BARC championships serve up Easter extravaganza at Brands Hatch

The British Automobile Racing Club produced an Easter extravaganza of track at Brands Hatch this past weekend (April 16/17) as six championships took centre stage.

Basked in bright sunshine and with a bumper crowd in attendance at the Kent venue, the weekend was headlined by the British Truck Racing Championship – which was kicking off making its first appearance of 2022. 

Division 1 began with Ryan Smith underlining his dominance as the reigning six-time champion converted pole position into a dominant victory. That would be to be his only win however as David Jenkins bagged a brace and the duo of Stuart Oliver and Simon Reid also opened their accounts for the year.

In Division 2, John Powell got the best start of the seven competing drivers as he steered his DAF to a hat-trick of wins whilst the returning Luke Garrett and ultra-consistent Brad Smith also triumphed. 

From the titans of truck racing to the pocket rockets of the Legends Cars National Championship, where three drivers shared the spoils to stand on the top step of the podium.

Staging six pulsating races around the 1.2-mile Indy circuit over the course of the weekend, defending champion Miles Rudman kicked off proceedings with a sensational win before going on to podium a further five times.

Will Gibson was arguably the star of the show as he too made it a podium clean sweep, with four of them being victories. Multiple champion John Mickel was the other driver to emerge victorious during the weekend as he won Sunday’s finale. 

The Classic Touring Car Racing Club served up no less than eight races over the course of the weekend, each as captivating as the last. In the two Pre ’66 encounters, spoils were shared between Piers Grange and Alan Greenhalgh whilst Don Hughes won both amalgamated Pre ’03 and Jaguar Challenge contests. 

In the combined Pre ’83 and Pre ’83 Touring Cars races, Dave Griffin proved too much for the opposition as he won twice; Andrew Wilson would go on to do the same in the Classic Thunder and Blue Oval Saloon Series encounters.

George Turiccki enjoyed the perfect start to the defence of his Pickup Truck Racing Championship as he chalked up a pair of race wins. Setting the fastest times in both parts of qualifying, the defending two-time champion didn’t put a wheel wrong to triumph twice.

The Lancaster Insurance MG Owners Club Championship was another category that lifted the curtain on a new season, with a bumper grid producing some memorable wheel-to-wheel moments.

After reigning supreme last year, Steve McDermid picked up from where he left off as he powered his way to an impressive pair of race wins whilst Steve Darbey, William Sharpe, Fergus Campbell and Jack Woodcock all scored podiums. 

Rounding out the weekend’s track action were two races from the Kumho BMW Championship. Showcasing some of the most iconic models from the Bavarian marque, Niall Bradley piloted his E36 M3 to the top step of the rostrum.

To view the full classification of results from all sessions at Brands Hatch, CLICK HERE.

Watch all of the action that was streamed live across both days on the BARC’s official YouTube channel HERE.