Historic festival revs up north of the border
A new Scottish festival of motoring launching this summer will showcase upwards of 1200 classic and modern sports cars in the grounds of Thirlestane Castle, as the Sir Jackie Stewart Classic unites the Borders Vintage Automobile Club and charity Race Against Dementia from 18-19 June.
BVAC member, RAD founder and event champion Sir Jackie Stewart OBE explains that the new festival has more to it than meets the eye: “There will be some great vehicles, a concours d’elegance, a fine collection of Formula One cars and a clay-pigeon shooting event that will take place on the Friday.”
Sticking with that theme, special guests are set to include Mr Beretta himself and members of the royal family, while joining the range of machinery on hand to celebrate 50 years of the BVAC will be an impressive line-up of Sir Jackie’s former racing cars, including the Ecurie Ecosse Coopers and others from his early career. Some may even make it on to the crowdstirring sprint course. “I’ll be surprised if a Tyrrell doesn’t go up at least once or twice,” smiles Stewart, “and I wouldn’t be too surprised if another car or two went up for demonstration purposes.”
As well as a suitably Scottish provision of food – Walkers Shortbread and Tunnocks are among the RAD supporters already signed up – Thirlestane Castle itself will also be open to visitors, where they will see a full collection of Sir Jackie’s racing trophies alongside some other significant racing cars from his career.
Following his wife’s diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia six years ago, Stewart has helped RAD to produce 10 PHD Fellows and inspired a “Formula One attitude” towards research. With the support of the wider classic car community, it’s hoped that this summer’s event will contribute to the cause, as well as being a great occasion.
The Sir Jackie Stewart Classic presented by Rolex takes place in the heart of the Scottish Borders, south of Edinburgh. Further details on the festival can be found at sirjackiestewartclassic.com, and you can read a full interview with Sir Jackie on RAD and the event at classicandsportscar.com