F1 stars come out for CarFest

| 27 Aug 2013

Jody Scheckter was reunited with the radical Tyrrell P34 in public for the first time in almost four decades as the 1979 World Champion demonstrated the wild Grand Prix car on his own driveway for CarFest South (main image).

Now a successful farmer, Scheckter played host to BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans' second 2013 charity celebration of cars, food and music at Laverstoke Park Farm, Hampshire from 23-25 August. With help from Silverstone Auctions' sale, the meeting is thought to have raised up to £1million for Children in Need.

“Perhaps it wasn’t quite as a bad as I remembered," said Scheckter of the 1976 six-wheeler. "After all, I did win a Grand Prix in it. It was very controllable and pretty good on street circuits, too, which means it’s fairly well suited to racing up and down the farm drive here at Laverstoke!”

As well as the Tyrrell, which he acquired earlier this year for his collection of former steeds, Scheckter once again got behind the wheel of his championship-winning Ferrari 312 T4 (above), while son Tomas drove the Wolf WR2 (below) that his father piloted to second in the championship in 1977.

Other heroes turning out for the event included fellow F1 World Champion Sir Jackie Stewart (above, with Scheckter) and sports-car ace Marino Franchitti, along with his father-in-law, the Pink Floyd drummer and popular historic racer Nick Mason. The Mason clan brought along several star cars from Nick's collection, including his Ferrari 250GTO and Jaguar D-type (below).

Exotics performing for the sell-out crowd ranged from rally machines (such as an Audi Sport quattro, bottom) to modern supercars, with a superb set of Gulf-liveried racers from the RofGo Collection (below) among the stand-outs.

The event came hot on the heels of an equally successful CarFest North. For further details, visit the website.