ACADEMISTS SET FOR FUN DAY AT BRANDS HATCH

This weekend the BRSCC South Eastern Centre returns to Brands Hatch for the third time this season for a two-day meeting on the1.199 mile Indy circuit. Saturday’s schedule is almost entirely dominated by the Fun Cup and the twin Octane Caterham Academy Championships.

The Fun Cup Championship accounts for five hours of racing with an hour sprint before lunch, followed by a four-hour race to conclude the first day. The Team Honeywell pairing of Neil Plimmer and Geoff Fawcett are on course to retain their title and lead the Diesel Class by twelve points from Eco Racing. In the Petrol Class, Abraham de Groot & Stephen Johansen will be out to build on their twenty-point class lead.

Tomorrow is a day the fifty Caterham Academists would have been looking forward to all season, with the opportunity to finally race at Brands. The Group 2 Championship will be the first to go. Pete Fortune is the current leader but the man on form is Stockport’s Stephen Nuttall who impressed with a ‘lights to flag’ victory at Donington in June. The Group 1 Championship is shaping up into a two-way battle between leader Alex Gurr and Matt Lawrence. Gurr has triumphed in all but one of the events so far, but Lawrence won at Donington to reduce the gap to just two points.

There are seven races on the schedule for Sunday with the first two allocated to the different class groupings of the Dunlop Ford Fiesta Championship. With ten rounds having been completed we are now at the business end of the campaign and it is still season long leaders David Elsom, Nik Barton and Jason Cooper who are atop of respective classes A, B & C. Class C looks like having the most competitive end to the year. John Langridge, Nicholas Bowers and Aaron Trigwell have all closed the gap on Cooper having performed well both Cadwell Park and Rockingham. A good performance at Rockingham by Chris Toumazos has also put David Elsom under real pressure for the first time this year.

The Motorsport News backed Ford Fiesta Juniors are also in action with a double-header. Charles Ladell dominated the early part of the season but a hat-trick of victories for Jack Mitchell at Cadwell Park & Rockingham have given the Sevenoaks driver a twenty-two point lead over Ladell.

A very respectable entry of twenty-three cars will line up on the grid for a twenty-minute race in the Alfashop Alfa Romeo Championship. The 147 GTA of Roger Evans returned to the top of the points table following two Class C wins at Snetterton last month. However, previous leader Neil Smith was absent in Norfolk but returns at Brands in his 156 determined to make up lost ground.

For the entry lists, final instructions and timetable visit BRANDS HATCH