British GT at Brands

I have had to wait until now for my first visit to Brands Hatch this season, with the British GT meeting on the long circuit being my meeting of choice.

Qualifying had happened the day before, so after a short warm-up for the GT's it was raceday with GB4 & GB4 on the programme along with a few different Ginetta classes.

We started our day at Paddock Bend, having initially taken part in the early pit walk. We watched the warm-up from there and then the first part of the opening GB4 race.

Part way into this race, the safety car was deployed so we took that opportunity to move up to the infield at Druids. There, on the exit of the corner, I took 'panned' photos of individual cars well lit by the morning sun.

The Ginetta Juniors were next up, but an unfortunate incident early in that race delayed proceedings and effectively meant that the next track action was destined to be the 2hour GT race after lunch. That race would include driver change pit stops somewhere around half way through.

The race got off to a fairly clean start, as my photo below taken at Paddock shows. But for one team the race had already taken an unwanted shape - the 2nd on the grid Aston Martin had nosed ahead (marginally, but noticeably to officials) of the pole position car as they crossed the start line for their rolling start (something that is not allowed).

Soon after the start, we headed off towards the GP Circuit loop. Initially we stopped just past the vehicle bridge that is on the way down the flat-out blast down towards Hawthorns Bend. I like to tilt the camera at this point to get the cars diagonally in the frame.

Then we continued our walk to arrive at Hawthorns, a spot that has long been a favourite of mine as the banking on the inside of the corner is looking down to the track. A very quick corner, but a lovely angle.

While we had been walking, the Aston above that led the early laps had been forced to pit for a 10secs stop & go penalty for the startline infringement. It then commenced a determined fightback that would eventually net 4th place.

Continuing our walk, I was disappointed to find high debris fencing on the inside of Westfield Corner - at what used to be a great photo spot and at a spot where the natural momentum of any incident would gravitate towards the outside of the corner.

So, we didn't stop there long, photo spot ruined, and continued round to Dingle Dell and then towards Stirlings. We eventually reached Clearways and stayed put for the final 15mins of the race,

Then it was back to the fast back straight before heading to Druids as the car was parked there.

A good day out, some superb racing though not much overtaking in GB3 & GB4.