Early September saw the return of the popular Festival of Porsche at Brands Hatch. The festival provided another chance to celebrate all things Porsche during this 75th anniversary year of Porsche Cars and the 60th anniversary of the 911. In the true spirit of the marque, there was plenty of on-track action alongside all the static displays around the historic race circuit.
Only three weeks into the new year, my motorsports season kicks off with the MGJ Engineering Winter Stages Rally at my local track, Brands Hatch. Last year was wet and cold, as you would expect for January in the UK, but this year, Kent’s premier race circuit was bathed in glorious winter sun. It was still pretty chilly, and I was glad of my thermals.
The first event of the new motorsport season at Brands Hatch was the return of the MGJ Engineering Brands Hatch Winter Stage Rally. Ideally, this event should blast away the winter blues. However, the winter remained in full swing, delivering very wet ground. Brilliant for the competitors, not so great for those of us using the public car park by the entrance, where many people required assistance to get in and out. An idea for next year is to open the level Airfield Car Park; this would also avoid frustration and reduce the workload on Brands Hatch Staff.
MSVR delivered a thrilling weekend of racing from both single-seaters and closed wheel cars. With a chance to stretch their legs on the full Grand Prix Circuit at Brands Hatch.
Another chance to watch a great mixture of different rally cars racing on timed stages. It’s also a refreshingly different use of Brands Hatch – how ofter do you get to see cars racing through the pits, the wrong way?
Unless you’ve been hiding under a bush or have zero interest in Porsches you cannot have missed the fact that year has been a notable one for the German car marque. Porsche have done a great job of celebrating the 70th anniversary of the first Porsche sports car, built in 1948.
Returning for the second year, Deutsche Fest aimed to celebrate all German manufactured vehicles. This year though, they had teamed up with Heritage Parts Centre to bring us a whole weekend of activities. Saturday featured the Heritage takeover – a full track day for German cars only, plus displays and evening entertainment. With Sunday came a full race line-up, club displays, and Deutsche Fest Awards. All the ingredients were there for a perfect weekend – cars, clubs, racing and an amazing venue, but something seemed to be lacking this year. I know first hand that it takes a lot to put on a car show, and it’s even more effort if you include racing of any kind, I take my hat off to the Deutsche Fest team for putting in so much effort. There wasn’t anything wrong, I really don’t have a bad word to say, I just wasn’t feeling it this year and it probably shows in my photos. I’m sure next year will be awesome, if you like German cars then make sure you visit and support the Deutsche Fest team.
Another month and another trip to Brands Hatch, this time for the Masters Historic Festival. Taking advantage of the full GP circuit the drivers were free to stretch the cars to their limits. The packed programme included FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship, FIA Masters Historic Sports Cars, Masters Pre-66 Touring Cars and Historic Formula 2. Plus other support races from CSN Group YTCC and a Gentlemen Drivers.
Following on from the hearty 911UK breakfast earlier, we took a short drive over to Brands Hatch to watch a fantastic mix of club racers. The line-up of vehicles racing included the 5Club MX-5 Cup, 750 Formula, Classic Stock Hatch, Formula Vee, Historic 750 Formula, Hot Hatch, Locost, Toyota MR2, RGB Sports 1000, Roadsports and Sports Specials. Quite an eclectic line up which certainly made interesting viewing. Another great feature of these lower formula events is full access to the paddock and pit areas, which is great for photographers.
This two-day season-opening race meeting at Brands Hatch was run by the BRSCC South Eastern Centre, and several different classes ran around the Indy circuit.
Another wet and overcast day welcomed us to Brands Hatch for this track day. Although you don’t know who and what might be running on an open track day, there’s usually an interesting mix of people and cars both on track and in the paddock. It’s a great opportunity to hone your photography skills, especially panning shots. Today’s biggest lesson though was that I need to invest in some weather protection for my camera and lens’.
