Quiet, you bastards! Pat Doran shouts at the contestants and the media accumulates, his big smile dazzling though he is hidden under a mask. We’re racked up at the Lydden Hill race track near Dover for the launch of the rebooted British Rallycross Championship (BRX), which will start this holiday weekend, and Doran, the series boss and owner Lydden, obviously doesn’t do so formally. Jonathan Palmer, that’s not the case.
Rallycross is a fantastic, if too overlooked, form of motorsports that combines the most productive facets of rallies and track racing into a form of quick and easy-to-use shooting for spectators. It is also designed for television. Literally: the first rallycross took place at Lydden in 1967 as a new way to create Saturday afternoon entertainment on ITV’s Halcyon World of Sport program.
An official FIA World Rally Championship (WRX) has risen and pushed since 2014, but the well-known British national series has stalled in recent years. That’s why UK motorsport now feels compelled to give the sport a new life, and Doran, a four-time British Rallycross champion and 1980s folk hero in Group B, has been selected as the kind of sociable character with enough air to do so.
Entering a melee
The reboot of the British series is based on a marketing crusade encouraged through rugthrough. “We announced it as the BRX of the five nations,” says Doran, whose dynamic plans for 2020 have inevitably been disrupted by the pandemic. ‘That’s because we go to five countries: Lydden in England, Knockhill in Scotland, Pembrey in Wales, Mondello Park in Ireland and Valkenswaard in Holland; we cannot host the Dutch circular this year because of Covid. We give it a foreign flavor, adding spices and doing anything else in marketing. “
The rallycross network would possibly be solid and well established, but can Doran rewrite the interest rate of the days when it was a staple of television in World of Sport and the BBC gallery? “Let’s try it wisely,” he says excitedly. “We have a three- to five-year contract and invest a lot of money in the direction. Group B was the last one wonderful, and I was one of them: me, Will Gollop, Martin Schanche. Now we have today’s attractive drivers, adding the ones who didn’t have to worry before because they weren’t happy with the way they were going.
“At the end of five years, I hope this is the game that everyone will see. I’m not interested in cars that are so fast that they can’t run faster than themselves, and Formula One is like seeing the paint.” Dry. We’re here to bring the entertainment back to the motor game. »
Chris Today goes on a diet
Sir Chris Hoy, a highly decorated Olympian, former track cyclist and national treasure, will be among the BRX regulars at Lydden this weekend, August 30 and 31, lining up at Doran’s powerful Citroen C4. The Scot loves his motorsport and arrived at the end of the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Ligier-Nissan LMP2. He has already tried his luck in rallycross, having been introduced to the WRX grid as a component of a TV series he directed called Dream Jobs, so he has a concept of what he needs to do this weekend.
It’s an admirable circle of sedan family members, but there are a lot of amazing rivals that make the C4 feel a little outdone.
“If you ask a racing driving force from other disciplines where you’d like a chance, nine out of ten times, you’ll mention rallycross,” says Hoy, who also supports a British cycling initiative to make Lydden a popular pedaling position. cyclocross events as well. “It’s such an exciting form of motorsports and condenses into a small, tidy package. The addition of gravel and asphalt and the competitive nature of driving, hitting the curves with the handbrake and throttle to drive the car … It’s a lot of fun. “
The Hero of the Isle of Man TT motorcycle, John McGuinness, is also covered to drive the BRX C4 at Knockhill on September 26 and 27 for his four-wheel debut. Doran obviously understands the influence of the strength of the stars.
Kent’s hidden gem
Had Ron Dennis succeeded in the early 1990s, the McLaren Technology Center would not have yet been built at Woking in Lydden, as the circuit has a control facility to rival Ferrari in Fiorano. But local opposition and staff reluctance to move to Kent sabotaged the master plan, McLaren sold the site, and Lydden remained intact as Britain’s smallest racing venue. Located in a valley along the A2 between Canterbury and Dover, the one-kilometre inverted L-shaped circuit is a delicious step backwards.
Doran’s delight makes him the best goalkeeper. It has ambitious plans, adding a 14-garage pavilion and a reception building, but swears it will maintain a welcoming atmosphere with a “fashionable 1960s commercial look.”
“We’re not competing with Brands Hatch or Goodwood,” he says, even though everyone gets a building permit after 8 years of fighting. “We don’t have big overheads and I don’t need them. We’re the smallest racetrack in the country, but what does it matter? We’re the ultimate exciting. And you can see each and every point of view. »
As the operator of a stone processing company, Duo, Doran is based on reality. “I’m a very publicity person,” he says, “and I point it out. We have to welcome people. Without disrespecting Jonathan Palmer [head of the Motorsport Vision brand owner], you can’t hit him right.” fortune, but he did it at the point of business. We do it differently, like the friendly circuit. We’re never going to be a great circuit, so why look for a big, ugly building? That’s what we are.”
Lydden’s endearing charm would have been lost if McLaren had moved. Under Doran, he will be the largest asset in the room.
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