Equipe to run its own meetings
Equipe Classic Racing will organise and promote its own race meetings in 2022 as it becomes increasingly difficult for other clubs to accommodate the Equipe portfolio of series within their events.
Equipe has featured at a variety of club meetings in recent seasons, most notably with the MG Car Club, but it has also appeared at Aston Martin Owners Club, Vintage Sports-car
Club, Bentley Drivers Club and Masters Historic Racing fixtures. But, having become a registered Motorsport UK club in its own right in 2019 and introduced Pre ’63, 50s and Libre grids alongside its popular GTS series, Equipe has decided to take the step to becoming a race promoter.
“It’s come about because we’ve grown, and it’s difficult to take a volume of time off others as a guest,” said Equipe partner John Pearson. “It wasn’t part of a grand plan; we just needed to secure our own future. Our intention remains the same: to provide affordable club racing to passionate amateur drivers.
“Circuits are starting to look at 2022, so that’s why we’re doing this now. We’ve invested quite a lot of money in our online driver entry platforms and hospitality as we’ve grown.”
Pearson stressed that “we really appreciate the support we’ve had from lots of clubs over the years”, and has not ruled out continuing to appear at other organisers’ events. “Masters is a good example – we’ve got two Equipe Libre grids on the Brands Hatch GP circuit with them at the end of May,” he added.
Pearson said he and his partner Rob Cull are in talks with a number of other grids that could be guest series at Equipe events next year, and have already confirmed one. They are beginning work on a schedule of 2022 dates, including one and two-day meetings.
After a surge in interest for its season opener at an MGCC event at Brands Hatch in April, Equipe added two extra GTS races, meaning it ran a total of four double-headers over the two days.