Donington Race Cancelled

[Britcar David]

Donington Park have today confirmed that they are unable to gain approval from the local council to run the Britcar race meeting on the 4th and 5th November.

To compensate for the loss of this championship round the final race meeting of the year, which was intended to be a non championship night race at Brands Hatch lasting for 90mins, has now been changed to a championship scoring round and will last 4 hours for the Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship competitors and 2 hours for the Britcar Dunlop Production GTN Championship. There is no change in the Brands Hatch entry fee from the originally published prices.

In addition to compensate for the loss of race time at Spa and Thruxton during the season we have also increased the race length at Snetterton from 3 hours for the Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship to 4 hours with no increase in entry fee. The Britcar Dunlop Production GTN Championship will remain at 2 hours for this event.

The above changes have been verbally confirmed with the MSA and we are awaiting the paperwork to issue the relevent Championship Bulletins.

We sincerely apologise for the situation which has been out of our control.

[Racing Rod]

Britcar David said:

Donington Park have today confirmed that they are unable to gain approval from the local council to run the Britcar race meeting on the 4th and 5th November.

To compensate for the loss of this championship round the final race meeting of the year, which was intended to be a non championship night race at Brands Hatch lasting for 90mins, has now been changed to a championship scoring round and will last 4 hours for the Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship competitors and 2 hours for the Britcar Dunlop Production GTN Championship. There is no change in the Brands Hatch entry fee from the originally published prices.

In addition to compensate for the loss of race time at Spa and Thruxton during the season we have also increased the race length at Snetterton from 3 hours for the Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship to 4 hours with no increase in entry fee. The Britcar Dunlop Production GTN Championship will remain at 2 hours for this event.

The above changes have been verbally confirmed with the MSA and we are awaiting the paperwork to issue the relevent Championship Bulletins.

We sincerely apologise for the situation which has been out of our control.

Is the proposed 4hr Brands race still a night race? Nice touch on the fees!!

[macgtech]

Will the Brands Hatch round will now be using the full circuit? As a driver of a class one car, I think 4 hours lapping at circa 45 seconds per lap in the dark dodging slower cars will be interesting to say the least!

Might be a stupid question - but has the possibility of running the Donington round during the day been explored?

[macgtech]

Sorry, forgot to add - I also think its very good of Britcar to increase the track time to compensate for lack of in previous rounds. Thumbs up!

[courageous]

macgtech said:

Will the Brands Hatch round will now be using the full circuit?

Glad you asked that, as I was reminded of this from last Autumn http://www.britcar24hr.co.uk/cms/news.php?item.100...

James Tucker said:

With the Brands Hatch GP circuit not available to us, it’s just not feasible to have the cars we’ll be running in 2011 on the Indy circuit for three hours

I automatically assumed this must mean the GP track has been secured, but doubt has been raised by others.

[Britcar David]

Still on the Indy unfortunately, local planning means we can't use the GP circuit.

Thanks for the supportive comments. We appreciate its not the ideal solution but given the circumstances it is the best solution we can come up with.

We appreciate the Production runners have got a more raw end of this deal as they are not having an increase in race length at Snetterton to compensate for the loss of track time at Spa (the extra half hour at BH is not necessarily sufficient) and we would like any production competitors to get in touch with us to see if they want a longer race at Snetterton. We have up to 4 hours of race time available and the original race length was scheduled to be 2 hours, if you would like more than that or want to keep it at 2hours please either post here, speak to us this weekend at Castle Combe or get in touch with us at the office on 01252 834377 and we will go with the general consensus of opinion.

[Racing Rod]

Britcar David said:

Still on the Indy unfortunately, local planning means we can't use the GP circuit.

Thanks for the supportive comments. We appreciate its not the ideal solution but given the circumstances it is the best solution we can come up with.

We appreciate the Production runners have got a more raw end of this deal as they are not having an increase in race length at Snetterton to compensate for the loss of track time at Spa (the extra half hour at BH is not necessarily sufficient) and we would like any production competitors to get in touch with us to see if they want a longer race at Snetterton. We have up to 4 hours of race time available and the original race length was scheduled to be 2 hours, if you would like more than that or want to keep it at 2hours please either post here, speak to us this weekend at Castle Combe or get in touch with us at the office on 01252 834377 and we will go with the general consensus of opinion.

So, if I have this right, its 4 hours for GT on the Indy circuit the first 2 hours of which will be with production. Assuming say 15 entries in each championship, that will be 30 plus cars where the quickest will be below the 45 sec mark and the slowest at plus 60 secs, therefore 3 laps or so before the head catches up with the tail.

I ask again, is this planned as a day and night race or entirely one or the other?

[Britcar David]

Sorry Rod, I missed your question earlier. It will start in the day and finish in the night, I suspect looking at the sunset times the Production race will finish at dusk.

[Racing Rod]

Britcar David said:

Sorry Rod, I missed your question earlier. It will start in the day and finish in the night, I suspect looking at the sunset times the Production race will finish at dusk.

Thanks David,I guess it now depends on the number of entries Britcar accepts in order to keep race safety high on the list of priorities based on comments made by James in 2010 as posted above.

[Britcar David]

Preciscely Rod.

That is also part of the reason for having a 2hour/4hour split for the championships so the Production runners will finish at dusk and the night time part of the GT race will only have the GT runners in it, approx halving the size of the field for the dark running.

[s111spp]

Last year I competed in the Lotus 1000km on Brands Indy, which was day into night (November event). Although the mix of cars wasn't quite as wide as this, there was a good 10 second gap between fastest and slowest (think 2-11, S/C Exiges vs production S1 Elises). It was a fantastic event and actually suited the Indy circuit very well IMO.

The silver lining this year is that this event clashed with Donington, so I might be able to compete now

[RPM1200]

David - quick question - What time is the race start at Brands?
SBB

[courageous]

At a quick guess, since curfew is 1830 (previous couple of years Britcar have run as late as poss to maximise the night aspect) & allowing a fudge factor, 1415 would be the obvious start of a 4hr race (got to allow for slowing down laps etc...)

Night Qual has to be on Friday, Production cup preview 90 min race has been mooted & Smart cars have this as a TBC on their calendar so all in all it'll be damn busy (not to mention giddy for poor old BJ in the comms tower)

Edited by courageous on Wednesday 21st September 00:02

[RPM1200]

Thanks :-)