BRCA 1/8th Off-Road Nationals - Rnd 5
The 5th round of the series was the 1st of 2 to be held at the fantastic Slough venue. Glorious weather greeted the competitors on sunday morning and the racing was set to be excellent.
In the qualifying sessions it was Graham Alsop who came out of the blocks fastest by taking the TQ in rounds 1 and 2 of qualifying. This would give him pole position for the final with his RB powered car. The final round of qualifying saw Darren Bloomfield take the round and in doing so take the fastest overall time of the meeting. This result gave Darren 2nd on the grid with Lee Martin taking 3rd with his RC8B/Reedy combination. Elliott Boots would line up 4th with his RB/Savox equiped car and Jon Hazelwood would be 5th with his Hobao/Savox combo. There were a few surprises in qualifying, most notably championship leader Neil Cragg who could only qualify 11th after some tough qualifying heats.
The track at Slough.
Neil's B final turned out to be a great drive after near disaster. With about 1 minute to go in the warm up a lower rear shock mounting screw came undone and a frantic repair had to be made. Neil finally started from the pit lane between 1/2 and 3/4 of a lap behind the pack and set about chasing them down. Neil made fantastic progress and within about 4 minutes was already working his way through the pack. By the time of his first stop he was up to 3rd and he would go on to take the win in front of David Crompton (RB), Matt Perry (Hobao/RB, and Richard Cree (AE/Reedy).
At the HoBao table Jon Holmes reaches for the trusty Byron Gen2 Race Fuel.
The main final, was another close race that provided some great racing. In the early stages there was a great battle with Alsop, Boots, Bloomfield, Hazelwood and Reece Sawyer. The pack just behind these and trying to get in contact was full of very quick drivers also, Craig Drescher, Kevin Brunsden and Neil Cragg to name a few.
The leading pack were not really getting away too much they were tripping over each other and giving the chasers the opportunity to stay close, Neil had got to the head of this pack and was looking to challenge the leaders when his car stopped on track with a suspected faulty receiver pack. Another slice of bad luck at a venue where the luck never seems to fall his way.
Alsop was to drop out of contention after a cut at his first fuel stop and this would leave Boots and Bloomfield leading with Hazelwood chasing hard.
Just like the Associated touring car team the 1/8th off-road boys work together as a collective conscious.
Over the course of the middle stint, Boots put the hammer down and stretched his lead over Bloomfield to about 10 seconds at the time of the second stops, but the bad luck would strike Elliott also as he suffered a cut on pit exit dropping him to the third. This elevated Craig Drescher up to 2nd with Boots chasing hard. Craig had benfitted from a 10 minute fuel strategy and a fantastic middle stint that had brought him back into contention. However with Boots on his tail he had to up his pace and this would ultimatley mean that he was to run out of fuel a lap from home, this allowed Elliott to reclaim 2nd and Lee Martin to take 3rd after what had been a torrid final. All this had allowed Darren Bloomfield to take a comfortable victiory with his Proline shod car.
This result will tighten the championship up even more with the top 3 all in contention and Neil having a dropped score.
We now move on to Clanfield at the end of July.
Download Matt Perry's setup sheet for the HoBao Hyper 9
The track at Slough.
Neil's B final turned out to be a great drive after near disaster. With about 1 minute to go in the warm up a lower rear shock mounting screw came undone and a frantic repair had to be made. Neil finally started from the pit lane between 1/2 and 3/4 of a lap behind the pack and set about chasing them down. Neil made fantastic progress and within about 4 minutes was already working his way through the pack. By the time of his first stop he was up to 3rd and he would go on to take the win in front of David Crompton (RB), Matt Perry (Hobao/RB, and Richard Cree (AE/Reedy).
At the HoBao table Jon Holmes reaches for the trusty Byron Gen2 Race Fuel.
The main final, was another close race that provided some great racing. In the early stages there was a great battle with Alsop, Boots, Bloomfield, Hazelwood and Reece Sawyer. The pack just behind these and trying to get in contact was full of very quick drivers also, Craig Drescher, Kevin Brunsden and Neil Cragg to name a few.
The leading pack were not really getting away too much they were tripping over each other and giving the chasers the opportunity to stay close, Neil had got to the head of this pack and was looking to challenge the leaders when his car stopped on track with a suspected faulty receiver pack. Another slice of bad luck at a venue where the luck never seems to fall his way.
Alsop was to drop out of contention after a cut at his first fuel stop and this would leave Boots and Bloomfield leading with Hazelwood chasing hard.
Just like the Associated touring car team the 1/8th off-road boys work together as a collective conscious.
Over the course of the middle stint, Boots put the hammer down and stretched his lead over Bloomfield to about 10 seconds at the time of the second stops, but the bad luck would strike Elliott also as he suffered a cut on pit exit dropping him to the third. This elevated Craig Drescher up to 2nd with Boots chasing hard. Craig had benfitted from a 10 minute fuel strategy and a fantastic middle stint that had brought him back into contention. However with Boots on his tail he had to up his pace and this would ultimatley mean that he was to run out of fuel a lap from home, this allowed Elliott to reclaim 2nd and Lee Martin to take 3rd after what had been a torrid final. All this had allowed Darren Bloomfield to take a comfortable victiory with his Proline shod car.
This result will tighten the championship up even more with the top 3 all in contention and Neil having a dropped score.
We now move on to Clanfield at the end of July.
Download Matt Perry's setup sheet for the HoBao Hyper 9
