The Brands Hatch thread

[Knowlesy]

Nico's drive in the feature race was Alonso-like. Despite all the pressure from Robbie, he never put a foot wrong. You just knew he wouldn't be beaten, especially when Robbie threw it off the road for the umpteenth time.

Exciting stuff indeed!

Kudos to Karthikeyan also, shame he missed the podium, so close!

[maximus]

I was there for the whole weekend, and the weather and the campsite made it a wonderful weekend. Whoever chose the support races made some great choices as there were several vareitys of cars and great racing on show.

I would like to personally thank Linton Stutley and his family for being so kind with showing my disabled best friend round their Formula Ford car on the Saturday. It was a very nice gesture and one I regrettably didn't get to repay!

The actual A1GP races were excellent, and while they didn't have much overtaking, the close battles and tension throughout the races made up for it. Robbie did a great job in qualifing and the races, and while he couldn't quite win race 2 his determination made up for it in spades. I think everyone appreciated his efforts when the race ended.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend, well worth the money. The track is superb, its just a shame it takes so long to get there and back!

[MagnetON]

Originally Posted by maximus

Whoever chose the support races made some great choices as there were several vareitys of cars and great racing on show.

Must admit I thought the racing on the support classes could have been better, I think that certainly the Sports 2000's are much better on the "Indy" circuit. Good to see such large grids though and I'm sure the support classes were chosen on the basis of "who will put on a good show and fill the GP circuit"

Thoroughly enjoyed myself down at the bottom of Paddock Hill, even if the marshals post was a sun-trap and too hot for wearing overalls!

Nice to see a home win for GB, even if I'm supporting Ireland these days

[nev]

[QUOTE= You just knew he wouldn't be beaten, especially when Robbie threw it off the road for the umpteenth time.
QUOTE]

Robbie knew he was able to lap quicker than Nico ,as per the first race, so he had to first get past, but as all good racing analysts know when your close behind someone your downforce and grip are hindered thus the throwing it of for the umpteenth time. If he wanted to just follow Nico i doubt he would have come off at all.

It was great seeing him mount an attack then have a go. Well done to Nico for keeping cool under presure though. And great RACING by both of them.

[JimW]

Interesting too that when Robbie did get past Nico, he could not make it stick.

Great weekend, the A1GP are fun cars to watch even if the driving standards cover a wide range. (The noise and lack of driver aids all contribute to the enjoyment.) Supports were pretty good and at least there were full grids for everything.

Superb organisation and contributions from top to bottom. As only an occasional visitor to Brands these days, it was good to see how the place is flourishing under JP's hands. MSVR seems to have things going for it at the moment. I hope that can continue but alongside a resurgence of the BRSCC.

Regards

Jim
(Who enjoyed three days in the Extrication vehicle near post 8.)

(PS Maximum respect to the man controlling the flow of traffic at the crossroads behind post 8 - Five or six conflicting streams of traffic and lots of daft pedestrians and no one run over and no tempers lost over three days.

I'll never complain about how difficult things can be in Donington's paddock again. Well not until next week. )

[ISPL]

Originally Posted by strider

Congratulations to him and to Robbie giving us a fantastic and fair race yesterday.

Strider, I think you make a really good point.

Despite some of the closest, most competitive wheel to wheel racing I have had the pleasure of watching all of the drivers (especially Nico and Robbie) drove with the highest level of professionalism and fairplay. Credit also to the back markers who got out of the way of the top two (even though I secretly hoped they might not).

[ISPL]

Originally Posted by nev

Robbie knew he was able to lap quicker than Nico ,as per the first race, so he had to first get past, but as all good racing analysts know when your close behind someone your downforce and grip are hindered thus the throwing it of for the umpteenth time. If he wanted to just follow Nico i doubt he would have come off at all.

It was great seeing him mount an attack then have a go. Well done to Nico for keeping cool under presure though. And great RACING by both of them.

I think that is one of the compromises you get with the design of the A1GP car. Whilst the large rear wing was designed to give better slip streaming down the straights it unfortunately also creates more turbulance and less down force for the trailing driver around the twisty parts of the circuit.

It was always going to be difficult after Nico made the most of the clean side of the track to the first corner. But credit to Robbie for keeping up sustained pressure for the entire race and credit to Nico to not buckling under it.

