Photographing the MGJ Engineering Brands Hatch Winter Stages

Report by David Harbey - 20 January 2024

It’s a new year, but we are already half way through the 2023-24 Circuit Rally Championship. Using race circuits around England and Wales, it attracts a mix of competitors – some seeking Championship honours; some just doing their local events. 

At PistonClick, we try to cover as many events as we can each year (try out new search facility on the PistonClick homepage to check out our previous Rallying reports) here is our photographic review of the MGJ Engineering Brands Hatch Winter Stages.

A glorious sunrise accompanied me on my drive round the M25 on a chilly, frosty morning. There was a queue to park at Druids (a fiver to you, sir) where I was due to meet my usual companion at Brands, Glyn Parham.

Glyn is a good friend who shares a love of rallying, building 1/43 scale model cars and photographing motorsport. He also lives just down the road, so no Dartford Tunnel risk for him !

Noting how the position of the sun changes through the day at Brands, we usually start out a Druids on the outside of the track so the light is behind us.

The beauty of the Circuit Rally is that they will often run the reverse way to normal on circuits for some of the day thus affording a rare, fenceless experience. 

The first run through the stage saw the competitors finding a slippery covering of frost at Druids – due to the seeding, it was the quickest cars first.

Having watched the first couple of stages from the outside of Druids, we decided to move to the inside of the corner. This hasn’t always been open for rallies but on this occasion, we were allowed in.

It wasn’t too busy so a range of shots could be achieved. It allows for some different angles, especially if the cars are still going the “wrong” way.

It is also a good spot to slow down the shutter speed.

The stage diagrams were published before the event and so we were able to check out when the cars would be heading down to the bottom paddock and over the jump. The backdrop is not ideal, but the sight of rally cars flying through the air is not to be ignored.

For the afternoon stages, we started out at Druids, now being run the “right “ way. I was shooting through the fence at the exit of the corner.

We would normally have walked round to Clark / Clearways with what sun remained behind us, but this time we stopped to shoot at Surtees, as the competitors took a tight 90 right just before the end of the stage. We were not to be disappointed there.

Gary Mason #37 decided to put on a show at the last corner on both of his runs through the stage while the service crew for #34 probably prefer anonymity …

The next round will be at Snetterton on the 10th February 2024  - PistonClick will be there to capture the action.