At the end of September, the P&K Thornton Restorations team travelled to Belgium to compete in the Spa Six Hours Race at the Circuit De Spa - Francorchamps. Following the installation of our new engine in our 1961 Jaguar E-Type, we were eager to get back on the track at the Spa Six Hour Race 2025, the hardest classic car race in the world. Following our success at the Spa Six Hours last year, where we finished in 41st position out of 81 and came first in our class (GTS7), with last year’s strong performance as our benchmark, we were optimistic about achieving even better results this time around.

Shortly before the Spa Six Hours took place on the 25th to 27th of September, we upgraded to a new engine to ensure the E-Type is performing at its best. The new engine was built by Tom Barclay and installed by the P&K Thornton Restoration team before being fine-tuned on our state-of-the-art rolling road dyno. Our new engine was built for reliability and for an upgrade in power. In addition, our Jaguar E-Type had greatly improved brakes and cooling, which finally lasted the entire race.

We had 3 drivers for the race, including our Managing Director at P&K Thornton, Ciprian Nistorica (Cip). Our Second driver was Grant Williams, who is well known for racing classic Jaguars and his entertaining driving at the Goodwood Revival. Grant and Ciprian both competed at Spa last year with Neil Primrose. This year, in comparison, we had another well-experienced driver in our lineup, Jason McInulty.

The team left Nottingham on Monday morning and spent the day travelling to Belgium, allowing a couple of days before the qualifiers for general maintenance and testing our Series 1 E-Type. On Friday, 26th September, we had a 90-minute qualifying session at 7 PM. Our qualifying time was set by Jason McInulty, placing us in the 51st position out of 78. However, when the race began on Saturday, Jason managed to climb up to P28 at the end of the first two hours, putting us in an excellent position for the rest of the race. The first stint was stop-start with frequent safety car periods, which we expected.

After the first 2 hours, the team had a quick change in strategy. Our legendary race driver, Grant Williams, suggested that Cip should be the second driver, and he’ll take the third stint, because Grant is a faster driver in the dark. After the sudden switch, Cip entered the driver’s seat for the second stint. These 2 hours were very uneventful, Cip was ploughing in the laps and avoiding any potential trouble with only 2 safety cars; one of these safety cars occurred towards the end of the 4-hour mark. This led our team at the pit wall to strategically call to bring the car in 10 minutes early so we could switch to our final driver, Grant Williams and refuel.

Beginning the 3rd stint, we were sitting comfortably in the low P40s and, more importantly, 1st in our class, GTS7.However, we faced some strong competition in our class from the Aston Martin DB4GT. With 2 unexpected stops from Grant, once to sort a glitch with opening the boot for refuelling and a second stop to switch the lights pod on after Grant Williams completed several laps in the dark. We ended up falling behind the Aston, but now with extra visibility and strong encouragement from the team, Grant finished the race in 35th position overall and 1st in our class, a remarkable outcome! This event has a spectacular atmosphere, and we are looking forward to returning next year.

Our team have a vast wealth of experience in preparing and supporting race-prepared classic Jaguars, from the sleek E-Type to the legendary XK. With a wide range of services to support your racing endeavours, including classic car race preparation, track support, race engineering and of course classic car transportation and logistics. If you are interested in booking our racing services, please get in contact. Call us on 0115 9262266 or email us at info@thorntonrestorations.com.