The weekends second day of racing at Brands Hatch would see the Clubman in action as part of a full grid in the DMN championship.  Once again the popular championship would see an impressive array of cars lining up to claim the spoils around the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. 

Qualifying 

The Clubman headed out onto the circuit as part of the huge field, it was immediately clear that traffic would play a major part in the session!  As the session continued the Clubman fought its way through the traffic to set some impressive lap times – these times were even more remarkable in light of the fact that the Clubman had no clutch!  As the session continued a number of incidents brought out the yellow flags and thus denied the Clubman the opportunity to improve its times – although the Clubman was lucky to avoid these incidents as twice cars left the circuit whilst directly ahead of the Clubman.  Despite the clutch failure the Clubman qualified well up the grid and immediately ahead of a pair of Imprezas! 

Race 1 

With the clutch fixed the Clubman headed out for the race full of confidence.  Rolling starts were the order of the day and the first of these saw the Clubman holding position against the hard charging Imprezas.  The tussle with the Imprezas continued over the opening laps of the race and was soon joined by a Clio.  The Clubman impressively held off the Clio for a number of laps and looked to have the edge over the French car.  The battle wasn’t over however and the Clio made contact with the rear of the Clubman tipping it into a spin and dropping it down the order. 

With two Minis now ahead of the Clubman the fight was truly on!  Having recovered from the spin the Clubman began to claw its way back through the field whilst also fending off two Cosworths that were recovering from their own dramas.  The first of the Minis was quickly caught and passed as the Clubman continued its charge.  The sheer power of the Cosworths saw them pass the Clubman but soon the Clubman had the final Mini in is sights.  With the race entering its final laps the Clubman was closing down the Mini ahead but the gap looked ominously large.  However, in this instance luck favoured the Clubman and the Mini was badly baulked by a back marker – this allowed the Clubman to close the gap in the space of a few corners.  Once on the tail of the Mini the Clubman was able to sweep past and retake the class lead and ultimately the class victory. 

Race 2 

The first race had seen some great battles but these were nothing compared with what was to come.  From the very first lap of the second race the Clubman was embroiled in an epic battle as part of an eight car group all squabbling for position – the group included the two Imprezas, a Lancia, the Clio, an ex-DTM (German Touring car) Mercedes, a Cosworth, the Clubman and its yellow peril Mini adversary.  The whole group circulated nose to tail with passes for position within the group on every lap.  As ever the Clubman excelled itself in the close quarters dogfighting – even passing the DTM car under braking for the Druids hairpin!  The David vs Goliath struggle continued as the two cars each played to their advantage – the DTM car powering ahead on the straights with the cheeky Clubman out braking the larger car into the slow corners.  

As the race continued the epic struggle showed no signs of abating and the Clubman gained another position as it passed the Clio.  The yellow peril then sliced past the Clubman to take the class lead on to see the Clubman retake the position at the very next corner.  The two cars continued to swap position lap after lap until the Clubman was able to make what looked like a decisive break away from the pursuing Mini.  However, as with the first race the outcome wasn’t decided by the two protagonists but by a back marker (the same back marker as the first race!) – this time it was the Clubman that fell victim and the yellow Mini was able to duck through and take the place on the final lap and took the flag with the Clubman fractions of a second behind.