Schedule

Friday – Testing

The weekend began in encouraging fashion as Amigo Motorsport delivered a well-prepared machine for Friday’s test session at the iconic Brands Hatch Indy circuit. With the car set up meticulously and running reliably, the team were able to extract maximum value from the day, banking a substantial number of laps and building a thorough understanding of the circuit’s technical demands ahead of race day on Sunday.

The data gathered would prove invaluable — the crew dialling in the setup and the driver learning every nuance of the track’s famous dips and compressions. By the end of the day, confidence was high and the foundations for a strong weekend were firmly in place.

Sunday – Qualifying

Qualifying opened promisingly, with a series of solid early laps putting the car inside the top five. The team elected to pit at P4 for a precautionary check-over — a sensible call that, as the session wore on and the track rubbered in, saw the order shuffle significantly. Rejoining in P14 with a faster surface beneath them, the driver immediately went on the attack.

The car was clearly responding well, lap times tumbling with each push lap as grip levels climbed. Then, with the momentum building and a genuine shot at cracking the top six on the cards, the session was halted by a red flag — cruelly timed, just as the driver was hitting their stride. The clock couldn’t be wound back, and the final classified position of ninth, while frustrating given the pace on show, still represented a workable grid slot for the races ahead.

“The pace was there — we just ran out of time to show it.”

Sunday Race 1

The lights went out on the first race of the new season and, unfortunately, it proved to be a baptism of fire. The opening lap unfolded in the turbulent, door-to-door traffic that so often defines the early stages of a tin-top race, and by the time the field funnelled through for the end of lap one, the car had slipped to P13.

What followed was a determined — at times breathless — pursuit through the pack. The driver pushed at the absolute limit, probing for gaps, looking for any chink in the armour of the cars ahead. On one occasion the effort came very close to ending in disaster, the car’s front wheels kissing the gravel at the exit of a corner as the driver refused to give an inch. But clean air proved elusive and the field remained stubbornly bunched, leaving little room for the kind of decisive overtaking move that could have changed the complexion of the race.

A P13 finish at the flag was ultimately nudged up to P12 in the final classification, after the stewards handed a post-race time penalty to another competitor — a small consolation, but a points position nonetheless, and a lesson stored away for race two.

Sunday Race 2

Starting from the same P13 slot after race one’s result, the opening moments threatened a repeat of the earlier story as the getaway wasn’t quite as sharp as intended, leaving the driver to begin the real work from P15. But if race one had been a lesson, race two was the masterclass.

The team had worked swiftly between races — adjustments made to the car’s setup, and the driver equally reflective, sharpening the approach and refining the racecraft that had been found wanting in the earlier outing. The difference was immediate and stark. Where race one had felt like a battle against the field, race two felt like a statement.

Place by place, corner by corner, the car carved its way through the pack. The lap times told their own story — as quick as the top five in the field, the driver demonstrating that the pace had been there all weekend. By the closing stages, P8 was secured on the road — a magnificent recovery drive from fifteenth. Post-race stewards’ action demoting another driver then elevated the final result to a well-deserved P7.

With a healthy points haul from both races now banked, the season’s early standings make for very satisfying reading — leading the rookie class as the paddock departs Brands Hatch.