Brands Hatch Revisited

The iRacing Grand Prix Legends Series paid a visit to Brands Hatch, site of one of the Lotus 49’s most storied victories.

1967 was not a year when the British Grand Prix was stages at Brands Hatch (which only hosted on even numbered years in the 1960s and ’70s) but rather at Silverstone.  The following year the Lotus 49B did race at Brands Hatch with Graham Hill and Jackie Oliver teaming up at Gold Leaf Team Lotus following Jim Clark’s passing earlier in the year and ably augmented (very ably as it would turn out) by Jo Siffert in Rob Walker Racing’s privateer entry.  Although neither of the Lotus works drivers even finished the race, resulting in one of the few double-retirements of the season for Gold Leaf Team Lotus, Siffert came through to a famous victory over Chris Amon’s Ferrari to score what would become (in all likelihood)  the final Formula One race win for a privateer team.  Hill eventually did win the drivers championship by 12 points from Jackie Stewart (quite a feat in those days), while Lotus claimed the constructors championship ahead of McLaren (back when Bruce was still a driver as well).

In contrast to the 1968 race in which 20 cars participated but only eight of them actually saw the checkered flag, Week Six of the iRacing Grand Prix Legends series saw a 2751 SOF race of 13 sim-racers, and just like in 1968 it was be unlikely to see all the starters finish the race.  Mick Claridge once again sat on pole position with a qualifying time of 1:26.509, almost half a second ahead of Victor Perelmen in P2.  Behind them came Gary Teall hot off his win at Road Atlanta, and then Peter LeBlanc, Landon Harrison, and Uwe Jacobsen who all managed a qualifying time within a range similar to that separating Claridge and Perelmen.

Harrison using the inside line at Druids to good effect.

The start was clean as the sim-racers approached the notoriously tricky Paddock Hill Bend.  Most of the field maintained their starting positions aside from LeBlanc and Harrison who traded places at the Druids hairpin, and Jacobsen who dropped two places at the start.  There was also a spin at the Clark Curve but no contact was made and no damage done to any of the cars.  After the opening lap Claridge held an impressive two second lead already ahead of Perelman who had Teall and Harrison to worry about behind.

Lap Four is when the track decided to fight back.  LeBlanc was taking Paddock Hill Bend in the same way he did previously, but a strange snap of oversteer at the bottom of the hill spun his car this way and that before ultimately ending up in the barrier and out of the race.  Completely by chance, and unrelated to the spin ahead, Michael Morrison was also approaching the bottom of the hill when the car went light and spun into the exact same barrier as LeBlanc, and only a few seconds later.  Both cars were towed to the pit lane where they retired.

LeBlanc (red car) smites the barrier while Morrison (blue car) starts to spin into the same wall.

In the initial going Harrison seemed to have plenty of pace to keep up with Teall, but he started dropping back around Lap Five.  Somewhere around the half-way point of the 17 lap race Harrison’s pace returned and he started to close the gap back down to Teall (who was barely keeping Perelman within view).  By Lap 11 Harrison was back within striking distance, and Perelman’s off-track excursion at Turn Six (Westfield) spiced up the battle for second place once again with only six laps remaining.

Perelman’s second place comes under attack after this trip into the dirt.

Harrison struggled in the corners just after Perelman’s folly and once again found himself trying to catch Teall ahead.  By the penultimate lap he had once again managed to reel-in Teall and was in position to take the final podium position.  He pressured Teall and forced him to defend, but in the end could not find a way around him.

This was as close as Harrison could get.

When the checkered flag fell Claridge was over 15 seconds ahead of Perelman in second place.  Claridge put in 1:26 lap times for 11 of the 17 laps (16 if you discount the standing start on Lap One) and his slowest lap time was a 1:27.489 (faster than all but three of the rival qualifying times) which came on the final lap.

Claridge wins by a mile.

Ten of the sim-racers finished the race and Claridge’s drive to the top spot earned him 169 points, the most for Week Six.  Perelman came away with 154 points, and Teall 140 points (enough for second and third highest points for the week as well).  The other two top scorers for the week were Bruce Snelson with 131 points (who got second place in a 2371 SOF race) and Jack Ulstad (who won a 2096 SOF race) with 126 points (the same amount Harrison got for his fourth place finish).

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