EVENT: WALTER HAYES TROPHY, SILVERSTONE WHEN: NOVEMBER 2-3
The Walter Hayes Trophy is an event that really shouldn’t thrive, and yet year after year it delivers topdrawer motorsport action at its finest. What’s not to love about wheel-to-wheel Formula Ford cars on a layout which brings out the most in the competitive action.
The Silverstone event, which will host its 24th edition this season, has become a staple in the calendar and, in union with the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, can be credited with keeping Formula Ford 1600 racing relevant to the up-and-coming drivers as much as it is to the stalwarts. Without the Walter Hayes Trophy, who knows where the Kentengined class might be now? There is still a strong industry surrounding
Formula Ford and new thinking is being applied to the hardware every season.
The joy of the event is, firstly, in the action it serves up, and it is precisely that mix of old hands and rising stars which makes is the perfect blend. The former event winners and category experts are the established pacemakers, the known quantities, and to see the best of the next generation going wheel-to-wheel with the best in the business gives the fans a pretty good gauge of who has the talent to progress.
Then there is the jeopardy of the format. The heats, semis and finals, while underpinned with a Last Chance and Progression race, mean that any slipup in the formative stages of the event can be heavily punished. It means the competitors have to think with their heads as much as they do with their right foot.
Then there is the atmosphere. The meeting generally attracts those who simply love motorsport. There are no frills (although it might be advisable to wear some at an always chilly Silverstone in November). It is grassroots competition driven by dedicated enthusiasts and competitors. They all share the National pits garages which engenders a sense of camaraderie and it is a place where friendships can be formed. Spectators are not shoo-ed out of the action either and everything is open. MJ ■
‘It is old hands up against rising stars’
Motorsport News