From the Archives - Brands Hatch 1,000kms 1987

A much younger and slimmer me with a Jaguar Group C car.

It seems incredible that I haven't been to Brands Hatch for nearly 30 years, especially considering the number of times I went there in the sixties and seventies.  The occasion of my last visit was the Brands Hatch 1,000kms of 1987.  That year it was round 7 of the Sports Prototype World Championship and although the TWR Jaguars were dominant that year they had just been beaten at Norisring by the Richard Lloyd entered Porsche 962 of Baldi and Palmer and at Le Mans by the works Porsche 962C of Stuck, Bell and Holbert.  This was of course the Group C era with the Group C1 cars fighting for overall honours but with a second class, Group C2, fighting it out for the FIA Group C cup.

The entry for the Brands event was certainly not the best of the year with just 28 cars starting of which just seven were the Group C1 cars.  At that time teams were not compelled to enter every race.  Thus Brands was very much a TWR Jaguar versus privateer Porsche 962 race, with the only Sauber wrecking itself in practice. The Group C2 entry was better with an excellent field of competitive cars.   My interest was more in the Jaguars as I hadn't seen the Jaguar XJR-8 race before.  The Jaguars didn't disappoint me and started 1-2 on the grid.

The early leader was the No.4 Jaguar XJR-8 of Jan Lammers and John Watson.  It is seen here on the climb up to Druids.

Close racing on the entry to Druids with the Richard Lloyd Liqui Moly Porsche 962 leading a Jaguar as they lap a C2 car.  The Liqui Moly car driven by Mario Baldi and Johnny Dumfries was to finish second.

The winning Jaguar XJR-8 of Raul Boesel and John Nielsen heading towards Clearways.

The John Nicholson/Jean-Louis Ricci/Olinda Iacobelli Spice Ford Cosworth SE86C.  It eventualy finished sixth in the Group C2 class.

To find out more about the Spice SE86C, click here.

Group C2 action at Druids.

The Lammers/Watson Group C Jaguar XJR-8 at speed.  It eventually finished third after problems.

The class winning C2 Ecosse of Ray Mallock and David Leslie.

The works Spice leads a 962.

The Group C field included various marques including Spice, Argo-Zakspeed, ALD-BMW and Tiga.  However, Ecurie Ecosse were to claim the win after the works Spice of Gordon Spice and Fermin Velez ran into problems.

Jaaguar and Porsche heading up Hawthorn Hill.

The race lasted about five and a half hours and the first two cars ended on the same lap .  Jaguar won with Porsche second.  Ecuries Ecosse beat Spice in C2 just as they had at Silverstone.  At the end of the season the TWR Silk Cut Jaguars won the team Championship  with eight victories whilst Spice Engineering won the C2 Cup.  Raul Boesel took the drivers championship from Jan Lammers and John Watson.   Fermin Verlez and Gordon Spice took the C2 drivers championship.

The support race for Touring cars.  Just after the start with the field coming through Paddock bend.

I can't remember what camera I was using at the time but it may have been an Olympus OM10 with 100mm lens.  Captured on film and then scanned. 

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John Etherton affirme son droit d'auteur à l'ensemble des photos sur ce billet de blog. Cependant, vous pouvez poster des photos ailleurs sur le web aussi longtemps que vous créditez le photographe, John Etherton, et ce blog, Rouenlesafx@blogspot.com et fournissez un lien vers cette page.