On 21 May 2024, the Historic Sports Car Club announced that interest was building for its “Touring Car Legends” series. The first event will be 8 & 9 June at Donington Park. The series caters for Group 2 and Group A machinery, so it should see wide arched Escorts, RS Capris, BMW 3.0CSL and at least one Rover in the Group 2 class. There is a plethora of BMW M3s and Sierra Cosworths to fill the Group A class so it will hopefully be a success.

That said, are we seeing an over abundance of touring car events? The Historic Racing Drivers Club (HRDC) caters for Group 1.5 and Production cars (the Willhire class) from 1975 to 1982 in its Gerry Marshall Trophy; as does the Historic Touring Car Challenge (HTC) of Motor Racing Legends (MRL) with its Tony Dron Trophy. The HTC also caters for Group 2 and Group A machinery which reflects the new HSCC series. The former regualrly fills its grids whereas the Tony Dron Trophy seems to be struggling.

MRL has a number of “festival” type events, with the Donington Historic Festival being the season opener. The entries for the HTC were; 7 HTCC; and 4 Tony Dron Trophy (Gp 1.5). Of the seven HTC class cars one was Group 2 (a freshly restored Rover SD1), the others were BMW M3s or Nissan Skylines. Bolstered by one U2TC Lotus Cortina, the grid totalled 13 entries.

The next round for the MRL series was planned for the new Snetterton Historic Festival on 29/30 June, but this race has now been cancelled due, I understand, to a clash with the Classic Touring Car Racing Club (CTCRC) Super Touring race which takes place on the same weekend at Brands Hatch. Worth noting that the HRDC Gerry Marshall Trophy will also be at Snetterton.

The MRL HTC has evolved over the years. Initially it ran Group A up to 1986, this precluded the Sierra Cosworths and M3s. However the inclusion of these later cars has had the effect of removing the earlier Group A cars such as the BMW 635 and the Rovers, since they can’t hope to compete. There are at least five of these cars (BMW and Rover) just sitting in the workshop, one of which is on display at Silverstone, and not being exercised. Now, with the inclusion of the Nissan Skylines it appears that the Sierras and BMW M3s may be outclassed and thus not turning up. This generally reflects the contemporary series’ where the later models (ignoring homologation) outclassed the earlier cars and grids died.

Where is this going? If the HSCC event is successful, and speaking to one of the entrants there is a lot of enthusiasm for it, then it seems to sit in the same space as the HTC. Looking at the respective calendars there appears to be an effort to avoid clashes between the HTC and the Touring Car Legends, so it will be interesting to compare them in terms of entries. The next HTC round is at the Oulton Park Gold Cup 26-28 July, by which time the Touring Car Legends will have appeared at Donington Park and Brands Hatch.

The HRDC is doing a great job with the Group 1.5 cars, constantly filling grids, so I hope the HTC regains its Group A mojo, likewise I wish the HSCC every success, but I can’t help feeling that in an effort to attract grids, the pool of available cars and drivers is becoming over stretched to the overall detriment of the entrants and spectators.