BRCA Touring Car National Series Rd1 – Report

The BRCA National Touring Car Series kicked off with round one at the fast and popular Cotswolds track in Gloucestershire, UK over the weekend. Two classes are run over two days and it was a great weekend for the defending champions. In Super Touring Modified reigning champion Olly Jefferies was on good form after dominating the UK national 1/12th scale series over the Winter and he showed he had maintained his form as racing moved out on to the tarmac and with his Xray touring car as he set TQ after five rounds of qualifying.

Olly went on to take the first two of the three leg finals giving him the overall win and a great start to the defence of his national touring car title. Pushing Olly all the way in qualifying and in the finals was Elliott Harper; the Schumacher driver looked very competitive over the weekend and was left cursing a few electronic problems on Saturday which put him slightly on the back foot early on. Colin Price has established himself as one of the UK front running modified drivers after a strong season in 2014, Price was consistent all weekend and was rewarded with a solid third place.

Super Touring Modified top 10 result:
1. Olly Jefferies – Xray
2. Elliott Harper – Schumacher
3. Colin Price – Schmacher
4. Chris Grainger – Team Associated
5. Andy Moore – Hot Bodies
6. Ben Cosgrove – Team Durango
7. Zak Smith – Team Associated
8. Stefan Chodzynski – Capricorn
9. Marcus Askell – Xray
10.Kyle Branson – Capricorn

In the 13.5 Boosted Stock class it was a dominating performance from another Xray driver in the form of defending BRCA stock champion Zak Finlay. Zak won all five rounds of qualifying and all three Stock finals, various drivers took the challenge to Zak but none could match his consistency and speed over five minutes. Switching to Stock from Modified proved a good move for James Hart who took second in the three leg finals from fifth on the grid with his Schumacher while last year’s winner at this round Chris Gunter was third overall in another Schumacher. The next round is at another fast open track in a month’s time as Mendip hosts round two.

13.5 Stock top 10 result:
1. Zak Finlay – Xray
2. James Hart – Schumacher
3. Chris Gunter – Schumacher
4. Glenn Westwood – Xray
5. Ben Putt – Capricorn
6. Mark Wallace – Team Associated
7. Mark Giaquinto – Xray
8. Luke Bennetts – Schumacher
9. Nathan Wilson – Yokomo
10.Michael Ball – Yokomo

Source: BRCA [brca.org]