All Change at Brands Hatch Superprix Spectacular

A host of new faces dominated the podium positions when the CALM All Porsche trophy (CAP) visited the Legends of Brands Hatch Superprix meeting for a 40 minute Endurance race on the spectacular Grand Prix circuit. Qualifying

The season-long battle for pole between the Caymans of Warren Allen and Christian Walker continued, with Christian taking 1st overall and the SP1 class from Warren during the 20 minute qualifying session. The 2nd row comprised Brands specialist Colin Tester in his SP2 class Boxster ahead of series returnee Paul Simpson’s Cayman, with row 3 comprising Garry Goodwin’s Boxster and Chris Bialan’s Cayman also returning to the fray. Dan Crego in his familiar 968 was quickest SP3 car, fractionally ahead of the similar car of Nick/James Carey with Theo Bridgeman-Williams in a strong 3rd place in his Rothmans tribute 944S2.

There was only one SP4 runner at Brands - Chris Valentine in the multi-stickered car he had recently acquired from Clive Morison. He started from the back of the grid having qualified out of session along with series stalwarts Jamie McHugh and Rich Gravestock in Boxster and Cayman respectively. Race Warren Allen made the best start, taking the initial lead, but Christian Walker was past by the end of the first lap. Paul Simpson was established in P3, closely followed by Colin Tester’s Boxster, and the scrap between these two was a feature of the race, the pair tied together even after the pit stop phase.

Warren was pushing hard to hang onto Christian’s leading car, finally pushing just a bit too hard and spinning at Surtees and dropping to 4th place. By lap 10 he’d repassed the 3rd place Tester Boxster, taking the lead from Paul Simpson after Christian Walker took his pit stop, and maintaining this lead until his own pit stop, when Walker was re-established at the head of the field. Alas Christian’s comfortable lead came to nothing as his car stopped on the pit straight with a mechanical problem after 20 laps, causing the race to be halted 3 minutes early. Although Warren took the flag in first place, he was demoted to 7th due to a time penalty for a late pit stop, leaving the race win to the rapid and consistent Paul Simpson, who finished half a second ahead of Colin Tester after a race long battle.

3rd place was taken by Dan Crego’s SP3 class winning 968, having indulged in a race-long duel with the Boxsters of James Brodie and Garry Goodwin, decided in Dan’s favour from James by half a second after a slow pit stop took Garry out of contention, although he still took 3rd in SP2. Slightly further back, the Will Curtler/Zak Fulk Boxster was embroiled in a close race with Chris Bialan’s Cayman, with the Bialan Cayman well clear after the pit stops. Ahead of these 2 were Rich Gravestock’s Cayman, charging from the back of the grid to take an eventual SP1 P2 and 6th overall and the Carey family 968 taking 2nd in SP3 from Theo Bridgeman-Williams who had been very competitive throughout the race in his 944S2. A feature of the race was a frantic duel between the 968s of Clayton Sampson, Nick Goldberg and Steve Lloyd, only curtailed when Clayton hit the Armco around the back of the circuit, retiring with a damaged car.

A star of the race was Ken Van Hauen, winning the Invitation class. He started from the back after asteady qualifying session, but quickly got into the groove, advancing through the field with a best lap time almost half a minute ahead of qualifying pace and deservedly winning the coveted Driver of the Day trophy.

Chris Valentine took home a massive bottle of Prosecco for his continuing role as a stalwart of the series.

Our next races are on Silverstone's International (south) circuit on Sunday 16th August.