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Monoposto Championship Brands Hatch 28 March 2010: 2000 & Classic

The Entry

The entry list boasted a spectacular number of Mono Classic 2000 entries – clearly the class for the cognoscenti, with Mono 2000 having several Dallaras, but curiously not one of the expected “new” Dallaras appeared, excepting Graham Read’s developed Mono Formula car from last year. What did appear were several new Formula Renaults, including a brace run by Antec Motorsport to BARC spec in Mono 2000 and a very nice Alpa driven by Chris Scott in Mono Classic plus a newly acquired car in the hands of Tom Brown.. Jeremy Goodman just ran out of time to get one his Ralts ready (too much choice?). Doug McLay was forced to withdraw his Mygale from the Mono2000 (and Mono1800) races, while Amnon Needham withdrew his entry after a family bereavement, but was credited with tenth fastest qualifying time in the Mono 2000 race! This is the type of error that could lead to unfortunate misunderstandings. Richard Purcell's team are having considerable trouble producing a quiet Dallara F300, so substituted their low line FVL and so changed classes. Geoff Fern had gone one better, he changed races; at the back of his garage he found his old RF00 Mono2000. Joanie dusted it off for him and once a radial had been substituted for a punctured cross ply, giving a tyre combination that would be illegal on the road, he was ready to race.

Qualifying

First qualifying, for Mono 2000 and Classic saw Jeremy Timms set the early pace, from Robbie Watts and Josh Webster in the first of the Antec cars. The other two cars from this stable both failed to complete a lap, which gave the Team and the drivers a lot of work to do. However as the session drew to a close Tristan Cliffe took a very good pole in the 2000s and Geoff Fern, running his Van Diemen 2000 in Classic, took the other class pole. Kevin Otway’s performance is both worthy of mention, he turned in a very good performance on the busy track. Russ Giles had a disaster when the Reynard’s gearbox casing failed, ending his day immediately; and Peter Bragg and Kevin Mason managed to tangle with each other bringing out the Safety Car when Kevin’s Dallara wouldn’t move with only three wheels connected up. Lou Watts was also very unlucky to damage a corner of his FVL just enough to defy repair, so he had an early bath as well.

Race

Amazingly it hadn’t rained by race time, so everyone was comfortably on slicks for the Mono 2000/Classic encounter. Disaster struck poleman Tristan Cliffe when the immaculate Omicron Dallara refused to start, and despite both the Timms and Harrison teams lending bits, the damn thing wouldn’t go, leaving Tristan understandably upset. The only upside to this was the sight of the Club Chairman speedily peddling Simon Davey’s bike through the central paddock in a bid to get a new coil to the Cliffes. Graham Read was another Dallara with a DNS, while Richard Purcell nearly joined them when he stalled and was pushed into the pit lane as the field were on their green flag lap.

At the start Jeremy Timms clearly meant business and blasted into an unchallenged lead, his flawless race included a new lap record. Neil Harrison was second, with Josh Webster a strong third until he outbraked himself into Clearways and took a time wasting trip off circuit. This left Robbie Watts in strong third, challenging Harrison until Watts very unfortunately was eliminated in a crowded moment at Druids while lapping the battling Pete Bragg and Kevin Otway. Geoff Fern led the Classics from Francis Phillips, who was in learning mode with the Reynard, and Ian Hughes moved into an excellent third in class with his rather sinister-looking stretched and rebodied Van Diemen RF88.

Major excitement was generated by Mathew Draper’s progress through the field from the very back of the grid. He was very committed indeed through the Esses into Clearways and after Watts demise he might well have challenged Neil Harrison for second if a red flag had not ended the race a lap early – a very impressive debut drive.

Behind Draper and a recovering Josh Webster, Malcolm Scott had a very solid drive into fifth in his first Mono outing for some time. After a push start, Richard Purcell joined the race from the pit lane and made his way up to tenth place just failing to catch Tom Brown in the Renault. It was good to see newcomers, Chris Scott, Kevin Otway and Simon Lonnergan all in there mixing it with the older hands. Kevin Mason had repaired his Dallara but became a retirement on lap eleven.

The red flag was a result of proving that three abreast into Paddock Hill Bend does not work (usually), Lenny Coleman was the unfortunate who was tapped into the gravel trap.

Tony Bishop was delighted to pick up the Super Clutch Driver of the Day Award for his drive through from the back of the grid.

Simon Davey and Patrick Huston.

Click here for Results & here for Championship Positions

Simon Davey’s Brands Hatch Observations.

At total of 53 Mono entries made it to the meeting, which was absolutely excellent. The entry also featured no less than 10 drivers who didn’t race with us last year, with a couple of them, Mathew Draper and Nigel Davers, competing in their first car race – both acquitting themselves very well during the day.

MSVR had taken on a very large entry for the meeting as a whole, and there were initial concerns about paddock space, but on the day it was fine, provided you avoided getting locked out of the circuit on the Saturday evening.

The fact it didn’t rain helped the organisers run what was a very slick programme, although TSL’s timing threw a major wobbly over the weekend due to buggy new software, and no one enjoyed the driver’s briefing location in the middle of the circuit. Eventually this caused several competitors to miss part of their practice session when the briefing ran late. That being said Signing On, Scrutineering and Race Management all worked well for us.

One issue which did raise its head during the day was driving standards. The on-track action was pretty hectic and various incidents, none too serious fortunately, brought out a couple of red flags, Safety Cars and many yellows. Several Mono drivers didn’t pay enough attention to these and the Clerk of the Course was kept busy handing out penalty points. Admittedly Brands tends to be a hectic circuit to lap in company, but it is really important that as Club we ensure that we do comply with flag signals – it’s essential for the safety of both the marshals and ourselves, so please sharpen up on this guys.

Scrutineering produced a drama for two of the new drivers when their race suits were found to be out of date, but the very friendly Monoposto crowd rapidly produced a couple of pairs of overalls on loan – great stuff!


Francis Phillips: gnome-like presence, but very quick in the Reynard	Ian Hughes looks happy with his performance, not realising Neil Harrison has just stolen his wheelnuts	Geoff Fern's Mono Classic Van Diemen went very well and attracted a lot of attention

Tristan Cliffe qualified on pole but his newly-injected Toyota would not start for the race	Ian Hughes took a great third in class in the "sinister" RF88	Robbie Watts went very fast in his Van Diemen RF97