Bentley Drivers Club Turned Sixty

Sixty years ago, the first Bentley Drivers Club race meeting was held at Silverstone, so the club members took the opportunity to properly celebrate this anniversary on the weekend of August 8 and 9.

“This was surely one of the biggest gatherings of Bentleys of all ages you could ever hope to see – and so many of the cars are historically famous,” said Sebastian Welch, Competitions Captain of the BDC.

“Our aim was to celebrate 60 years of BDC racing at Silverstone with two days of ‘proper’ club racing, from highly competitive dicing on track to a non-stop slideshow of archive pictures in the pit garage and family picnics on the grass at Copse. Racers and spectators responded with enthusiasm, as shown by the record turnout of 180 cars in the Bentley parade – where any BDC member who turns up in a Bentley, new or old, can drive three laps of the circuit.”

Over the two days, Bentleys and other prestigious brands took part at 18 races, highlighted by modern Bentleys racing much older machinery in both the Bentley Handicap and Bentley Scratch races, the latter being won by a 1949 MkVI Special.

However, racing was not the only attraction of the event, as it also included track demonstrations of the 933 Napier-Railton, John Cobb’s 24-litre Brooklands and of the 2003 Le Mans-winning Bentley Speed 8. Moreover, off-track displays of Bentley race cars included past past Le Mans winners, Brooklands cars, and Bentleys that have raced at BDC events throughout the past 60 years.

“Those who recall the first BDC race meeting back in 1949, when the main straight was the Lancaster runway and the pits were made from straw bales, tell us that things are very different today. Nevertheless, we hope we lived up to the spirit and tradition of this great annual event,” added Welch.