BRSCC & CATERHAM READY TO RACE AT HOME AT BRANDS HATCH
While we’ve ventured as a club practically the length and breadth of the country’s racetracks already this season, it’s always great to race a little closer to home and that’s exactly what the BRSCC has in store this weekend! The club’s local venue of Brands Hatch in Kent plays host to another pair of exciting days of racing in store with just about every main discipline of racing covered for fans to enjoy both trackside and on the dedicated live streams!
Caterham Motorsport are out in force once again and like the BRSCC, it’s a home meeting for their five factory-managed championships with all of them now heading into the second half of the season with every one of the title fights still looking likely to go down to the wire. Both of the Caterham Academy battles, for example are look especially tasty – in the Green Group, Freddie Chiddicks currently holds on to a five point lead ahead of Marc Jones, with Silverstone GP winner Geoff Newman a further seven behind in 3rd. James Cook and Mark Kendle aren’t far away either, so expect all five to be on the pace in the quest for a big points haul. The same can be said for the White Group with a trio of drivers looking set to take this one all the way to the season finale, with William James, Harry George and Charlie Lower all covered by just seven points themselves. Even though this might be their first ever season of racing, it doesn’t make the competition any less fierce!
If you want close, then keep your eyes on the battle in the Caterham Roadsport Championship right now, as the titanic fight for supremacy between leader Domenique Mannsperger, Taylor O’Flanagan and Tom Cockerill continues to rage on. With the three drivers separated by a mere three points right now, none of them have been very far away from the other two at any stage since the start of the season and wherever there’s a battle at the front of the field, all three of them are usually involved. Given that they also locked out the Silverstone podium between them last time out, don’t be surprised to see them do it again at least once this weekend.
Over in the Caterham Seven 270R Championship, it’s looking pretty good for Blair McConachie as he maintains his lead in the standings, currently heading Harry Eyre by eight points at this stage on dropped scores. With eight races still to go, Blair has to do all his can to carry on edging away from the chasing pack to finally capture his first Caterham title after coming runner up in the previous two series. Carl Jones and Rob Keogh are behind them tied for 3rd place at this moment, although a tricky Silverstone weekend has left them both on the back foot with ground to make up from here, especially with Stuart Bell also on their tail just a point behind.
It’s slightly more one-sided at this stage in the Caterham Seven 310R Championship as Pete Walters has managed to create a gap of more than 20 points to 2nd placed man Harry Cook before the second half of the season has even kicked in. Here at Brands Hatch, Cook along with fellow pursuers James Wingfield and Andrew Murgatroyd will need to use this weekend’s races in Kent to start clawing back points, but that will mean getting the better of Walters from the outset, something these guys know all too well is not an easy task to perform!
Finally, the Caterham Seven Championship UK already appears to have its definitive contenders at this point of the season with Stephen Nuttall trying to obtain the missing title that would allow him to complete the set of becoming champion at every single stage of the Caterham Motorsport ladder. So far, he’s exactly where he wants to be but given that Henry Heaton, Gordon Sawyer and co are all determined to constantly make it difficult for him to escape them on track. Whether it’ll be the same here at Brands Hatch is something we’re keen to find out.
Outside Caterham action, single seaters will be on track in the form of the excellent Avon Tyres National Formula Ford Championship. Brands Hatch is the spiritual home of Formula Ford so there can be no better place to host the next rounds of what’s been an enthralling National contest so far this year, as Maxwell Esterson now bid to maintain his points lead in the Pro Class against key rivals Alex Walker and Chris Middlehurst. All three have been race winners this year and with dropped scores now starting to come into play, this three-way tussle is only set to get more and more intense. Watch out for top driver such as Anglesey race winner Jamie Sharp and former multi-time Festival winner Joey Foster on the grid too as both will be aiming for strong results too.
Sports prototypes will be back on track with the BRSCC at Brands Hatch as the second meeting of the year for the new ZEO Prototype Cup, and after a successful debut at Silverstone a couple of months ago the same names, faces and machines are back on the grid this time. Matt Manderson, who raced a Radical to victory at Silverstone, will this time jump into Duncan Williams’ fearsome Norma LMP3 to do battle against a field full of additional Radicals, MCRs, Junos and Mike Jenvey’s Jenvey-Gunn amongst others.
Plus, there are set to be two mixed class saloon car grids joining our timetable too, both sporting some impressive machinery set to be on display. Our friends at the Track Attack Race Club are back in the paddock once more, ready to bring their usual superb mixture of French, German and Japanese cars in the entry with the Tricolore Trophy, Nippon Challenge, Deutsche Marks Cup and 206 GTi Production Cup all on track together. Meanwhile, the Classic & Modern Motorsport Club’s Southern division brings out its Super Saloons and Tin Tops to play too, which is set to feature cars such as Rod Birley’s evergreen Ford Escort WRC and the incredible ex-V8 Supercars Holden Commodore VF driven by Alex Sidwell. Both sets of races would be absolute thriller in their own right!
Scott Woodwiss
