekend, from evocative Pre War Sports Cars all the way through to DFV-era Formula 1 machinery and tin-top icons from the much-loved Super Touring era. As always however the GT and sports car racers from the 1950s and early 60s are the popular highlights. Away from the circuit, the event has become a Mecca for classic car enthusiasts and no fewer than 10,000 classic cars were packed into the infield, including as usual a great number Ferraris such as the F40 GT displayed by DK.

Ever present in force at the event DK Engineering were responsible for the preparation and running of three cars. The DK (ex Ecurie Francorchamps) Ferrari 500 TRC which was to run in the Woodcote Trophy for 1950s Sportscars alongside a short nose Jaguar D-Type, a car which DK sold the current owner in 2016. Whilst the 500 TRC has competed with DK in over 100 races the D-Type was very much a road car and required a fast conversion to be ready to compete in this highly competitive grid. A particular highlight of the Classic is always the RAC TT Race for Pre-1963 GT cars, the maroon E-Type was entered by DK for the race and was driven by Acquisition Consultants James Cottingham and Harvey Stanley, who was also piloting the D-Type and a Porsche 901.

The 58 car grid order was decided in a crowded 25-minute qualifying session on Friday, James Cottingham set the early pace in the DK E-Type before the Simon Hadfield put the powerful Project Aston 212 of Wolfgang Freidrichs on pole, professional racer Nigel Greenall alongside in Chris Milner's E-Type, the Ferrari 250 SWB "Breadvan" in 3rd and the DK E-Type in 4th position.

James Cottingham was to start the race in the E-Type before handing over to Harvey Stanley partway through the 50-minute race; a terrific first lap saw the E-Type leading the field from the rapid Ferrari of driven well by the young Lukas Halusa. The pace of the Ferrari was always going to be hard for the E-Type to hold off and around lap 5 the Ferrari breezed past the Jaguar on the Hangar straight. Further behind however, James had maintained a good gap between himself and the Aston Martin, Martin Hunt's Cobra, and the E-Types of Milner and Sandy Watson. A slick driver change was made by the DK team and not before too long the E-Type was close behind the Ferrari Breadvan albeit with the powerful AC Cobra driven by Blakeney Edwards and the Project Aston now at the hands of Simon Hadfield fast approaching. A very close finish to the race saw the DK E-Type take a podium finish whilst Simon Hadfield and Wolfgang Friedrichs took victory for the third year on the trot. A hard fought podium for the DK team and rewarding to be the first E-Type of the 10 entered to cross the finish line.

In the following Woodcote Trophy Race the Ferrari 500 TRC was driven by James and David Cottingham to a fantastic 2nd in class finish, running in the top 10 for the majority of the race alongside much more powerful disc braked cars. The D-Type which was driven by Timothy Mahapatra and Harvey Stanley initially fought up to 9th from its grid position of 14th and finished the race in a very respectable position especially given this was the cars first competitive outing. With all three DK run cars finishing their races very well and without fault our race team can now begin to focus on the 355 Challenge which will compete in the Italian Festival at Brands Hatch in August and the Goodwood Revival in September.