The man who’s set out to make a real difference in historic motorsport

The world of historic racing has undergone some sizeable changes in recent years. Several organisers have changed hands, new categories have been created and, as time continues to march on, there has been an increasing shift to find homes for ever more modern machinery.

Yet some familiar problems remain. Take the age-old issue of eligibility or concerns about rising costs.

But Shaun Lynn has not been afraid of tackling those major topics head on since he took the helm of Motor Racing Legends around a year ago. A prolific historics racer – he has competed in everything from a Lotus Cortina to a Bentley Speed 8 – Lynn has not shied away from the big problems and has been determined to make a difference right from day one.

“One of the driving forces is eligibility – it’s a real concern,” offers Lynn when asked about why he wanted to take on an organisational role.

“A lot of my friends, and myself, were coming away on a Sunday and there was too much chatter about ‘his car wasn’t legal’, ‘this is wrong’, ‘that was wrong’, ‘that engine’s not legal’, ‘that shock absorber’, ‘that rollbar’.

“There was always something that someone was focused on instead of, ‘I had a great time, I enjoyed it, my family enjoyed it, I had a great dice with somebody’ and that’s how it used to be.

“But you can’t wind the clock back completely, I understand that, but I wanted to make a difference and work towards a fairer playground for everybody. So, when I retired from the city after my wife passed away six years ago, one of the things I wanted to do was to try to make a difference within classic racing.

“The opportunity came along when I started speaking to Duncan [Wiltshire, previous MRL chief] because he had just been appointed the new chairman of the RAC and it was the perfect meeting point. I wanted to make a difference and he was looking to potentially move on.”

Existing MRL categories have been supplemented with fresh ideas by Lynn

Photo by: Steve Jones

Lynn immediately began to address his concerns about eligibility. From an MRL perspective, he hired more scrutineers, but this is a subject that stretches far beyond one individual historic racing organiser.

Instead, Lynn started talking to the ‘competition’, and met with fellow club bosses and event administrators to come up with a strategy that would benefit them all.

“The truth is classic racing used to be the cheaper way of doing racing but it no longer is,” he explains. “This drive to be the fastest, the quickest has I think really hurt the industry.

“And the market has become event-driven where people don’t look towards a championship, people don’t look towards going to some of the smaller circuits. Because everything is so expensive, they look to just do the big events: Goodwood, Le Mans Classic, Monaco.

“As much as it’s a sport, it’s also a business and what we try to do is work with the preparers to come up with a happy medium with regards to each car” Shaun Lynn

“I reached out to Peter Auto, to Goodwood, to Masters and we all have come together and started speaking about this situation and we’ve agreed that we will work together around the eligibility of each car – whether it’s an E-type, a Cobra, a GT40, whatever it may be – where a specification [is developed] that can run with all of us.

“Now, we’ve all accepted you can’t put the genie back in the bottle in regard to making an engine unengineered. But what we can try to do is control it with potential rev limits, because most engines in classic racing now are making 25% more horsepower than they made in period, which means everything else in the drivetrain has got to accept that – gearbox, driveshafts, differentials – so everything’s needed upgrading.

“As much as it’s a sport, it’s also a business and what we try to do is work with the preparers to come up with a happy medium with regards to each car.

“It will not be an overnight job, it’s going take a few years to get this right, but hopefully we can get classic racing into a position where there is a more equal playing field where people want to come out every month rather than once or twice a year because it’s so expensive.”

GT3 Legends has been an instant hit and longer races are now planned

Photo by: Steve Jones

Lynn has witnessed first-hand how fickle the market can be with some events attracting large grids and others really struggling. He made the decision to cancel MRL's recent planned visit to Snetterton amid a lack of interest, a clear sign of how tough things currently are.

Having an eclectic mix of historic machines means Lynn has first-hand experience of the “crazy” development race that is continually pushing up costs. “I bought a gear for one of my cars and it was a modern prototype and it was £700, but the gear for my GT40 was £2500,” he cites as one example.

“I know that’s a generalism but it’s crazy and the GT40 gearbox cannot do anything like the amount of hours the modern prototype can. I said this is madness, no matter how much money you’ve got, people can’t afford to do this.

“We’ve got to be careful not to drive everybody to the golf course. People will look at their bill and talk to their wife or husband and say I can’t warrant spending that amount of money.”

In a bid to stop competitors picking up their clubs and heading to the putting greens, Lynn has also instigated a revamp of MRL’s portfolio.

He has sought to reinvigorate the organiser by tweaking some of its existing series and adding new categories such as GT3 Legends, which caters for GT3 machines homologated between 2006 and 2012. After a successful pilot race last year, 24 cars were on the grid at May’s Donington Historic Festival and it has clearly struck a chord.

