BRCA 1/8th National Warm Up
With the BRCA 1/8th National series getting under way at Frankley in only a weeks time, the pre-event warm up race held this weekend was always going to be a well attended race.
With pretty much everybody except the bulk of the Associated team in attendance the competition was close, and very fast. Many different tyres and tyre combinations were being tried out, with fuel strategies also being pushed to the limit.
Once again we were blessed with dry weather, although it was still cold.
The practice round was largely just about learning where the track went as the track was still damp from overnight frost.
Frankley always looks great in the sunshine.
Round 1 of qualifying saw Graham Alsop take the round win with his RB powered car, the dry conditions were providing very high traction and as a result most of the top runners had some incidents as they adjusted to the conditions.
Round 2 provided a surprise winner in Reece Sawyer. Reece has been quietly showing some impressive form over the winter and with his SAVOX servos on board his car he produced a great run to go TQ in the round.
Round 3 and Darren Bloomfield came to the fore, after a couple of tough earlier rounds he found his feet to take TQ in round, and beat Reece's round 2 time by about 1 second.
Overall it was Graham Alsop who took Tq from David Crompton, Reece Sawyer and Darren Bloomfield.
Hobao drivers Jon Hazelwood and John Howells also lined up in the top 10 after making progress through the day.
Howells' and Hazelwood's Hyper 9's.
Dave Bailey had some tough qualifying sessions but some changes made before his C final paid dividends. He went on to blitz the C final, and then the B final with his car on rails. His set up is available here.
The main final was exceptionally close in the early running with several drivers taking up the lead at different stages. Darren Bloomfield, Graham Alsop, Elliott Boots and John Howells all took turns at the front until the field settled down after the first round of stops. Running up to those stops Darren and Elliott had edged a little in front and were battling but Darren ran out of fuel on his in lap putting him a whole lap down. This gave Elliot a fairly clear lead ahead of the chasing pack of David Crompton, Graham Alsop, Reece Sawyer and Simon Willetts. Dragging his way back up to the pack was Jon Hazelwood, Jon received a stop and go penalty at the end of the first lap for a start procedure infringement which put him right at the back of the pack with a lot of work to do.
Coming to the second round of stops Simon Willetts also ran out of fuel while in second place, so this left David Crompton, Graham Alsop and a recovering Jon Hazelwood battling over second place. Graham also ran out fuel in the third stint, which left Jon and David to battle it out with Jon just taking it by a second.
Elliott Boots drove a great race to the flag and took a well deserved win.
We will all be back next week for the real event, and it will probably rain making all this testing irrelevant!
Frankley always looks great in the sunshine.
Round 1 of qualifying saw Graham Alsop take the round win with his RB powered car, the dry conditions were providing very high traction and as a result most of the top runners had some incidents as they adjusted to the conditions.
Round 2 provided a surprise winner in Reece Sawyer. Reece has been quietly showing some impressive form over the winter and with his SAVOX servos on board his car he produced a great run to go TQ in the round.
Round 3 and Darren Bloomfield came to the fore, after a couple of tough earlier rounds he found his feet to take TQ in round, and beat Reece's round 2 time by about 1 second.
Overall it was Graham Alsop who took Tq from David Crompton, Reece Sawyer and Darren Bloomfield.
Hobao drivers Jon Hazelwood and John Howells also lined up in the top 10 after making progress through the day.
Howells' and Hazelwood's Hyper 9's.
Dave Bailey had some tough qualifying sessions but some changes made before his C final paid dividends. He went on to blitz the C final, and then the B final with his car on rails. His set up is available here.
The main final was exceptionally close in the early running with several drivers taking up the lead at different stages. Darren Bloomfield, Graham Alsop, Elliott Boots and John Howells all took turns at the front until the field settled down after the first round of stops. Running up to those stops Darren and Elliott had edged a little in front and were battling but Darren ran out of fuel on his in lap putting him a whole lap down. This gave Elliot a fairly clear lead ahead of the chasing pack of David Crompton, Graham Alsop, Reece Sawyer and Simon Willetts. Dragging his way back up to the pack was Jon Hazelwood, Jon received a stop and go penalty at the end of the first lap for a start procedure infringement which put him right at the back of the pack with a lot of work to do.
Coming to the second round of stops Simon Willetts also ran out of fuel while in second place, so this left David Crompton, Graham Alsop and a recovering Jon Hazelwood battling over second place. Graham also ran out fuel in the third stint, which left Jon and David to battle it out with Jon just taking it by a second.
Elliott Boots drove a great race to the flag and took a well deserved win.
We will all be back next week for the real event, and it will probably rain making all this testing irrelevant!
