Man jailed for driving girlfriend’s car around circuit during race

A labourer has been jailed for eight months after driving his girlfriend’s Volkswagen Polo on to the Brands Hatch circuit during a race.

Jack Cottle, 22, gatecrashed the Fun Cup endurance race at the famous track in Kent on June 14 with his girlfriend and a friend on board as passengers. Maidstone Crown Court heard that he put the lives of racers at danger after being “egged on” to drive a full circuit after accessing the track via a pit lane.

YouTube footage which has been viewed more than two million times shows Cottle ignoring his hysterical girlfriend as 
she implores him repeatedly to “stop it”.

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She then tells him that he is “going the wrong way” before screaming “Jack, oh my God!” as she realises he is taking the car on to the track to laughter from his backseat passenger.

Last month Cottle pleaded guilty to “causing a nuisance to the public by driving on to the race track at Brands Hatch whilst an endurance race was in progress”.

Yesterday at his sentencing hearing, Judge Martin Joy said Cottle, of Durgates in Wadhurst, East Sussex, had “endangered many lives” as he branded his actions “premeditated” and “inexcusable”.

The court heard that Cottle, his girlfriend and his friend paid £14 per head to watch the four-hour race as spectators.

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But Judge Joy said that around three and a half hours into 
the car race, Cottle “saw an opportunity” to get on to the race track.

His girlfriend had to be taken to the on-site medical centre after having a panic attack, while Cottle came off the track laughing, the judge said.