Hannah Chapman claims victory at Brands Hatch, Katia Loggie continues her podium streak
- LIAM REDFORD
- 3 hours ago
- 7 min read
Hannah Chapman maintained her excellent start to the season in Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain by claiming her fourth victory of the season in the CS Am class. Fellow class competitor Katia Loggie maintained her 100% podium record following the event, while also leading her first laps in the series.
Hannah Chapman maintained her excellent start to the season in Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain by claiming her fourth victory of the season in the CS Am class. The Xentek Motosport driver had to overcome adversity during the event after being spun in race one, while another incident in race two saw her finish off the podium for the first time. However, Chapman claimed all three fastest laps within class and ended her weekend with a dominant victory in race three by a margin of around 30 seconds.
Fellow CS Am class competitor Katia Loggie maintained her 100% podium record following the event, while also leading her first laps in the series. Driving for Toro Verde GT, Loggie finished in third position in all three races and only a post-race penalty denied her a maiden runner-up finish during race two.
In the season opener, Chapman and Loggie impressed as they both stood on the podium in all three races. Chapman left Donington Park as the CS Am class championship leader as she won all three races in dominant fashion. Loggie secured a trio of third-place results and took significant strides forward from the first test session to the final race.
The Brands Hatch Indy circuit posed a different challenge as managing the fastest RS class machines in both qualifying and the races would be a vital factor in maintaining their successful starts to the campaign. Lap times were set to be extremely close throughout the event and therefore both Chapman and Loggie were looking to start the weekend on the front foot in Friday’s two free practice sessions.
In session one of the day, Chapman set a fastest time of a 49.961 which placed her second in class and just have a tenth away from Paul Porter. Loggie was just behind in third on a time of a 50.307 as the Toro Verde GT was in contention with the CS Am pacesetters.
In session two, Chapman took a good step forward as she finished the day quickest in the CS Am class. The Xentek Motorsport driver improved by half a second from the morning session and therefore ended Friday’s running with a margin of over three tenths of a second ahead of Porter. Loggie completed 35 further laps and although she was unable to improve her lap time from earlier in the day, she had banked vital knowledge as she continued to gain confidence in the car.
Qualifying was held on Saturday morning and was set to be an important session with overtaking often proving challenging at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. Both Chapman and Loggie built up their confidence during the first half of the session with Loggie sitting in second and Chapman in third within the CS Am class after fifteen-minutes were completed.
Both drivers used their knowledge from free practice to contend for pole position, with Loggie in particular taking significant strides forward. At the end of qualifying, the Toro Verde GT driver had set the second fastest time in the CS Am class with a lap of 49.394, almost a second quicker than in Friday’s two sessions. Chapman was close behind in third with a best time of a 49.490, just over a quarter of a second away from the pole position time of Paul Porter.
Race one of the weekend took place on Saturday afternoon with Loggie starting from second on the CS Am class grid and Chapman in third. The Toro Verde GT driver did a nice job to hold her runner-up position as she ran less than a quarter of a second behind Porter after lap one. Although Chapman had fallen behind Alister Weston into fourth position, she quickly passed the Graves Motorsport driver on lap two.
The safety car was then deployed for an incident involving Reece Somerfield and Matt Kyle-Henney and the recovery of both cars took an extended amount of time. As a result, the race was extended to a duration of twenty-five minutes with the restart coming on lap 11. Chapman quickly applied to pressure to Loggie for the runner-up spot with the two female drivers separated by less than a quarter of a second.
Despite the pressure from behind, Loggie was quickly catching Porter and on lap 14, she was less than half a second away from the CS Am leader. On lap 15, Chapman briefly moved ahead of Loggie, however the positions swapped again with both drivers now losing time as went off-track battling for position. After this setback, Chapman responded by setting the fastest lap of the race in class and this enabled her to begin closing back in.
In the closing stages of the race, Chapman was the fastest driver within the CS Am class and even began matching those in the CS Pro division. Loggie was also showing good speed as she started to catch Porter in order to mount a late challenge.
