MGJ Engineering Brands Hatch Winter Stages - 18th January 2020

[Suze]

Unsurprisingly there have been some dropouts over Christmas with cars not being finished, but there's been an interesting entry tonight; Desi Henry from NI in a Hyundai R5.

[BertMk2]

The seeded entrlist is up - the top 12 is looking pretty fearsome, that's a very strong entry:

№	Class	Driver	Co-driver	Car
1	D2	Frank Bird	Jack Morton	Ford Focus 07 WRC
2	D2	Desi Henry	TBA	Hyundai R5
3	D2	James Self	Ian Davis	Ford Fiesta R5
4	D2	Steve Finch	Sam Fordham	Ford Fiesta
5	D2	Paul Smith	Dale Bowen	Ford Fiesta R5
6	D1	Stephen Tilburn	Jack Tilburn	Ford Escort RS 2500
7	D1	Mark Straker	Simon May	Darrian T90 GT 'R5'
8	C	Joshua Davey	Tamsyn Davey	Darrian T90
9	D2	Richard Wells	Calvin Houldsworth	Mitsubishi Evo
10	D1	Martin Hodgson	Tony Jones	Ford Escort Mkll
11	D1	Barry Morris	Tom Hutchings	Darrian T90 GTR +
12	D2	Tony Robinson	Mark Witherspoon	Proton Satria Millington

The Desi Henry entry in particular is interesting - why is he doing Brands?

[justracing]

Bert, your knowledge is much greater than mine nevertheless it will be interesting to watch!

[tbtstt]

I only just spotted the Desi Henry entry, that is a surprise.

[Suze]

I did try and give you all the heads up when it landed in my inbox

Entries close at 8pm tomorrow and agree, is a good looking entry list and very competitive field.

[geordiecriag101]

Had a cracking day at Brands, another stunning drive by Frank Bird and Jack Morton to a very easy win in the end. There was a great scrap for second between Barry Morris in the Darrian T90 GTR+ and Tony Robinson in the Proton Satria S2500 all day long only settled right at the end by a retirement for Robinson at the last stage. Another stand out drive was from the Newton brothers in their 1400 Nova, they won their class by over 3 minutes and set 5th fastest time on a cold and icy SS1, just missing stage win by 3 Seconds!

Anyway here's a quick vid from the day if anyone interested:

https://youtu.be/mlofQ3PbLtU

[justracing]

As you say a great day yesterday and good video, thanks. The Newtons really punch above their weight but I thought some of the stages were just too fast for the lesser classes, the speed advantage of the top runners is too much in my view.
Quick turn round for me today to get to Brooklands for the VSCC driving tests, always entertaining!

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by geordiecriag101

Had a cracking day at Brands, another stunning drive by Frank Bird and Jack Morton to a very easy win in the end. There was a great scrap for second between Barry Morris in the Darrian T90 GTR+ and Tony Robinson in the Proton Satria S2500 all day long only settled right at the end by a retirement for Robinson at the last stage. Another stand out drive was from the Newton brothers in their 1400 Nova, they won their class by over 3 minutes and set 5th fastest time on a cold and icy SS1, just missing stage win by 3 Seconds!

Anyway here's a quick vid from the day if anyone interested:

https://youtu.be/mlofQ3PbLtU

Originally Posted by justracing

As you say a great day yesterday and good video, thanks. The Newtons really punch above their weight but I thought some of the stages were just too fast for the lesser classes, the speed advantage of the top runners is too much in my view.
Quick turn round for me today to get to Brooklands for the VSCC driving tests, always entertaining!

I'll have a watch of that video later

The entry was very strong at the front of the field (even with the no-show from Desi Henry) and the pace reflected that (after the oddity of stage1 ). I got to see a bit of the front runners in action and those cars really are something aren't they? The Proton looked like it had run out of electricity - it was parked up at the start of the last stage with jump leads attached to it. The Newtons are always rapid, talking to them beforehand we said the conditions suited them and stage 1 proved that! It's a well sorted car and very well driven.

We had an interesting day, the car dropped onto 3 cyclinders on stage 1 but a change of plugs cured that. We had a huge moment at Paddock - broadside down the hill, the car was full of tyre smoke for the next few corners, certainly gets your attention! We also had a rather lurid spin in the outer paddock (full 360).