“People are really excited about it,” says Lynn, who explains the initial idea came from former Goodwood figure Jarrah Venables. After discussions with GT3 creator Stephane Ratel, the original SRO scrutineer Jacques Berger has come on board.

“No one can get anything past him because he was the guy that wrote the rules!” notes Lynn, who has ambitions of hosting a three-hour GT3 race in the future.

Lynn acknowledges other organisers will follow the GT3 path – Peter Auto has recently announced a similar series – but there is a huge supply of these cars that had previously been mothballed and can now be unleashed on the track once more.

Under 2-Litre Touring Cars is back to having standalone grids again

Photo by: Steve Jones

“I always think that if anybody collects race cars, they shouldn’t just put them in a museum or hide them away, they should get them on track because they’re race cars and that’s what they were built for, so it’s lovely that these cars are getting back out on track,” reckons prolific historics racer Nigel Greensall, who is set to join the grid later this year and has already helped coach some of the GT3 newbies.

“It’s a generational thing as well. If you think back 15 or 20 years and the folk that were watching those cars or aspiring to those cars, it’s that generation now that are coming into the sport and are thinking about what cars excited them and what cars make them think about going racing. GT3 appeals to so many people because it’s such a broad range of different manufacturers.”

Julian Thomas was among the historic regulars taking part at Donington after buying an Audi R8. “When you’re sat on the grid and there’s Ferraris and Lamborghinis around you, it’s great,” he says, even if technical troubles blighted his weekend.

Alongside those Italian stalwarts, there was also a rather rarer Ford GT among the Donington line-up, which made for an intriguing mix.

“Unfortunately, those cars have been the victim of over-development and, if you weren’t investing a huge amount of money, you were going to slip back very quickly” Shaun Lynn

Another new series being instigated by Lynn is the Generations Trophy, which will team parents and their children in a field of MGBs designed to be an accessible entry point. It will feature an innovative handicap system that takes into account the cumulative ages of each driver pairing - for example, those with a combined age of over 100 will have to spend two minutes in the pits during the mandatory stop, in contrast to an extra 45 seconds for pairings with a total age of 60 or below.

But the focus has not just been on new ideas; existing categories have also been given a revamp, with Lynn bringing in former Peter Auto head of competition Pierre-Antoine Lecoutour to oversee MRL’s new era.

The world of historic tin-tops is one example. The combined Historic Touring Car and Under 2-Litre Touring Cars grid at last year’s Donington Historic was just 13, with only two U2TC entries. This year HTCC was at 20 and the standalone U2TC contests attracted 15.

“I loved U2TC back in the day,” says Lynn. “Unfortunately, those cars have been the victim of over-development and, if you weren’t investing a huge amount of money, you were going to slip back very quickly. Also they’re not easy to drive, but they’re great fun, so we wanted to reignite U2TC and take it out of the Touring Car grid.”

Demonstrations from expensive or unusual cars are part of the plan

Photo by: Steve Jones

There has been a focus on improving the paddock atmosphere too, and giving the events greater promotion. Lynn has sought to “take away some of the clutter of the paddock” by introducing marquees in which all the cars from each MRL series are grouped together, helping to build camaraderie between rivals.

“I’ve not seen as many people at a Donington Historic Festival for about six or seven years,” points out historic racing stalwart Chris Ward, who praised the introduction of a lunchtime pitlane walkabout that proved popular. “We need to engage the public because you never know – there could be the next GT driver among them.”

Another crowd-pleaser in Leicestershire was the demonstration of two V10-powered Formula 1 machines, including a Williams Heritage-operated FW22 that was driven by six-time Indy 500 starter James Davison. And Lynn says more of these demonstrations are planned.

“If you’ve got a car that’s historically important but you don’t want to race it, you can take it out,” he says. “I’ve got a couple of trailer-queen cars that I’ve never taken to a track to race in anger, but would love to just do a few laps in them and enjoy them.”

The focus for Lynn is not just on MRL, however. Earlier this year he added a second organiser to his portfolio when he bought the Historic Racing Drivers Club. Its founder Julius Thurgood remains in charge but, considering both appear at many of the same events, having shared ownership brings many benefits.

“The big thing for me was, because of Julius’s enthusiasm and his attitude, it was so welcoming and that’s what we need,” enthuses Lynn, who has long admired Thurgood’s way of managing series.

“Especially because he comes in at a different price point to Motor Racing Legends, a very different offering, no real frills but you get good racing, you get cheap racing on a good weekend with MRL. It’s a good fit and a good marriage.”

Helping to provide financial stability for the HRDC is yet another way in which Lynn is trying to make a difference in historic motorsport. It may not all have been plain sailing but, judging by his first year or so as a club chairman, it’s abundantly clear that he is determined to act upon his words. And historic racing should be all the better for it.

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the August 2025 issue and subscribe today.

The HRDC has also now been acquired by Lynn but has a different offering

Photo by: Richard Styles