HOT CATS WITH TIN ROOFS

New touring car races in Silverstone Classic finale

The climax of this year’s Silverstone Classic will be four different touring car races featuring everything from Mini Coopers to Ford Sierra Cosworths.

The historic motorsport festival’s final day will be branded Tin-Top Sunday to reflect the number of classic saloons going out across four grids on Sunday, 31 July. Among the races will be the Historic Touring Car Challenge’s debut at the event, which caters for cars built up to 1990 (see P6).

The Big Engined Touring Cars race – which last appeared in 2014 to mark the Ford Mustang’s 50th anniversary – will make a comeback, with the pony cars competing against the likes of Ford Falcon, Dodge Dart and Mercury Cyclone American muscle-cars.

Two of last year’s hits will also return to the home of the British Grand Prix – the Super Touring grid featuring BTCC stars of the 1990s like the Renault Laguna and Ford Mondeo, and the Under 2.0-litre Touring Cars, where Lotus Cortinas, Mini Coopers and Alfa Romeo GTAs will go head to head on track.

Goose Live Events, the company responsible for the Silverstone Classic says the increased focus on touring cars will provide ‘bumper-to-bumper’ entertainment for showgoers. Advance tickets, which can be bought through the Classic’s website, start at £49 for a Sunday day ticket.

‘Right from its very early days, touring car racing has always been a massive hit with the British public and that’s why we have created this very special Tin-Top Sunday,’ says chief executive Nick Wigley.

‘By adding the flourishing HTCC to our more familiar U2TC, Big Banger and Super Touring grids, Tin-Top Sunday will live up to its star billing as the biggest and best celebration of touring car history ever seen at the Classic. There really will be something for everyone.’

www.silverstoneclassic.com