The alternator belt went awol part way through stage 6 and took the power steering belt with it (that caused us problems with the hairpin - after wrestling the car through the chicane James didn't have enough momentum to handbrake it around the hairpin and the steering lock on the Astra isn't great so we lost a lot of time there. We replaced the alternator belt ok but didn't have a belt for the power steering - we eventually fitted an alternator belt we got from the guys with the classic Mini (what are the chances of that fitting!). The alternator belt came off again on stage 7 but the power steering stayed with us, after sorting the alternator belt again we managed to get a finish

Pretty happy to get to the end - James is still learning the car (he'd done one stage in it prior to Brands) and at the start of the day neither of us were comfortable in the car - both seats were out and refitted at different points during the day to try and help our backs, both of us were suffering a bit!

So a huge thank you to the organisers, marshals, rescue crews, all the people we begged parts from to keep us going and Martin for servicing (we kept him busy!)

[Suze]

Clearing up today it felt icier than yesterday - you may disagree but here's one of the images I took earlier on.

[IMG][/IMG]

Hugh - the hairpin - when it was HPL James had plenty more space on the right hand side he could have used to help Would have perhaps just made it a little easier, i know in the Micra Matt and I have both always driven round rather than handbraked round as the bar is just not effective enough for us!

After a busy morning I did make it over to the commentary box for a while yesterday which was a good vantage point. I've never had to de-ice the car to get to an event before, completed signing on, and then had to de-ice it again two hours later to move it from the stage and carry on for the rest of the day!

The clear-up work done by fellow volunteers last night was extraordinary. It's always hard in the dark but the circuit was clear and there was very little to check and clear up today (bar the rather muddy rally school cones which we knew were there). The lorry and trailers were loaded up by 11am which was good to get on the road and get stuff back to where it is stored.

Results for anyone interested are at https://brandshatchstages.co.uk/site...nalResults.pdf

[justracing]

Crikey Bert, you had an eventful day! Thanks to all concerned.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by Suze

Hugh - the hairpin - when it was HPL James had plenty more space on the right hand side he could have used to help Would have perhaps just made it a little easier, i know in the Micra Matt and I have both always driven round rather than handbraked round as the bar is just not effective enough for us!

We drive around it in the Escort rather than hand brake it in that direction - it works out quicker and it's more controllable. The steering was really heavy so it was just the effort of getting it turned with any throttle applied that was the problem, if we hadn't been able to get the power steetring fixed we were going to drop the fluid out of the system to see if that made it any easier - but retirement was the most likely outcome. Thank heavens for classic Minis

Originally Posted by justracing

Crikey Bert, you had an eventful day! Thanks to all concerned.

Certainly did! If I do any more events in the Astra we'll need to do something about the seat - it was better after we moved it but it's still the least comfortable I've ever been in a rally car. Interesting to do Brands in a fwd car though - it's certainly a very different driving style to the Escort.

[justracing]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

Thank heavens for classic Minis

They're entered at Goodwood, indecently quick car usually but as I commented previously those fast stages at BH don't really show their form.

[Suze]

They won the class at Abingdon which is also a quick venue (long straights with 90s), and Goodwood is fast too. I think if more chicanes etc went in at Brands we'd have some very unhappy competitors - we get comments they don't like some of the furniture in there as it is!

[justracing]

Originally Posted by Suze

They won the class at Abingdon which is also a quick venue (long straights with 90s), and Goodwood is fast too. I think if more chicanes etc went in at Brands we'd have some very unhappy competitors - we get comments they don't like some of the furniture in there as it is!

Point taken

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by Suze

They won the class at Abingdon which is also a quick venue (long straights with 90s), and Goodwood is fast too. I think if more chicanes etc went in at Brands we'd have some very unhappy competitors - we get comments they don't like some of the furniture in there as it is!

A lot depends on gearing - the Escort is very short geared (we hit the limiter in 6th at Brands and Goodwood). We've seen/heard other Escorts with plenty of puff left at those venues. Starkest example we saw of this was at Longmoor - on the straight past the service area we were pulling 6th gear, one of the other Escorts was in 3rd at the same point! Some people will change their gearing depending on the venue (we don't have budget for that sort of faffing about!)

We need the chicane on the start / finish straight - without it we'd be bouncing off the limiter for ages (not so much in the Astra!). The chicanes in/behind the pit lane slow the cars on the approach to the hairpin - if they weren't there then I suspect there would be a lot more accidents at the hairpin.