The morning of Saturday 27 March set the scene, and the smell of petrol, oil and bacon filled the air around the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent where today the dreams of 28 individuals turn into reality, the dream of becoming a racing driver. Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Club MSV Trackday Trophy racing series.

Considering the dismal forecast of rain it was reassuring that at 9am a damp but drying track would stage an almost entirely novice grid of drivers at the end of the day.

The build up to qualifying

There are several things on a race day that as a driver can be very unnerving - the race start, the crowds of spectators, the thought of crashing and the scrutineering team. The scrutineer's job is to make sure your car and equipment are compliant to the series regulations and that ultimately, they are safe.

Simon Robotham and Barry Carter were still putting the finishing touches to their Ford Puma when the scrutineering bay opened for the day. The keen trackday enthusiasts decided to enter the series when they first heard about it on the Club MSV website late last year, "we both love our cars and bikes and when the series was publicised we thought why not - there's nothing stopping us. We see this as a route into motorsport that will be relatively cheap and good fun and we get to share the experience along with a lot of other novices" said Simon.

Another similar story was that of the Redmoon Racing team with drivers Stephen Baker and Leon Bridgway. "We saw the series advertised on the Club MSV website and decided to give it a go," said Leon. Redmoon Racing's Toyota MR2 was an ideal choice for the Trackday Trophy but the team met a small drawback when they left their locking wheel nut key at home, meaning that they had to make their way to the grid on road wheels and tyres.

Richard Beach of Late Again Racing was unfortunate when he failed scrutineering due to out of date overalls. Despite the best efforts of a friend bringing him a spare pair, they too were out of date and that's where it ended for Richard. A team member of Daniels Motorsport, Richard has always been keen to get behind the wheel himself in a more 'gentlemanly' series so we hope to see him again, with some new overalls, at the next round at Snetterton in June at the wheel of his Ford Fiesta.

With the sun trying to break through the blanket of cloud, qualifying was only half an hour away and following a chat with a number of competitors it was great to see such a turn out of cars and drivers for our first ever race meeting.

There was talk of certain cars that were likely to dominate the track considering their power to weight ratio. The Ginetta Junior of Dominant Motorsport piloted by Dominic Pettit, one of the rather more experienced drivers, and James Hayes with a small amount of experience and the BMW E30 M3 driven by Clive Bailey and Chris Fellows were strong contenders. 

Qualifying

With qualifying underway and a dry line now established on track, the twenty minute session was the nearest thing to a trackday that our competitors were going to experience this weekend.

Donna-Marie Mapplesdon in the Honda Civic got off to a good start in qualifying making sure she kept it on the black stuff and, as some had predicted, the BMW E30 M3 of TWB Racing set the pace at the top of the timing sheet at just over 57 seconds. This was closely followed by the Ginetta of Dominant Motorsport and Jim Cameron in his BMW 335 to third on the grid (another of the 'only completed last night cars' finished in striking red and black livery). Jim joins the series, like most, as a self confessed petrol head and a regular contributor to the Piston Heads forum. (You can read his piece online here)

Despite the earlier set back of scrutineering, the McHugh duo earned themselves a fourth place on the grid with a 58 seconds lap. Arguably the most surprising of qualifying positions was that of Graham Allen and Colin Philpott, who rocketed their elegant Jaguar XJS to an impressive 13^th on the grid, a remarkable achievement considering the weight and handling characteristics of the British classic on such a twisty circuit.

With an incident free qualifying session now complete it was smiles all around. We did however have a minor issue to sort out in that two competitors (you know who you are!) didn't have numbers or backgrounds on their bonnets which meant the timing officials couldn't identify them.

The off-track atmosphere was great with everyone sharing their experiences and stories from the last half an hour and with the weather on our side, we could only hope for a dry race. A man who was thinking differently however was Ken Ward. His Mini Cooper S would be ideally suited in the wet and upon assessing his tyres and set up decided to swap tyres amongst other things to adapt a more wet set up. What a sensible choice that would turn out to be.

Steve Smee and Martin Schofield of SeM Motorsport were competing in a VW Golf and with good trackday experience, three different engines in the last two weeks and a rolling road in Paris - they were sure to be a strong contender for race victory. Starting from fourteenth on the grid it would be tough but anything is possible in motor racing.

The day's racing had gone well and as five o'clock approached we started to round up the drivers to get in their overalls and prepare for the race ahead. Some seemed unphased, some excited, most nervous!

What would each team's strategy be? Who would drive first? At what point would they switch drivers? Was it going to rain?! The general consensus was that the more experienced driver of a two driver team would start the race and hurtle towards Paddock Hill Bend with 21 other cars all vying for position. A wise decision I think.

