Yutaka Toriba and Warren Briggs share Masters Racing Legends spoils as Pre-85 Formula One cars take centre stage at the 2025 Brands Hatch Masters Historic Festival.
With no visit to Donington planned for the Masters Series in 2025 it seemed like a sensible decision to make a return to Brands Hatch for the first time in 9 years, especially as Sunday’s action would see 2 races for the Pre-85 F1 cars, a 40 minute race for the Sports Car Legends and a 1 hour blast for the Pre-66 Touring Cars to round out the day. Not to mention twin races for both the excellent F2 and F3 Classic InterSeries machines.
Operating as a joint venture between the UK based Historic Sports Car Club and French based HVM Racing the F2 and F3 Classic InterSeries events have gone from strength to strength and the initial Brands Hatch entry lists looked a mouth watering prospect.
Entries were a little lower on the day however as a pair of Italian drivers in the form of Davide Leone and Manfredo Rossi Di Montelera shared the front row of the F3 Classic grid for the first race of the day. Pole sitter Leone would prove to be the man to beat with Rossi Di Montelera forced to spend the majority of both races trying to find a way past the older March 783 of his compatriot with the latter ultimately coming up short in both events as Leone put in a great drive to secure double victory.
Behind, Chris Hodgen had initially crossed the line third in race 1 but was later hit with a 30 second penalty for overtaking under a safety car leaving Frederic Lajoux aboard his March 793 to claim the final step of the podium. Race 2 meanwhile would see the excitement of Hodgen and Alex Ames (who finished race 1 in the Stirling’s gravel trap) come through the field with the grid based on race 1 finishing positions. Both would make great progress with Hodgen just missing out on a race 2 podium as Eric Martin, aboard his Martini MK39, just had enough in hand.
In the Classic F2 races, 2024 Interseries Champion and poles sitter, Mark Charteris, would put in a controlled drive to claim race 1 victory. Martin Stretton and James Lay would keep the multiple Classic Clubmans Champion honest for the early part of the race with Stretton even claiming fastest lap before being forced into retirement. This instead would leave the March 762’s of James Lay and Manfredo Rossi Di Montelera to claim the respective final steps of the podium.
Charteris could not make it a double victory on the day however as the March 782 man dropped back early on in race 2 before retiring. Stretton (March 742) meanwhile had made great progress from the back of the grid, climbing as high as 4th before unfortuately suffering a second retirement of the day. This left James Lay to follow up his earlier second with a dominant race 2 victory whilst Rossi Di Montelera would claim his 4th podium of the day with second and Greg Caton would take an excellent third aboard his March 742.
Entries were unfortunately a little of the low side throughout with the Masters Sports Car Legends race seeing just 7 cars make the start and 5 take the flag; this in addition to only 8 cars lining up for the second Masters GT Trophy race that saw Craig Wilkins and Aaron Scott claim a dominant second victory of the weekend aboard their 2012 Lamborghini Gallardo GT3.
The Masters Sports Car Legends race did however feature a great opening stint battle between the McLaren M1B of John Spiers and Lola T70 MK2 Spyder of Andy Newall. Spiers was just about able to keep Newall at bay but Greensall would soon disappear up the road once stepping into the hot seat of the Chevrolet powered brute. Car owner Steve Seaman meanwhile was not able to match the speed of Newall and would soon drop back in the Lola T70, leaving Georg Kjallgren aboard the Daren MK2 to claim 2nd and Keith Ahlers and James Billy Bellinger to round out the podium in their glorious Cooper Monaco King Cobra.
By far the highlight of the day though were two fantastic races for the Pre-85 Formula One cars. 2024 Champion Matthew Wrigley had qualified his 1982 Tyrrell 011 on pole position and would have been hot favourite for race 1 victory had it not been for losing third gear. Yutaka Toriba, in his Williams FW07C, would take full advantage of the Tyrrell’s ailment and find himself in the lead by the end of lap 1 with Mike Cantillon following suit after a mid-race safety car.
