Brands Hatch 24 Nov.

[Big E 118]

Is anyone here racing this weekend? I haven't seen a thread on it.

I went along last year and really enjoyed it as the drivers/teams are really welcoming and gave great access to the cars/pits.

It looks like it's production cars only for the into the night race and open GT earlier in the day where I thought last year the classes were run together?

Also it's not a championship race so does that mean the number of entries will be down?

I'll head along with my son anyway as we'll watch anything with engines racing!

[SimonMason]

Yes its a Production Cup 90 minute night race (although the cars are far from production spec!).

It is a points scoring round with most of the class titles still to be decided.

[Stuart Thompson]

Entry list for GT race now on Britcar website with 9 entries.

Edited by Stuart Thompson on Wednesday 21st November 18:11

[Big E 118]

Stuart Thompson said:

Entry list for GT race now on Britcar website with 9 entries.

Edited by Stuart Thompson on Wednesday 21st November 18:11

Thanks, a Mosler on the Brands Indy will be a handful won't it?

So who are the PH'ers that are running at the weekend?

[Stuart Thompson]

I know Hazy and Radders will in their M3 CSL. Kevin Clarke is a sometime poster. David Fairbairn is a poster but can't remember his username.
Phatgixer(Angus Dawe) is also entered. There are one or 2 others that I'm not sure of.

Edited by Stuart Thompson on Thursday 22 November 15:59

[ellis427]

Why is the actual night race with only production cars? does that mean no marcos's, gt3's, moslers, porsche...?

No offence to anyone in production sure it'll be a great and i will be there, but i have enjoy every britcar night race at brands for the last few years and especially the bigger bangers of the field, feel it will be abit lesser with out the bigger cars flames, banging, glowing disc's and general loud more in your face nature.

What time does the first race start?

[Stuart Thompson]

Number of reasons. the GTs don't like Brands Indy, Production are owed a round as GT raced on the GP circuit in July. and also production and GT have to be separate due to licence regs(thanks MSA) prod run nat B up but GT have min nat A so cant race together.

[ellis427]

I see I see. Thank for that reply, cleared that right up!

Shame about the licences, I understand that there is a performance difference, but that's only comparable to the way sportscar racing is and always has been, with different cars and levels of drivers. Shame took, a different side away from the races!

Anyway onwards and upwards

[Big E 118]

ellis427 said:

No offence to anyone in production sure it'll be a great and i will be there, but i have enjoy every britcar night race at brands for the last few years and especially the bigger bangers of the field, feel it will be abit lesser with out the bigger cars flames, banging, glowing disc's and general loud more in your face nature.

I've seen the response to why this is but I agree with ellis427 completely. Although we should get some good racing in the production class the spectators still want to see the show of the GT cars.

Britcar seems to under achieve as a racing series. I'm only saying this from a spectators point of view and will continue to support it but I've always wished it could develop into a bigger field of GT's and had a bit more of buzz about it.

I'm sure it's especially hard to develop a high level racing series in the current economic climate and I'm not saying I could do a better job! I guess you need crowds of people to attract more cars and more cars to attract bigger crowds, bit of a catch 22.

I'm not knocking the teams/drivers/organisers, it just seems Britcar could have and should have developed further over the years.

Good luck to anyone racing this weekend!

[Racing Rod]

Big E 118 said:

I've seen the response to why this is but I agree with ellis427 completely. Although we should get some good racing in the production class the spectators still want to see the show of the GT cars.

Britcar seems to under achieve as a racing series. I'm only saying this from a spectators point of view and will continue to support it but I've always wished it could develop into a bigger field of GT's and had a bit more of buzz about it.

I'm sure it's especially hard to develop a high level racing series in the current economic climate and I'm not saying I could do a better job! I guess you need crowds of people to attract more cars and more cars to attract bigger crowds, bit of a catch 22.

I'm not knocking the teams/drivers/organisers, it just seems Britcar could have and should have developed further over the years.

Good luck to anyone racing this weekend!

The problem here is that in effect, from 2008 onwards there has been very little or no growth in our economy, or in Europe's for that matter. Most businesses are under tremendous pressure just to survive and GT sponsors have therefore run for the hills. It cost me about £10k per race weekend to run our 997 GT3 so bloody expensive if you have to fund costs out of income with no sponsorship input. We have managed to keep racing through to the 2012 season but we have now simply run out of money and see the next 3/4 years as being as hard pressed as the last few. Placing a business and practical hat on, we can't justify continuing to race without regard for how it is to be funded and with prospects of a recovery being somewhat longer term, we have now sold our superb 997 and called it a day. Some teams that are run as businesses will no doubt continue as they have few options but to so do, but I don't envy their task in trying to find funded drivers to fill the seats. Other teams are funded by very wealthy individuals and to be frank, they are so well off that they are unlikely to be too worried by a small thing like a recession, so they will always be in the frame.

