Olly Jefferies takes Autosport GT Cup
The prestigious Autosport International Show at the NEC in Birmingham provided the venue for the BRCA to demonstrate a wide range of radio controlled cars, the show also hosted the Autosport GT Cup Race for 1:10 GT cars. In front of large crowds of motorsport fans some of the UK’s top racers gathered for the GT cup race including 1:12 scale national front runners Mark Stiles and Chris Kerswell, joining them were current BRCA touring car champion Olly Jefferies and his Associated team mate Zak Smith, these four were expected to be the front running drivers but as the event got underway it became clear early on the race would be a straight fight between Jefferies and Smith, using a Reedy format the Associated pair notched up win after win on day one and carried that form on in to Sunday.
With such dominance it quickly became apparent that a tie break would be needed to split Jefferies and Smith, after nine races the pair had notched up eight wins each, the fastest final time would be the tie break and this traded between the two with Olly holing the fastest time going in the last and deciding race. Despite starting from a mid-grid position Jefferies led from Smith going in to turn one, with such a large crowd watching on other drivers were keen to keep out of the way of the duelling pair. After five minutes Olly had taken the win from Zak and with it the title, a large enthusiastic crown showed their appreciation in what was a fitting demonstration of close racing. After a troubled first day Mark Stiles had a much better Sunday and put in a strong second day performance to take the final podium spot for CRC.
The big winner of this event was the sport in general, the BRCA had put on high profile event and put their efforts in to promoting RC racing to a new and captive audience, other classes on show was F1 and the now very popular GT12 class, support in the class came from racing car manufacture Ginetta who supplied some of their drivers and promotion girls for chance to drive some of the turn up and drive cars, hopefully the BRCA will be back at the Autosport Show next year.
Source: BRCA [brca.org]
