Report: Paul Jurd – Photography by John Retter Photography
AMOC Racing enjoyed a fine day of quality track action at Brands Hatch on Saturday, 23rd June.
The rolling start of the GT Challenge runners saw the BMW M3 of Mike Dowd get the drop on poleman Grahame Tilley and lead the field into the first corner, Tilley tucking in behind and straight away looking eager to find a way past. The front two crossed the line just hundredths of a second apart at the end of lap one, and Tilley used his momentum to get alongside the leader through Paddock Hill Bend and move ahead.
There followed a series of quickest race laps which saw Tilley ease his Ginetta G55 away from Dowd and the rest of the field, a late stop confirmed enough time had been banked to stay ahead after the pit stop reshuffle and it was from there Tilley never looked back to take the win, behind him in second was the BMW of Charles Hyde-Andrews-Bird having taken the car over from Ed Leigh, the only other car still on the lead lap.
The battle for third was the attention-grabbing battle of the race and was eventually won by the hugely-powerful Holden Monaro of Andrew Wilson the sheer grunt of the Holden allowing him to open a gap on the pit straight before losing out in the slower sections. Rob Salisbury retired the BMW that Dowd had started from fourth. Aston Martins filled the next two places, Peter Montague fourth in the car Zak Mercer started, with the Henry Mann/Desmond Smail Vantage N24 rounding out the top five.
Gavin Dunn put his BMW on pole position for the AMOC Intermarque Championship race, but by the end of lap one it was fellow front-row starter Rob Hollyman who was in the lead in his Porsche 964. The front two stayed close, Dunn going past through Paddock Hill Bend on lap four only for Hollyman to take the lead back as they braked into Druids.
With the front two running nose to tail, Championship newcomer Richard Higgins was third in his Porsche 996, the Aston Martin of Henry Mann next up ahead of Bob Searles. The dice for the lead was broken up as Dunn took his compulsory pit stop at the end of lap 15, just as Searles and Amar Ehsan both ended up on the grass at Clearways, Searles soon to retire.
The final laps were livened by the pace of Higgins who started to close on Hollyman before losing time at Clearways with four laps to go with a gearbox issue. In the end it was a Porsche team 1 and 2 as Hollyman won by just under three seconds ahead of Richard Higgins. Behind, Des Smail bought the Aston Martin N24 he had taken over from Mann home third.
Tom Houlbrook drove well in the second half of the race to come home fourth, and second Intermarque car home, in the BMW started by Ehsan, with the recovering Dunn next up.
Oliver Llewellyn had his Allard J2 on pole for the 30-minute Jack Fairman Cup for 50s Sports Cars race which also featured the Jaguar XK Challenge and Mike Hawthorn Challenge runners. At the start, the Turner of Steve Watton made the better initial start before the power of the Allard chimed in and both cars headed into Paddock Hill Bend together.
After a mid-corner shuffle Watton had the lead from the MGA of Mark Ellis, Llewellyn third just in front of Rob Newall’s Jaguar XK120. Ellis worked hard to stay with Watton but was just too far back to ever mount a clean challenge, the race interrupted by a safety car on lap 11, Newall’s Jaguar stopped on the track at Clearways minus a wheel.
The field was released to race once more with just over 13-minutes left, Watton making a strong start, Ellis second and Llewellyn third from Paul Kennelly’s XK and this is the order they finished.
Kennelly was first of the XK Challenge cars home, and the Jaguar Mk1 of Nigel Webb was the lead Mike Hawthorn Challenge car in ninth overall.
First of the guest races at Brands Hatch was for the Equipe GTS Pre’63 runners, and featured a great lead battle early on, John Pearson’s Austin-Healey leading a train of cars before slowing and retiring on lap 14. That put the Parry-Williams family Healey into the lead as positions started to change when cars made their pitstops.
Once everyone had stopped Paul Kennelly had the lead, only to lose out to Rob Cull’s MGA right at the end at Paddock Hill Bend. The 40-minute Equipe GTS race saw Mark Holme bring his MGB well ahead of the Lotus of Marc Gordon.
Guy Hufford’s M3 was the car to beat in both BMW Car Club races, Kirk Armitage second by over six second sin race one but much closer later in the afternoon, crossing the line less than half a second behind his rival. Paul Travers took third ahead of Hugh Gurney in race one, the pair swapping positions in race two.
The BMW Car Club attempted a World Record for the number BMW cars on track at any one time at the end of the day, 90 cars made it out onto the Kent based Indy circuit to attempt the record, but sadly the record wasn’t smashed. Neil from the BMW Car Club GB plans to reattempt the record at a later date to be announced.
