BRCA Nationals - Adur

The Adur venue is a new addition to this year’s nationals calendar, but was known to many of the CML drivers as the host of the Essex Summer Series race in previous years.

The Team Associated charge was once again led by Chris Grainger, the winner of the opening round of the championship at Cotswolds. Chris and the team had continued to develop the setup of their Reedy powered TC7s, and were rewarded by being right in the mix from the start. Through Saturday’s qualifying, Chris and fellow Associated driver Matthew White battled rival Elliott Harper for the front of the grid. Elliott wrapped up the overall TQ, with three fastest times, with Chris taking second on the grid after topping Q4 and Matthew lining up third, setting the best time in Q5. Alan Bickerstaff returned to his well-known position of seventh, with Zak Smith lining up eighth to make it four TC7s in the main show – the most of any manufacturer.

In the A Finals, Chris and Matthew did all they could to keep on tabs with the top qualifier, but were not able to quite deliver on the overall victory as at Cotswolds. Chris held on to his second position, and Matthew took a sold third, making a well-deserved return to the podium. Chris still leads the championship standings by a single point, with Matthew now set on making a run for an overall podium placing.

The Team Associated success continued in the Pro Stock class, with Mark Wallace qualifying and finishing third, to repeat his podium performance from Cotswolds. Mark was also joined in the A Final by Chris Clarke’s Associated TC7. However, the star of the Pro Stock class had to be Michael Bolt – the Associated junior driving taking a brilliant fourth in the third round of qualifying and lining up at the front of the B final. We expect to see him making it into the A Final very soon!

Congratulations again to the whole CML/Associated/Reedy team for a great overall set of results. Next up on the busy calendar, some of the team will head to Luxembourg for the Euro Touring Series event, whilst in the UK next up is the high speed Halifax circuit in July.

C. Grainger

Source: C. Grainger