Kyle Branson wins Rd7 of British 1/8th Nats

The 7th round of this years BRCA 1/8th scale on road championships was back at the Halifax circuit, and it was yet another well attended meeting with 56 drivers. Chris Heath and Mark Green both made welcome returns and with another strong contingent from Ireland, the competition would again be very strong at all levels of driver skills. With the occasional showers disrupting Saturday free practice, the track eventually dried just prior to the controlled practice in the afternoon. This gave all drivers the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the track and grip levels prior to serious controlled practice sessions.

With no times being counted, the drivers had no indication of relative speed but from the stop watches, the quickest drivers were the Serpents of Mark Green and Kyle Branson. Sunday was however greeted with rain which prevented drivers using the practice periods since the indication was that the track would dry and at least 1 fully dry round was achievable. In the end, 2 dry rounds were possible but with more and more grip being added, it was inevitable that the quickest times would be in the final round.

The top 10 after qualifying were as follows:
1. Mark Green – Serpent – Novarossi – 21 Laps 301 secs
2. Kyle Branson – Serpent – Sirio – 20 Laps 306 secs
3. Daniel Bancroft – Motonica – Max – 20 Laps 308 secs
4. Pete Hastings – Shepherd – IDM – 20 Laps 308 secs
5. Tim Wood – Serpent – Mega – 20 Laps 311 secs
6. Chris Heath – Mugen – Sirio – 20 Laps 312 secs
7. Clive Connolly – Mugen – IDM – 20 Laps 313 secs
8. Jason Frost – Serpent – Mega – 20 Laps 315 secs
9. John Carr – Serpent – Mega – 20 Laps 319 secs
10.Richard Hicklin – Serpent – Mega – 19 Laps 295 secs

The main final was action packed from start to finish. Mark Green held the lead for the opening laps but Kyle Branson dropped back allowing Pete Hastings to follow Mark and try to exert some pressure. This unfortunately didn’t last since Pete hit a back marker whilst lapping and damaged a front tire rim which changed the handling characteristics of his car for which he had to quickly adapt to. At this stage, Mark had pulled out a commanding lead from Tim Wood who was being caught quickly by Kyle Branson who managed to jump into second. The fight was then on for third position between Tim, Clive and Pete. With this being played out nose to tail, drama happened up front when Mark Green made a mistake at the end of the main straight and damaged his car but after a pitstop check of which the bumper had to be bent back into shape, he eventually got back into the race but in 5th position and out of contention for a win. This then put Kyle into the lead with Clive in second after jumping Tim on pit stop strategy but his race ended when the gear box clip came off and the car stopping on track. This then resulted in Tim inheriting second and Pete Hastings third.

The final positions were as follows:
1. Kyle Branson – Serpent – Sirio – 117 Laps
2. Tim Wood – Serpent – Mega – 115 Laps
3. Pete Hastings – Shepherd – IDM – 115 Laps
4. Mark Green – Serpent – Novarossi – 113 Laps
5. Clive Connolly – Mugen – IDM – 109 Laps
6. John Carr – Serpent – Mega – 100 Laps
7. Chris Heath – Mugen – Sirio – 98 Laps
8. Daniel Bancroft – Motonica – Max – 82 Laps
9. Jason Frost – Serpent – Mega – 81 Laps
10.Richard Hicklin – Serpent – Mega – 52 Laps

The Current Championship leader is Tim Wood, who further extended his lead with yet another strong podium performance and he is now a strong favourite to defend his title and make it 3 titles in the row. The next round is at the Brookland circuit in Kent on the 19th September.

Thanks to Andy North for the report.