F1 champion Hawthorn and owner Walker to be celebrated with parades

The 60th anniversary of Hawthorn's Formula 1 world championship victory will be marked by a parade of race cars through his home town of Farnham in Surrey on Sunday October 14.

A week later, renowned team owner Walker will be honoured by a parade of his former cars around his home town of nearby Dorking.

In Farnham, cars representing Hawthorn's racing career will run on a circuit of the town centre, running on the closest weekend to Hawthorn clinching the title in Casablanca in 1958.

A similar celebration in January 2009 marked the 50th anniversary of Hawthorn's death in a road accident, just two months after he retired from racing.

"We plan to run cars in batches around a town centre figure of eight circuit to give spectators the chance to see, hear and smell some serious machinery," said lead organiser Michael Ballard.

The following Sunday, as many as nine historic Rob Walker Racing cars will parade around Dorking town centre from 10am until 4pm.

All of the cars taking part will have a personal or historic racing link to Walker's team, which was based in nearby Pippbrook in the 1950s and '60s.

The Rob Walker Racing Team was founded in 1953 and entered grand prix cars right through until '70, notably for Stirling Moss and Jo Siffert.

Moss won seven times in F1 for the team, notably with Coopers and Lotuses, while Siffert's Lotus 49 victory at Brands Hatch in 1968 was the team's final major success.

Walker was easily the most successful private entrant in the history of F1.

Dorking Museum will host an exhibition, 'Rob Walker and Dorking's Place in Motor Racing History', which will be officially opened by Rob's son, Robbie Walker. Visitors and residents are being encouraged to wear white and blue, the signature colours of the privateer team's cars.