[bella]

Originally Posted by JimW

Great weekend, the A1GP are fun cars to watch even if the driving standards cover a wide range.

and that just about sums up a1gp, i reckon. the country vs country concept is starting to work really well too, although that's looking at it from a purely british point of view. i'd really rather like to go to the zandvoort round - i'm guessing the dutch support for the dutch driver blows the british support into the weeds...

one stat i'd be very interested to see is the number of people who return to see more racing after going to one of msv's big crowd-pullers. i'd wager that they don't encourage people to see other racing, but they would more than likely return to the event the following year.

on a personal note, i did quite like the britcar supporting a1 - great field, very different cars, and a very interesting bit of food for thought. i think at big events like that where you're introducing a lot of people to motorsport it's nice to have a good mix. then again, it might have been better to have a "big name" series supporting it.

[cos]

Originally Posted by bella

on a personal note, i did quite like the britcar supporting a1 - great field, very different cars, and a very interesting bit of food for thought. i think at big events like that where you're introducing a lot of people to motorsport it's nice to have a good mix. then again, it might have been better to have a "big name" series supporting it.

It would be fun to have bigger name supporting series, but I guess the problem is the likes of British F3/GTs or BTCC wouldn't be best pleased having to inhabit the support paddock when they're used to being top bill. Plus, having a big name support series would presumably knock out another race weekend which Brands could promote as one of their big ones.

[bella]

by big name i suppose i mean things with shiny trucks and cars and lots of team members, not necessarily big names like btcc. i almost think it's important to present a professional but accessible image to the new visitors as much as it is an approachable affordable motorsport, because much as i think msv and a1gp might like to think it's accessible for the fans, a couple of autograph sessions and chargable pitwalks aren't half as impressive for people as a load of awnings containing shiny things and posh expensive looking cars that they can peer into, and drivers pottering around.

[Hepatic]

Britcar were fantastic. Having seen the poorly supported (by teams at least) Oulton round in 2005, it was nice to see what Britcar should be all about. Gutted that the Chamberlain Porsche didn't make it to the end, that was turning out to be a spectacular race. You'd almost think he broke a driveshaft in race 1 on purpose...

Couple of minor hiccups during the weekend (JP deeming the VIPs more important than marshals so the minibus was otherwise busy) but for a really tight schedule it went really well.

i'd really rather like to go to the zandvoort round - i'm guessing the dutch support for the dutch driver blows the british support into the weeds...

Possibly. I wasn't near the crowds at Brands, but the Dutch certainly do have a good set of lungs on them. I heard the crowd in the main grandstand from the Audi S, and that was over the noise of the cars!

[spider]

A1GP is certainly highly polished and works beautifully with the MSV approach. Both are young and fresh, looking at motorsport from a different angle. Though JP isn’t most peoples favourite, I am delighted with the job he and his team have done in restoring Brands. It looks thoroughly more polished than Silverstone, though that’s not hard.

The Nation vs Nation thing creates a football-type atmosphere, with most of the crowd cheering on one person. Never experienced a roar at a motorsport event like I did when Kerr overtook Nico for that one corner!

Bella, agree with your points, and felt the same. Good mixture of support cars, but motorsport to me is about the noise of the things, as well as the speed, so perhaps if they’d grabbed in the ol’ Group C cars, or something like that it would have improved it slightly, simply because of their noise…

My dad and I were talking about the number of people who just don’t see the attraction in motorsport, how they prefer footy, cricket, golf or whatever. The newbies who weren’t necessarily motorsport fans were blown away with how the cars looked, the speed but most of all the noise of a proper racing engine.

A1 had a great mix of peeps there. You had some of your nerds walking around, couples, groups of lads etc. Liked Martin Brundles’ plug for Bedford Autodrome during the lunch hour.

Thought a good PR move would have been to put him in the car for a few demo runs…but…

[MagnetON]

Originally Posted by spider

Never experienced a roar at a motorsport event like I did when Kerr overtook Nico for that one corner!

And thanks to the "Gigant-o-vision" screens around the circuit it seemed like EVERYWHERE roared!!

[dazbaz_99]

I went all 3 days this year, the opening race of last season at Brands was one of the best meetings I have ever been to and that alone made me want to come back and see it again. The weather was fantastic, the A1 cars were awesome (they seemed more spectacular than last time, I cant pin point why), at some parts of the circuit you could even smell them, and their was a good mix of support races to keep you entertained between the main events. As someone has already said Brands Hatch and those types of Single Seaters are a fantastic combination. Its one of the few events I can safely say I will be attending next year assuming they return.

