The three-day Historic Gold Cup meeting was held over the weekend of the 28th to 30th of July, with the usual mixture of “English Weather” given this, there was a decent-sized crowd of spectators, who were treated to off-track spectacles as well as a good series of sixteen races for a variety of machinery. Including single-seaters, comprising Formula 3, Formula Junior, Touring (sedan) Cars, Sports Cars, Grand Prix Cars and Vintage Sports Cars Club Cars, a bit of something for everyone.
There was the usual Classic Car Show which was well attended, although entries were perhaps down on previous years; speaking with some of the entrants I formed the opinion that this was down to economics. The general economic situation has affected all levels of motorsport in the UK since the covid pandemic and things will take time to recover.
The Cheshire Concours d’Esprit was, as usual, excellent, with over 60 cars selected. Rather than the Concours d’Etat which we are more used to where everything is restored and polished within an inch of its life, this Concours is more relaxed and tends to be for cars which are used on the road, or track regularly. Of course there were also some very well prepared cars but I believe they all arrived and left under their own steam and there were no “trailer queens”! It makes a refreshing change to see cars which have lived a life, which isn’t to say there were some old crocks; there certainly were not and every car deserved to be there. This is where the “esprit” or spirit, come in.
The Gold Cup has been held on the attractive Oulton parkland circuit in Cheshire since 1954, just a year after the circuit opened. It is a race with massive history; sometimes in earlier years being run as a non-championship race for Formula 1 teams and drivers, Formula 5000 or top line Sports-Racing cars. Of course back then the cars were the very latest models; since the Gold Cup race was revived, after a short lapse, it has run as a Historic event and the categories of cars involved has changed from year to year.
With regard to history I can do no better than point you to Wiki which, in this case, is an excellent resource, covering in depth all the twists and turns, classes and categories which have been involved over the years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oulton_Park_International_Gold_Cup
This year the organising Club- the Historic Sports Car Club (which deals with cars from after WW2) invited the Vintage Sports Car Club (cars before WW2) to put on two races; these attracted capacity grids, mainly because the VSCC is not hosting their own meeting at Oulton Park this year and it’s a tremendously popular circuit with their members. Forgive me if the cars in the gallery show my slight bias towards the older machines!
In the UK there seems to be an ever increasing interest in classic Touring Cars (Sedans) from the 1960s to 2000, in their various guises; back in the day the categories were split basically between showroom/stock cars, usually with minimal modifications allowed to brakes and suspension, and to all-out “Special Saloons” which were much more modified in every respect other than the engine should be at the same end of the original car! Some were to a sort of silhouette formula where, if it looked roughly the same when viewed from the side, then it would do. Maybe I exaggerate slightly but you get the idea. Anyway, it seems that more of the old cars are being dragged out of barns and sheds each year and brought back into racing use for a much younger audience, who really seem to appreciate the type of cars that their fathers might have watched in their youth. Then, of course there are lots of old farts like myself who watched them back then and never got over it!
The photos in the gallery hopefully represent much of what went on, although I seem to have missed an entire race because I got into a conversation with former racer Doug Niven, who was the cousin of multiple F1 World Champion Jim Clark. It was fascinating to listen to Doug, lots of stories from both their careers. Doug was present, with other members from the Jim Clark Museum, located at Duns in Scotland, who were celebrating Jim winning the Gold Cup 60 years ago and they had brought along a couple of Jim’s cars from their collection. It so happens that my sister lives in Duns, so I’ve watched this little museum grow each time I visit and it really is a fabulous place to seek out if you can fit in in. I think every time I’ve been there has been someone either from the USA, Canada or Australia touring around racing their family roots and taking the opportunity to check out the Word Champion’s trophies, etc. In the place where he was a sheep farmer, when he was racing.
Here is a link to the full results and timings from the three days: https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/223056
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Next stop: VSCC Mallory Park race meeting, 26th August.
Oulton Park Gold Cup 2023 Gallery
