New series lands Silverstone Classic's twilight race slot for 2018

For the 2018 event, held across July 20-22, sports-prototypes and GT cars from as recently as 2011 will take the prime race slot previously allocated to the Group C cars of the 1980s.

Now, the most recent cars to feature in a significant race at the event will run into the dusk in an evocation of the Le Mans 24 Hours between 1995 and 2011.

Three headline races with a Le Mans flavour will dominate Saturday afternoon and evening, starting with the International Trophy for pre-1966 GT cars and the FIA Masters Historic Sports Car Championship round.

Then, towards dusk, the Endurance Legends series will make its Silverstone debut as the series builds on a successful pilot race at Spa last month.

"It's a really exciting new addition, providing a new dimension and new era, thus further broadening what we celebrate at the Classic," said event promoter Nick Wigley.

"The LMP cars look absolutely phenomenal and are very different to everything else we have on track."

The change comes after a disappointing Group C turn-out this summer, when only 13 cars arrived at Silverstone.

A clashing fixture at the Le Mans Classic, two weeks earlier, meant that the Group C cars were never likely to be racing at Silverstone in 2018.

The fledging Endurance Legends series had an encouraging 21-car field of LMP prototypes and GT cars at Spa (pictured below) and the Silverstone race is the first 2018 date to be confirmed.

Nicolas Minassian is a director of the series and was reunited with a 2011 Peugeot 908 LMP1 turbodiesel in the Spa race.

Another major feature of the Silverstone Classic will be a celebration of 70 years since Silverstone's first British Grand Prix held on October 2 1948.

That first race, before the creation of the World Championship, was won by the Maserati 4CLT of Luigi Villoresi.