This summer\u2019s Silverstone Classic, set for the weekend of July 20-22, will honor the four F1 World Champions who raced in Formula Junior during their formative years. As part of the climax to Formula Junior\u2019s three-year Diamond Jubilee World Tour, the four Formula Junior races (above, Jakob Ebrey Photography) scheduled for the Classic will be named in honor of Jim Clark OBE, John Surtees CBE, Denis Hulme OBE and Jochen Rindt.<\/p>\n
The Classic\u2019s two front-engined races will be dedicated to Clark and Surtees, who both started their careers in the earlier era (albeit driving a rear-engined Cooper in Surtees\u2019 case), while the races for later, rear-engined cars will honor Hulme \u2014 the Kiwi who was actually Formula Junior champion in 1963 \u2014 and Austrian hero Rindt.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have two doubleheaders at Silverstone as the culmination of the World Tour is just unbelievable,\u201d noted Duncan Rabagliati, Chairman of the Formula Junior Historic Racing Association, the brains and energy behind the international Diamond Jubilee celebrations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are hugely grateful to have been given this wonderful opportunity, and we will come up with the goods! We are going to have four fantastic races with absolutely full grids and some notable period drivers like Richard Attwood and our intrepid patron Howden Ganley in attendance as part of the celebrations. The Silverstone Classic is one of the greatest meetings in the world and we are really going to enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding to the spectacle and importance, fiercely fought Formula Junior races are always among the most exciting on the Classic schedule, with more than 50 cars slipstreaming each other as they dice around the full Grand Prix circuit. What\u2019s more, all the cars competing are original period racers \u2014 each one with its very own remarkable history.<\/p>\n