Well done to MotorsportVision for a fantastic meeting, Brands Hatch looked magnificent.



P.S. One thing that could be bettered next year is to have a TV Screen on the inside of Paddock facing the Paddock Grandstand. The one on South Bank was a little too far away i think.

[White flag man]

Originally Posted by spider

Thought a good PR move would have been to put him in the car for a few demo runs…but…

They did have John Watson do a few laps of the Indy circuiti n an A1GP car at the earlier BTCC meeting, making me realise I'd need ear defenders last weekend.

[Suze]

Didn't Watson also do a demonstration on the Friday? Thought I'd seen something on a prov timetable (I wasn't there for that...)

[bella]

Originally Posted by spider

Bella, agree with your points, and felt the same. Good mixture of support cars, but motorsport to me is about the noise of the things, as well as the speed, so perhaps if they’d grabbed in the ol’ Group C cars, or something like that it would have improved it slightly, simply because of their noise...

no no, the poor spectators needed their eardrums resting, and besides, everyone's got to talk about the racing at some point, you certainly couldn't do that during the a1 race

[White flag man]

Originally Posted by Suze

Didn't Watson also do a demonstration on the Friday? Thought I'd seen something on a prov timetable (I wasn't there for that...)

He did, but it was early in the morning, so I don't think it was for spectators benefit, maybe for television set up.

[Spudgun]

Originally Posted by White flag man

He did, but it was early in the morning, so I don't think it was for spectators benefit, maybe for television set up.

One of my work colleagues has Sky Sports and tapes the coverage for me. In the previous rounds he's done a lap of the circuit all wired up to a mic to describe the layout for the TV viewers.

[dazbaz_99]

Originally Posted by Spudgun

One of my work colleagues has Sky Sports and tapes the coverage for me. In the previous rounds he's done a lap of the circuit all wired up to a mic to describe the layout for the TV viewers.

Thats right, he was out Friday morning for 15 minutes, and did a handful of laps for the TV. Apparently his laps are shown on all the live broadcasts, its not just a Sky Sports feature, which is what I thought.

[maximus]

Originally Posted by bella

on a personal note, i did quite like the britcar supporting a1 - great field, very different cars, and a very interesting bit of food for thought. i think at big events like that where you're introducing a lot of people to motorsport it's nice to have a good mix. then again, it might have been better to have a "big name" series supporting it.

They were easily the best support races of the weekend too IMO. Some of the cars were great fun (Richard Chamberlains Porsche 935 was a great spectacle) and there was some entertaining battles and individual performances. (Mike Jordan springs to mind)

[Stephen Green]

Agree, Mike Jordan was brilliant as was the little MGZR? that was stunning to watch round Hawthorns

[Hepatic]

...and the Morgans powersliding out of Surtees, awesome!

[Neil iDT]

the guy who was driving the number 24 Lola Sport 2000 sucked. He spun twice at Druids and both times made a complete hash of getting back on track. The marshalls there were taking the mick something rotten.

Was a great weekend, just a shame South Africa's feature race didn't last too long. That Porsche 935 was something else and the Rouse Camaro kicked much ass.

I love going to Brands Hatch, the facilities are very good (I even got to shower!), we got free food from the food bar in Paddock Hill grandstand, the support races were very entertaining and the weather was ace. Cant wait to go next season

[Gilles lives!]

Full credit to the FPA guys also, the 3rd race was a cracker with the power boost being used to the max. On Friday afternoon I noticed 3 of the 'boys' from the sharp end of race 3, walking the GP loop, laughing and joking, little did I know that they were to take things so seriously come the racing !

Robbie starred (great post race do'nuts) as did the ultra cool Nico and Brands looked superb, thanks to the marshals managing to repair various tyre barriers, the grabber drivers were certainly kept busy.

I only caught 1 FFord race which Freddie Hunt managed not to cover himself with glory in and missed both S2000 races. I thought that the BRITCAR and Historic tourers spread themselves out well on the GP Loop although the safety car appeared perhaps a little too often.

As we left through the Paddock exit on Sunday, we noticed a crowd of people peering over a bridge onto the M20 waving to the Gumball 3000 gang, just then, that very noisy Ferrari Enzo passed by followed by the Bugatti Veyron and others. The end to a great weekend.