Jordan Parsons Reports from Brands Hatch on the Circuit Rally Championship.
It has been 18 months since the circuit rally last visited Brands Hatch, but the circuit kicked off the new year as the next set of rally stars aim to hone in on their skills as they look to progress to the World Rally Championship in later years.
East Londoners Barney Lower and Ben Greenfield were driving the BMW Compact and were looking to make an impact against the favourites of the championship, Christ West and Steve McNulty.
Fans were delighted to see classic rally cars take to the track, with multiple Mitsubishi Evo’s, Ford Escorts Mk1’s and Subaru Impreza’s making a huge turnout.
However, there were even some unorthodox cars – The Ferrari 308 Michelotto and BMW Compact that were also used by participants.
The teams were split into categories and classes, similar to the 24-hour race at Le Mans, depending on the speed and capability of their cars.
The drivers had to focus on finishing at the top of their class, instead of pushing themselves to finish at the very top of the timesheets.
Wet Conditions
Conditions for the event were far from ideal, with blistering crosswinds and water soaked tarmac, that produced difficult racing environment for the drivers and their navigators.
It didn’t take long for the first mistake to be made, as Jeremy Straker spun out at turn two after getting on the power too early causing the rear end to step out and forcing a spin.
This set the trend for stage one in the rally school section of the track with multiple cars making the same mistake.
The weather worsened as the first stage went on, Brian Falminerin in the Ford Puma was the first casualty of the deteriorating conditions when he crashed at Druids, spinning off the track and crashing into the tyre wall.
Stage one was a good test and warning for what was to come later in the day, and the favourites West and McNulty started off strong – just five seconds clear of third.
Standing water covered the track as the second stage began which added an extra factor for the drivers to take into account on what was already a difficult stage.
Despite the conditions, the stage went without incident. Multiple drivers were putting in scarily quick times and the intensity was upped with the drivers pushing hard to make up lost ground from stage one.
During stages three and four, the drivers had to take a wide approach up to Druids because of the standing water which was causing cars to aquaplane across the corner.
Crash Ends Day
East Londoners Barney Lower and Ben Greenfield almost fell victim to turn 11, on the approach to Druids, as they nearly had a spin due to the standing water, however, Lower managed to drift through Druids to stay on the track with a sublime demonstration of his skill.
Many of the spectators starred and cheered them on after this spot of driving prowess. It pushed them on to achieve a strong finish at the end of the stages, finishing 33rd, but only five seconds behind the leaders.
The race came to an abrupt end in stage six after Ian Gwynne and Paul Howarth in the Subaru Impreza approached turn seven too quickly, which caused their prop shaft to snap under the pressure and flipped their car onto its roof and blocked the track.
The stewards decided to end the race after the incident. It was a strong day for Christ West and Steve McNulty after they managed to extend their lead at the top of the table, going into the next race day 3 seconds clear at the top of the pile.
The east London duo, Lower and Greenfield managed to climb 15 places to 33rd and are looking to make a big impact as the winter stages come to an end. The next events are also being held at Brands Hatch before moving back up north for the final few stages of the 2016 Winter Rally.