The HSCC graced the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit at the weekend with its yearly HSCC Super prix, boasting a huge entry list throughout all of the classes.

More than 300 cars took to the track through 18 races over the two days – From old Sports Prototypes and Formula 500 machines, to the Formula Fords and touring cars of yester-year.

Saturday morning saw each category take to a damp, slightly foggy, Brands GP track all getting the chance to set their grid positions ahead of the races. But come midday, competitors were left with a dry track with gradually increasing temperatures – perfect for a day of historic racing!

The first race of the weekend saw Kevin Kivlochan in his Morgan Plus 8 start from pole, leading a field full of classic 50’s/60’s race cars, but he eventually lost the lead and the race win to a much more nimble 1966 Lotus 7, driven by Jonathan Stringer.

A crowd favourite, the Martini Trophy race shortly followed – a race comprised of 70’s sports prototypes, which was dominated in each of their races by Ian Flux in his incredible Oscella PA3.

Racers from the golden era of BTCC made an appearance in the Super Tourer races on both days – Both races concluded with a Honda Accord 1-2, with a win apiece for James Dodd and Stewart Whyte – The grid may have depleted from what was televised at Oulton Park earlier this year, but this series is in strong form, bringing back memories of the BTCC in it’s prime – And if you couldn’t make it to Brands to witness these classic tourers, head over to Silverstone in a couple of weeks for the Silverstone Classic in which will see a grid of up to 40 ex-BTCC cars take to the grid!

Formula cars made up a strong portion of the weekends action with one of the highlights being the Formula Ford race on Sunday afternoon – in which Tiff Needell made an appearance in a Lotus 69. A race long battle ensued between Sam Mitchell, Callum Grant and Michael O’Brien for the victory but was cut short on lap 12 when Mitchell tangled with a backmarker leaving him out on the spot, leaving O’Brien to take the honours.

The Derek Bell Trophy grid provided the sound track to the weekend with a wide variety of high-power single seater cars including 70’s and 80’s Formula 5000 and Formula 2 machines, which when thundering round the wooded Grand Prix circuit, is music to any race fans ears!

Both of the races fell the way of Michael Lyons in his Gurney Eagle FA74 (Formula 5000), who managed to hold off the charging Andrew Smith in his March 742. As for the local interest, the Derek Bell trophy had four Kent-based drivers; John Harrison (Mallock MK21), Richard Piper (Chevron B43), Tim Barry (March 76A) and Mary Whittaker (Van Diemen RF82), all of which enjoyed a weekend at their local track.

The race of the weekend came from the Historic Touring Cars. A field of up to 30 cars made the grid for their race – cars from a giant Ford Galaxie, Maidstone’s Colin Mckay’s Jaguar S Type, down to a number of agile Mini Coopers and Hillman Imps.

From the early laps, the Lotus Cortina and fire spitting Ford Mustang of Tim Davies and Neil Brown managed to break away from the field. With either car favouring different parts of the Brands GP track – the power of the Mustang giving Brown the advantage round the fast flowing sequence round the GP loop, while Davies’ Cortina negotiated the tighter, Indy circuit curves better.

This saw them swap the lead numerous time, eventually ending with Brown on the top step of the podium.

Martin Stretton swept the Historic Formula 2 races taking commanding victories in both races. The meeting concluded with a trio of single-seater contests, the first was the Historic Formula Junior in which John Milicevic claimed top honours in his Cooper T59.

Nick Padmore navigated his March 783 to victory in the Classic Formula 3 cars before Graham Fennymore took the win in the John Taylor Memorial Trophy for Historic Formula Ford 2000 with a come-from-behind drive.

 

Pictures in order:

David Brown (Ashford) during Formula 2 – Brabham BT30

Honda Accord 1-2 – Super tourers

Tiff Needell – Formula Ford

Michael Lyons – Derek Bell trophy winner

Davies and Brown battle for victory – Historic Touring Cars

 

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