BRSCC SERIES STAR AT BRANDS HATCH

The BRSCC's premier race series were at the heart of the action at Brands Hatch for the British F3 & GT Championships' annual visit to the Kent track's 2.3 mile Grand Prix circuit last weekend. With many South Eastern Centre Club marshals volunteering to assist event organisers MSVR, Club Chairman Bernard Cottrell acted as Clerk of the Course for selected races. The weekend weather forecasts weren't promising and so it was to prove.

The first day's racing kicked off with the MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain, scheduled for 18 minutes. However, drama struck on the second lap as a sudden cloudburst caught out a number of the leading runners as they made their way back from the GP loop. With the cars on slick tyres, the race was red-flagged on safety grounds. A shortened restart went the way of form man Scott Malvern's Jamun-run Mygale. The Ilford man doubled up in the day's second race.

Sunday's third and final outing provided a large element of déjà vu, with the threatened rain once again arriving early in the race. Time constraints meant the restart was only over two racing laps, with Malvern making it a hat-trick of wins.

Newbury man Paul Wilson claimed comfortable victories in both Saturday and Sunday's BookTrack.com Caterham Superlight Championship 30-minute races. Jamie Orton took second in the first outing ahead of JJ O'Malley, with the positions reversed on Sunday.

Both Volkswagen Racing Cup qualifiers took place on the Sunday, with Kieran Griffin's Scirocco heading home Steve Chaplin's 'Herbie' Beetle in the pre-lunch outing. He fared less well in the damp second race, spinning into retirement. Doncaster's Aaron Mason improved on his third place in the first race to take the chequered flag in his Golf GTI Mk V, ahead of James Walker's similar car.

Weather played its part in the two-hour Avon Tyres British GT Championship race, with the championship-leading Audi R8 LMS of Matt Bell and Michael Guasch falling off the track at Druids on the second lap. Mid-race showers around the driver change period made pit stop timing crucial. The Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3 R pairing of Gregor Fisken and Tim Bridgman looked to have called it perfectly, demoting erstwhile leaders Charles Bateman and Michael Lyons in the Scuderia Vittoria Ferrari 430. As the track dried in the race's closing stages, the Duncan Cameron/Matt Griffin Mtech Ferrari 458 Italia closed rapidly on the Porsche, and with Griffin at the wheel, set lap record times as he closed down the gap, but with late-race back-markers to negotiate, couldn't quite get close enough as the time ticked away, Bridgman taking the flag some 5.4 seconds clear.

With the BRSCC looking forward to the 40th anniversary Formula Ford Festival in October, it was good to welcome overseas runners taking part in the first ever rounds of the Formula Ford EuroCup and competitors in the Dutch championship. We hope to welcome them back later in the year.

The full results can be viewed here: BRANDS HATCH RESULTS

The BRSCC South Eastern Centre returns to Brands Hatch on August 13th and 14th for Club Car Races, featuring the Ma5da MX5 Championship, the Ma5da MX 5 Cup, the FunCup Championship, Saker Series, the Design911.com Porsche Championship, Avon Tyres Formula Ford & Production Golf GTi.

Colin Mann