PRODUCTION SPLIT FOR BRITCAR
Organisers consider specialised events
Britcar Endurance Championship bosses are pursuing plans for additional races in 2020 dedicated to production cars.
Feelers were put out on social media at the end of July by series chief Claire Hedley, which proposed to run two races of 30 or 45 minutes length on Sundays for its class 5-7 production cars, while the two one-hour races would remain on Saturdays for the existing more powerful GTS in the series’ 1-4 classes.
Hedley said the idea had already attracted strong interest from drivers, who were largely in favour of 45-minute races instead of half-hour sprints.
“When I started, productions was what we were doing [a production series ran alongside the main Britcar Endurance Championship for many years],” she said.
“I thought about what to develop with Britcar and there is nothing wrong with class fives – they want to be in Britcar but they don’t want to be lapped by GT3S. The feedback has been incredible, and I think we understand what our customers want.
“It would be crazy not to look at doing something. There was a wake-up moment that we are going to lose our class fives if we don’t do something about it.”
The championship currently hosts its two races on a Saturday, but according to series staff it already has its hospitality tent in place until Monday mornings at race weekends, meaning it is only additional catering and overnight staff accommodation that would need to be added to begin running Sunday races.
While no formal proposal is in place yet, work is continuing on the logistics, race fees and negotiations with the British Automobile Racing Club to establish the plan.
It has not yet been decided whether the new Sunday races would run as a series or championship, although Hedley admitted having championship status would likely draw in more competitors.