Brands Hatch Indy, September 17th 2016

We have a double header at the one day meeting at Brands on the Indy circuit. The 2 races are 15 minutes each, which whilst seem quite short, will be 20 laps of the Indy circuit and as everyone knows that’s a good race distance. Hopefully, we will have a good turnout. There is still 2 weeks to go before entries close, so please get your entries in as soon as possible.

Brands Superprix Report

I very much regret it, but I was unable to compete in the Brands Superprix Double Header with the French for the first time in several years. This was due to a previously arranged holiday before the Superprix dates were changed, but I did manage to get down on the Friday for qualifying and see the magnificent 38 car turn out for the Classic Formula 3 race. From the 38 car entry, 11 were French entries and 3 from Germany, which left a very healthy 24 car UK entry, and 4 of these were FF2000’s. The entry could have been even better if Simon Jackson, Keith white and myself had not been on holiday!

The top 6 were separated by less than a second in qualifying, pole position being secured by our own Gaius Ghinn in his Ralt RT3, followed by David Shaw out for the first time in his Ralt RT1 since he planted it on pole for the 2014 Monaco Historic Grand Prix race. Ian Flux completed a hat trick of UK runners before Fred Lajoux and Valerie Leone topped the French runners in 4th and 5th. Pat Gormley had engine problems with his Safir, so was half way down the field rather than being at the front as he usually is at Brands. Adrian Langridge topped the 1600 cc category, which had 4 participants and Ian Pearson was first of the FF2000’s in 16th place. All bode well for the two races, which both turned out to be very exciting with AutoSport reporting them as the races of the weekend. One couldn’t disagree with that when the first 5 cars in the first race were separated by 4 seconds. Valerie Leone managed to get himself up from 5th on the grid to win with a 2 second margin over Gaius Ghinn, who lead home, Ian Flux, Max Bartell and Fred Lajoux, who were all nose to tail. David Shaw unfortunately had been in the mix for the first 7 laps, until battery failure brought the RT1 to a halt. Last year’s Champion Max Bartell, put in a stirring drive from 9th on the grid to take 4th position. Ian Pearson lead home the FF2000s in 13th place overall and Adrian Langridge won the 1600 cc class from Glenn Eagling in the beautiful ex-Mo Harness Ensign. Amazingly, there were 9 non-finishers and it was hoped that they would all be ready to go in Sunday’s race.

Race 2 once again was another victory for the French and Valerie Leone. Max Bartell climbed even further up the order to take 2nd from Gaius, Fred Lajoux and Ian Flux all separated by 1.5 seconds at the flag. Richard Trott finished 6th in both races a little bit off his normal Brands Hatch Grand Prix pace. Cameron Jackson having finished 11th on Saturday, put in an absolutely amazing performance, (either he or the car were on drugs), climbing from his 11th finishing place up into the lead before the car expired on lap 6th. His fastest lap on lap 5, was quicker than Gaius Ghinn’s pole positon time on Friday! Adrian Langridge won the 1600 cc race again, but this time only a couple places ahead of Glenn Eagling and Jennifer Ridgeway won the FF2000, Ian Pearson not making the start for the Sunday race.

The French thanked us for a wonderful weekend and I must say the spectacle of 38 Classic Formula 3 cars charging round the Grand Prix circuit at Brands is as good as it gets!

Just a quick reminder that this French round takes place the weekend after Brands Indy and the French are keen to receive as many UK entries as possible. There are a few of us going to make the trip, so there is still time to make plans for a weekend in Le Mans, but hopefully not at the expense of the Brands UK Championship race.