Historics on Show as AMOC Head to Brands
This week AMOC Racing head to Brands Hatch on Saturday 23rd June for another full and exciting programme of racing, featuring a range of historic races on the schedule.
Round two of the AMOC Intermarque Championship will be one of the highlights of the day. Setting the pace is likely to be the 964 of the Porsche team captain Robert Hollyman who won last time out. Closest rivals at Oulton Park were a pair of BMW M3s, Amar Ehsan co-driving with Tom Houlbrook and the BMW M3 of Gavin Dunn. Both make a return to Brands Hatch and will be eyeing a podium result. The Aston Martin team will also be looking to add points to their scoring account with the DB4 of Nick King and Aston Martin N24 of Desmond Smail joining the grid.
The Jack Fairman Cup for 50s Sports Cars, taking in the Jaguar XK Series and Mike Hawthorn Challenge for Mk1s and 2s, is a highly competitive grid and this weekend’s line-up includes the well driven Aston Martin DB2 of David Reed, Oliver Lleweylln’s 1951 6.6 litre Allard, and the rapid Turner Sports of Steve Watton amongst others.
Expect an exiting battle in the Jaguar XK Challenge between the XK120 of Rob Pinchbeck and the XK150S of Paul Kennelly who was the second XK car home at Oulton Park. Marc Gordon is also back in his Jaguar XK150 as is Rob Newall in his XK120 FHC but opting to run as part of the 50s Sports Car field and could well be a contender for the overall podium.
More entertainment will unfold in the Mike Hawthorne Challenge as some serious competition arrives in the form of Nigel Webb, Michael O’Shea and David Pearce, five Mk1 and Mk2 Jaguars all battle for overall honours. This battle alone should be highly entertaining.
Thirty-three cars will line up for the Equipe GTS, won last time out by Mark Ashworth is his TVR Grantura MK3. Mark makes a return to Brands as one of five TVR Granturas on the grid including that of series organiser Rob Cull. MGBs feature heavily on this grid for small engined GT and GTS cars alongside a couple of Austin-Healey 100/4s and a 2.0 Porsche 911 fielded by Porsche wizard Steve Winter.
In the Equipe Pre-’63 field Austin-Healey 3000s have been dominating the podium in recent races with both Jack Rawles and Martin Corfield taking a win each in the last two rounds. This weekend the ‘big’ Healeys are still out in force with competition from John Pearson, Mark Dunn, Guy and Simon Parry Williams but on the tight twisty Brands Indy circuit, something light and nimble could win the battle, so look out for the well-driven red and grey Healey 100/4 of Nick Matthews.
