Those Were the Days...
3 total works
During the 1970s, Brands Hatch was the busiest motor racing circuit in the world. Using previously unpublished photographs and on-the-spot accounts of events, this book provides a personal view of the venue's events during its heyday, and paints an affectionate picture of British motor racing at its very best. * Latest title in the sporting nostalgia series "Those Were The Days..." * A spectator's, rather than a competitor's view of Brands Hatch, with personal reminiscences and anecdotes. * Features a history of Brands Hatch racetrack during its heyday, with atmospheric accounts of the main races of the period. * All the photographs in the book are previously unpublished. * Dorset-based Veloce Publishing (pronounced Velo-chay) is named after the faster Alfa-Romeo sports cars, and produces books of the highest possible technical and pictorial quality for the motoring enthusiast.
Changes to regulations for sports car racing in the late 1970s paved the way for a golden era of endurance racing in the 80s, with the likes of Porsche, Lancia, Jaguar and Mercedes all vying for the World Sportscar Championship. The Silverstone 6-Hour and 1000km races became a cornerstone of this championship and the event was often used by the teams as a warm-up to the all important Le Mans 24-Hour race, which followed it on the calendar. This book charts the progress of the races, year-by-year from 1976, through the era of the Group C cars, up to the end of the eighties, with previously unpublished accounts and photographs of each event. It includes maps of the circuit, showing changes over the years and detailed results from each of the races. As an ordinary spectator, Chas Parker visited each of the events (except one) over the years, and amassed an impressive collection of colour transparencies taken from the spectator enclosures, the paddock, and during pits walkabouts.
By the start of the 1980s, the Brands Hatch motor racing circuit in Kent had become firmly established as one of the world's classic tracks. It had grown from humble beginnings as a motor cycle grass track to become an internationally renowned facility, hosting top-class motor sport. During the following decade, under the stewardship of its entrepreneurial managing director, John Webb, this enviable position was reinforced, with the circuit hosting five consecutive Grands Prix, two at very short notice, from 1982-86, along with a host of other major international meetings as well as smaller, club events. Chas Parker spent many years visiting the track, and amassed an impressive collection of thousands of colour transparencies, the majority of which are previously unpublished. This book picks up where his previous volume, "Motor Racing at Brands Hatch in the Seventies", left off. It offers a very personal account of visits to the world's busiest motor racing circuit during a decade of excitement and change, both on and off track, in the form of a scrapbook using the author's own photographs, taken as an ordinary spectator from the public enclosures.