BRCA Nationals - EPR

The 1/10th Off Road BRCA National series moved on to Eden Park Raceway, South East London for the 4th round of the highly competitive series. Whilst the 2wd championship is still relatively open, with 3 different winners from the first 3 nationals, 4wd was a different story with Neil Cragg looking to wrap up the series.

The club have made a  few changes to the track, removing some of the more vicious curbs and opening up new layouts, giving them opportunity to lay a fresh layout for both days. Saturday morning started sunny and dry, the racers on Yellow Minispikes for their 2x 3 min practices, but the discussion was all about when the threatened rain would arrive, and we didn’t have to wait long, arriving midway through round 1, leaving Richard Thorpe to make the most of the opportunity to take Round 1.

Round 2 saw an ever drying track, so the usual names were back at the top, with Ellis Stafford taking the round ahead of Neil Cragg, Darren Bloomfield and Lee Martin. Round 3 would see the return of the rain just as heat 8 was finishing, allowing Lloyd Storey to take full advantage and cement his A final place. With the rain now here to stay round 4 gave each driver the most equal chance throughout the round, and it was Darren Bloomfield who prevailed in the wet conditions, followed by Lee, Ellis and Neil.

With the rain in for the day, and earlier delays, the decision was made to cancel finals and award championship points based on qualifying. This gave Darren Bloomfield the TQ & Win, by virtue of a faster time from Ellis Stafford and Lee Martin continuing his run of podiums for the season in 3rd.

A total of 4 Schumacher Cougar KF's made the main A final including new signing Terry Streeter making his first National A final, congratulations to all!

Top 10:
1st Darren Bloomfield (Schumacher KF)
2nd Ellis Stafford (TLR)
3rd Lee Martin (Yokomo)
4th Neil Cragg (AE)
5th Lloyd Storey (Schumacher KF)
6th Tom Yardy (AE)
7th Terry Streeter (Schumacher KF)
8th Danny McGee (Schumacher KF)
9th Greg Williams (AE)
10th Elliot Boots (Kyosho)

Sunday saw the racers get out their 4wd cars and the sun was back out. Although the track started damp, by round 1 of qualifying it was back to the usual Yellows, with the new Schumacher 2 Row Stud showing some popularity. Round 1 saw Lee Martin lay down his intentions for the day, posting the quickest time ahead of Ellis & Neil. Simon Moss got into gear for round 2, posting a new FTD with his CAT K1 Aero to take the all-important round win ahead of Ellis and Kevin Lee. Neil Cragg came to life in round 3 posting an even quicker time to take round 3 ahead of Simon and Nathan Waters. Round 4 saw some rain for the final heat, leaving Ellis to take the round from Kevin Lee and Danny McGee.

Leg 1 was a tricky final, with the track slippery, but not quite enough to make Silvers the tyre of choice. Simon drove a controlled drive to take the win, followed by a hard charging Neil Cragg. Leg 2, and the continued on/off rain saw everyone now full wet setup with Schumacher Silvers the tyre of choice. Ellis Stafford would come out on top from Neil and Simon, setting up a deciding Leg 3 between these drivers. With the rain now falling it wasn’t just a race, but also a battle of attrition with a few drivers falling foul to water/electronics failure. Neil Cragg put in a champions drive to take the leg win, ahead of Ellis and Nathan Waters, taking the overall meeting win by virtue of the faster time.

With the meeting won, Neil Cragg takes the 2014 4wd Championship.

3 CAT K1 Aero's this time in the main.

4wd Top 10:
1st Neil Cragg (3) – AE
2nd Ellis Stafford (2) – TLR
3rd Simon Moss (TQ) –Schumacher Cat K1 Aero
4th Nathan Waters (7) – Schumacher Cat K1 Aero
5th Kevin Lee (4) – Team C
6th Lee Martin (5) – Yokomo
7th Chris Doughty (8) – Durango
8th Tom Yardy (9) – AE
9th Phil Sleigh (10) – AE
10th Danny McGee (6) – Schumacher Cat K1 Aero

Once again, a very well run meeting by the BRCA given the difficult/changing conditions. The EPR Club put on two very good tracks, presented brilliantly and coped very well with whatever the weather threw at them. The race also took place at the same venue as a Korfball competition, displaying our sport hundreds of kids/parents throughout the day, just what our sport needs!

Source: T. Cockerill