Alex Thurston takes first British Nats win at Rd2

The second round of the British 200mm Championship was held at the superb Stonehaven circuit in Aberdeen, Scotland. The weather was very cold over the weekend and we even had a little snow during Saturdays practice. Mark Green was fastest with his Serpent 747 at the end of practice and actually set a new lap record of 15.1 seconds. New Capricorn signing Adam Catchpole was just behind Mark, running his LAB-C02 for the very first time. After Adam and Mark it was very close between the other top drivers of Simon Wood, Alex Thurston, Joe Kerry, Andrew Hastings, Matthew Cook, and Irish Champion Chris Steele who had made the trip.

Into qualifying and it was Adam Catchpole who recorded the only 20 lap run in the opening round to take 1st place on the grid for the final. Mark Green would start 2nd, just ahead of Simon Wood 3rd, and Chris Steele 4th.

Qualifying results:
1. Adam Catchpole – Capricorn-Capricorn- Hot Race – 20 laps 311secs
2. Mark Green – Serpent-Novarossi-Xceed – 19 laps 300secs
3. Simon Wood – Xray-RB Murnan-Matrix – 19 laps 300secs
4. Chris Steele – Shepherd-RB Murnan-Shepherd – 19 laps 304secs
5. Matthew Cook – Kyosho-Novarossi-Kronos – 19 laps 306secs
6. Andrew Hastings – Shepherd-Sonic-Shepherd – 19 laps 307secs
7. Alex Thurston – Kyosho-JP GI MAR-Contact – 19 laps 310secs
8. Joe Kerry – Serpent-O.S.-Contact – 19 laps 313secs
9. Dave Gerard – Xray-Novarossi-Matrix – 18 laps 306secs
10. Scott Hellawell – Serpent-Xceed-Xceed – 17 laps 303secs

At the start of the final there was a big crash at the first corner involving most of the cars. Alex Thurston managed to find a way through this and raced into the lead. Chris Steele was up into 2nd, with Mark Green 3rd. After some bad luck with a back marker, Mark dropped down the order. At the halfway point, Alex was still leading with his JP GI-MAR powered Kyosho R4, while Joe Kerry was now fighting with Chris Steele for 2nd place. Thanks to a quick fuel stop, Joe came out of the pits just in front of Chris and slowly began to pull away. With around 10 minutes to go it started raining quite hard which made it very difficult for all the drivers. With just a few minutes remaining Joe had managed to catch up to Alex at the front, but as soon as he had he needed to come in for fuel, ending his chances for the win. Alex held his nerve until the end and drove superbly in the tricky conditions to cross the line around 2 seconds ahead of Joe and take his first ever national win. Mark Green completed the podium in 3rd.

Final Results:
1. Alex Thurston – Kyosho-JP GI MAR-Contact – 99 laps
2. Joe Kerry – Serpent-O.S-Contact – 98 laps
3. Mark Green – Serpent-Novarossi-Xceed – 98 laps
4. Andrew Hastings – Shepherd-Sonic-Shepherd – 92 laps
5. Simon Wood – Xray-RB Murnan-Matrix – 88 laps
6. Chris Steele – Shepherd-RB Murnan-Shepherd – 87 laps
7. Adam Catchpole – Capricorn-Capricorn- Hot Race – 84 laps
8. Dave Gerard – Xray-Novarossi-Matrix – 84 laps
9. Matthew Cook – Kyosho-Novarossi-Kronos – 47 laps
10. Scott Hellawell – Serpent-Xceed-Xceed – 10 laps

Next race in the championship is at Halifax in 3 weeks time.

Thanks to Joe Kerry for the report.