BRSCC ENTERTAINS WITH ENDURANCE IN A BRANDS HATCH BLITZ
Underneath glorious sunny skies, the BRSCC headed to its home circuit of Brands Hatch on the Indy layout for a weekend of racing that was dominated by all things endurance. No less than three long distance championships and series competed on the timetable, with each providing its own interesting and intriguing moments along the way. Formula Fords and sports prototypes also provided the perfect compliment on the Saturday too!
Never short of providing plenty of entertainment from start to finish in their races, the Fun Cup Endurance Championship touched down at Brands Hatch for another four hour epic, and epic is exactly what this race turned out to be – especially the final minutes! After the Rare Vinyl team started from pole thanks to the random draw, Vapeclub w/ EDF took over shortly after the start, but racing was neutralised barely ten minutes in after Ratters Racing found themselves airborne at Paddock Hill Bend when a brake issue left them launching off the back of UVio/ Hofmann’s Motorsport. The clear up would take 15 minutes before green flags flew again.
EDF’s “Rock Division” hire car had worked its way to the lead already by this point, as UVio and championship leaders Olympian-GRD continued their progress forwards. Olympian didn’t need long to get into P1 while UVio ended up taking a few laps longer. A second safety car appeared as the first pit window opened, and UVio benefitted on the restart to take the lead and create gap as the first hour completed. They then became embroiled in a fight with Morpheus Motorsport, the two cars effectively holding station at the head of the field as the race progressed towards half distance.
Over the next couple of pit windows the order at the top remained the same with UVio maintaining a lead over Morpheus with PLR Racing, Olympian-GRD and Seed Data running in the top five. After a quiet middle part of the race, it truly came alive again around the final pit window when UVio made their final stop from the lead early, but retained it after Morpheus took fuel on their last pit call. A late safety car for Seed Data spinning into the gravel at Paddock after battling for third with Olympian closed the pack up and would guarantee a tense finish. UVio and Morpheus battled hard with the pair touching on several occasions, but in the end it led to a grandstand finish with Morpheus taking the win at the flag ahead of Olympian-GRD who stole second from UVio on the final lap.
However, the result was to change post race as Morpheus were stripped of their race win after being handed a 30 second penalty for causing a collision, promoting Olympian to their fourth straight race win in 2024. UVio were second ahead of the demoted Morpheus team, while PLR Racing and Signature RV completed the top five, the latter bizarrely finding themselves battling the leaders in the final minutes despite being a lap down.
Sunday saw two more endurance races with the Silverlake C1 Endurance Series providing the longer of the two on the day. A strong lap from Oakley Motorsport gave them pole ahead of regular winners Trojon Motorsport, the latter only waiting a lap until making a dive at Druids for the lead. Shortly afterwards, David Drinkwater put the new Gen 2 C1 Endurance car into the lead with the Alpha-Trojon team car up into second ahead of their teammates. The first pit stops began to shuffle the order up and down the field, but Drinkwater kept the Silverlake-backed Ge 2 out in front for a good portion of the first part of the race.
It would be just before the end of the first hour before the Gen 2 finally made its first stop, handing honours back to Alpha-Trojon, before RABSport then took their turn shortly after. Drinkwater’s Silverlake Gen 2 car then brought out the first safety car after stopping on the apex of Clearways, with Baycon Racing having shuffled up to the front by this point as more pit stops progressed. Past half distance, the #323 Trojon car came in not long past half distance with damage to the left front after a mechanical issue, taking them out of contention for victory.
The second of the Silverlake Gen 2 cars brought out another safety car after it parked up on the outside of Paddock with an issue, but it was the restart that would provide the biggest turning point of the race. Alpha-Trojon were hit with a stop-go penalty for overtaking before the start-finish like when green flags flew. With Baycon Racing also making a final stop, this put a few teams in contention to reach the podium and victory for the first time. The race ended up with TGR Racing driven well to give Luke Haberman and Max Walsh a first win of the season, with RABSport driving hard to try and close them down just 5.7 seconds back in P2. AF Racing completed the podium ahead of Baycon Racing and Alpha-Trojon.
