Mini Festival returned to Brands Hatch for another celebration of Britain’s most popular small car earlier this month. But it was also a particularly special reunion for the Britten family.
John Britten was one of the original MotorSport Vision (MSV) co-founders alongside Chief Executive Jonathan Palmer when the group took over the operation of Brands Hatch as well as three other UK race circuits in 2004. After battling illness for many years, John sadly died in 2009, but his family’s enthusiasm for the automotive scene endures.
And that’s why John’s wife, Diana Britten MBE, alongside their daughters and grandchildren got together to attend this year’s Mini Festival. The ‘Britten Mini Girls’ have a long-standing relationship with the pocket-sized motoring icon – indeed John gifted his twin daughters, Fleur and Chloe, identical classic Minis for their 21st birthday.
Both Fleur and Chloe joined Diana at the Mini Festival with their elder sister Sophie and all ten of the Britten grandchildren. The visit even included an adventure onto the track for some, with Fleur driving her own Mini in the parade whilst Diana experienced the Brands Hatch Indy circuit as a passenger alongside another next-generation enthusiast – Millie Davis, daughter of MSV General Manager, Lisa Davis.
“I thought the Mini Festival was fabulous,” said Diana. “So many well-loved and cared for Minis. It took me back in time, remembering what it was like to drive those early ‘60s models. Mini Festival made them all realise what a grandfather they had to have been involved in the Brands Hatch reformation! It was a fabulous atmosphere. The entire Mini family doing the parade around the track was the icing on the cake. John would have applauded that”.
A welcome return
Returning to Brands Hatch for the first time in over seven years, Diana was immediately struck by the welcoming atmosphere she remembered from previous visits. “Everything was as it should be, running like clockwork,” she shared. “John would have been delighted to see how well Jonathan has developed the place”.
John Britten and Jonathan Palmer’s vision for MotorSport Vision
John and Jonathan had known each other for many years, primarily through their shared association with Richard Lloyd’s GTi Engineering outfit, when Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Snetterton and Cadwell Park came up for sale early in the 21st Century. By this point, John was already a decade into his illness, but nothing was going to prevent him from pursuing an opportunity he was passionate about.
John and Diana were on holiday in Scotland when he suddenly needed to fly back to London for a key meeting surrounding the circuit deal. John attended the meeting and returned to Scotland the same day – he and Jonathan had got the deal done. “As cool as cucumbers,” asserted Diana.
Thereafter, John spent a substantial amount of time working with Jonathan and was incredibly active in his interest with the business despite his illness. “He discreetly put his heart and soul into it,” explained Diana. And that continued until his death.
And the MSV legacy which John helped to found thrives to this day under Jonathan Palmer’s leadership. The organisation expanded in 2017 when MSV added Donington Park in the East Midlands to its portfolio, with the neighbouring Donington Hall estate joining the fold a few years later. MSV has expanded overseas too, with the acquisition and redevelopment of Circuito de Navarra in northern Spain with plans underway for the Couvron Eco Circuit in France.
MSV Chief Executive Jonathan Palmer said: “I had known John for many years in the 1980s through his involvement with Richard Lloyd, particularly our successful times racing the Porsche 956 and 962, and later as a customer with his Morse computer company at my fledgling PalmerSport business at Bruntingthorpe. When the opportunity came to create Bedford Autodrome in 1999, John was quick to have confidence in me by acting as a guarantor on a loan, and then went on with Sir Peter Ogden to invest in our new MotorSport Vision company in 2004 which purchased the Brands Hatch, Cadwell Park, Snetterton and Oulton Park group of circuits.
“John had enormous experience as an entrepreneur and was always very active contributing to the management of the MSV business. He was hugely enthusiastic about both motor racing and business and provided me with a great deal of very welcome guidance, much of which still echoes today. I was a frequent visitor to the Britten’s Chobham property and also got to know Diana very well, who complemented John’s enthusiasm for flying with her own remarkable achievements in the cockpit, becoming the first woman to become British Aerobatic Champion, in 1995, so we have a lot in common.
“Diana and I still keep in touch, and it was lovely to see her family again through, like so many, the passion of cars and the ever popular Mini. Working for BMC, Alec Issigonis designed perhaps the world’s most transformational car with the original Mini in 1959, and our hugely successful Mini Festival embraces and celebrates the extraordinary, but fully justified, following the brand has. John Britten would most definitely have approved of the event our MSV team have created, and loved seeing his family lapping Brands Hatch in a Mini!”
