Motorsport Venues |
||||||
AZ EDWARDS |
an iconic annual season-closing fixture that continues on the UK motorsport calendar to this day.
The first festival to be held at the circuit was won by future F1 star Derek Daly and the winners list through the 1980s and 1990s was a roll call of top-level drivers including Roberto Moreno, Julian Bailey, Johnny Herbert, Roland Ratzenberger, Eddie Irvine, Jan Magnussen, Mark Webber and Jenson Button.
Webb’ s ambitions went beyond the track, however, and he set up events with radio DJs that drew in audiences that might otherwise never have noticed the venue. This inspired example of marketing cross-pollination even helped to launch the broadcasting career of circuit staffer and future British Saloon Car Championship racer Mike Smith, whose commentary was said to have caught the ear of local resident and motorsport fan Noel Edmonds.
Webb also staged Christmas and Boxing Day events, added air displays and celebrity races and introduced disciplines such as Truck Racing and American IndyCar to an increasingly long list of activities.
It was a rather unorthodox approach – and well ahead of its time – yet it worked. Crowds swelled, the circuit prospered and Brands Hatch became part of the fabric of British sporting life, a regular on mainstream TV shows like BBC’ s Grandstand. In many ways, it laid the inspiration for modern operators – that a race circuit must offer more than racing alone.
TURBULENCE TO TRIUMPH
The story of Brands Hatch is not one of uninterrupted success, however, and at times the venue has endured periods of uncertainty, even crisis. In 1986, entrepreneur John Foulston acquired
|
the circuit along with Oulton Park and Snetterton, forming the Brands Hatch Leisure Group and bringing Cadwell Park in to join the portfolio.
His sudden death a year later might have spelled disaster, but his daughter, Nicola Foulston, took control and transformed the business. Under her leadership, Brands Hatch was heavily modernised, with new pits and a new headquarters, and the company grew rapidly, repositioning the circuits as commercial assets in a changing entertainment landscape.
Things changed again at the turn of the Millennium, when the business was sold to Octagon. This would turn out to be a difficult period in its history, with the circuits losing some of their lustre as ambition sometimes outran practicality. Plans to bring the British Grand Prix back to Brands Hatch, for example, were exciting but ultimately failed due to planning challenges.
Instead of F1, the venue brought in the US-based CART series in 2003, with the one-off London Champ Car Trophy drawing in an impressive crowd of 40,000 fans. However, the struggling circuit needed rescue and a year later,
|
“ BRANDS HATCH BECAME PART OF THE FABRIC OF BRITISH SPORTING LIFE, A REGULAR ON MAINSTREAM TV SHOWS LIKE BBC’ S GRANDSTAND” |