Porter held on to take the CS Am victory with Loggie securing her career best result in second. Chapman finished in third while claiming the fastest lap of the race within the CS Am class to underline her speed ahead of the two races on Sunday. However, a post-race decision from the stewards reversed the positions with Chapman promoted to second and Loggie demoted to third in class.
For race two of the weekend, the grid was set by the driver’s second fastest times from qualifying. Therefore, Loggie started on pole in the CS Am class due to her superb consistency over one-lap, while Chapman started from third position. Loggie made an excellent start as she held the lead while Chapman remained in third with Paul Porter separating the two female drivers.
Despite intense pressure from both Porter and Chapman in the opening stages, Loggie did a superb job to protect her lead despite the unfamiliar position. Katia was banking valuable experience at the head of the field and the Toro Verde GT driver continued to lead as the safety car was deployed on lap four. An incident at Druids involving CS Pro class drivers Jonathan Moore and Jason Baker had resulted in Baker’s car being beached in the gravel with damage.
The race resumed with just over ten minutes remaining and Loggie made a superb restart as she pulled out one second over Porter. This left Porter vulnerable to a challenge from Chapman and on lap 10, she made the move for second position. Following a new fastest lap of the race in the CS Am class, Chapman closed in on Loggie and Katia was again required to defend her lead.
To start lap 14, the drivers ran almost side-by-side with Chapman applying significant pressure into Paddock Hill Bend. After initially dropping Porter, the battle between Loggie and Chapman allowed him to close back in and a three-way fight for the lead commenced.
On lap 18, Loggie and Chapman made contact at Paddock Hill bend as they entered the corner together with Loggie spinning into the gravel trap. Fortunately, she was able to rejoin, however there was damage to her car with Chapman visiting the pits to assess her own damage. As a result, Porter claimed the CS Am class lead with Alister Weston moving into second position. Loggie remained on the circuit and ran in third, while Chapman was now a lap behind Loggie after rejoining the race in fourth.
As a result of the contact, both drivers were unable to improve in the closing stages of the race. However, they both took the chequered flag and therefore banked valuable championship points with Loggie continuing her podium streak in third, while Chapman finished in fourth while claiming fastest lap.
For the final race at Brands Hatch, both drivers were looking for a clean end to their weekend. Grid positions were based on the results of race two with Loggie started from third in class and Chapman from fourth. Chapman made an excellent start to gain two positions on lap one as she moved ahead of both Weston and Loggie, while Katia settled into third position in the CS Am class.
Chapman was quickly making inroads on Porter for the class lead, while CS Pro class driver Jason Baker was directly behind after he had a slow start. Loggie meanwhile, was holding third position and although she was unable to reach her potential with the car still suffering damage following the race two contact, Katia was running a clean race.
With Chapman running just half a second behind Porter, the pressure intensified on the Team Parker Racing driver. This resulted him making an error on lap 10 as he spun into the gravel at Paddock Hill bend. Porter was able to rejoin, however he had lost over 20 seconds to Chapman and therefore her advantage over new second-placed driver Loggie was substantial.
Now that the pressure on her CS Am class lead had reduced, Chapman slotted in behind Baker and settled into a rhythm. Loggie started to come under pressure from Porter as he targeted a recovery drive and on lap 15, he claimed second position. Nonetheless, Katia remained in touch with Porter and was ready to capitalise if he were to make a second mistake.
Chapman was controlling the race out front and claimed her fourth victory of the series with a commanding drive while also claiming her third fastest lap of the weekend. Loggie took the chequered flag in third position to make it six third-place results in six races.
Both Chapman and Loggie showed excellent potential at Brands Hatch with Loggie unfortunate not to secure a better result over the course of the event. The Toro Verde GT driver nonetheless led her first laps and this should serve as a good confidence boost for the remainder of the season.
Chapman’s speed was clear as she claimed all three fastest laps while remaining in the CS Am class championship lead. The next event for the Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain drivers takes place at Oulton Park on the weekend of June 21st/22nd.
