1000 km Brands Hatch

The 1000 km Brands Hatch was an endurance sports car event that was part of the World Sportscar Championship for varying years from 1967 until 1989. Originally a six hour race running under the name BOAC 500, the event was eventually extended to 1000 kilometres under a number of different sponsorship titles.

History

In 1966, a non-championship sports car race was held at Brands Hatch for a distance of 500 miles, with drivers David Piper and Bob Bondurant easily taking victory in an AC Cobra. With the success of this initial event, the World Sportscar Championship would add Brands Hatch to their calendar, while the British Sports Car Championship replaced their Guards Trophy event. However, unlike the initial race's set distance of 500 miles, the new event would be run for six hours. Even with a timed race, BOAC stepped in as the primary sponsor and chose to retain the 500 mile distance in the name, earning the popular title BOAC 500.

The 1968 race took place on 7 April, a date which will be remembered as that on which Jim Clark, originally expected to take part in the race, instead took part in a Formula 2 race at the Hockenheimring in Germany where he crashed and was killed.

As the speeds of competitors improved during the early years, the drivers would actually set distances beyond even 600 miles. It was therefore decided in 1970 that the event would be extended to a set distance of 1000 kilometres, which was the distance used by five other events in the World...
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