Before the C1s, two hours of PBS Brakes SuperSport Endurance Cup provided the action with the familiar sight of a pair of BMWs on the front row of the grid. Pole sitters Keir McConomy/ Bart Horsten leapt to the lead from pole in their 1 Series and in what is becoming almost customary fashion in SuperSport, BMWs headied the top three places with the 1 Series ahead of the M3s of Peter Moulsdale/ Stephen Kent and Julian McBride. This remained status quo until McBride pitted 20 minutes in, allowing the Audi TT of Mark Jones to move up into third place, and it wasn’t long before the top two BMWs swapped places on track with Moulsdale/ Kent taking over out front from McConomy/ Horsten.
The 1 Series would stop first just as the safety car was called for the David Gooding/ Nigel Greensall BMW M3 stuck in the gravel at Druids at half distance. The Moulsdale/Kent M3 would pit first time themselves just after the restart, handing P1 back to the 1 Series, which was nursing a gearbox issue being stuck in fourth gear. Both cars would stop again before the final 20 minutes, but the healthier of the two BMWs would end up driving on to take the flag on the road, even through a late safety car for John Wyatt’s MINI in the gravel exiting Clearways.
The Moulsdale/Kent M3 initially took victory but was disqualified post-race for a yellow flag infringement, promoting McBride’s M3 into the overall victory along with Pro-B honours. The McConomy/ Horsten 1 Series survived to win Pro-A, with class wins also going to Matthias Radestock’s Lotus Elise in Pro-C, Paul Hinson’s BMW Compact in Clubman-A, Alistair Lindsay’s Audi TT in Clubman-B, and Adam Read and David Drinkwater’s BMW Compact in Clubman-C.
In the sprint racing ranks, the Super Classic Pre ‘99 Formula Ford Championship had two thoroughly entertaining races in something of an early warm-up for this year’s Gerrit Van Kouwen Anniversary Formula Ford Festival.
Tom Hawkins initially got the better of poleman William Liston and these two ended up putting on an incredibly entertaining lead battle from start to finish in race. The pair were side by side on numerous occasions over the 15 minutes, with their battles only briefly interrupted by a mid-race safety car, but always in a duel with each other all the way to the chequered flag. Liston would go on to take his first win of the season ahead of Hawkins, with Richard Freye completing the overall podium ahead of guests Brazilian driver Isaac Canto da Silva and France’s Thomas Craincourt.
Drama kicked off at Paddock at the start of race two when Freye tagged Hawkins, the former eventually disqualified from the race as a result for causing a collision. Out in front, this left Liston unchallenged and trouble-free, the Australian rounding off his first appearance in the championship with a double win while Canto da Silva picked up second place ahead of Craincourt, Peter Daly and Hawkins, who battled back to salvage a fifth place.
There was also high speed action in the ZEO Prototype Series with two races to help book-end Saturday’s action. Graham Charman got the jump from the front row of race one on regular race winner Mike Jenvey, before the Jenvey-Gunn began to rapidly drop back with an issue. This left Shane Kelly’s Praga to chase after the Juno of Charman, eventually taking the lead into Paddock and setting up a pursuit that would last for the remainder of the race. Kelly went on to take victory, but just barely after Charman closed right in at the end, with Max Windheuser’s Norma, Jenvey and Graham Cole’s Bicknell PS7 in the top five.
Later in the afternoon, Jenvey’s fortunes were much brighter after taking the lead on the opening lap of race two before Charman took it back again a couple of minutes later. Jenvey took it back exiting Clearways before half distance, and was helped by a safety car after contact between Windheuser and Cole at Druids. Jenvey restarted well and continued in front to take the win from Charman by 1.3 seconds, with Richard Chamberlain’s CTR in third ahead of the Radicals of Alastair Smart and Paul Seward.
Written by Scott Woodwiss
