Historic race and rally news
Silverstone Classic Ford Galaxie outing for world rallying legend
Stig Blomqvist will turn the clock back 45 years at the Silverstone Classic to race the Ford Galaxie that first inspired his desire to start competing in motorsport.
Blomqvist will share the mighty sevenlitre car of Bill Shepherd in the Pre ’66 Touring Car race. Back in 1964, the 18-yearold Blomqvist rode his moped to his home track of Karlskoga in Sweden to watch the European Touring Car Championship.
The vast Galaxie, driven by team boss Alan Mann, was on the grid to ensure maximum points for the team’s Lotus Cortinas of John Whitmore and Henry Taylor. Thanks to a chance conversation earlier this year, Shepherd invited Stig to race the very same car.
“It’s a very good story isn’t it?” said Blomqvist. “Seeing that big car all those years ago really made a huge impression on me when I was young – it looked four times bigger than all the other Cortinas and two-stroke Saabs on the grid back then!
“I could never have dreamt that one day I’d be actually racing the very same car that first excited me at Karlskoga.
“It’s going to be an incredible personal moment for me and it will be a lot of fun.”
Shepherd takes up the story. “Back in the spring, Stig invited me to go ice driving in Sweden,” said Shepherd. “One night we got talking and he came out with this amazing tale of how he’d fallen in love with a particular Galaxie as a teenager and how the sight of this car had not only inspired him to pursue a career motorsport but also fired his lifelong love for Ford.
“Almost unbelievably I’ve actually owned that very same Galaxie for more than 20 years, so it only seemed right and proper to invite him to the Classic to race it with me.”