THE AMOC PRE-WAR TEAM CHALLENGE
You don’t need an Aston to enter this frenetic event
YOU DON’T HAVE to own a prewar Aston Martin to take part in the Aston Martin Owners’ Club Pre-War Team Challenge (though many of its competitors do). The AMOC has long encouraged other marques to enter its various series, because it adds variety, leads to bigger grids and makes it more fun for both racers and spectators alike. And the Pre-War Team Challenge serves up some of the best grids of all – not to mention close yet good-mannered racing.
For 2018 there are three rounds: Donington (29 July), Snetterton (1 September) and Silverstone (6 October). The last of these is the AMOC’s own St John Horsfall Memorial Trophy race, named after the famous Aston racer and wartime MI5 man who crashed fatally at Silverstone in 1949.
The idea is to enter as part of a team of at least three cars. The top three results of each team counting towards the final standings in the Team Challenge, although individual wins are rewarded as well.
Cars as diverse as tiny Austin Sevens and hefty Bentleys have an equal chance of success, because each 20-minute race is run on a handicap basis, with the slowest cars starting first and faster ones gradually released to pursue them. ‘The interval is calculated by the handicapper based on his knowledge of each car’s prior performance,’ says the AMOC. ‘The aim is that, on the final
Clockwise from top Lagonda LG45 heads a typically diverse field; Clive Morley was part of last year’s winning Bentley team; Aston Ulster (left) tangles with 2-Litre Speed Model. lap, all the cars should come round sideby-side. It’s always a good measure of the handicapper’s skill to see how close he can get to this result.’
Ideally, the cars in each team should all be of the same marque, and the AMOC won’t mind if a non-Aston team wins; last year the top prize went to the Bentley team.
A combative approach is frowned upon, as is car damage, so you can enter your prized pre-war with fair confidence that it will survive unscathed. The introduction to the regulations states as follows: ‘It is the intention of the organisers to create a friendly, gentlemanly and non-aggressive series of good-value events for high-profile cars with competent drivers. Therefore, a high standard of both car presentation and driver behaviour both on and off the track is both expected and demanded.’ Very civilised.