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The 77th St John Horsfall lived up to its reputation with 20 Pre-war Astons on the grid, with Members coming from Austria, France, America, Netherlands and the UK to compete. Most competitors took advantage on the scrutineering on Friday afternoon, some having driven in the track day that afternoon. In the evening, the Bentley Drivers Club hosted a Hog Roast in the BDC Suite, which was attended by the bulk of the Aston drivers, plus their families and friends.

Qualification was bright and early on Saturday morning with all 20 cars qualifying for the race in the afternoon. Click here to see a video of the cars as they left the assembly area: Leaving the Assembly area



However, Green Pea, the 1922 Grand Prix car, driven by Jake Murray, had an issue with its distributor which required the attention of his Father, Rob Murray and Grandfather, Neil Murray, who despite replacing the 4 bolts that hold the distributor on, then gave way again on lap 7 of the actual race! 



In the race, there were battles throughout the field.


There was an epic battle between Alan Middleton in Red Dragon and David Freeman in The Spa Special, who having swapped places throughout the 15 minutes, battled right up to the line. David ultimately took the chequered flag 0.854 seconds ahead of Alan and 2.322 ahead of Robert Blakemore in 3rd. 

The winners on the Podium, with John Purser (Vice President) who presented the Pommery Champagne.



Some of the drivers in the Horsfall race, with the Horsfall Trophy.

Congratulations also go to Richard Lake who successfully defended the Horsfall Trophy to win the Handicap race. 



The star of the day though was Jake Murray - who, in his first ever race, steered Green Pea (TT1) around the Silverstone National Track with aplomb, and I am sure had he not had mechanical problems, would have challenged Richard Lake for the Horsfall Trophy.

In addition to the St John Horsfall Trophy Race there was also the BDC Scratch and Pre-War Race over 10 laps of the National Circuit, with no fewer than 13 Pre-war Astons entered, alongside 9 Bentleys, a Talbot and a Riley. Unfortunately, 3 Astons didn’t make it to the start due to the rigours of the earlier race and Alan Middleton, in Red Dragon, retired part way through the race. That meant that 9 Astons successfully completed the 10 laps, with Simon Boreham coming 5th, William Lake 6th and Richard Brawn 8th, all in Speed Models. Russell Bust was 10th, Marc Fischer 11th, Thomas Ozanne 12th Neil Walker 13th, John-Henry Rogers 15th and Chloe Mason 16th.

There were supposed to be 4 Team Cars racing but unfortunately, Stephen Archer had to withdraw at the last minute, which left Marc Fischer in LM8, Holly Mason in LM17 and Chloe Mason in LM18. Simon Halls, the official Pre-war Aston Martin Photographer, arranged for the 3 cars to be positioned in the pit lane during the lunch break and took the photo below. 



A big thank you goes to the Bentley Drivers Club and our continued association with them, for what was the 4th year running of our flagship competition event. It was a fantastic day with a lovely atmosphere and to see 20 Pre-war Astons forming up on the grid at Silverstone in a single marque race is something very special. Thanks also go to all the competitors, whom without their support none of this would be possible and finally to David Freeman, who works tirelessly behind the scenes to make it all happen.

In addition to the Horsfall Race, there were two Aston Martins in the 1950's Fiscar race. Father and Son, Peter and Guy Baker and Mark Campbell, both in DB2 models, who came 19th and 21st respectively in this exciting race.