Classic Motor Show.
The 2009 Classic Motor Show at the NEC was the busiest Classic Motor show yet with record attendances over the 3 days. Click here for photos, or click here to read my report in Sports Car Digest magazine

HSCC Silverstone "Finals" Historic Race Meeting
The thrilling climax to the Historic Sports Car Clubs season took place at Silverstone on Saturday 17th October 2009. The most exciting race of the day was probably the Historic Saloon car race. A three way battle for the lead between the Jaguar of Graham Dodd, the Lotus Cortina of Dan Cox and the Mustang of Neil Cunningham had the crowd on their feet cheering. After the Jaguar lost the lead part way through the race, Cunningham held a narrow lead from the increasingly side ways Cortina of Cox, taking overall victory in the race by half a second. Cox and Dodd took the other podium places, both winning their respective classes in the race. The Formula 5000/Formula 2 Historic race provided another victory for Michael Lyons in his Lola T400, his margin being nearly half a minute from his nearest challenger Mark Dwyer in another Lola T400. Darwin Smith won the Formula 2 class in his March 722, finishing 4th overall. To see full results and photos from all the races, click here
Read my race reports on Sports Car Digest Magazine www.sportscardigest.com
Saloon race report click here
Guards Trophy Sports car race click here
Derek Bell Trophy race for Formula 5000 and Formula 2 click here

Silverstone Classic
Full results and photos of the majority of cars from this years Silverstone Classic meeting are now on-line. Click here to view

Jenson Button - Formula 1 World Champion 2009
Congratulations to Jenson Button for clinching the 2009 World Championship in his Brawn Mercedes. Jenson managed to finish on the podium in 3rd place at the final Grand Prix of the season in Abu Dhabi after a great late race dice with Red Bull driver Mark Webber. Red Bull managed to finish the season with another 1-2 finish with Sebastian Vettel winning the race and confirming his runners up position in the championship. 

Congratulations to John Sheldon - Classic Endurance Racing Champion driver 2009.
John clinched the championship at Silverstone at the Autosport 1000kms of Silverstone race meeting on the 12th September 2009. He maintained his 100% record of class wins in his trusted P1 class Chevron B16 to beat Jean Marc Luco in the P2 class Porsche 936 to first place in the driver classification for the season. The race at Silverstone was won by former CART  champion and Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal driving a Lola T290. John finished 12th overall and first in class. To see results for the Silverstone race, and photos, click here. To see more photos and a report of the race in Sports Car Digest magazine, click here.

Tour Britannia
The annual Tour Britannia tried a new route this year with the action being based along the east side of England. Starting at Silverstone and working its way north, through Lincolnshire to finish in Yorkshire, the event gave more variety to its regular competitors. One of the high-lights was competing at Olivers Mount near Scarborough. To see pictures of the event, click here

VSCC See Red at 70 - Donington Park
It seemed appropriate that the last meeting to be held at the Donington Park circuit in its current configuration, before the major re-vamp ready for the British Grand Prix 2010, should be the Vintage Sports Car Clubs annual See Red at 70 meeting. For results and pictures click here

HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship - Silverstone
The HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship is nearing its gripping conclusion. The latest three rounds at Silverstone on the 30th August proved to be a whitewash for the Chevrolet teams. Results and pictures here

Interserie Revival race - Donington Park.
Can-Am cars run again in Europe. The Masters series ran an Interserie Revival race at Donington Park on the 23rd August 2009 and they gave a fantastic spectacle. Mighty 8 litre McLaren M8 cars thundered around the sweeps of Donington, much to the enjoyment of the fans. Click here to see results and pictures. To read my report in Sports Car Digest magazine click here.

HSCC meeting - Mallory Park
The Historic Sports Car made a return to Mallory Park in August, but the meeting was more of an air display than a race meeting with Red flags and delays the order of the day. The racing that did take place was exciting, and the entry list was varied. For more information, results and photos click here.

IMM 2009 Mini 50th Birthday celebrations - Cofton Park, Longbridge
Two Thousand and Nine see's many celebrations for important milestones in automotive history, and none is more important than the 50th anniversary for the humble Mini. IMM2009 was quite fittingly held at Cofton Park, right outside the Longbridge factory in Birmingham, where the vast majority of Mini's were built. This large International event, organised by the Birmingham Mini Owners club was held over the weekend of the 7th-9th August 2009. Mini enthusiasts came from all over the world to celebrate the 50th birthday of their beloved Mini, with guests from as far away as Australia, Japan and Mexico joining the thousands who also came from Sweden, Holland, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium and other European states. Glorious sunshine made the event a big hit. To see pictures Click here
To see more photos and read my report in Sports Car Digest magazine, click here

The Vintage Sports Car Club (VSCC) are celebrating their 75th anniversary in 2009. To start their celebrations they held a one day sprint meeting at Prescott on Friday 31st July. To see photos click here

Jenson Button arrived in Birmingham today on the Bridgestone display in Centenary Square. He was hugely popular with the crowds, signing autographs and giving many media interviews, as well as posing for pictures with his Brawn Grand Prix car. See photos here.

