Harper wins first BRCA National for CRC

Last weekend the cream of Britains 12th scale racers made the trip down to Devon for round 4 of this years BRCA nationals at Plymouth. The Plymouth club always host a top notch event and as a result the meeting is always well attended despite being a drive of over 4 hours away for many. On Saturday in the stock class Elliott Harper took TQ and went on to comfortable win the A final by more than half a lap. This was the first time that a CRC car had won a UK national. Second went to Chris Kerswell driving a V-Dezign. Chris initially gave chase and attempted to challenge Elliott, but soon realised that he lacked the pace required and settled for a strong second place finish. The battle for 3rd was an intense one with several drivers all holding the position at various points in the race. Mark Stiles eventually came through from 8th on the grid to complete the podium for V-Dezign.

Sunday saw a change to open modified motors for some, while others stuck with their 10.5’s and raced in the sports modified class. Mick Farrell dominated sports qualifying and was almost a lap clear of the field with his Hot Bodies C12X. Things didn’t go according to plan for Mick in the final though, with technical difficulties putting him out of the running from the start. Jim Spencer won the race ahead of Matt Lax and Nigel Hale.

Elliott Harper started where he left off on the Saturday by setting the fastest time in round 1 of open modified qualifying. However, the following rounds saw a dominant performance from Saturday’s runner-up Chris Kerswell, although it took Chris until the final round to beat Elliott’s provisional TQ time. The final was a one horse race; Chris disappeared into the diatnce and had built a comfortable lead of half a lap by the end to take his first win of the season in fine style. Elliott Harper finished second after an early race battle with Olly Jefferies. Olly struggled for pace in the middle of the run and started to fall back into the clutches of the chasing pack who were fighting over 4th place. The battle for 4th saw a train of 5 of 6 cars running nose to tail for much of the race. This group was headed by Mark Stiles who had made his way up from 10th on the grid. However, a mistake from Olly as the group were catching him collected Mark and allowed Keith Robertson to slip through and take 3rd place, with Mark retaining 4th until the end.

Elliott Harper is now the odds on favourite to win the stock championship having taken two wins and a 3rd place so far, and therefore only needs one more good result to retain the title he won last year. Open modified is still wide open with as many as 6 drivers still very much in the hunt. These include Olly Jefferies, Chris Kerswell, Andy Griffiths, Andy Moore, Mark Stiles and Elliott Harper.

The penultimate round of the championship takes place at Maritime in Kent in February.

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Thanks to Mark Stiles for the report.