The latter pass proving pivotal as, courtesy of a 5 second penalty (unsafe release from pit lane) for Toriba, it looked as though Cantillon (Williams FW08) would go on to take victory having remained a close second throughout the closing stages. Indeed Cantillon was even handed the winners trophy before a stewards review revoked the Japanese drivers penalty leaving an amended podium of Toriba, Cantillon and the McLaren M29 of Warren Briggs.
Whilst race 1 was eventful enough, the partially reversed grid for race 2 upped the anti further still! Courtesy of a 4th place finish in race 1 Steve Hartley lead the early stages from pole before a coming together at Graham Hill Bend saw Hartley and Wrigley drop back and Toriba given a 5 second penalty as a result.
This left fellow front row starter Warren Briggs in the lead from the Williams duo of Cantillon and Toriba. Briggs however was nursing a braking issue but was doing a fine job of keeping the other leading crews at bay which in turn had allowed Wrigley to bring himself back into contention and was lying fourth before another coming together.
This time, in an attempt to get passed Briggs at Paddock Hill Bend, Cantillon would catch the rear end of the New Zealander’s machine, damaging his front wing. Thankfully Briggs was unaffected but Cantillon would soon fall behind both Toriba and a recovering Wrigley before receiving a 5 second penalty himself for the collision.
This would leave Wrigley as the main rival to Briggs’ victory ambitions given Toriba’s collision penalty but with time running out Toriba would bring about a slightly earlier end to proceedings as he found himself in the Clearways gravel; thus denying Wrigley a chance to end the day on the top step of the podium but allowing Briggs to claim a well deserved second victory of the season.
Whilst the F1 cars may have provided the major highlight, the Pre-66 Touring Car race to round out the days proceedings was a close second. It’s not too often these days that such a varied Pre-66 Touring Car grid is assembled but on this occasion we were treated to the almost perfect mix of Ford V8 powered muscle, 2litre Lotus Cortina and of course a fine sprinkling of the mighty Mini. A number of recent Touring Cars stars were also set to appear in the second half of the race, including Matt Neal, Tom Ingram and Colin Turkington, to add extra spice to the 1 hour event.
It was John Spiers who would start the event from pole in his Mustang however courtesy of a stunning lap from Nigel Greensall at the start of the day. Tom Sharp, aboard his Ford Falcon, would soon find himself in the lead though with another Mustang in the hands of Alex Taylor soon upto second before Spiers’ event was ruined courtesy of a nudge from behind which would see the pole sitter lose a significant amount of time in the Paddock Hill Bend gravel.
Robert Ross and Jimmy Broadbent also made great progress through the opening stint with the latter up to third in his Mustang prior to the stops and Ross getting past Sharp to take the lead of the race on lap 8 in his similar machine.
As the pitstops unwound however Sharp would find himself back in the lead with Matthew Johnson (taking over from Robert Ross) and Alex Taylor completing the top three before a safety car closed up the entire field; thus appearing the give the current and ex BTCC stars a shot at the podium as their elite drive pitstop penalties were wiped out.
It was not to be however as another safety car period shortly after, this time for Colin Turkington himself who was beached in the Westfield gravel, put pay to any comeback. This left Sharp, Johnson and Taylor to fight it out for glory, with Sharp looking odds on for victory before a mistake at Druids on the final lap allowed Johnson to sneak through. But whilst Johnson was first to take the flag, the Mustang man was carrying a 5 second penalty for track limits which dropped he and Ross to third, leaving a relieved Sharp standing on the top step of the podium and Taylor to claim an excellent second.
Whilst numbers may have been a little on the low side throughout the racing was top drawer. I had genuinely forgotten what a great track Brands Hatch is, especially when the weather is playing ball. The long lasting memory however will be the sound of the 3 litre DFV engines bouncing off the Grand Prix Loop trees. WHAT A NOISE! And well worth the near 6 hour round trip.
GALLERY
Paul Commons Motorsport 