Racing saloons, sportscars and single-seaters from the 70s and 80s will be in action at Thruxton this Saturday

They are all part of the British Automobile Racing Club's 'Thruxton Classic' - the first day of car racing this year at the Hampshire track.

Eight 10-lap races, all with good grids, will make an excellent afternoon of racing as Thruxton continues to provide some of the most exciting racing in Britain.

Top of the list for wheel-to-wheel racing will be a pair of single-seater races for Classic Formula Ford cars.

The Universal Racing Services Classic FF2000 Championship is home to the 2-litre Ford Pinto-engined racing cars from the late 70s and early 1980s.

Many stars made their name in this category, including Ayrton Senna who was a race winner at Thruxton in August 1982 in a Van Diemen RF82.

That type of car continues to dominate the category and it was the cars of Mark Grant and James Ruskin that set the pace when the season started at Silverstone.

However, they face plenty of opposition including racing returnee Peter Meyrick, who last raced at Thruxton 20 years ago and local racers Clive Wood (Christchurch), Richard Wallington (Basingstoke), Richard Robinson (Christchurch) and Eddie Wilkins (Poole).

An equally strong field will line up for round two of the Universal Racing Services Classic FF1600 Championship for the 1600cc single-seaters produced before 1982.

Irish commuter Rory Farrell won at Silverstone in round one, but will have plenty of strong rivals at Thruxton including Guernsey racer Dave Lowe in his rare and very rapid Lotus 69.

Paul Walton, Steve Hare, David Gathercole and locals Roger Newman (Swindon) and John Hesp (Southampton) are all in the line-up.

Qualifying starts at 9am, with the first of eight races at 1.25pm.

Admission is £12, children free.