2011 Locost Series, Round 1 Brands Hatch
17th April saw the inaugral round of the 750 Motor Club Locost Series at Brands Hatch.
Its one of my favourite circuits and the most local one that we race on, only 2 hours drive and an hour on the ferry from our home on the Isle of Wight!
Qualifying went well and without incident, other than the alotted time seeming to fly by – must get a little timer in the car so I dont get surprised when the checkered flag comes out. Finished the session in 14th for the race, out of 38 entries with a time of 59.66s, 0.89s from Pole.
We settled in the grandstand to watch a little of the afternoons racing before our late afternoon Locost race. little did we know how close we were going to be to this:
The aftermath of the accident:
The catch fencing was left in a pretty bad state, but they got it repaired and the racing continued later in the afternoon
A couple of videos of the incident
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVd1HVlJD3A&feature=player_embedded#at=53
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GoSaC05V3Q&feature=player_embedded
Andrei Bgatov in Car 55 was cut from the vehicle and airlifted to hospital suffering from concussion. Zac Chapman got out of his car unaided and unhurt. Luckily spectators were not injured.
Back to the Locosts………
Qualifying 14th for the race saw me make a reasonable start and forward progress up to 10th before the race was red flagged with 2 cars off into Paddock Hill gravel trap. Unfortunately I was put in 11th on the countback so was on the right hand side of the grid and got squeezed leaving me down in 15th. With just a couple of laps to go I managed to work my way past Max Lees (Locost #91) round the outside of Druids, to finish 14th. My best finish yet.
Video from the forward facing camera:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCJ5VVd0LEs
And the rearward facing camera from the same race:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23mgHK9qOOg
A couple of photos from the event:
