Brands Hatch Race Day November 2005
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Britcar Open Report – Brands Hatch, 19 NovemberFlying FluxMichael Christopher and Ian Flux, in a Prosport LM3000, took the win in Saturday afternoon’s 90-minute encounter on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. The marque has long been associated with the Britsports series, but maybe the inclusion of two examples in the Britcar field marks a step forward for the future. Team Scandal had its newly-acquired Prosport too. “It originally
belonged to Bob Light,” explained Simon Scuffham, “We’ve
only had it for a few weeks, and we’re still getting used to
it.”
Aaron Scott, sharing the Beechdean Ferrari 360 with Rod Carman,
had whooshed up to third by the chequered flag, relegating the Masarati
/ Ashburn Porsche to fourth, at 49.957. “I wasn’t really
pushing,” noted a nonchalant Piers, “I know we can do
consistent 48s in the race.” The Cole brothers’ Damax Ferrari 360 was fifth on the grid, followed by the Chad Racing Porsche of Iain Dockerill and Nigel Greensall, who were lined-up for just about every EERC race on the programme. The Handkammer / Leslie BMW ended up seventh, and Mark Cole was eighth, taming the mighty Adam Sharpe Motorsport Ford Falcon that he was sharing with Alex Sidwell. Tony Brown and Ian White, in the maxxed-up Butler Motorsports BMW M3, took Class 1 pole, and the Barwell Motorsport Honda Civic shared by team boss Mark Lemmer and Leo Machitsky topped the Class 2 times. The Cartek Honda Civic was the fastest in Class 3, Neil Armstrong and drag racer Andy Barnes showing that they can still cut it, despite a sporadic race programme this season. And Team Scandal? Down in 12th, Simon Scuffham having to do the lion’s share of the qualifying, since Chris Randall was also competing in the Britsports race, in his IMSA Nissan, and was constrained by the closely-packed timetable. The Noble team’s tales of woe continued, the car completing just two laps before a stuck throttle threw Alex McKinnon into the tyre wall at Paddock. A sad end to a trying season. Since the debacle at Snetterton, where pit-stop strategy was compromised by a race shortened by force majeure, the EERC decided to experiment with a pit-stop window, dictating that all mandatory stops should be taken within the first 60 minutes of the race. Carman spun the Beechdean Ferrari as the cars exited the pit lane
to form-up on the grid, and Tony Skelton, in the Mini Cooper, was
similarly caught-out a little further round, incurring some minor
suspension damage, and a visit to the pits that would see him miss
the start. And it was a shabby start. Hirst had somehow been shoved to the
second row before the cars took the green and crossed the line,
and was nosing the Audi through a gap between Christopher’s
Prosport and Carman’s Ferrari. That gap was big enough, and
the turbocharged Audi was in the lead as the pack sped up the hill
towards Druids. A hectic first lap saw Warren Gilbert, driving alone
in the Topcats TVR, spin at Clearways, and a following Simon Scuffham
go off in sympathy, but with Hirst confirming his lead as they crossed
the line for the first time. The very quick laps, and numerous alleged
transponder problems, had sent the timing screens awry, but you
didn’t need a TV monitor to tell you that, with just three
laps on the board, the race had lost the Damax Ferrari, Craig Cole
crawling into the garage to retire with gearbox problems. Jon Simmonds
had parked the Griffin Motorsport Peugeot 307 by the ambulance gate
at Paddock Hill Bend, and was quickly joined there by Sidwell’s
Falcon (below - which did get out again, for some more laps). The
future wasn’t bright for the two orange machines, and the safety
car was deployed to assist their recovery. With but a handful of laps run, most deemed it too early for a
tactical mandatory stop, but not Nigel Greensall, who came in to
hand the Chad Porsche to Iain Dockerill. Whether this was a good
move or not will never be known, since the Porsche retired with
a blown engine around the half-way mark. Once the field was let loose again, Christopher made short work of claiming the lead from Hirst, and once past, began to extend his advantage. Scuffham, running in a close-packed squabbling group, made hearts flutter as he slowed dramatically in the middle of them, then coasted along the top straight to park at the pit exit, the victim of driveshaft failure. Peter Seldon, in his stunning BMW GTR, and Adam Wilcox, sharing
