Two very different days of weather served up some entertaining racing at Brands Hatch at the weekend.
The circuit played host to the British Automobile Racing Club, National Championship race meeting.

There was plenty on the bill to keep the spectators that watched in the sun on Saturday or the rain on Sunday thoroughly entertained.

In the Michelin Clio Cup Series there were good results across the weekend for Dartford’s Lidsey brothers and Tom Barley.

Rod Birley was once again on fine form in the Quaife Motorsport News Saloon Car Championship where he took his eight win of the season on Sunday.

It wasn’t straightforward for the West Kingsdown resident, as he had a problem with his trusty Ford Escort. It meant that he faced a race against time to make it out for qualifying, he did just that and never looked back from there.

He led from start to finish, and was not put off by the safety car coming out due to the inclement weather meaning there were plenty of visits to the gravel traps and the crash barriers.

In the final race of the weekend, Birley was to win his ninth race of the season, finishing a second ahead of Tom Knight who made it a double podium for the weekend after his second place in race one as well. Ian Butler made sure that it was an all familiar podium with his second third place of the weekend. Birley now has a 62 point lead in the championship.

On Saturday in the fine weather Brett Lidsey brought his Renault Clio home in second place, after an entertaining race which saw places being swapped on every lap.

Tom Barley who looked racey all weekend, finished with a good solid fifth place finish.

Both were confident going into the wet races Sunday that they could produce more good results.

However, Brett was involved in a couple of incidents early on in the race whilst in second place as the safety car came back in following an earlier incident. Having over done it going into a corner, Brett kept the car on the track but was clipped as he exited which put him down.

He was clearly trying to finish the race when he was clipped and taken out of the race as it came to its conclusion, which meant that he didn’t finish the race unfortunately.

Barley however was clearly quicker than the two cars in front of him, and was looking for a way past as he sat in fourth place.

He made that move at Druids and it didn’t go well, resulting in him being one of the many visitors to the gravel trap, and that was where his weekend would end, had he not tried to force the move he could have finished on the podium for the first time this season.

It was left then to the younger Lidsey brother Tyler to show his more experienced teammates how to do it. He came home in second place in the Road series driving a mature, calm and measured race to take the podium finish.

The Junior Saloon car championship was one of the most entertaining series out in the rain before lunch and after lunch. With James Clarke taking a double in races that were more than eventful and in race one that resulted in a red flag due to a car rolling over at Paddock Hill Bend.

Pictures courtesy of www.amsoul-images.com