The Masters Historic Festival is an annual event hosted at Brands Hatch in Kent.
It’s an event I’ve had the pleasure of going to a number of times and it’s one of my favourite events of the year. There’s always an interesting days racing and the car show alongside the track is always really good. This year was no exception!
The headline racing for the weekend comes from the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Championship, for 3 litre Formula One cars built between 1966-1985.
The field for Formula Ones was a little smaller than usual at just 7 cars. However, it’s always spectacular to see and hear these cars running.
Here’s a short video of the cars running past Druids in the opening lap of their race. https://www.tiktok.com/@richardfrancismsfmh/video/7103987782095359238?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7083084201374057990
The other cars that I really enjoy watching running around are the Masters Endurance Legends from the 1990s and early 2000s. This class was only introduced a couple of years ago and it’s a highlight for me as there aren’t any other events I normally go to where I can see LeMans prototypes in person.
This year they mixed the prototypes in with GT cars, as would be seen at contemporary endurance races, which made for an interesting field of cars.
Here’s another short video of them running from Druids. https://www.tiktok.com/@richardfrancismsfmh/video/7103478061357731078?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7083084201374057990
The other class that’s also really enjoyable is Equipe GTS. The MGB is a popular car in this category My Dad has always been into classic MGs and I sort of grew up around them. Seeing them as race cars always seems to spark my imagination.
Now that Covid is finally under control, spectators were once again allowed in the paddock.
I’ve missed being able to see the cars up close for the past couple of years.
This Shelby Daytona was my favourite race car of the day.
Some of the road cars that I assume belong to the owners and drivers were also pretty cool.
The first right hand drive C8 Corvette I’ve seen in person. I hope Chevrolet are successful with that car over here. It’s the coolest mass production modern car for a long time!
This little Mazda truck was funky.
You can also get in behind the pits to get a look at the Formula One cars and LeMans cars in a bit more detail.
If you do go behind the pits, please keep in mind that this is a working environment. Try your best to keep out the way of the crews working on the cars. I’m sure that they’re happy to answer questions, and its absolutely amazing that they let us get this close, but I really don’t want that to change.
As always the show and shine area was packed. Lotus were definitely the most represented manufacturer of the day.
There was a nice selection of Porsches too.
There were a number of American cars too.
My favourite car in the show and shine area was this wonderful little Renault Sport Spider.
As it always is, Masters was a lovely day out. The next big event that I’ll be going to at Brands Hatch is American Speedfest. It’ll be great to see you there!
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By Richard Francis
