On its fresh late-August bank holiday date, The Classic proved to be a success with both fans and competitors, partly helped by three days of glorious sunshine and entry lists usually overflowing with cars. The racing was extremely good too, several races offering thrills all the way down to the finish line.

After a COVID-enforced club-sized meeting and the cancellation of the 2021 event in the wake of the tragic floods that hit the Eifel region, the 2022 AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix was felt by many as a fresh start – not least by the organisers, as they tried to put two years of internal turmoil behind them and go it alone after the departure of the AvD. Germany’s second-largest automobile club still gave its name to the event but behind the scenes they had all but gone, leaving their two remaining partners to sort things out for themselves. How did they manage?

Ever since the Historic Grand Prix at Zandvoort was revived a decade ago, with the proper Masters F1 and HGPCA Grand Prix cars bringing back the Formula One noise levels of the circuit’s illustrious past, the organisers have used a Thin Lizzy tune to commemorate the joyful fact of actual Grand Prix machines returning to the dunes to race. Even though event management changed hands from the combined efforts of the circuit itself and Holland’s historic motorsport club HARC to the modern-day Dutch Grand Prix organisation, ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ was one of the few things carried through after a Covid-induced one-year hiatus in which everything had changed.