The 750 Motor Club has a reputation for putting on race meetings with a wide variety of categories on view, and Brands Hatch on 21st & 22nd April was no exception.
I could only manage one day of the two and opted for the Sunday as some of the more interesting (to me) races were due that day.
The entry for Historic 750 Formula was a grid filling record of which the club should justifiably feel very proud, with some great looking machinery on track. Martin Depper (Centaur Mk14)took a narrow and thrilling victory in race 1, just getting the better of Ben Mayall, the gap being just three hundredths of a second after a place swapping battle, while Christian Pedersen claimed 3rd after leading initially from pole.
They were followed on track by their up to date counterparts and the first of their two races was a terrific race to watch. Reigning Champion Bill Cowley eventually took the win, with only half a second separating him from Peter Bove in 3rd and Mark Glover was in between the pair for 2nd. The 2nd race saw Ed Pither take victory (having led the first race until mechanical gremlins sidelined him) a few seconds ahead of Cowley and Glover, while Sue Harris (West Malling) secured the Class B victory in both races.
Another ‘double victor’ over the weekend was Matt Rozier (Dartford), driving his Peugeot 205 Gti in the Demon Tweeks Classic Stock Hatch Championship. He was made to work hard over the closing laps in Sunday afternoon race, as Lee Scott closed the gap that Rozier had created early on .
The opening race on Sunday was for the Formula Vee Championship – their second race, as their first was on Saturday. Graham Gant secured Saturday victory, closely followed by Daniel Hands and with Peter Belsey in 3rd. Ben Miloudi had been part of the front end battle in that race, but posted a late race retirement. However, he made amends on Sunday by claiming a fine win – leading all the way for the 3 laps that were all the field got after an earlier red flag. Craig Pollard was a close 2nd, with Hands in 3rd and Tonbridge driver Ian Jordan in 4th.
The Royal Purple Hot Hatch, Mazda MX-5 Cup and Toyota MR2 Championships provided more close and exciting racing on this varied programme – with the Toyota brigade needing to be split into three groups because of the large number of entries.
Billy Albone took a double victory in the RGB Sports 1000 Championship races, one on each day – though sadly I had to miss their Sunday race as I needed to make an early exit.
All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining day on Sunday – the great variety keeping things interesting, while the quick-fire race programme also kept the interest levels high as most races were of 13mins duration plus one lap. Well done to 750 Motor Club and the competitors.