Brands Hatch Media Day 23 February 2011.

or - "Five Go Testing in Kent"

MSVR do nothing by halves and when they have a series of championships they try to make sure that everybody knows. So on 23 February they asked for representatives from their series (which include Monoposto and MSV F3 Cup which we administer) to attend at Brands for their seasonal launch. Other series there included GT Cup, VAG Trophy, BMW, Elise, Radical and the innovative if curious sounding EV (electric vehicle) cup. The last sounds fun if only to bait that oaf Clarkson with and was represented by Lord Paul Drayson, a former Government minister who is to compete in an electric Caterham 7.

Representatives who braved an early start were Simon as our spokesman, Gary and Chris Hill both driving their1400 OMS and Tony Cotton from 2000 leaving his Dallara F300 to the experts. MSV F3 representatives were Stephen Clegg (F301), Richard Purcell (F300) and Ray Rowan (F397), so a bit Dallara biased, but when you have one Mono 2000 and 3 MSV F3's, you'll tend to get lots of Dallaras. Incidentally, apologies if I've got model numbers wrong. They all look the same to me. Ray, of course, bridges the gap between Mono and F3, having run in both, and also having built the a mono F300 and owned Richard's F300 in the past.

The day proved very successful and organised very professionally, efficiently and effectively. After Gary and Steve had formated behind a camera car for some tracking shots, there was a press conference first thing where Jonathan Palmer, very much a "hands on" and proactive circuit owner, talked about the series. As well as complimentary remarks about Mono and MSV F3, he also explained our grass roots scheme for new single seater racers, the Monoposto SUNBAC Nova Awards which was well received by the assembled journalists, a mixture of national motor racing publications and South East general publications which included the BBC.

Whilst 2 seater ("bipostos") were able to give said journalists passenger rides, this isn't very easy with OMS and Dallaras unless you rivet a pair of overalls to the rear wing and then push a journo into them. We considered that, but decided it would upset the downforce. So mid morning the assembled cars were able to circulate (in pretty appallingly rainy conditions) and the journos watched them from the comfort of the hospitality suite (or munched that oh-so-tempting third sausage sandwich). We had hoped that one or two might venture the 100 metres or so to the garages, but sadly this wasn't to happen, which presumably means the journos already know all about us, or learnt all they need to know from Simon, which is nice. If they did look out of the window, they saw some very well prepared and presented cars driven rapidly and safely, which can only add to the reputation of both Mono and MSV F3. Hopefully, we'll see something in the comics soon and if anybody lives in the south east and sees any reports in the local press, perhaps they could either copy them or scan them to us.

Tony Cotton

Cars on display. Note how MSV have provided proper banners above the garages - Palmer looks after the details well.

TV cameras get ready to film the single seaters

The Hills per et fils OMS, in the safe and rapid hands of Chris. First wet drive, in front of journalists. No pressure then.

Stephen Clegg represented the seasoned F3 runners giving a polished performance.