Three of the seven champions on this year’s huge Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship grid will enter into the nostalgia-fueled Silverstone Classic event on 25-27 July, including Colin Turkington, Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden.
2009 BTCC champion and current points leader, Turkington, will get behind the wheel of an almighty BMW CSL – nicknamed the ‘Batmobile’ – in the Super Touring event that alongside 2004 Le Mans Endurance Series LMP2 champion, Sam Hancock.
“I’m looking forward to it; it will be my first experience of this form of racing and great when I can get behind the wheel of another BMW”, Turkington told The Checkered Flag.
“It’s helpful just to get my hand into racing again just before Snetterton”, added Turkington, who is expecting a lot of oversteer-induced entertainment from the famous 1975 BMW ‘Art Car’, which will carry the livery by US artist, Alexander Calder.
“I’m expecting plenty of oversteer! Hopefully I’ll get a run in the car before qualifying so I don’t quite know what to expect yet.”
Honda’s championship-winning pair of Neal and Shedden meanwhile will share the seat of a Lotus Cortina in the Under 2-Litre Touring Cars event on the Saturday morning of the meeting as a two-driver pairing.
Photo Credit: Silverstone Classic
It is also fitting that 2012 champion Shedden will drive a car that exactly 50 years ago, fellow Scot and former multiple Formula 1 champion Jim Clark took the same BTCC crown racing a similar Lotus Cortina.
Shedden said: “In historic racing, you can just go out there and have some fun, which is what I’m looking forward to the most. The Silverstone Classic looks like being a fantastic event, and I truly can’t wait!”
Another former BTCC title-winner will be back behind the wheel at the Silverstone Classic in 1992 champion, Tim Harvey. The former Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain champion and 1992 BTCC winner may spend his time behind the microphone for ITV’s BTCC coverage, but he will take the wheel of a Ford GT40 at the home of British motorsport.
Meanwhile, GT racer Jason Minshaw is expected to enter a 1988 Demon Tweeks-liveried BMW M3 E30, raced formerly by the late Roland Ratzenberger.
COMPETITION: WIN an exclusive £10,000 makeover for your car and a hot lap with Colin Turkington with eBay Motors. Simply register your vehicle at www.ebay.co.uk/motors/garage.com
