Masters Historic Festival 2018 Brands Hatch GP

The Masters Historic Festival delighted the crowds on the Brands Hatch GP Circuit over the weekend (26-27/05/2018) with cars from the past which included the Masters Historic Formula One cars from 1970’s and 80’s to the more modern machinery in the new for 2018 Masters Endurance Legends with the Peugeot, Audi and Oreca once again doing battle on track…

Portuguese driver and former sports car racer Rui Aguas made it two out of two in the Peugeot 908X taking wins in the first and second Masters Endurance Legends races with Martin Rich and Alex Kapadia in the Oreca 03 LMP2 taking 2nd in race one with Steve Tandy 3rd on the podium in his Lola B12/60. Steve Tandy put up a strong challenge in the Lola-Mazda in race two, losing out by nine seconds to the Peugeot 908X to finish 2nd with Martin Rich and Alex Kapadia this time round coming home 3rd.

Martin Stretton and Nick Padmore shared the winning honors over the weekend with Nick Padmore taking the spoils on Saturday and Martin Stretton winning Sunday’s FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship. Nick Padmore in his Williams FW07C led from the start in race one with Martin Stretton hot on his heals in the Tyrell 012 but was unable to make that decisive move. Race one was shortened due to an incident involving the Lotus’s of Katsu Kubota and Steve Brooks. Race two was a reversed grid race with Martin Stretton fighting his way from 7th on the grid to 1st taking the race two win.

Shaun Balfe and Andy Wolfe in their AC Cobra took the win in the Masters Gentlemen Drivers race, a 90 minute affair, with drama less than half an hour of the race to go. Mike Whitaker was given the black-and-orange flag for a loose exhaust on his TVR Griffith having an off track excursion earlier in the race. Whitaker dropped back to third but recovered to take second place from fellow TVR Griffith driver John Spiers.

In the Masters Pre-66 Touring Cars race, Mark Sumpter in his Lotus Cortina successfully fended off Steve Soper, also in a Lotus Cortina, in a battle that lasted until four laps from the end. Mark Sumpter lost the lead on lap 14 but took it back one lap later and then continued to successfully defend his lead until Soper retired his Lotus Cortina on lap 28.

The Masters Historic Festival would not be complete without races from Historic Formula 2, the FIA Masters Historic Sports Cars and the CSN Groep Youngtimers Touring Car Challenge.

With glorious sunny weather on Saturday there was the threat of heavy rain and storms on Sunday which really came to nothing.

Next on the calender the Masters take a trip to the Czech Republic and then the Paul Ricard Circuit in France before returning to the UK for the Silverstone Classic.

Full results and times can be found here.