New Kidston Trophy attracts world’s largest field of pre-war racers at the Silverstone Classic.

• New Kidston Trophy attracts world’s largest field of pre-war racers
• Bentley Boy Glen Kidston famously won Le Mans in 1930
• 12 classic Bentleys to compete at inaugural Silverstone Classic event

The largest field of pre-war race cars ever assembled will compete at the Silverstone Classic this weekend in the inaugural Kidston Trophy – named for legendary Bentley Boy and Le Mans winner, Glen Kidston.

Among the 57 competitors will be 12 of the rarest and most valuable Bentleys in the world. This stellar ensemble includes several Bentley 3 Litre models, and a collection of 4½ Litre racers including a legendary Supercharged ‘Blower’.

Apologies for the quality of the pictures, they are rather old, and of not good size and initial quality.

Glen Kidston and Bentley Chairman, Woolf Barnato, famously won the 1930 Le Mans 24-Hour race in the Bentley Speed Six ‘Old Number 1’. This was the second year in succession that the Speed Six had taken the chequered flag and the fourth year in a row that a Bentley was victorious.

Richard Charlesworth, Director of Royal Relations & Heritage, said: “For one of Bentley’s most famous characters to be honored like this, at such a major classic car event, is wonderful. Kidston lived to race and his triumph at Le Mans alongside Barnato in 1930 will forever be remembered as the crowning glory of the Bentley Boys era.”

The Silverstone Classic takes place 24 to 26 July, with the Kidston Trophy contested at 12:00 on Saturday 25 July.

Glen Kidston: Bentley Boy

Adventurer and aviator Glen Kidston was one of the original Bentley Boys. A former Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy, he was famously torpedoed twice in the same morning during World War 1.  He later became a submarine commander but when not at sea he set records as an aviator and motorcycle speed trialist.

Kidston died less than a year after his Le Mans win when the de Havilland Puss Moth he was flying crashed during a dust storm over the Drakensberg Mountains in southern Africa. A memorial to him stands at the crash site – an aluminium propeller set in stone designed to warn passing aviators.

Silverstone Classic – 25^th Anniversary

The annual Silverstone Classic is firmly established as ‘The World’s Biggest Classic Motor Racing Festival’. The packed weekend event features more than 20 races covering the full glittering spectrum of motor sport history, full scale live music concerts, aerial displays and interactive driving activities.