Mark Green wins BRCA 1/8th Rd5

Last weekend, the 1/8th Section visited a new circuit on the South coast of Brighton. The track is formed from a single strip of tarmac with the layout painted over with rope and plastic tubing forming the barriers. In theory, it looked from the outset that the track is too small for the modern day 1/8th chassis but after making the necessary chassis and gear ratio changes, the track became fun to drive. The track is also very smooth so running the car on low tires would help cornering, allow the engine to rev higher along the short back straight and through the infield with no worry of running out of fuel or the chassis bottoming out.

Saturday was a wet day and the track never dried out. A small number of drivers tried wet tyres and then retreated back to the hotels. Andy North decided to do some further testing to help learn the track and fine tune his car for the possibility of a wet Sunday. During the wet runs, a old Ninja engine let go on the main straight. A shattered Piston was the problem.

Sunday morning was greeted with blue sky and the track was drying out at a quick rate. In practice, Andy North ran another old engine since we wanted to save his best engines for the Worlds in Lostallo. We did however find that the Ninja had no bottom end power and so quickly changed this to a Sirio with a 2013 pipe which then provided loads of bottom end power and made the car easier to drive through and out of the corners.

After every run, the lap times were getting better since learning the track can gain more time than consistently changing the setup and then getting lost. In qualification it was Mark Green again setting the pace. His consistent driving with a good chassis makes him a cut above the rest. With regards to lap times the other top drivers are only 0.2 to 0.3 seconds behind, but consistency is the key.

The top 10 after qualification were as follows:
1. Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi – 21 Laps 305 secs
2. Andy North – Mugen/Siro – 21 Laps 312 secs
3. Tim Wood – Serpent/Mega MF – 20 Laps 300 secs
4. Richard Hicklin – Serpent/Mega – 20 Laps 305 secs
5. Pete Hastings – Serpent/IDM – 20 Laps 309 secs
6. Neil Diver – Shepherd/IDM – 20 Laps 310 secs
7. Ashley Gouveia – Serpent/Mega – 19 Laps 300 secs
8. Andy Hastings – Serpent/IDM – 19 Laps 301 secs
9. Rob Coleman – Mugen/Novarossi – 19 Laps 302 secs
10.Karl Dransfield – Serpent/Mega – 19 Laps 303 secs

The main final was going to be an unknown affair, since we had not raced with 10 cars yet. The cars were started under the rostrum to prevent any potential crashes at the first corner. Mark Green led the cars away with Andy North again dropping back due to a rich bottom end needle, but he soon picked up speed and set about chasing the leaders down. At this stage, Richard Hicklin was 2nd and Tim Wood in third. After a few more mistake by Andy and after damaging a rear lightweight rim, he was out of contention for a podium finish and just concentrated driving the track hard to try and improve lap times. In the end, Mark was the clear winner over Richard Hicklin and Tim Wood in third, with Pete Hastings in fourth, Neil Diver fifth and Andrew North sixth.

The results are as follows:
1. Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi – 122 Laps
2. Richard Hicklin – Serpent/Mega – 119 Laps
3. Tim Wood – Serpent/Mega MF – 119 Laps
4. Pete Hastings – Serpent/IDM – 116 Laps
5. Neil Diver – Shepherd/IDM – 116 Laps
6. Andy North – Mugen/Siro – 113 Laps
7. Rob Coleman – Mugen/Novarossi – 109 Laps
8. Karl Dransfield – Serpent/Mega – 104 Laps
9. Andy Hastings – Serpent/IDM – 78 Laps
10.Ashley Gouveia – Serpent/Mega – 21 Laps

A big thanks to all at the Adur Club for a very well run meeting. The next round is at Halifax. All the results and further images can be found on www.brca.org

Thanks to Andy North for the report.