The Race

After a delayed start due to an extreme downpour (including hailstones) the proceedings finally got underway, with the red lights extinguished and bated breath, all eyes were on the first corner and getting ready to count how many of the 22 cars fall off the circuit at this point. Should we have ever doubted our entrants? It would appear not as the entire grid made it through!

The pole-sitting BMW E30 M3 of Clive Bailey took the lead, with Cameron in second place and Ash Davies' Renault Clio in third.

Dominic Pettit's Ginetta G20 dropped down the order after qualifying in second position, a great achievement considering the car has only 80 bhp! Gary Cole got off to a storming start propelling his white Citroen Xsara from 12^th on the grid to fourth by the end of the opening lap.

On lap four, Cameron dived down the inside of Bailey to take the lead, as Davies capitalised on his BMW E30 rival's lack of momentum to snatch second place and demote Bailey to third.

Cameron and Davies battled for the opening part of the race, going side by side down the start/finish straight at one point, but the BMW M3 maintained the lead as the pair went into the pits on lap eighteen.

Tom and Jamie McHugh's rollercoaster of a weekend was finally put to an end when ten minutes into the race, father Tom had to pit outside the mandatory pit stop window as his vision was nil. With the lack of a heater or blower system the car had steamed up meaning it was unsafe and almost impossible to continue, and Jamie sadly never got to pilot the car in the race.

Pit Stops

Cameron was quickest away after the mandatory three minute stop to edge a sizeable advantage over the Citroen Xsara of Gary Cole and the Renault Clio, which Davies handed over to Paul Abercrombie for the second half of the race.

Following the pit stop window, father and son team Gary and Ben Littlewood of Littlewood racing from Surrey rejoined the track in fourth place in their Renault Clio. Gary and Ben built their car like most in their home garage with trackdays as the sole purpose in mind. Neither of the duo have any race experience so to be running third in the C class and fifth overall must have been a great feeling for them. 

The pole-sitting BMW E30 now in the hands of Chris Fellows was now in fifth place, ahead of Kester Cook's VW Golf.

Gary Cole then began a late charge in the closing stages of the race, reducing Cameron's initial twelve second lead by more than a second per lap. On the final lap, Cameron's BMW was caught in heavy traffic, which gave Cole the opportunity to go round the outside exiting Graham Hill Bend and snatch the lead. "I saw him come up the inside of me, but was pleased to see that Gary couldn't quite hold the position," said Cameron

The Whitmun Engineering Citroen ran wide over the grass at Surtees, allowing Cameron to regain the lead. Cole rejoined the track just behind the BMW trying to chase it down along the start/finish straight. But with a car length separating the pair, Cameron crossed the line ahead to claim victory in the inaugural Club MSV Trackday Trophy.

"I knew Gary was getting closer as he had a lot more grip than me in the wet conditions, plus my windscreen wipers had stopped working so I couldn't see anything when I was catching the backmarkers," Cameron added. "Gary did get past me on the final lap, but I was celebrating in my car when I saw him rally across the grass at the final bend!

"It was a great race and the whole day was just fantastic. As an introduction to racing, I can't speak highly enough of the Trackday Trophy," he concluded.

The Renault Clios' of Davies/Abercrombie and the Littlewood family held on to third and fourth place respectively, with less than a second separating the pair. The pole-sitting Bailey/Fellows BMW finished fifth ahead of Kester Cook's VW Golf in sixth place.

Matt Upchurch and Daniel Stuart crossed the line in seventh in their Porsche 924, whilst the VW Golf of Douglas Campbell and Nick Jarvis rounded out the top eight.

The R & R racing entry from Alex Read and Simon Richards in their Vauxhall Nova had a modest weekend. Qualifying fifteenth on the grid out of 22, the novices did a great job of bringing the car home safely despite the severe weather conditions in fourteenth place.

No sooner than the chequered flag had been shown the stream of cars peeled off the circuit into the pit lane where the sea of emotion and ecstatic atmosphere was almost tangible. With smiles all around from the front all the way to the back of the grid the podium got under way.

The End

There were only three retirements from the inaugural race - Autosport journalists Gary Watkins and Jamie O'Leary suffered alternator troubles after flying several feet through the air, whilst the Blakes/Takhar VW Golf suffered a broken throttle cable and the Porsche 944 of the McHugh family also retired with mechanical problems.

I can honestly say I have never had the pleasure of watching such a great bunch of people doing what they love best and enjoying it together, and I speak on behalf of everyone involved in organising this series when I say that we were absolutely blown away by the first round. We look forward to seeing everyone again at Snetterton!