Supercar Challenge Brands Hatch 2015

The Super Challenge made a welcome return last weekend (12th & 13th September) to Brands Hatch after a successful visit last season. The Dutch championship treated us to two full grids of diverse machinery in eye-catching liveries. The racing was closely fought and the championships delivered four exciting races.

The first Super GT, GTB race was won by the Corvette ZR1 GTE of Nicolas Vandierendonck and Archie Hamilton. Henry Zumbrink led the race early on in his impressive Volvo S60 V8 machine but dropped back after the pit stops eventually coming home in second. The wonderful Dodge Viper GT3-R of Roger Grouwels and Kelvin Snoeks finished in third.

In the second GT encounter, the race was led again in the early laps by Zumbrink in his Volvo, followed by the Dodge Viper of Grouwels and Max Koebolt in the other Volvo S60. Koebolt tried to take second place away from Grouwels into Hawthorns but they both ended up in the gravel causing a safety car. Koebolt’s Volvo was too damaged to continue, however with the help of the hardworking Brands marshals, the Grouwels Viper was able to get going again, albeit a long way back. A hard charge by Archie Hamilton following the pit stops saw him take the lead away from Kevin Clark in his BMW Z4 GT3, and he brought the Corvette home to take his and Nicolas Vandierendonck’s second victory at the Brands meeting. Clark’s BMW finished in second ahead of Patrick Lamster and Donald Molenaar in their GTB division Porsche 997 GT3.

The first Supersport/Sport race was closely fought in the first few laps with the top six racing round the Grand Prix circuit nose to tail led by Bob Herber in his fabulous Mercedes C63. The Mercedes slipped back to eighth following the pit stops but eventually Herber clawed his way back to second to finish behind Ruud Olij in the BMW E92 M3 and ahead of Michael Verhagen and Fred Cavanaugh in their BMW E46 GTR Coupe.

The second Supersport/Sport race saw another close battle at the front, the BMW M3 V8 of Richard Neary and Martin Short took a home victory ahead of Eric van den Munckhof in the BMW Z4 with the BMW 132 GTR of Dennis de Groot and Marth de Graaf completing the podium.

The support races were mostly in the shape of the ever impressive Radical Sportscars, with the SR1 Cup, Radical Sprint and Enduro Championships in action. Rounding out the line up was the enormous and varied grid of the Motorsport News Saloons which this weekend were combined with the Cannons Tin Tops.

The Radical Sprint series had 3 races on Saturday with 3 different winners in the shape of Paddy McClughan, Joe Stables and John MacLeod. Sunday’s duo of SR1 Cup races saw Rob Watkins take both victories. The 90 minute Radical Enduro race on Sunday afternoon was won by Steve Burgess in his SR3 RS, with Matt Bell and Grahame Tilley bringing their SR3 RSX home in second and Scott Mansell completing the podium in his SR3 RSX machine.

Rod Birley added another 2 victories to his impressive racing CV in the MN Saloons and Cannons Tin Tops races, Tom Knight took two second places and third went to Malcolm Wise in the first race and Ian Butler in the second.

The Supercar Challenge put on another great show for the British crowd, let’s hope they come over to entertain us again next season.