Castle Combe Autumn Classsic
Castle Combe's Autumn Classic delivers another exciting day of racing and car displays to wave good bye the this years out door event season. This event is now firmly on the calendar with this time being its 5th year and the improvements year on year certainly show. The Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club has attended every one and certainly had the largest turnout of Clubs, which is saying something.
What is the Autumn Classic all about?
The Autumn Classic was created to celebrate racing from an era gone by at what we think is one of the friendliest circuits in the UK calendar, Castle Combe. The premise is simple, car clubs get to put on displays around the edges of the circuit and you are treated to some fantastic racing on the track. Period fancy dress is encouraged and prizes awarded. The Club got involved as we have a great racing section and of course a couple of active local regions. The circuit put on paddock displays of racing cars, famous and interesting as well as access all areas for the public to enjoy wandering around.
The day started off damp but luckily for us we had our van with awning and the South Wales Region were on hand to provide more shelter with their gazebo and bacon sandwiches. The early qualifying provided some excellent viewing for us due to our positioning on the "Camp Corner" section. Watching the MK2's come out of "Bobbies" squirrelling under acceleration was a sight to behold.
After qualifying the circuit put on a couple of parade laps and then took a break for lunch. That gave us the opportunity to enjoy an XJ220 and XJR15 out on track before wandering around the circuit to enjoy the pits and other car club displays. This is one of the real selling points for this event, its not as corporate and expensive as some other style events, yet has more than enough to keep you entertained all day.
After lunch it was time to enjoy the racing and the Jaguar pre '66 is without a doubt one of the highlights. This year was no exception with some great battles happening throughout the field. At the front we had a couple of E-Types battling it out for the win that kept waxing and waning, MK2's and XK's further down the field. It was all action right up until the Red Flag a couple of laps from the end. You can read more about the race in our racing section clicking here.
The Castle Combe Autumn Classic is one of the unique events of the year and we are lucky to have an event of this nature down in the South West. For anyone who wants to enjoy racing from a earlier time, friendly "open all areas" race circuit, good views, great atmosphere, car displays as far as the eye can see and much more, we would strongly recommend this event for your 2018 calendar. We will be going, hope to see you there.