THE LONG WAIT IS OVER

The 2013 season has been a long time in coming as far as the BRSCC South Eastern Centre is concerned. While the Centre assisted HQ in running our Zandvoort EuroFest in June, this weekend’s Brands Hatch two-day meeting is their first on home ground this year.

It certainly looks like it will be worth the wait with a packed schedule of 23 races to get through on the Indy circuit, featuring in excess of 250 competitors. The Caterham Motorsport ladder will very much be in evidence with five of their six domestic championships on duty.

Starting on the bottom rung of the ladder are Groups 1 & 2 of the Pistonheads.com Caterham Academy Championship, whose 56 drivers will be racing at Brands Hatch for the very first time. Having safely negotiated the sprint element of their curriculum, Nick Horton and William Smith were the respective winners of their debut circuit race at Donington last month, so both will be looking to pick up where they left off.

As at Donington, the Avon Tyres supported Caterham Roadsport is again over-subscribed so they have been split into three groups to accommodate everyone. Max Robinson won two of the three Donington races with Alex Gurr clinching the other, so they will be amongst the favourites again but there will be challengers right through the 32-car field.

David Robinson dominated both Supersport outings at Donington and subsequently heads the points table with six rounds, including this weekend’s double-header, to go. Craig Currie is in hot pursuit and he will be determined to improve on his Donington points haul, where Mike Hart and Jon Mortimer locked-out the podium with Robinson.

The battle for the Avon Tyres Caterham Tracksport title couldn’t be tighter with Austrian Michael Gazda leading Oliver Jarratt by a solitary point. Both drivers exchanged hard fought victories at the Donington Caterham Festival. Paul Lewis also can’t yet be discounted, as he is only a further 27 points adrift and there are 26 points to be won at each of the remaining six races.

The Roadsports aren’t the only championship bringing a full grid to Brands. The Toyo Tires Porsche Championship continues to go from strength to strength and a mixture of 32 Boxsters and 924s will go out for qualifying on Saturday morning. Rick Styrin leads the way and scored two wins at Snetterton last month. However, Steven Boyles and JM Littman made the popular Yorkshireman work hard for his victories and will do so again at Brands. Littman in particular will be keen to impress, as he will have several key sponsors and plenty of supporters in attendance.

Lee Morgan was back on form in the Formula Jedi Championship at Anglesey two weeks ago. The Runcorn racer reacted excellently to 2012 champion Richard Mitcham’s two wins at Oulton on 29^th June, by making a clean sweep of all the Anglesey honours. Lee topped the time sheets in both qualifying sessions and then backed it up with two race wins. Paul Butcher also had a memorable weekend at Ty Croes, taking two second spot finishes and will be aiming to build on that impetus at Brands.

Bringing some single-seater action to party are the Avon Tyres Formula Ford 1600s, who will be completing their Triple Crown championship this weekend. Although it is a predominantly Northern based series, the driver line-up has something of an international feel about it with young Americans Skylar Robinson and Austin Kimberley very much to the fore. Augustan Skylar took two wins at the Donington leg of the Triple Crown, so his confidence will be sky high. Sylvain Haverland is also travelling over from Belgium with his Ray 92.

After a slow start to the season, due mainly to a late decision to run the series, the BRSCC Mazda MX5 SuperCup is gathering pace as the season progresses. With early confirmation that the Club will again run the Mk3 Championship next season, it is certainly on an upward spiral. The same could be said of Mike Comber, who took his first win of the season at Donington and then promptly made it a double the following day. However, experienced Mazda competitor and preparer Paul Sheard is the man they are all chasing at the top of the leader board.

A wide variety of sportscars will be on display in the BRSCC Open Championship, ranging from the from the MG Lola LMP2 car of Mike Roberts through to Radicals, Junos, Jades, Bowlbys and the home built car of Daniel Prendergast. Brands will be only the second time this season that the rejuvenated OSS Championship has been out this year. At the Snetterton triple-header in June, the Class B Junos of Craig Fleming shared the honours hotly chased by the Juno of Duncan Williams.

As the Teekay Couplings Production GTi season approaches the mid-point, a bumper field of iconic VW Golf GTis are expected at Brands Hatch to contest rounds 7 & 8 of the championship. Leader Simon Hill will try to maintain his winning streak; he has taken outright victory at four of the last six outings. However, Tim Hartland, Nick Jarvis, Martyn Walsh, Chris Webb and local man Dave Parris will all be looking to upset Hill’s winning ways.

For all the latest information about the meeting visit BRANDS HATCH RACE WEEKEND