The problem with Gt racing is that a good proportion of the competitors are gentleman drivers with professional or semi professional support drivers, at best these support drivers expect a free drive in return for their services so if the gentleman drivers start to feel hard pressed financially, then everybody suffers. In our case we had two self supporting gentleman drivers and a semi professional in tow and as said, we have seen the writing on the wall and have had to withdraw to avoid commercial, business and personal financial suicide !!!

Motorsport in the UK at Britcar GT and British GT level is mainly funded by gentleman drivers, we as a group have supported our passion to the point just short of near stupidity as we love it so, but many of us will now take sabbaticals or seek much cheaper series to keep our hand in and satisfy our lust for speed and excitement. Don't therefore expect things to improve in any sense of the meaning of quick or quickly, unfortunately, it's likely to get much worse before we can detect an upward change in our overall well being. I joined forces with an old TVR Tuscan challenge mate of mine and entered a few races this season, it was good fun but we had our downsides and overall with such a restricted budget, one is left to wonder if it was indeed worthwhile. Still, as a driver with the contaminated blood that goes with the passion,most of us would lose a leg or some other body part if it meant we could race so you can rest assured that if there is a will, drivers will find a way.

[Big E 118]

I had noticed you weren't entered this year Rod, hope you get your racing fix elsewhere soon! You may remember you very kindly let my son and I have a nose around and sit in the 997 last year at Brands and spent some time chatting about the car. That is one of the reasons why we attended Silverstone and will be at Brands this weekend, the teams/drivers are very friendly and the access you get at Britcar events is great.

It's a shame that the economic factors have hit UK motorsport so hard. I guess with UK/western companies cutting sponsorship a lot of the investment in world motorsport is coming from the Middle East, India and China hence the growing race series in those parts of the world (or global series focusing less on Europe)and the decline here. Look at the money that has been put into F1 outside of Europe over the last few years.

[Markgt3]

The econemy does not seem to be affecting GT racing overall in fact GT racing has been on the up for the last few years

Just look at British GT , Blanchpain , and German GT3 ADAC this year

[Steve Britcar]

Quick Reports. First, Production Cup:

In appalling rain and wind, the 90-minute night race saw a meteoric pursuit by Michael Symons in the closing stages, but his BMW E36 finished just four seconds behind Wayne Gibson, in the Intersport BMW E46, which had been started by Kevin Clarke, and led for most of the race. The Sub Zero Wolf Seat Supercopa lost ground during the pit-stop period, but Adam Jones brought it back to third place overall. Class 2 saw a resurgence of form from the Ing Sport BMW 320I, Ian Lawson having arguably a career-best stint, allowing veteran Mike Wilds to finish fourth overall and claim the class win.

In Class 3, Harry and Edward Cockill were stunned by the performance of the class-winning Civic of Tim Saunders and new-recruit Matt Hamilton, but the Kentish brothers’ second place in the Pete Daniels-run Civic was enough to claim both the 2012 class and overall Britcar Production Cup titles.

And the Open GT and Sportscar Races:

Just seven cars turned-out for the pair of 45-minute races, but provided some enthralling action. Lee Mowle’s Ginetta G55 won on the road in Race 1, but was penalised for a short pit-stop, handing the win to lauded antiques expert David Mason, who had taken over the FF Corse Ferrari 458 from Calum Lockie, They won fair and square in Race 2, but Mowle had tested the limits of the Ginetta in the appalling conditions all day, and span into the pit entrance area, letting Kevin Clarke take second overall in the Intersport BMW E46.

Full reports to follow on the Britcar website.

STEVE WOOD

[Big E 118]

Just dried out from an extremely wet Brands! A great production car race and real nail biter with Symonds (?) in the E36 M3 catching the E46 leader with some excellent driving and also some fantastic overtakes.

Had a bit of a look around the pits and the teams were as welcoming as ever and always willing to let us look around the cars and answer questions. Big thumbs up to the teams.

[Stuart Thompson]

Yea I spent all day bar the Prod. race sat I the car with the engine running. I had every intention of getting out for the big 1, fortunately the race was mainly rain free. And what a race. Those who thought it would be less of a spectacle were off the mark, it was just as dramatic as any other of the previous into the night races at brands, and I've been to every 1 since its inception in 2003?

[vwfanatico]

Thank you to all the Britcar teams on the 24th for a brilliant day. It was our first experience of Britcar and will not be forgotten. Even with the rain and the cold we had a great time

The teams were so welcoming, talking to us about the cars their plans for next season and events that had happened this year. Special thanks to the Gillat father daughter team that told us so much about what they did.

We will definitely be back next season to watch more