BRCA 1/8 Circuit Nationals Rd5 – Report

The fifth round of the BRCA National series took place last weekend at the Cotswold Model Car Club, returning to this track for the second time this season. For the first time in quite some time the weather at Cotswold was to remain warm and dry for the weekend ahead. During Saturday’s practice the grip was quite low in the morning with some drivers struggling to get a reference point for setup, but the track came good by around midday and allowed the drivers to start working on their car setup. Mark Green was setting the pace with the usual pack of drivers closely edging towards his pace. Sunday morning headed into the qualifying which was dry and most drivers managed to get good clean runs in every round. After four rounds of qualifying the Nitro A-final saw Mark Green taking the pole position from Tim Wood and Andy Hastings.

Qualifying top 10 results:
1. Mark Green – 21/ 310.173
2. Tim Wood – 21/ 314.550
3. Andy Hastings – 21/ 315.374
4. Neal King – 20/ 300.025
5. David Spashett – 20/ 302.704
6. Richard Hicklin – 20/ 307.198
7. Neil Diver – 20/ 310.512
8. Jason Frost – 20/ 311.280
9. Sam Snell – 20/ 313.149
10.Clive Connolly – 20/ 314.858

As the final got under way Mark Green clearly had the pace advantage pulling away from the field, with David Spashett on the much longer fuel stop strategy. Getting an extremely impressive run time, David was to take the lead of the race, unfortunately for David he was to miss his pitman’s call to come in for one of his pit stops, causing him to flame out during his pit stop, handing the lead back to Mark Green. Neal King was to capitalise on this and also the misfortune of Andy Hastings who was to have an issue during a pit stop to take 2nd place, with Andy recovering for the final podium spot.

1/8 Nitro final results:
1. Mark Green – 116/1807.284
2. Neal King – 114/1800.280
3. Andy Hastings – 114/1803.851
4. David Spashett – 113/1810.353
5. Clive Connolly – 102/1734.238
6. Neil Diver – 102/1801.873
7. Richard Hicklin – 79/1375.124
8. Sam Snell – 71/1811.226
9. Jason Frost – 52/1092.073
10.Tim Wood – 49/ 904.753

As the five mandatory rounds of the BRCA National Championship, GP2 & GP3 championships have now been completed, the drivers standings are as follows mid season.

National Championship:
1. Richard Hicklin – 475 Points
2. Tim Wood – 469 Points
3. Clive Connolly – 469 Points
4. Sam Snell – 466 Points
5. James Healey – 411 Points
6. Andy Hastings – 394 Points
7. Mark Green – 389 Points
8. Hayley Baker – 389 Points
9. Neal King – 383 Points
10.David Spashett – 383 Points

GP2 Championship:
1. James Healey – 491 Points
2. Steven Smith – 487 Points
3. Hayley Baker – 481 Points

GP3 Championship:
1. Matt Dambrine – 397 Points
2 – Lee Palmer – 387 Points
3 – Rich Kozakiewicz – 300 Points

Thanks to James Healey for the report.