Insight: The RAC Tourist Trophy
Porsche go into 2016 as defending FIA World Endurance Championship champions, not to mention as defending winners of the Le Mans 24 Hours, but there is one piece of silverware which they have yet to win.
Drivers and teams at the 6 Hours of Silverstone are not only competing for points towards the 2016 WEC titles, but to have their names engraved on the highly prestigious Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy.
First awarded to John Napier in 1905, the Tourist Trophy is the most enduring prize in motorsport and has been awarded to the likes of Rudolf Caracciola, Tazio Nuvolari, Stirling Moss (seven times) and 1967 Formula 1 World Champion Denny Hulme (four times) over its illustrious history, spanning touring car, GT and prototype racing.
Since 2013 when it became linked to the WEC’s Silverstone event, the Trophy, complete with its resplendent 18-carat gold figure of Hermes, has twice been won by Audi and once by Toyota, a memory 2014-winner Anthony Davidson still holds fondly.
“To know that we are not only competing for the race win, but we are also fighting for the oldest trophy in motorsport is always an added incentive,” he said. “I am really proud of winning the Tourist Trophy alongside Sébastien and Nicolas in 2014, it’s an amazing feeling to look at the list of winners and see my own name alongside legends like Nuvolari, Moss and Graham Hill. It’s also a beautiful trophy; I really treasure the small replica which the RAC presented to me after our win in 2014.”
Can Davidson become a double-winner, or will Porsche triumph? Follow along in person at Silverstone or using the FIA WEC app on April 17th to find out!
James Newbold
