Britcar is back - Preseason Review

[CLAIRE BRITCAR]

Season Preview – Britcar Dunlop Endurance Championship and Sprint Series.

Britcar goes from strength to strength. After a successful first season under the tutelage of new owners Claire and Rob Hedley, the 2017 season builds on that success. With grids of 30+ expected, the existing Endurance Championship races being run concurrently with the revised Sprint series for competitors who favour a shorter. The classes are identical for both categories, and here we look at the prospects for the coming season.
Class 1 is looking very healthy, with some regular faces returning, and new some new entrants adding variety. Former recent champions Calum Lockie and David Mason return in the FF Corse Ferrari 458 GT3, while a returning champion from several years back, Witt Gamski, will be campaigning his Michelotto-sourced Ferrari 458 GTE, shared with GT ace Ross Wylie. Add to this long-term front-runners Manuel Cintrano and Javier Morcillo in the Neil Garner-prepared Mosler MT900, and we can establish a pattern that may shape the context of the races – each of these three contenders has race-wining potential, and are piloted by a rapid professional partnered with an experienced, fast and steady gentleman driver. In short, these entries are well-matched in every way, and team strategy, reading the race as it unfolds, whilst acknowledging stint and refuelling regulations, will be crucial. Jonny MacGregor will also be in the mix – he will drive his superbly crafted, self-engineered Taranis alone for the first rounds, but is looking for a co-driver. Some minor glitches have been ironed out now, and this is a front-running machine. As yet an unknown quantity is the JMH-entered Aston Martin Vantage GT3; the pre-season images certainly identify this is a stunning car, and Wilcox is an acknowledged GT racing expert. There is Class 1 interest in the Sprint category as well – veteran campaigner Kevin Riley will be out in his familiar red and silver Mosler.
Class 2 looks great for both the Endurance and Sprint categories, thanks in no small way to Anthony Cheshire’s crack FF Corse outfit, the Ferrari experts fielding no less than five 458 Challenge machines. In Endurance, the pairing of Jonny Mowlem and Bonamy Grimes are back for a second shot, and Leyton Clarke partners Graham Lucking, whilst the vastly experienced national treasure Mike Wilds shares the DMS-sponsored machine with Carrera Cup frontrunner Dino Zamparelli. In Sprint, two of the country’s best coaches and GT racers, Jamie Stanley and Charlie Hollings, assist Laurent de Meeus and Marc Brough respectively. Safety in ninmbers, maybe, but there is class competition for the Maranello machines; in Endurance, Mike Moss’s unique BMW 1M, a technology-inspired creation by the Woodrow team of Ash Bird and Ed Platt, is now competitive – “I think we’ve got a front-running car” declared Moss recently - but needs a suitable driving line-up, and Moss usually comes up with star pilots. Colin Wilmott gives competition in the Sprint races, in his Porsche 997.
As with FF Corse in Class 2, Tony Gilham’s Team Hard swamp Endurance Class 3, with no less than four Ginetta G55s. The team dipped their toe in the water in the 2016 season-closing Brands Hatch night race, and suitably impressive, and impressed, they return for a full-season onslaught with eclectic mix of drivers – Tom Barley/Simon Rudd, Angus Dudley/Callum Hawkins-Row, Darron Lewis/Tom Knight, and Daniel Wylie/Toby Bearne are the eight hopefuls, with Lewis, Knight and Wylie boasting the previous Britcar experience. There are others, though, that will be in contention. Mark and Peter Cunningham are Britcar experts, and make no secret of going for the title this year in the SG Racing Porsche 997, 2016 Britcar Rookie of the Year is back to consolidate his experience in the Whitebridge Aston Martin Vantage, partnered this year by newcomer Dean Gibbs. Tentative entries from Mike Sellar (Porsche 911 GT3) and a similar entry from the WDC Racing team (hopefully we’ll see their Ferrari 458 out during the season) add to the mix, while in the Sprint category, old hands Marcus Fothergill and Dave Benett pit their Porsche 911 against the Cayman of Rick and Brad Nevinson and Sean Cooper.
Rob Hudson’s Team Eureka have taken club-racing professionalism to new heights in pre—season publicity, and in Class 4, the stunning turquoise Geoff Steel-engineered BMW M3 will be piloted by Hudson and ultra-talented Brazilian Adriano Medeiros. This will be a car to beat, and Geoff Steel stablemates Sam Alpass/Lee Atkins, in a similar machine, will be looking to making life difficult for them, as will multiple Class champion Mike Moss, allowing for finding suitable drivers for his rather special M3. The Sprint category is an all Ginetta affair; the prolific Tockwith team field a G50 for one of the talented family siblings, Ed Moore, and co-driver Marmaduke Hall, while a similar machine is entered by Paul Calladine.
Synchro Motorsport romped away with the Class 5 title in the Honda Civic Type R driven by Alyn James and Dan Wheeler last season, the Woodard Racing Mini Cooper having no answer to the experienced Swindon team. Woodard have international sportscar racing credentials though, and the learning experience of 2016 has led to a winter re-engineering programme, and a much-publicised push on fitness for Davie Birrell, the not-so-disabled military veteran who is sponsored by charity BLESMA, and partners team boss Daniel Woodard in the car. They will be narrowing the gap to the Honda, but will have further competition to contend with in the shape of Irish brothers Barry and Arthur McMahon in an Alfa Romeo 156, put in some impressive Sprint performances last year. Talking of the Sprint category, here you will find the world’s most powerful Smart car, the 350bhp version of Rob Baker and Jonathan Swan, and the VW Golf of Roland Hopkins and Matthew Sleigh.

So, with bumper grids, this is going to be an interesting season – let’s see how it all pans out, starting at Silverstone on April 9th.