National novelties: 1993 European GP celebration and Bentley Blower continuation

Celebrating the 1993 European GP: Donington Historic Festival

Daily Formula 1 demonstrations at last weekend’s Donington Historic Festival turned the clocks back 30 years to the 1993 European Grand Prix.

Enthusiasts appreciated Steve Ottavianelli giving his ex-Michael Schumacher Benetton-Ford B193 plenty of welly.

One of Alain Prost’s 1993 championship-winning Williams-Renault FW15s was also on static display alongside an ex-Ayrton Senna McLaren MP4/7, while Alastair Davidson demonstrated his ex-Senna Toleman-Hart TG184.

Blower Bentley on track: Continuation car's debut

The Bentley recreation is now destined for Le Mans

Photo by: Mick Walker

The first of 12 Bentley ‘Blower’ Continuation Series cars finished 16th on its competition debut – following a six-hour high-speed shakedown test at Goodwood – at last weekend's Donington Historic Festival.

Stuart Morley raced the car in Motor Racing Legends’ annual Mad Jack race, named for 1935 Donington Grand Prix winner Richard Shuttleworth.

Magnificently remastered from works car number 2, it recreates the mighty 4 1/2-litre supercharged models that contested the 1929 Le Mans 24 Hours and finished second in the 1930 French GP at Pau.

‘Car Zero’ is now due to compete at June’s Le Mans centenary – 20 years after the marque’s sixth victory in the legendary enduro.

A Galaxie not so far away: Moore's Ford debut

Moore debuted his Ford Galaxie at Donington Park

Photo by: Mick Walker

Local Austin 7-to-AC Cobra pedaller Matt Moore drove his Ford Galaxie 500 to Donington for its race debut in the Jack Sears Trophy, finishing 23rd.

Rescued from a US scrapyard for $3000 13 years ago, Moore left the machine dormant for seven years.

“The chassis was OK, but I changed the body,” said the Land Rover specialist, who has liveried it per the Holman & Moody car raced by ‘Fireball’ Roberts in NASCAR in 1963/4.

Shaken down recently at Goodwood, British Touring Car racer Jake Hill also had a run at Silverstone last week for an Autosport track test.

Past BTCC stars in action: 116 Trophy and 120 Coupe Cup

Soper took a win as the new 120 Coupe Cup series began at Silverstone

Photo by: Steve Jones

There was a 1990s British Touring Car Championship reunion of sorts at the 750 Motor Club’s Silverstone meeting last weekend, with Matt Neal and Steve Soper joining 116 Trophy regular Tim Harvey on track.

Soper was victorious in the second round of the new 120 Coupe Cup, which runs alongside the 116 Sprint Trophy, while Harvey was second in the 116 Trophy enduro in a car entered with Richard Lakey. Neal, sharing with Richard Phillips, was 17th.

Soper was initially only at the event to provide some coaching and technical support to a former business associate. “It didn’t really take much persuasion, but I didn’t come to do it,” he said.

Soper also joked that there was another reason for all three tin-top stars being in attendance: “We wanted to make people think that someone was paying us £20,000 each to race, so John Cleland will come down and race next time!”

For Neal, the 90-minute 116 Trophy outing was all about having fun and he enjoyed competing against his son Henry, who shared a car with Sam Holman and finished 25th.

Pics of the week: