Phatphoto.com

A selection of photos from the Southend Half Marathon just click the link, 2010 Southend Half Marathon

Photos from the Brands Hatch Masters Historic Festival. Photos available from the following categories.

Gentleman Drivers
Sports Racing Masters
World Sports Car Masters
Grand Prix Masters
Interseries Revival
Touring Cars

The 2010 season at Brands Hatch started on with an outing for the Britcar championships. Although the grids were not huge, more cars are promised for later in the year, there was still an impressive array of machinery in the GT class. Over the winter parts of the Indy circuit had been resurfaced which caught a number of drivers out. Photographs from the three classes Britsports, Britcar Production and Britcar GT are now online.

Taking a look back at 2009 which was a great year for motorsport in the UK both for events in this country and for our drivers taking part in events further afield. Here are a number of slideshow galleries of some of my personal favourite shots from this year.

Touring Cars, British and World Touring cars from 2009
Historics, classic racing with some F1, sports cars, single seats and touring cars from the good old days.
Others, a collection of other stuff not in either of the above.

The final event of the 2009 season at Brands Hatch was held on Saturday 14th November in possibly the worse weather of the entire year. Even with gale force winds and frequent rain showers a large number of hardy souls turned out on track to contest the Lotus on Track Elise Trophy endurance race, the Cannons Motor Spares Tin Top Challenge, the Victor Meldrew Trophy and the Chris Knott BARC Intermarque Trophy. The conditions made it a busy day for the marshals, recovery teams and the safety car driver with a number of incidents thankfully none serious. Photos are now online from the Tin Top Challenge, Victor Meldrew Trophy, BARC Intermarque Challenge and Elise Trophy

There is something very special about proper racing cars being driven at night, not your girly F1 style let’s light the track night race but cars with lights being driven flat out in total darkness. This is what we had for the Britcar GT class at Brands Hatch. Given the number of safety car periods, the first coming on the very first green car lap after a 3 car pile up at Paddock, driving in the dark is quite tricky. Sadly the race had to end at precisely 6:26pm due the the curfew, it really could and should have lasted longer. Photos from the Britcar GT class and the supporting Britsports Masters, Ma5da MX-5 Winter Trophy and Britcar Production classes are online.

The trucks of the Delphi sponsored British Truck Racing Championship made their final visit of the season to Brands Hatch. Some very unpleasant weather conditions made the racing fairly tricky and there was a bit of collateral damage to the crash barriers, although the trucks and drivers made it through unscathed. On Saturday Andy Akinwolere from CBBC’s Blue Peter made his racing debut in a Class B truck. Photos from the truck racing and supporting classes Legends, Dunlop Motorsport News Saloon Championships, MaX 5 Championship, Ginetta Club Series and Pickup Trucks are now online.

Photos from the final Modified Live event of 2009 are now online. Galleries from the Time Attack Club, Time Attack Pro and Need For Speed European Drift Championships can be viewed by clicking a link.

Under most circumstances taking three victories in a single race meeting would be making all the headlines, unfortunately for Jason Plato his amazing feat was over shadowed by Colin Turkington taking the British Touring Car Championship for 2009. Coming into the final round on the Brands Hatch GP circuit, Plato was running third in the championship with 2008 champion Fabrizio Giovanardi. In race one Plato took the race victory from pole sitter and long time race leader Tom Chilton by 15 thousands of a second.

By taking victory in the second race of the day RML Chevrolet’s Plato made sure the title would be decided in the final race on the final day of the season. Despite an action packed final race that started with Vauxhall’s Matt Neal on pole position attempting to hold up the field so Giovanardi could take the title, eventually Plato got through to complete an unlikely hat trick of victories with Colin Turkington coming home in 2nd and securing his first title. This weekend also marked the end of an era with Vauxhall leaving the championship, 2010 will feature no official manufacturer backed teams, if this weekend is anything to go by I’m not sure it will make much difference.

A large gallery of photos from the BTCC and supporting classes Porsche Carerra Cup, Formula Renault, Renault Clio Cup, Ginetta G50 Cup and Ginetta Juniors is now online.

The final round of the British Formula 3 and GT Championships were held on the full Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. Red Bull backed Aussie, Daniel Ricciardo had already wrapped up the Formula 3 championship before the final round. That didn’t stop him from dominating race one, despite a scary looking brake fire in race one Max Chilton secured his first win in race two. With overall honours in the GT Championship still up for grabs there was a lot to race for. After two eventful races the Jones brothers claimed victory in their Team Preci-Spark Ascari. Photographs from GT Championship, Formula 3 Championship, Ginetta Championship, Heritage Touring Cars, Volkswagen Racing Cup and British Formula Ford Championship are now available.