An event worth skipping a grand prix for

For 25 years now Silverstone has hosted a summer historic-racing extravaganza, built solidly around competition but with a strong car-club community focus. Like Germany's AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix that predates it having been inaugurated in 1973 - August 7-9's edition is the 43rd - the event at the "Home of British Motorsport" has metamorphosed through different titles.

It began as the Christie's Historic Festival then evolved via the British Racing Drivers' Club and Motion Works-organised showpieces before selling out to competitor Nick Wigley's Goose Communications organisation and relaunching boldly under the Silverstone Classic banner in 2010.

As with the 'Ring's showpiece, born from the shared old-car passions of collector barons Kurt von Hammerstein and Maserati buff Hubertus Graf von Doenhoff as the amorphously-titled Nurburgring Big Show, Great Britain's equivalent was originally the brainchild of two enthusiasts.

Competitor Stuart Graham - the only man to win Tourist Trophy titles on four wheels as well as two - and the late Mervyn Garton pulled the inaugural offering together, to considerable acclaim, in July 1990. Since then it has grown beyond recognition, initially through investment by the BRDC and its global brand sponsors and in recent times with the specialist focus of Wigley's marketing team (through its Goose Live Events arm) and its household name partners.

Big-buck corporate spends by the likes of Chrysler were slashed by the recession, or transferred elsewhere by new executives. Thinking outside the box in a brave new world has seen replacements courted, however, and progressive companies are not only getting good value but also gaining traction in the marketplace from their involvement at a fraction of the cost of a sticker on an Formula 1 wing endplate or a patch on a Friday driver's racesuit.

Historic F1 cars in the flesh or a 2015 race on TV? No contest... © Ebrey

Billed as the World's Biggest Historic Motor Racing Festival, this year's sixth Silverstone Classic not only had noticeably more oomph behind it but was also more slickly organised on all fronts, despite the worst weather in its history.

Operating cars spanning 14 grids and 20 races from Heritage and Wing pit complexes at opposite ends of the massive campus is a logistical nightmare. It was handled professionally by the HSCC's small team and a few friends, but lessons have been learned and past criticisms - particularly over competitor motorhome parking and inter-paddock transport - have been addressed by the promoters.

Add Modern Formula 1 and '90s GT Legends demo classes to the programme, plus the location of thousands of classic cars representing dozens of marque clubs, a huge trade village containing treasures galore, spectacular air displays, sideshows, quality food outlets and the concert stage - on which Status Quo topped this year's Saturday-night bill - and laymen can only imagine the magnitude of effort galvanised to put it on.

Although there are obvious similarities on the surface, and a strong crossover of groups from the Pre-1966 era, as a pure racing festival the Silverstone Classic is a very different animal to the Goodwood Revival, run annually since '98.

Whereas the latter is high theatre, set against a period backdrop of a challenging and unforgiving high-speed circuit whose undulating and expansive airfield roots are still evident, this is arguably about purer racing.

Silverstone's wartime underpinnings are pretty well hidden these days, and traditional spectator views across Britain's Formula 1 venue that I enjoyed while watching Jim Clark win the '67 GP are sadly all-but gone.

Having said that, while the recent infield deviations are not a patch on the old flat-out Abbey corner from a driver's perspective, the 3.63-mile Historic Grand Prix circuit (with eased approach to Club corner) compresses large fields and generates fantastic racing - most skilfully captured by HayFisher's cameramen for big-screen broadcast around the site.

Rain didn't deter the drivers or the most dedicated fans of historics © Ebrey

But there is no substitute for watching old racing cars live, particularly in the company of petrolhead friends, and there is no doubt that the Rocking and Racing push makes the Silverstone event special.

Record advance bookings indicated that this year's Silverstone Classic attendance would surpass the 100,000 milestone for the first time. While 14mm of rainfall on Friday's qualifying day alone did its damnedest to blunt the hardiest resolve, the central showground area and paddocks were packed with people on Saturday - traditionally the most popular day.

As I left the track at gone 2200, reflecting on memories of a 14-hour working day en route to my comfortable Snoozebox cabin on the campsite, many thousands of revellers from an unprecedented one-day throng packed the amphitheatre beside the Wellington Straight bridge and were enjoying the music on what had become a fine summer's evening. On Sunday, maddeningly, the precipitation returned with a vengeance.

September Goodwood, by virtue of being marketed as a premium event (one of just three per season there, as opposed to Silverstone's packed calendar centred on the Grand Prix, also generally in July) with a formal dress code lifestyle buzz and unique atmosphere, still attracts more folk.

Indeed, its attendance is deliberately capped to around 120,000 over three days for comfort, access and egress. Whether or not the Silverstone Classic broke the magic 100,000 barrier this year, it already far outstrips the Nurburgring Oldtimer GP's quoted figures of 60,000 for the same duration in mid-August, although countless others also sit out in the forests for the annual Nordschleife Marathon.

The Classic is becoming almost as popular as the Goodwood Revival © LAT

Where does the event now sit among single-venue racing events, from which I deliberately discount the spectacularly successful Goodwood Festival of Speed, introduced by Lord March in 1993 and now a 'world heritage' motorsport-themed garden party?

In terms of public awareness and attendance I'd rank the Silverstone Classic comfortably third, behind the British GP and Goodwood Revival, and making up ground towards the latter, with the bonus of campus capacity to expand further. Centrally located in 'Motorsport Valley,' Silverstone is in the perfect catchment area for population demographics.

With so much choice for weekend leisure spends, but everyday working people having to allocate a greater proportion of their monthly stipends to mortgages and life's basics, I sense a widening divergence in seasonal habits.

Whereas the Grand Prix was traditionally a 'must do' for racing families, booked the day tickets went on sale, car connoisseurs are now attending Goodwood's wonderful spring Members' Meeting, the Silverstone Classic and the Revival in preference, to savour great machinery and see fantastic racing at close quarters. F1 die-hards still attend the GP, but presage it with the Festival of Speed with the hope of shaking hands with their heroes or getting a selfie.

For that reason alone I feel that the positioning of the Classic on the same weekend as the Hungarian GP affected the gate not one iota. Those who adore seeing hundreds of priceless cars from the 1920s to the '90s raced hard and well were there at trackside and may have primed their video recorders to capture the latest instalment of Lewis Hamilton's third World Championship quest.

Unlike Goodwood's meetings where a few F1 folk like to join the fun, having facilities in situ at Silverstone two or three weeks after the British GP essentially cements the historic event's slot on an international historic calendar now bursting at the seams.

Having contested four Silverstone Classics (in an ex-John Surtees Lola-Climax Mk4, a Chevron B6 and Formula 5000 Trojan T101 and Lola T330), I was certainly where I wanted to be, among friends, wowed anew by sublime driving skills - and blissfully oblivious of the minutiaie of F1 happenings at the Hungaroring.

Roll on July 2016 and the next Silverstone Classic.