tvrmonster.com
The specialist travelling very rapidly web site
Britcar
To my surprise, the Britcar series (part of the European Endurance & Racing Club Series’) started in the same way as the tvrmonster started! They got there first (1997) and are a somewhat larger and more prestigious organisation…but the origins are the same.
At the Nurburgring in 1997, two guys ( James Tucker & John Veness ) were complaining about the opportunities, or rather lack of them, to endurance race in the UK. The Willhire 24hrs had finished in ’94 and since then there was effectively zip. So the guys set up the EERC and by 2002 had a season confirmed with grids topping 30 cars (including Topcats racing). A tremendous achievement.
By 2003 some big names were in the starting line ups and the event had also spawned a Sports Car series. Again the grids for these races were nearing the 30 car mark, but there were even more innovations on the way. By the end of the year, night racing had been introduced at Donnington & Brands, which must have taken a tremendous amount of work in these days of low noise, Health & Safety and Council intervention. These dates were real crowd pleasers and add to that the broad span on the grids and exciting racing, the EERC series continued to grow.
2004 saw the TV coverage for some rounds (SKYs World Motor Sport series) and the inclusion of the Britsports and Gold Arts to the series. This meant consistent, high quality grids of 30+ cars in several categories, which spanned Caterhams to Touring cars and the support of some of the top tin-top racers in Europe. Soon the Britsports and Gold Arts were amalgamated and grids styled over-subscribed with several reserves attending at each round!
In 2005 the Big V8s made it to Britcars. They were now catering for everything from a Dodge Vipers to Caterhams! And they were all there, and the Silverstone 24hrs was back on the Race calendar! A great year for Racing. The S1 Class had works teams and Ex-Touring car runners, while the Britcars some of Europe’s top GT racers such as PARR Motorsports Porsches (we often see them at our Spa “monster” trackdays!) and the BMW GTS of David Leslie. The Britsports too had top sportscars attending such as Radical. The 24hrs at Silverstone had to be the top race of the year which was run by Rollcentre Racing. Where have I heard that name before? Martin Short? Rollcentre Racing?
And so to 2006. What else can the guys come up with? Well first to interest us is the V8 Supercar Challenge. This MAY tempt some of the Tuscans away from the Dunlop TVRCC Challenge…or maybe not. The V8 class will extend across both Britcar and Production S1 and with the Silverstone 24hrs confirmed it should be an interesting year.
Silverstone 24hrs Test Day Sept 7th 2006
Silverstone 24hrs Race Day Sept 8th 2006
