Unexpected Instruction of the Week: Colin Tester at Brands Hatch
Brands Hatch instructor Colin Tester was surprised when a text message appeared last Thursday asking to show a beginner track to prepare for the two-title GT World Challenge this weekend.
The penny began to fall with further news that the driver in question was Italian and had participated in motorcycles in the past. It really was Valentino Rossi who, despite a glorious career that lasted many years, never visited the Kent track.
Armed with one of BMW’s MotorSport Vision racing school and with a tester in the passenger seat, he inspected the full Grand Prix scheme, picking up useful tips and information to prepare for driving his Team WRT Audi R8.
“He took it pretty steadily and was an absolutely adorable student,” said Tester, who participated in the Porsche Club series last weekend.
Rossi made good use of Tester’s instructions, scoring the first points of his season, finishing eighth in the second race.
Like a grandfather, like a grandson: Bob Simpson and Jake Doherty
Photo: Steve Jones
Four-time Formula 750 champion Bob Simpson addressed an avid spectator last weekend in Silverstone when he handed over driving duties to his grandson Jake Doherty.
Simpson, who has continuously participated in the 750 Motor Club series for more than 50 years, watched Doherty race on his 1991 SS / F 750 construction.
ABSTRACT: All action from the Silverstone 750MC meeting
“He has a pretty calm head, he’s not doing anything untidy,” said Simpson, who will share driving duties with Doherty this season. “I didn’t push him to do that. He’s been racing since he was born, and I told him that if you want to try, I can’t do it forever – do it this year or not at all. “
The 21-year-old took the best ninth place in Silverstone when he used tires for wet weather on the drying track in the second race.
To hold the race, you need only two (or three) cars: GT in Castle Combe
Photo: Ollie Read
Proving that only two cars are needed to race, but three are better, Doug Watson (Ferrari 458 Challenge), Kevin Byrd (debuted Porsche 991 GT3) and Keith Butcher (Audi R8 LMS ultra) drove together all over the exhausted Monday Castle Comb Round GT Championship.
As the notes of the V8, Flat 6 and V10 engines combined to create a fantastic soundtrack, viewers saw that the trio’s best lap time covered in less than half a second, Butcher’s third place in 1 min 08.277 seconds qualifies for awards.
Chevrolet TVR Sagaris with Perry Waddams ’engine would have been among them if its differentiation hadn’t removed the oil during qualifying, leaving just four starters, including Alexander Baldwin’s Honda Civic behind the top three.
Interested viewer of the week: Terry Richards
Photo: MAWP + SPORT
An interested visitor to the Castle Combe on Monday was Terry Richards, the seventh race champion in Formula Ford in 1975.
Catching a racing mistake, builder Richards trained at Motor Racing Stables in Brands Hatch and bought a used Merlyn Mk11 with a trailer for £ 1,000. He raced from 1970 to 1976, but without the funds to buy a new car to stay competitive, Richards sold his Merlyn to an American from the UK and retired.
Watching Ben Mitchell (top left) rewrite a historical record of a class in Richard Hudson-Evans ’Mk20 evoked memories.
Photo of the week
We can’t get enough of Group C’s actions at the historic festival in Donington. Here a pair of Silk Cut jaguars is chasing Spice Rob Huff
Photo: Mick Walker
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