Phil Burton’s Ferrari 360, had been working through the order
from conservative grid slots, but both fell foul of the officials,
deemed to have passed cars under yellow flags, and incurred stop-go
penalties. Conversely, David Ashburn had been visibly slowing, and, before the race was thirty minutes old, the Vallelunga class-winning Porsche was pulled off into the access road behind the pits, its day done ("The gearbox was tired after Vallelunga," said the team manager). Steve Hirst had by now retired the Audi, too, with mechanical problems. The half-way stage caused a flurry of mandatory pit stops, but
David Leslie stayed out in the GTS Motorsport BMW to inherit the
lead, with Adam Wilcox’s Ferrari now second, and Pete Morris,
in the 911virgin.com Porsche he shares with Henry Firman, a stealthy
third. These three took it to the cusp of the 60-minute pit stop window, and once the race settled for the final half hour, Flux was in the lead again, with Handkammer second, Firman third, and Burton fourth. A second safety car period, to recover the Mike Wilds / Anthony Wilds BMW, parked-up on the grass at Clearways, bunched the field up, allowing a rapid Burton to close up on Firman once the field went green again. Once past, however, the white and blue Ferrari was unable to shake off the Uxbridge Porsche-sourcer, who hung on for several laps, before having his concentration torn by the chase of the Ferrari in front, or the threat of Eugene O’Brien, who had relieved Seldon in the GTR, closing in rapidly from behind. O’Brien in #3, once he passed the grey Porsche, and with just
minutes of the race left to run, exploited the opportunity provided
by Flux, who was coming up to lap the whole field once again. The
GTR latched onto the back of the red Prosport, and the pair sneaked
by Burton’s Ferrari. So Fluxie took the flag, 105 laps in 90 minutes, and, since he
and Michael Christopher were not entered in the night race, a fitting
end to the season. “It’s always important to win your
last race of the year,” he joked, adding, “I’ll be
down the pub a lot now, and people in the pub always ask how my
race went, so I can live on this until next March.” Peter Seldon was pleased to salvage third overall from the earlier delay. “I’ll hold my hands up for the infringement, these things happen,“ he confessed, “but Eugene drove his socks off in the closing stages, he really wrung the best out of it. We really don’t think the car is as competitive as it can be yet.” Warren Gilbert had seized fifth overall from Henry Firman by just
over a quarter of a second in the closing stages, but the Topcats
boss was under the weather, and not in a celebratory mood. “That’s the hardest race I have ever driven, the traffic was awful, and I’m absolutely knackered. The lights on the TVR are not really good enough, and I’m just not well enough for the night race,” he said as the team cleared up. Their blue Marcos Mantis, seventh overall in the hands of Richard Gomes and Luc Paillard, was already by now in the transporter. Aaron Scott had endured an in-out relationship with the pits since
relieving Rod Carman in the Beechdean Ferrari 360, but struggled
on to finish 12th overall. “It’s the Ferrari Brain,”
he explained, “the dash warning panel kept showing us things
were wrong, and affected gear selection. We carried on, but we’re
not going to risk it for the night race.” The Tony Brown and Ian White BMW (above) took Class 1 honours,
eighth overall, in front of lone drivers Kevin Clark and Ben Aucott,
also in BMWs. Sandwiched between these was the Ferrari 360 of Challenge
regulars Oliver and Nick Morley (below), whose equilibrium had been
disturbed by an overlong pit stop. Mark Lemmer and Leo Machitsky were lone Class 2 finishers, and a trio of Class 3 contenders completed the runners, the impressive Armstrong / Barnes Civic heading the old faithful Tony Doe / Ben Robinson Honda CRX, and the Brunswick Alfa Romeo 147 Diesel of Martin Parsons and Dave Ashford. And as some packed away, others began some frenetic preparation
for the night race. More of that later. Results Not Classified 70 3 SKELTON/FORSTER Mini Cooper S Works 1:31:19.648 72 N.C.F.
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