The Silverstone Classic
The annual Silverstone Classic meeting took place over the weekend of the 24th to 26th July 2009. To see some sample images click here. This year the event proved to be more popular than ever with over 65,000 visitors attending the 3 day event. Over 600 cars in 21 races competed in the classic event of the year. Add the music concerts from Blue, the Pussy Cat Dolls and Santana and you can see that the action never stopped for all 3 days. All the races had fantastic, large entries with 18 year old Michael Lyons winning both Grand Prix Masters events in his Hesketh 308E.

Cholmondeley Pageant of Power 2009
The 2nd Cholmondeley Pageant of Power was a big hit with the fans. The North of England answer to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the event provided a great variety of cars and bikes to keep the fans happy, along with Power boat racing and helicopter action. Click here to see photos of the event.  To read my report for Sports Car Digest magazine, click here

The Goodwood Festival of Speed continues to grow in popularity as the annual event took place on Lord March Goodwood House. The event covers everything from Formula 1 and Le Mans sports cars through to Rallying and American motorsport. This year saw special celebrations for Audi, Bugatti and Morgan, all celebrating 100 years of manufacturing. There were also celebrations for 50 years of the Mini, and 40 years of Williams Grand Prix and the Porsche 917. Click here for pictures

Tarmac Rallying hit the Middle of the country with the Rally of the Midlands on the 19th and 20th June 2009. Based in Nuneaton, the Rally uses various tarmac stages, and the Mallory Park racing circuit. It was a close fought event with Chris Wood and Stephen Ritchie in their Opel Astra kit car loosing the event on a ten second penalty to Mark Welch and Andy Wynn in their Ford Escort Cosworth, who won by nine seconds! A Metro 6R4 driven by Mark Holmes and Tony Linday finished 3rd overall. To see results and photos please click here

The summer returned in time for the annual Cosford air show, held at RAF Cosford in Shropshire. A fantastic show was held in front of over 58,000 spectators. The highlights included the return of a Vulcan to flying displays, the Red Arrows, and possibly the last UK display by an F86A Sabre jet fighter before it returns to the United States for a refit. To see pictures from the event please click here.

The Vintage Sports Car club is celebrating 75 years in 2009 and their annual Speed trial at the picturesque Curborough sprint course near Lichfield was blessed with glorious sunshine. The spectator car park was as interesting as the paddock, and the crowds picnicked in the warm whilst watching the large entry hurtle around the track. James Baxter in this 1934 Frazer Nash single seater took fastest time of the day to win the Curborough trophy from Paul Richardson's ERA R14B. To see results and pictures click here

Glorious sunshine greeted the crowds to the French weekend at Prescott Hill climb at the end of May. The Bugatti Owners club annual La Vie en Bleu hill climb meeting was a celebration of all things French. Four Bugatti Veyron super cars and the ex Senna JPS Renault Grand Prix car took to the hill several times between the Sunday competition runs. For pictures and results please click here.

The Masters Classic at Donington Park was held on the national circuit in bright but very windy conditions over the weekend of the 9th and 10th of May 2009. The meeting really had something for everyone, with races for Grand Prix cars, Le Mans sports cars, GT cars and Saloons all from the 1950s through to the 1970s. The star race fell to Frank Sytner in the ex James Hunt Hesketh 308B, who proved to be a popular winner for the first Grand Prix Masters race on the Saturday, but unfortunately it was to retire from the second race on Sunday. This left the second race on Sunday open for Katsu Kabota to win in the ex-Ronnie Peterson March 761. Click here for results and pictures here

The first round of the FIA GT championship descended onto Silverstone over the 2nd and 3rd of May 2009. In sunny conditions, the cream of the worlds GT cars were unleashed on to the fast open sweeps of the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. The prestigious RAC Tourist trophy was awarded to the the winners of the GT1 race, Karl Wendlinger and Britains Ryan Sharp, driving a Saleen S7. They won by 5 1/2 seconds from reigning Champions Andrea Bertolini and Michael Bartells in their Maserati MC12. The opening rounds of the GT3 and GT4 series also took place. Click here for pictures and full results

The Midland Automobile Club ran their annual sprint meeting at Curborough on 19th April. Weather conditions were very good, and the quality field contested a two lap sprint. Deryk Young took fastest time of day in his 4 litre Gould GR51 he shares with his wife Susan. Will Hall in his 1600cc Force PC broke the class record to take second fastest time of day and win his class by over a second from Chris Green's OMS which took third fastest time of day. Being early in the season, there was a lot of spirited driving, resulting in cars leaving the course and recording no time on at least one run, but there were no serious incidents. Click here for pictures and results.

