A celebration of Scottish motorsport — the Argyll Festival of Performance — is scheduled to debut June 2-3, 2018, on the grounds of Inveraray Castle on the country’s west coast, the Duke of Argyll has announced. The goal is to showcase Scottish drivers and significant cars that have competed in Formula 1, Le Mans, Indy racing, touring cars and rallying.
Many of the vehicles scheduled to take part will be visiting Scotland for the first time, organizers said.
“Scotland has an enviable reputation in motorsport but, as yet, there has never been an event that celebrates this success,” festival director Bill Telford was quoted in a news release. “The Argyll Festival of Performance has been created to do just that with a theme each year to really allow the stories to be told.
“In year one, it will be Formula 1, and Scotland boasts some of the biggest names in the sport from the legendary Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart, to multiple race winners like David Coulthard, and of course, local star, Susie Wolff, who was the first female to be involved in an F1 weekend in 22 years at the British Grand Prix in 2014.”
Organizers note that Scotland is the fifth “most successful” nation when it comes to producing F1 world championship drivers.
“It’s not just drivers who have played their part,” Telfored added. “Scottish engineers, designers and manufacturers have also made a huge impact on the world of motorsport and we believe the time is right to celebrate all of those achievements.”
Among the cars already set to take part are a Lotus 18 raced by Innes Ireland, Scotland’s first GP winner, and later raced by Jim Clark; a one-off Lotus 32B constructed for Jim Clark to race in the ’65 Tasman Series; the Tyrrell 001, Ken Tyrell’s first racecar as campaigned by Jackie Stewart; as well as a Porsche 917K, Cooper-Bristol and Tec Mec Maserati.
The weekend activities will include demonstration runs, an auction, a concours d’elegance, a vintage bus rally and various displays. A World War II Supermarine Spitfire will do an aerial display over the castle on both days of the event, organizers added.
The Jim Clark Trust will be the “chosen charity” for the inaugural event.
For more information, visit the event website.
HSR sets 2018 schedule
Historic Sportscar Racing has announced its 2018 schedule and that the Daytona Classic and Classic 12 Hour at Sebring will become annual events for the foreseeable future.
Those races also will conclude the 2017 vintage racing season with the third Daytona ‘round-the-clock event November 8-12 and the second Sebring
scheduled for November 29-December 3. In 2018, the dates are November 7-11 and November 28-December 2, respectively.
The 2018 HSR calendar opens March 14-17 with the 66th annual 12 Hours of Sebring exhibition weekend, followed on April 26-29 by the 41st Mitty at Road Atlanta.
The vintage racers are at Virginia International Raceway on June 1-3 and at Mont-Tremblant in Quebec on July 12-15 Racing resumes September 20-23 with the Atlanta Fall Historics on September 20-23.
The Savannah Speed Classic on Hutchinson Island, Georgia, is October 25-28, followed by the Daytona and Sebring events.
Legends of Le Mans celebrates 50th anniversary of first Gulf-livery victory
The blue-and-orange livery of racing cars sponsored by the Gulf Oil Company became well-known at circuits around the world, and the first victory by a Gulf-sponsored car will be celebrated May 17, 2018 at the Hope for Tomorrow Legends of Le Mans dinner at the Royal Automobile Club’s historic Woodcote Park estate in Surrey, England.
It will have been 50 years since Pedro Rodriguez and Lucien Bianchi won the round-the-clock race in a John Wyer Automotive team’s Ford GT40. Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver repeated that accomplishment in 1969. In 1975, there was a third Gulf-colored victory with Ickx and Derek Bell driving a Cosworth-powered Mirage GR8.
Bell, a five-time Le Mans winner, is among those who have agreed to participate in the 50-year celebration, which will raise support for Hope for Tomorrow, which provides mobile chemotherapy units so cancer patients can receive treatments at their homes.
Bell is a patron of Hope for Tomorrow, as are such racers as Martin Brundle, David Brabham, Ross Brawn and David Richards.
For more information, visit the Hope for Tomorrow website.
