Britcar Endurance revved up for Brands Hatch showdown
The Britcar Endurance Championship brings the curtain down on a spectacular season at Brands Hatch this coming Saturday (November 7) by racing in the dark for a title that is set to go down to the wire.
With the eight best scores from ten races being counted towards deciding who walks away as champion, the calculators are set to go into overdrive - especially given how many teams are in contention for the coveted crown.
Consistency has been key for Simon Clark, who tops both the Overall and GT Class standings in his FormEvo McLaren. He holds a slender 6.5-point lead over the leading Trophy Class contender, the Project 29:7 Ginetta of Carl Garnett and Jonathan Moore.
They in-turn ahead a close-packed duo of classmates in the shape of Ginetta driver Archie Buttle and Ash Woodman in the unique EDF Motorsport Ligier JS2R. Crucially, a further 6.5-points cover them.
While Clark appears safe to secure the GT Class honours, there are still 60 points up for grabs so mathematically second-placed man Julian McBride and his BMW E36 could still figure in proceedings.
A greater threat could come from the Ginetta of Aidan Hills and Michael Knibbs – especially as the Pro-Am pairing have proved that they can capitalise on tricky conditions, taking an overall win in the rain at Snetterton. Don’t discount Ginetta stalwart Colin White either.
The Challenge Class is close too and while it is a long shot for the two main contenders to snare the overall prize, just three points separate them here.
Leading the way is the Porsche 991.2 of Mark Cunningham and Peter Cunningham (although Mark will tackle this weekend alone) and they are just ahead of another Porsche 991.2 driven by Nick Hull and Richard Avery.
Hull and Avery have momentum on their side having tallied two overall wins however they aren’t the only ones gunning for the Cunningham’s. Returnees Richard Wheeler and Michael Wheeler could upset the scoring in the Porsche 992.1.
In addition, like the Wheelers there are several points-scorers with no agenda but to go for broke that could influence the standings.
In GT, there is the glorious Ginetta GTP8 of Sam Smith and Richard Amos, as well as Nathan Wells’ BMW GTR. And in Trophy, Greg Saunders’ Cupra and the BMWs of Callum Bates and Chris Murphy, plus a number of Invitation entries that won’t claim points but could steal podium places.