Short oval Hot Rod and Stock car racing took place at the Grimley Raceway, near Worcester on Easter Monday 13th April 2009. Although a short circuit, the event was long on action with a packed programme entertaining the Bank holiday crowds in the warm spring sunshine. Click here for pictures and results

The MG Car club ran a successful sprint meeting at Curborough on the 5th April, in bright but breezy conditions. The large and varied field, which had come from all over the country, entertained the spectators with some spirited driving. Fastest time of the day went to Paul Masters in his 998cc Jedi racing car, whilst honour of fastest MG went to Terry Pigott in his MGB V8 who set the seventh fastest time of the day, and first non-racing car. Click here for pictures and results

Saturday 28th March saw the 49th running of the Bulldog rally organised by the Wolverhampton and South Staffs Motor Club in Wales. The Bulldog International rally of North Wales started at Bala, while the Historic and Clubman rallies both started at Llangollen. The crews faced mixed weather as they ran through the north Wales forests ranging from sunshine and rain at the same time to the odd snow squall, making the stages muddy and slippy. Keith Cronin and Greg Shinnors took overall victory in their Misubishi Lancer Evo 9 by just 9 seconds from Mark Higgins and Bryan Thomasin their Subaru Imprezza. Click here for pictures and results

The Endurance Rally Organisation ran their London to Edinburgh Flying Scotsman Rally from Brooklands on Friday 27th March through to Sunday 29th March. A large and varied field including a 1905 Star Gordon Bennet crewed by Jonathan Turner and Adam Hartley and a 1911 Ford Model T driven by Neil Tuckett and Peter Eldred travelled through the Cotswolds, the Midlands and Derbyshire Peak district, the Yorkshire Dales on their way to Scotland. The entry was split into two categories, Pioneers for pre 1921 manufactured cars and Vintageant Category for pre-1939 cars. Winner of the Pioneer category was Paul Rogers and Annabel Jones in a 1924 Vauxhall 30/98. The newer category was taken by Paul Carter and John Bayliss in a 1936 Bentley Derby 4.25 Click here for pictures and results

Shenstone & District car club ran a practice day for its members at the Curborough sprint course on Sunday 22nd March 2009. Under cloudy and windy conditions, most competitors completed at least 5 runs of the course, and the hardy members managed a 6th run to complete their shakedown before the season starts proper. Click here to view images from the day

Race Retro 2009 at Stoneleigh Park proved to be a great success, with large crowds attending over the 3 days of the show. There was plenty to see in the Exhibition halls with special displays to celebrate 50 years of Aston Martin, the Mini and the Triumph Bonneville motorcycle. Outside the halls, the the grounds of the National Agricultural Centre, a live Rally stage wowed the crowds with spectacular demonstration runs by classic rally supercars. Click here to see photos and a video clip of the live stage.

The Tour of Cheshire historic road rally was run on the 7th March 2009. View results here.

The motorsport track season got off to a good start on Saturday 28th February 2009, with the Vintage Sports Car Club (VSCC) staging their annual Pomeroy Trophy meeting at Silverstone. To see images and results from the meeting please click here.

The second big show to visit is also in the Midlands. Race Retro 2009 is held at Stoneleigh Park near Coventry from the 13th to the 15th March 2009. The show covers all forms of Historic motorsport and includes a live action rally stage for many of the old Group B Rally Supercars which always proves to be both popular and spectacular. To see photos from a previous show please click here. Visit their web site for more details at www.historicmotorsportshow.com

The first big event of the year was the Autosport International  show at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham. This fantastic show covered several Halls at the NEC and covered all forms of motorsport. The centre display celebrated Lewis Hamilton being World Champion with a display of Grand Prix cars covering British World Champions over the last 50 years next to a display of 2008 Grand Prix cars, with the Lewis Hamilton Championship winning car on a raised display between the two exhibits. There were also displays of cars from the World Rally Championship, GT and Le Mans. Historic motorsport was well represented with a display of historic Formula 2 and Formula 3 cars, and classic Lotus Grand Prix cars seemed to be everywhere, all through the exhibition. The Autosport centre stage was a focal point throughout the show, with various interesting motor sport personalities speaking during the show. Ron Dennis drew a large crowd. Running along side the racing car show was the Piston Heads show, which catered for Classic and Supercars. Two high-lights here was a display to celebrate 50 years of the Porsche 911 and a Koenigsegg Supercar being on display. To see pictures from the show click here. The official site is www.autosport-international.com

La vie en bleu Prescott Hillclimb 24th May 2009

BTCC Donington Park 16-17th May 2009

The Masters Classic Donington 9th-10th May 2009

FIA GT Championship, Silverstone May2nd-3rd 2009

Bulldog Historic Rally

Bulldog International Rally

Race Retro 2009

Autosport International Show 2009