BRSCC PREPARES TO GO THE DISTANCE AT BRANDS HATCH
On a busy weekend for the British Racing & Sports Car Club, we’re in action at our home circuit as Brands Hatch plays hosts to a meeting that takes on a very strong endurance racing theme. With three long-distance championships in attendance racing across both days, plus additional sprint action from both Formula Fords and ZEO Prototypes, it’s certainly going to be another entertaining occasion in Kent.
The latest instalment of this year’s Fun Cup Endurance Championship heads to Brands Hatch for the next four hour encounter, with the race to the title continuing to twist and turn as we head towards the home stretch. The defending champions Team Olympian-GRD have been on a rampage recently, managing to win the last three races in a row but despite this, it’s still incredibly close at the top. Olympian are just ten points ahead of second placed UVio/ Hofmann’s Motorsport, with third placed MJ Tec only a further 13 back from P2.
Brands Hatch’s short Indy circuit will mean lappery and traffic management are going to be just as crucial as outright pace and strategy amongst the pit windows. The last couple of visits to Brands for Fun Cup have produced some thrilling finishes and this year could be no different given how incredible this season has been to date. That said, don’t be surprised to see other teams challenging the front that may not be title contenders but regularly can and do have their moment in the sun. They include PLR Racing, Greenheath, EDF Motorsports, Signature RV and Morpheus Motorsport, the latter especially quick when luck goes their way.
Sunday will see the other two endurances races own the day’s timetable. The longest of which will be the Silverlake C1 Endurance Series, with a slightly smaller entry than normal but still one that promises to put on a competitive three hours of racing. Last time out, Alpha Trojon performed the great escape and stole victory from Baycon Racing after they were forced to make a late pit stop caused by low fuel. Both teams are back on the grid for Brands Hatch, with the latter out to avenge their loss.
There are also still some of the many quality teams that frequent the C1 paddock on the entry list too, including series sponsors Silverlake, Quattro Formaggio, BPC Motorsport, Dragonsport by Amigo Motorsport and #blessed, all of whom have shown their prowess on more than one occasion and will certainly hope Brands Hatch is kind to them. C1 Endurance races usually feature plenty of intrigue and strategy of their own, and on this short Indy circuit all eyes will be on them to see who tackles this speed bowl the best.
The shortest of the three enduros competing this weekend, the PBS Brakes SuperSport Endurance Cup comes to Brands Hatch sporting the biggest entry of all the grid competing with just shy of 30 cars set to line up at the time of writing. This is the penultimate round of this year’s SuperSport contest, which means that while there’s a remote chance one or two class titles could provisionally be settled before the Silverstone finale, that would be provided results go in favour of those in contention.
Overall victory is likely to come from one of the high-powered BMWs in Pro-A, with the 1 Series of Bart Horsten & Keir McConomy, Oulton Park winner Peter Moulsdale and Stephen Kent in their M3 and the trio of Tom Evans, Ben Hudson and Matt Parkes in another M3. McConomy/Horsten lead Pro-A, with Julian McBride (Pro-B), Paul & Wendy Ellis-Smith (Pro-C), Paul Hinson (Clubman-A), and David Drinkwater & Adam Read (Clubman-C) all leading their respective classes and on the grid this weekend. It’s still relatively close in all six classes and there’s still much to play for up and down the grid.
For single seater fans, Formula Ford and Brands Hatch are always a favoured and mouth-watering combination and the Super Classic Pre ‘99 Formula Ford Championship is in attendance for the perfect early warm-up ahead of October’s Gerrit Van Kouwen Anniversary Formula Ford Festival. A solid entry of over 20 cars is on the entry list for this one with some decent representation across all four classes.
The closest of the four is Super Classic A between Tom Hawkins and Richard Freye with just 16 points between them and the pair set to face off again at Brands Hatch this weekend. As for the other three, Chris Stones (Super Classic B), Paul Britten (Super Classic C) and Oliver Buckton (Super Classic D) all have commanding leads in their respective classes and could potentially put them provisionally out of reach, provided results fall in their favour.
And as an additional exciting flavour to the event, the rapid sports prototypes of the ZEO Prototype Series are out in force for the penultimate time in 2024. This grid is usually the fastest on the entire timetable when in attendance and this weekend is no exception, and the sight of these cars around a short circuit like Brands Indy is something to be seen and to behold.
The front runners on this weekend’s entry list are some of the usual suspects, including the Pragas of Ed & Chris Bridle, Daniel Oliver and Shane Kelly, Max Windheuser’s Norma, Graham Charman’s Juno, and the Jenvey-Gunn of Mike Jenvey. The latter will be hoping for a much better experience than that of Donington Park last time out when he was forced to retire from race two due to a car fire. With the car hopefully back up to full strength, he’ll be out to go for victory from the outset.
Written by Scott Woodwiss
