Britcar Night Race, Brands Hatch, Saturday 15th November - Preview
Power in the Darkness

There are two ways you can view this 90-minute race in the early-evening November darkness; as a race for the overall win, or as a down-to-the-wire championship decider. Either way will prove exciting, and each will be contested by totally different cars.

The battle for the overall title has been, due to consistent performances, the preserve of Class 2 this season, and the Hawthorns Porsche 996 of Rod Barrett, Jan Persson and Jay Shepherd goes into the final round ahead of the Jaz Motorsport Porsche 911 of Henry Firman and 2007 title-holder Steve Bell. Taking dropped scores into account, and with the Jaz car playing its double-points joker tonight, the mathematical possibilities are numerous, and mainly play into the hands of Firman and Bell, so watch out for strategy to be compromised by opportunity should the necessity arise.

Meanwhile, overall race honours have been, in the main, contested by the Mosler marquee this season, and the most successful teams, Eclipse and Topcats, field their usual entries, for Michael/Sean McInerney, and Andrew Beaumont/ Henry Taylor respectively.  A phalanx of Ferraris - the Witt Gamski/Keith Robinson 360, and the two M-Tech 430s, and the Kessel 430, are joined by the usual end-of-season invitation entries, significant of which are Aaron Scott sharing Jim Geddie’s Porsche 997, a Team RPM Viper, and the ALMS regular Barwell Aston Martin DBRS9, running with the novel and topical race number 007, in the hands of Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker. Also entered, for what might be a last hurrah, is the Topcats Marcos Mantis in the hands of Mick Mercer and Richard Fores.

Whilst the title battle rages in Class 2, it could equally be upset by the other class runners intervening. Miles Masarati and Chris Wright have often been around to snatch a podium in the ex-Chad Porsche 996, and the similar car of Peter Heintzelman and Scott Aitken always shows well, but has a poor finishing record. The #26 Topcats Marcos has had a fluid driver line-up this season, but Radical pilot Neil Huggins has been a revelation during his stints, and, lest we forget, this is the car that led the Britcar 24 hours for many night time hours. With the drivers yet to be announced, this could be a dark horse.

The Britcar Production title is likely to fall to the Class 4 BMW 320i of Ian Lawson and Mike and Anthony Wilds, who have fought back into contention with a series of strong results after initial early-season despondency.  Also in the running has been the Class 3 Duke Video BMW M3 of Adrian Watt and Chris Wilson, but the production classes, too, have their fair share of invitation entries; Newly-crowned 2008 ProductionS1 champions Kevin Clarke and Wayne Gibson, in the black BMW M3 E46, join the fray, along with Torquespeed stablemate Angus Dawe, in his E36. The Barwell Honda Integra, in the hands of team boss Mark Lemmer and ace team mechanic Mike Brown, often punches above its weight in these races, and could spring a surprise – Lemmer’s Britcar record at Brands Hatch is formidable.

With last-minute deals still being done, the line-up could be considerably boosted come Saturday afternoon, when a short 15-minute qualifying session at 15.45 is followed immediately by a 30-minute night practice session, then the 91-minute race at 16.56 – precise timings courtesy of B Cottrell.

So, a title fight, a battle for the overall win, four classes with vast differences in power, in the dark, in the winter – it’s going to be a fraught race.

Steve Wood