Motor Racing at Brands Hatch in the Eighties

Chas Parker

Jul 2009 · Veloce Publishing Ltd

About this ebook

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track, and amassed an impressive collection of thousands of color transparencies, the majority of which are previously unpublished.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.

About the author

Chas Parker is a motorsport writer who started his working life in the field of astronomy, as press officer for the Royal Greenwich Observatory. During this time he obtained a degree in mathematics and physics from the Open University. He has contributed to the Philips Encyclopaedia of Astronomy and Patrick Moore’s Yearbook of Astronomy. His main interest, however, is motor racing, and he spent many years taking photographs at different racing circuits around the UK, amassing a collection of many thousands of color transparencies. For some time he has worked as a sub-editor for Motorsport News, and he also reports on events such as the Goodwood Revival meeting and Festival of Speed.