ENDURING APPEAL

The ethos of SuperSport was simply to take the successful formula of ClubSport, but to expand on it further to allow increased race distances and both a wider power to weight ratio spread and a higher BHP per tonne cap to welcome faster cars. The new series was given a pilot race in July 2021 with a 20-car entry and plenty of positive feedback and reception.

The original plan had been to introduce a full season calendar for SuperSport in 2022, but for various reasons this wasn’t possible. Instead, it was decided to use the two races penciled into the year’s schedule as another pair of pilot races to further tweak and test of the format and gain more interest and feedback from current and prospective competitors. Both would take place on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit in June and August respectively and featured an excellent mix and variety of cars amongst both grids.

The Caterham 310R of Geoff Newman and Darren Burke took the pole for the June race with Philip Knibb’s SEAT Cupra TCR alongside on the front row, ahead of the Ginetta G50 of Andre and Jake Severs, Mark Lloyd-Jones and Stuart Mead in their Volkswagen Scirocco and the Lotus Elise shared between Daniel Jude, Robert Fenwick and Andrew Shepherd. Incredibly, the pace of the Caterham duo Newman and Burke saw them lead every single one of the 130 laps including through the mandatory pit stops. They ended up winning by five laps, while the early front-running SEAT, Ginetta and Lotus were all out by Lap 50 and it left Lloyd-Jones and Mead to take their Scirocco to second place and John Wyatt completing the overall rostrum in his turbo MINI Cooper. Newman/ Burke and Wyatt won each of the two Pro classes, while the three Clubman classes were taken by John Cooper and Simon Horrobin (Clubman-A), Brian Chandler (Clubman-B) and

It was an all-Ginetta Invitation class front row for the second Brands Hatch race in August, with David May and Mark Skeats in the G55 scoring pole ahead of the Severs pair in their G50, but the former slipped to the back of the field after a first lap mishap. What followed was an incredible fight back over the next two hours as May/Skeats climbed back up to second behind the Severs duo until the first pit stops, as the John Mawdsley/ Stuart Mead Scirocco and Paul Boulton in his Nissan 350Z both took turns out in front through the pit cycles. Then May and Skeats took over in the lead before making way for the SEAT SuperCopa of Jamie Hayes and Alex Read, before a late safety car took the race into its final 20 laps.

Once the race got back underway, the Severs Ginetta was back in front and went on to win the race on the road as the top Invitation class car. Behind them, James Alford and Mark Lloyd-Jones were the first non-Invitation car home with their VW Golf, winning the Clubman-A class in turn ahead of Paul Boulton’s 350Z winning Pro-A, , along with fellow class winners Paul Hinson’s BMW Compact and Keith Issatt and Christopher Williams in their MINI Clubman.

The SuperSport Endurance Cup will take on its first full calendar of events in 2023 with championship status too, along with an expanded and tweaked class structure which incorporates a new lifted power to weight ratio cap of 350bhp per tonne. This means a wider range of cars will compete and will certainly mean an exciting year ahead for this new formula!

Above: If variety is the spice of life, then SuperSport Endurance is the vindaloo of British motor racing!