The Lotus Festival Brands Hatch 2016

A weekend of sunshine and warm temperatures was enjoyed by all at this years Lotus Festival, hosted again held at Brands Hatch on the legendary GP circuit…a fine weekend of motorsport for fans as they celebrated all that is Lotus.

Racing is on the cards throughout the weekend, but also Lotus car clubs from across the UK were at the track ‘en-masse’ with multiple displays of proud owners cars pretty much every kind of Lotus from most of the decades, pictures of which which surely adorned bedroom walls across the country….(Essex Turbo Esprit decorated mine – Editor)

The festival kicked off on Saturday with the Lotus Cup Europa teams starting their weekend with a 30 minute free practice session before the days qualifying began. First out to put up some times where the MSVT Trackday Championship, a relatively new championship for new racers with a mixture of tin tops and sports cars lining up on the grid. Each race has a 45 min duration with a pit stop which allows for a driver change all beginning with a 30 minute qualifying period.

Also on track on Saturday was the Lotus Cup & Elise Trophy (also two races on Sunday) Radical Challenge with the Olympian Gold Medallist guest racer Jason Kenny who swopped two wheels for four. The colourful Lotus Cup Europa Championship, the F3 Cup and the Toyo Tires Racing Saloons also where out on track in battle.

Sunday started with qualifying, a 2nd session for the Radicals and then the Toyo Tires Production BMW Championship drivers headed out. Next up and out to quail, the popular Sports 2000 Championship the championship not having raced on Saturday.

The day certainly could have deserved a bigger crowd, (sunshine and a Bank Holiday many people are still on holiday or stuck on the M20!) and it would be great if further famous Lotus F1 cars could be sort out and their owners encouraged to take off the covers and get them out to blew the cobwebs out. Personally a Lotus ’72 would have made my weekend complete…

Still, a fine weekend was had with some fantastic close racing on the much loved GP circuit, large grids and a whole load of sunshine…hats off to Mr. Chapman.

Full results and times can be found here.