In what will be a remarkable sight for car enthusiasts, 30 supercars will depart from the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall in a police convoy to Silverstone on Friday 3 June at 10.00am. The event will commemorate the Tourist Trophy, which is awarded by the Royal Automobile Club to the winners of a prestigious motor racing event for sports cars each year. First awarded in 1905, the Tourist Trophy is the longest standing and most significant trophy in British motor sport.
This year it will be presented to the winners of the FIA GT1 World Championship round to be held at Silverstone on Sunday 5 June 2011. The race will see tens of millions of pounds worth of cars do battle in the fifth round of a series, which includes races in Abu Dhabi and Argentina.
Competitors take part in one-hour races driving 'grand touring' race cars that are based on standard production road cars from manufacturers such as Aston Martin, Corvette, Ford, Lamborghini and Nissan.
Appropriately, the cavalcade to Silverstone from the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall will include supercars such as Corvettes, Lamborghini’s, Vipers, Ferraris, Aston Martins and Maseratis.
Events for which the Tourist Trophy has been awarded include the World Sportscar Championship, the World Touring Car Championship, the European Touring Car Championship, the International Sports Racing Series, the FIA GT Championship and the British Touring Car Championship.
The current winners of the Tourist Trophy are Warren Hughes and Jamie Campbell-Walter – the latter is a competitor in this year's FIA GT1 World Championship, and will be racing at Silverstone alongside David Brabham in the Sumo Power GT team. They will be competing against previous winners of the Tourist Trophy Karl Wendlinger (2008, 2009) and Peter Kox (2005). Jamie Campbell-Walter said: "I was very pleased to win this famous trophy last year and hope to make it two in a row at Silverstone in June."
The first Tourist Trophy meeting was held on the Isle of Man on 14 September 1905 with cars setting off from Alexander Drive, Douglas on a 52-mile course. John Napier, in an Arrol-Johnston, won the six-hour race comprising four laps (208 miles), with an average speed of 33.9mph. The Tourist Trophy has since been won by many racing greats such as Tazio Nuvolari, Carroll Shelby, Tom Walkinshaw, Sir Stirling Moss (many times), Graham Hill, Denny Hulme and Derek Bell.
While there were breaks in the Tourist Trophy in the early 20th century and during both World Wars, it has remained one of the most prominent competitions on the motor sports calendar. Over the years the challenge moved around the country and has been contested at circuits on the Isle of Man, England and Northern Ireland.
The Royal Automobile ClubFounded in 1897, the Royal Automobile Club has continuously supported and promoted the development of motoring in Great Britain including the introduction of the famous 1000 Mile Trial in 1900, the Tourist Trophy and the first British Grand Prix in 1948.
Every year, on the first weekend of November, the Club promotes the UK’s largest, free-to-view celebration of motoring, past, present and future. The Future Car Challenge runs from Brighton to London and showcases the performance of low energy vehicles. In its inaugural year (2010) it attracted the support of major manufacturers from around the globe. This year the Challenge is on Saturday 5 November and London’s Regent Street will be closed for the finale, a celebration of 19th and 21st century motoring.
The next morning Hyde Park sees the start of the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, celebrating the Emancipation Run of 1896. Over 500 vehicles, all built before 1905, participate in the world’s oldest motoring event.
The Club also presents a number of significant awards each year including the Segrave Trophy which, in 2010, was awarded to Adrian Newey for designing Formula 1 championship-winning cars for three different British-based teams: Williams, McLaren and Red Bull Racing.
