The BRDC C2 Championship (sometimes referred to as the British C2 Championship) was a short lived

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...

series which ran from 1988 to 1990. The series was for Group C cars which fit into the smaller, less powerful, and cheaper C2 category. All races were run in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. The British Racing Drivers' Club ran the series during its lifetime.

History

Meant as a replacement for the dwindling

Thundersports The Thundersports Series was a domestic championship which took place in mainly at Brands Hatch ran circuits, for prototype sportcars and also featured cars that were eligible for Can-Am and Group C2 racing. To bring some real excitement, noise an ...

series, the C2 Championship would serve to bring international sports car racing seen in the

World Sportscar Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992. The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and ...

to Britain. By using the smaller C2 class only, the series was able to encourage more teams to enter not only due to the relatively low cost of the available cars, but also due to the lack of major automobile manufacturers to drive away competitors due to their dominance. This was also aided by the fact that there were already several British teams running C2 class cars on the international circuit. Although only seven cars would attend the opening race at

Silverstone Circuit Silverstone Circuit is a motor racing circuit in England, near the Northamptonshire villages of Towcester, Silverstone and Whittlebury. It is the home of the British Grand Prix, which it first hosted as the 1948 British Grand Prix. The 1950 ...

, the series was able to expand to sixteen competitors by the end of its first year. Tiga chassis dominated the season as Team Istel drivers

Tim Harvey Tim Harvey (born 20 November 1961) is a British racing driver, best known for being the 1992 British Touring Car Champion, and the 2008 and 2010 Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain champion. A household name in the 1990s, Harvey won sixteen race ...

and Chris Hodgetts took the first drivers' championship. For 1989, the series unfortunately suffered from entries as a maximum of only twelve cars were seen in some races.

of Team Istel again took the Class A championship in a new

Spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices a ...

chassis while Canadian Robbie Stirling took the Class B championship for Inside Line Racing. 1990 saw the series suffer even more as most races averaged nine competitors, some of which never even made it to the green flag. John Churchill would take the final championship for his own team as the series was cancelled soon after. A national sports car series for Britain would not return until 1993 when the BRDC GT Championship was created. It would use production

grand tourer A grand tourer (GT) is a type of car that is designed for high speed and long-distance driving, due to a combination of performance and luxury attributes. The most common format is a Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout, front-engine, rear-wh ...

-style sports cars instead of custom built Group C cars which had been phased out by 1992.

External links

World Sports Prototype Racing
- BRDC C2 Championship results {{DEFAULTSORT:Brdc C2 Championship Group C Sports car racing series Auto racing series in the United Kingdom