Masters Historic Festival, Brands Hatch

[Sir Snipes]

Headed down to Brands today for the Historic Festival. For those not familiar, Brands has two layouts. The short "Indy" Circuit, essentially almost all which is visible from the start/finish straight and takes a 90s SuperTourer less than a minute to lap . The longer version is the GP circuit where, from the perspective of the grandstand, the cars at Surtees instead turn left and bugger off into the forest, eventually re-emerging and heading into the final turns at Clearways and Clark. Trying to avoid photographing through the fence, which surrounds almost all of the circuit, I found a good spot on the entrance to Clearways by the bridge. Only problem here is you have basically zero warning of what's approaching, making it almost impossible to photo specific cars without getting lucky. 

I arrived too late for the open pit lane, but first up was Qualifying for the Masters pre-66 Touring Cars. In this instance, it was a Ford Falcon, a Mercury Comet Cyclone, a whole host of Mustang Notch Coupes, Lotus Cortinas and a couple of Minis. 

Next up was the Interseries Classic F3s. This is the bridge over the straight at Pilgrim's Drop, heading into the forest;

And I think this is Hawthorn Bend;

Next up was the star event, the Masters 66-85 F1 Cars. Now I'm not really into F1, or open wheelers generally, but you really can't beat the sound of a purpose built racing car about 10ft away from you. Back at Clearways for the parade lap;

This is Clark Curve, pit entrance on the driver's left and heading onto the start/finish "straight";

Next event was the Interseries F2. More interesting than I expected, seeing some fairly early aero cars;

Back to Pilgrim's Drop

This is the bridge at Clearways again, but from the opposite side. This is perhaps the loudest section of track as the trees seemed to form a tunnel that exaggerated the noise of the cars. Also my favourite picture of the day;

 

[Sir Snipes]

Next was the Masters GT, the most modern event by far so the least interesting IMO. A bit of a mismatch as this Lambo was about 20-odd seconds a lap ahead of the field.

These two Ginettas had a good race with one another;

This took us up to half past one for the lunch break (I've just realised I got the order wrong, but eff it I'm not editing the post lol). They had a handful of 90s F1 Cars doing parade laps. This is Druid's Bend, at the top of the famous Hailwood's Hill;

Fantastic looking but basically ineffectual Leyton House. I think it "retired" as it only managed one lap;

Equally ineffective Arrows, but they both made a lot of noise. I had to wonder who owns, uses and preserves hopeless forgotten 1990s F1 Cars?

Back to Clearways;

 

After lunch, they had the F3s race again, then it was the Masters Sports Cars Legends. These appear to be a mix of Can Am McLaren's (with huge Chevy V8s) and some LeMans race cars. Quite a depleted field compared to last year, apparently. This is the McLaren;

This I believe is a March of some sort. Heavy on the Aero as you can see, but "only" a 2 litre engine (albeit a screamer) compared to the 6 point odd of the McLaren. Interesting juxtaposition.

And a little Ginetta that looked like it was in the wrong race, or the driver was taking it easy (there were a few cars throughout the day that appeared happy to put in laps and to keep out of the way);

They then repeated the F1 and F2 races. I unfortunately left before the final event of the day, the Masters pre-66 Tourers, that had qualified first thing. It was a good day with great weather and Brands is a really good spectator circuit. It's quite compact even in GP form, so easy to see all of it, but I'd recommend decent walking shoes if you're going to venture into the forest as I did. I may make this a regular thing as £25+free parking is pretty good for a whole day of entertainment, but I may get excited and try to get into photography again (there are old postings on here from when I was regularly attending air shows and became frustrated with the phone camera). There was also the usual car club displays, which I didn't pay too much attention to as it was the usual car show stuff, other than noticing a lot of FWD Elans. Next week is some American themed event, and end of June is the classic 90s Super Tourers which I really like. Tickets already booked for that one.

[Sir Snipes]

I have very noisy videos too, but I don't know where to host them nowadays?

[Sir Snipes]

Also, pictures and TV just don't do justice to the sheer topography of Brands. The Indy loop is essentially a large bowl with surprisingly steep sides, giving large hills and crests for drivers to deal with. 

[Stinkwheel]

Great pics, really enjoyable. I havent been to Brands for years and it was mostly bike stuff I used to go to, but its one hell of a great circuit, old school, fairly narrow and with ups and downs, wonderful

[Sir Snipes]

I remembered Vimeo exists so here is some noise.

 

[Sir Snipes]