I attended The Silverstone Classic Media Day and took a few journalists for a ride round the GP track Graham Dalley being one below is his report. Click Here for full report A personal highlight, one of many to be fair, was the chance to do a couple of laps of the Grand Prix circuit as a passenger. Last year Rick Parfitt Jr entertained me with a very sideways Morgan, this year I was privileged to be strapped into a full on Group A Sierra RS500 touring car. My driver was racer and entrepreneur Craig Davies the owner of said machine. The car is the Ex Chris Hodgetts Brooklyn Motorsport RS500 which was campaigned during the 1989 season. The car was stored for over twenty years before Craig brought it. As a result it is a very original bit of kit, essentially as it was when Hodgetts last drove it, with just a nod to modern safety standards and an engine ‘freshen up’ by X Sports Racing engine genius Tommy Field. Craig clearly wasn’t holding back, as we left the pits he was on it immediately flinging the car into the new loop and out on to the Wellington straight. The car’s acceleration is stellar as are the brakes, we undertook another car at brooklands corner as the car drifted out to the curb before effortlessly changing direction for Luffield and on through Woodcote past the old F1 pits, braking hard for copse we over took another couple of cars, then through the complex at Maggots, Becketts and Chapel, clipping the curbs at every turn and overtaking yet another car, then on to the Hanger straight and the car was planted as was Craig’s right foot! Stowe was on us in the blink of an eye along with another rapid deceleration and dropping through the box. The Vale was just a quick squirt before the awesome club corner and past the Wing, barely lifting for Village and Priory and back onto the loop and another lap. As we sped past several other cars it seemed that in the snap of a finger we were charging down the hanger straight again with the Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera Editzione Technica in our sights. However it wasn’t to be, as we braked for Stowe alongside the Lambo, Chris backed off tapping to the temperature gauge, the needle was way over to the right and the car had gone into ‘safe’ mode as a result, so no boost. We trundled up the pit lane straight into the garage, where Craig said to me “we could have had that lambo easy, maybe next time!”. Craig thank you mate, for two laps of Silverstone I’ll never forget.
