MotoGP arrives back to Silverstone this weekend following a 24 year absence, and also for ten years between 1977 and 1986, the World Championship had some memorable moments at the Northamptonshire arena.

Over that period, a variety of defining moments appeared, such as the first ever one/two finish for American competitors in GP racing when Pat Hennen and Steve Baker claimed first and second in the maiden 500cc event. In each of the ten events between 1977 and 1986, sidecar events were also witnessed along with GPs for solo motorbikes.

Further back when the timing was clocked to the closest hundredth of a second, the nearest ever finish in the 500cc event was recorded in 1979 at Silverstone with only 0.03 seconds apart between Kenny Roberts and Barry Sheene. The initial five racers over the line in the 1983 250cc event were covered by only 0.4 seconds, this is the closest ever top five in the 61 years of history in the 250cc category.

1979 saw Honda debut the NR500 four-stroke battle to the already established two-stroke engines in the 500cc category. The bikes were raced by Mick Grant and Takazumi Katayama. Grant smashed at the first corner and Katayama finished a handful of laps before retiring. Freddie Spencer competed in an updated version of the NR500 at Silverstone in 1981 and arrived as high as fifth spot in the event before retiring with mechanical issues.

Competitors that have experienced some major highs at the track include Kork Ballington and Angel Nieto, the two racers with most GP wins at Silverstone, each having been victorious at the circuit six times. Toni Mang’s 1985 victory gave him the claim as the only racer to have won 250cc GP events on bikes from three various Japanese manufacturers: Kawasaki, Yamaha and Honda.

For the Brit racers, Silverstone has also provided an enjoyable venue to race. Ten Brits have ended on the podium over all the solo categories of Grand Prix racing at Silverstone: Barry Sheene (1978/500cc/3rd, 1979/500cc/2nd), Tom Herron (1978/250cc/2nd, 1978/350cc/2nd), John Williams (1977/350cc/3rd), Steve Manship (1978/500cc/2nd), Mick Grant (1978/350cc/3rd), Clive Horton (1978/125cc/2nd), Keith Huewen (1981/350cc/2nd), Andy Watts (1984/250cc/2nd), Ron Haslam (1984/500cc/3rd) and Ian McConnachie (1986/80cc/1st).

Sheene however is still the only British racer to have begun from pole position at Silverstone over all solo GP categories, when he claimed prime position on the grid in the 500cc event in 1977.