Walter Hayes Trophy: vintage racing at Silverstone

If you fancy a weekend that trades the high-tech gloss of modern Formula 1 for something with a bit more character, the Walter Hayes Trophy is about to take over Silverstone. It runs across Saturday 31 October and Sunday 1 November, and it is a far cry from the usual Grand Prix weekend the circuit is known for. Instead of carbon fibre and hybrid engines, the grid is filled with vintage cars from the 1940s to the 1960s, and the whole thing is run by the Historic Sports Car Club.

At its heart, the Trophy is the world's largest Formula Ford event, and the cars are all built around the same 1600cc Ford Kent engine. The format is what makes it genuinely exciting to watch: it is a two-day knockout competition. More than 100 drivers go through qualifying and heats on the Saturday, and only the survivors make it through to the semi-finals and the Grand Final on the Sunday. It is a proper old-school scrap, and the winner is not crowned until the final race on the Sunday.

The support racing is half the draw. The HSCC puts together a full programme of historic races for sports, saloon, and single-seater cars, including the cheekily named 'Mutton Grand Prix'. The trophy itself is named after Walter Hayes, the journalist and Ford public relations head who was instrumental in building Ford's F1 programme back in the 1960s. The roll of honour reads like a who's who of racing: Joey Foster has won it four times, in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2022, and names like Gordon Shedden, Jamie Chadwick and Josef Newgarden have all come through here. Jason Smyth is the reigning champion heading into this year.

It is built to be a family day out rather than a serious motorsport pilgrimage. Entry is £19 for one day or £35 for the full weekend, parking is free, and children aged 15 and under get in free, with grandstand access included in the price. The circuit has been hosting the trophy since 2001, and the International Circuit layout it runs on is the same 5.891km loop used for F1, which can hold up to 175,000 spectators when it is full.

Getting there is straightforward. Silverstone sits in Northamptonshire, off the A43 dual carriageway, which you can reach from the M1 or the M40, and the nearest station is Wolverton, about ten miles away. The circuit itself opened back in 1948, and its early days were as unpolished as the racing it still celebrates. The 'Mutton Grand Prix' name comes from an improvised race in September 1947 that ended with a sheep being killed, and the first official race, the British Grand Prix, was held on 2 October 1948. If you would rather see the modern version, the 2026 British Grand Prix is set for 2 to 5 July. For now, though, the vintage weekend is the one to catch.