Should Champion of Brands FF1600 be revived?

[alfaman]

Sitting at Brands Hatch on Sunday during the "Great & British" Festival and seeing a distinct lack of single-seaters (except Euroboss of course...) I was wondering whether, realistically, the Champion of Brands FF1600 series could be revived.

That could have been a great platform for FF1600 to show just how great it is with close racing and action aplenty.

But is too late for there to be a FF1600 championship based purely at Brands having slots at most meetings & guest slots at the big meetings such as WTCC or DTM or A1GP?

Are there now enough FF1600 drivers in London & the southeast to support such a series? Or have the consistently weak championships of the last few years sent drivers into other formulas?

I know Jonathan Palmer tried the MSV series last year and got his fingers burnt but by just having Brands races how many drivers would be up for that?

Is there the political will to re-establish such a championship? Would the BRSCC or the MSVRC (or whatever it's called) be interested in such a thing? Or do we have to face the facts that the strong clusters for FF1600 are in the NW & at Combe and southern drivers have to trudge to the Midlands or further afield for their action?

I think it's such a shame that a track that once had THE regional FF1600 championship now has barely any FF races and drivers have to join in local club races to get their lappery at Brands.

[Ian Sowman]

It would have been completely inappropriate to have FF1600 races on the Great and British Festival bill, given that they race on Avon tyres...

I agree that it is a shame that Brands does not have a FF1600 championship to call its own any longer. It will be interesting to see if anyone has the time and effort to invest in such a championship for the future. I doubt that there would be the immediate support for it to be an overnight success.

[Steve Burns]

Originally Posted by Ian Sowman

It would have been completely inappropriate to have FF1600 races on the Great and British Festival bill, given that they race on Avon tyres...

The Castle Combe Great & British meeting features FF1600, but a Castle Combe raceday would not be the same without a full grid of FF1600's

[Ian Sowman]

Agreed, Combe is a special case!

[jimbomit]

Originally Posted by Ian Sowman

It would have been completely inappropriate to have FF1600 races on the Great and British Festival bill, given that they race on Avon tyres...

Am I being thick here and missing the point. . . Avon was founded in Wiltshire wasn't it. . ?

[Reluctant guest]

Originally Posted by jimbomit

Am I being thick here and missing the point. . . Avon was founded in Wiltshire wasn't it. . ?

The package being discussed is the Dunlop Great and British Festivals, so the problem isn't Avon's nationality, but the fact that it's a rival tyre company.

[kipper]

Originally Posted by Ian Sowman

It would have been completely inappropriate to have FF1600 races on the Great and British Festival bill, given that they race on Avon tyres...

Looking at the Brands race, Avon are a sponsor of EuroBOSS and the Radical Challenge uses Matador tyres. Although, it would be entirely understandable if Dunlop were to place limits on the championships that don't use their tyres. Also, with the case of EuroBOSS, then I suppose it was a bit of a special case and gave the event an unique selling point over FF1600, especially given the number of events over the course of weekend that featured FF1600.