Sam Hancock and Michael Claessens’ Track Club 3 team won the Lotus 6 Hour race at Brands Hatch on Saturday 9 November, having led the majority of the distance from pole position. Unlike his teammate, Claessens had very little racing experience but despite dropping to third place, had the consistency to take advantage when their rivals dropped out.
The Track Club 4 team, consisting of Ginetta regulars Nathan Freke and Jamie Orton, and the GoGreen Motorsport squad of David and Rob Fenn plus Adam Wilcox both took turns to lead the racebefore falling by the wayside. Orton’s stint ended with back problems that left him unable to continue,and with each driver restricted to a maximum of two hours at the wheel, the team were forced to retirethe car from first place at half distance. Meanwhile Go Green, last year’s race winners, succumbed towater pump failure soon afterwards. This left Track Club 2’s Adam Knight and Adam Balon in secondplace and a fight for the final podium position between CAST and Fox Motorsport.
CAST’s Jack Goff was being chased by Fox’s Jamie Stanley in the final hour, but BTCC newcomerGoff pitted with just half an hour to go and smoke from the engine bay signalled an agonisingretirement. Thus Stanley plus team mates Paul McNeily and BJ Chong completed the podium.The Elise Trophy class for production cars was won by polesitters Adam Gore and Jason Baker,running under the Rob Boston Racing banner. Alternator problems for Gore forced the team to sendout Baker early on, taking advantage of the class’s relay format. However they were back in the leadof the category by the end of the first hour, and a solid run for ES Motorsport saw Dave Carr andMatthias Radestock join them on the podium. A late charge from former Lotus F1 driver MartinDonnelly earned third place for his Martin’s Angels team, alongside co-drivers Charlotte Burridge andGisella Ketvel.
The race was held in honour of last year’s polesitter Sean Edwards, and a tribute was held to him onthe grid. The Hofmanns Europa that he raced last year was liveried in his helmet colours and the frontrow of the grid was left empty as a mark of respect.
