Empire theme at two-day spectacular

The Vintage Sports Car Club will celebrate the British Empire in a two day racing festival at Donington Park next June. Not only will the event recall the prestigious British Empire Trophy races which ran at Donington before WWII, it will also celebrate the achievements of major British car manufacturers in motorsport.

“Coming a week after the Queen’s golden jubilee, it will be a very British event,” said a VSCC spokesperson. “This year’s event with Audi worked extremely well and we are working to attract major British manufacturers.”

Running over the weekend of June 8/9, the event will feature the traditional Richard Seaman Trophy races, with a significant pre-war element. But other races during the two days will cover the post-war years and a race for the Group C Revival cars will bring the story through to the 1980’s and early ’90s.

“We would like to run displays about British Grand Prix and Le Mans achievement. This year’s event was a huge success and this is very much the flagship event in the VSCC calendar. We are in discussion with manufacturers like Bentley and Jaguar.” The VSCC event is set to run the weekend before the classic Le Mans 24-hour race.

Other races expected to form part of the programme are a pre-war sportscar race and an endurance race for the Gentlemen Drivers’ Club.

As in the 2001 event, it is hoped that track demonstrations of cars spanning many decades will be a central part of the weekend.