Capacity field expected for 2008 Autosport 3-Hour race

The Historic Sports Car Club is expecting a capacity field of over 40 cars for the second running of the revived Autosport 3-Hour race at Snetterton on Saturday 31 May.

Regulations have just been issued for the longest classic race in Britain, which is open to competitors from the Guards Trophy GT and Sports Racing series. It is open to GT and sports-racing cars built before 1966 and with an international sporting pedigree from period, with an invitation class for pre '69 sports-racing, GT and sports-prototypes.

The Autosport 3-Hours is the longest race of its type in Britain in 2008 and is already attracting major interest from competitors in the UK and from across Europe. To cope with expected demand for entries, the HSCC has arranged an increase in grid size to allow more than 40 cars to start the race.

"Because of the three-hour duration we had the chance to slightly increase the grid and we are expecting a full entry," said Grahame White, chief executive of the HSCC. "We've had some really strong interest from competitors in Europe as well." The race is open to solo drivers as well as two-driver crews, with solo drivers needing to make mandatory pit-stops.

The Autosport 3-Hour race was run at Snetterton between 1957 and 1964 and was contested by many of Britain's top drivers of the era. Jim Clark won the race twice for Lotus, once in an Elite and once in a 23B, and examples of both models are due on the grid in May.

The HSCC successfully revived the race in 2007 when the Chevron B6 of Michael Schryver and Simon Hadfield scored a fine victory in an event that drew universal praise from competitors.

Previous winners of the Autosport 3-Hours are:

1957 Ken Rudd (AC Ace)

1958 John Lowry (Lotus Elite)

1959 Jim Clark (Lotus Elite)

1960 Dickie Stoop (Porsche 356B)

1961 Mike Salmon (Jaguar D Type)

1962 Mike Parkes (Ferrari 250GTO)

1963 Jim Clark (Lotus 23B)

1964 Jack Sears (AC Cobra Coupe)

2007 Michael Schryver/Simon Hadfield (Chevron B6)