Mark Green wins 200mm Rd4 in Colchester

For the 4th round of the British 200mm Championship we visited the very tight Colchester circuit. The forecast for the weekend wasn’t looking that good with rain predicted for Saturday and Sunday. As everyone arrived in the morning, they were surprised to see sunshine and a dry track. The real problem for the drivers was the wind. Having an open top rostrum means that drivers feel the full effects of the weather, and the wind was that strong it was pushing the drivers back. At the end of Saturdays practice, Mark Green was some way ahead of everyone else having managed to get down to a 13.7 lap time. Not for the first time this year at one of our circuits, Mark had set a new lap record with the Serpent 747. The nearest challenger to Mark was Joe Kerry although nearly 0.5 seconds back. Matthew Cook, Alex Thurston, and Simon Wood were just behind Joe on the timesheets, all running very similar lap times.

Mark continued where he left off the day before and dominated qualifying to take pole for the final, being the only driver to make 22 laps. The battle for 2nd was very close with just 0.53 seconds separating Joe Kerry, Alex Thurston, and Simon Wood.

Qualifying Results:
1. Mark Green – Serpent-Novarossi-Xceed – 22 Laps 310secs
2. Joe Kerry – Serpent-O.S-Contact – 21 Laps 309secs
3. Alex Thurston – Kyosho-JP GI MAR-Contact – 21 Laps 309secs
4. Simon Wood – Xray-Reds Racing-Matrix – 21 Laps 309secs
5. Matthew Cook – Kyosho-Max-Kronos – 21 Laps 311secs
6. John Zottl – Shepherd-IDM-Matrix – 20 Laps 310secs
7. David Brimley – Serpent-Xceed-Xceed – 20 Laps 314secs
8. Dave Gerard – Xray-Novarossi-Matrix – 19 Laps 300secs
9. Matthew Williams – Serpent-Novarossi-Xceed – 19 Laps 305secs
10. Tobie Mansor – Xray-Novarossi-Matrix – 19 Laps 307 secs

Prior to the meeting the track had been sprayed with sugar water which definitely improved the grip, but for some reason it was eating the tyres with extremely high wear. The tyre strategy for the final would be very important and would also be very close as to whether you could make the 30 minute race on one set.

All drivers had a good start to the race with most holding their positions. After a few laps Alex Thurston moved up to 2nd place and Simon Wood into 3rd as Mark began to open up a considerable lead over everyone. After around 10 minutes, Joe Kerry was forced to retire with a broken 2-speed shaft. With around 5 minutes left to run many cars had run out of tyre to use and were slowly circulating round the track. At the end of the race Mark took the win by a huge 8 lap margin. 2nd position went to the Kyosho of Alex Thurston who finished over a lap clear of 3rd placed Simon Wood who managed to hold off Matthew Cook for the final podium spot despite only having first gear for almost the entire race.

Final Results:
1. Mark Green – Serpent-Novarossi-Xceed – 123 Laps
2. Alex Thurston – Kyosho-JP GI MAR-Contact – 115 Laps
3. Simon Wood – Xray-Reds Racing-Matrix – 114 Laps
4. Matthew Cook – Kyosho-Max-Kronos – 112 Laps
5. Dave Gerard – Xray-Novarossi-Matrix – 109 Laps
6. Matthew Williams – Serpent-Novarossi-Xceed – 98 Laps
7. David Brimley – Serpent-Xceed-Xceed – 96 Laps
8. John Zottl – Shepherd-IDM-Matrix – 90 Laps
9. Tobie Mansor – Xray-Novarossi-Matrix – 85 Laps
10. Joe Kerry – Serpent-O.S-Contact – 43 Laps

The results mean that Mark has now extended his lead in the championship to 13 points. Mark has actually only dropped 3 points throughout the entire season so far and is looking odds on to secure the title.

Next up in the championship is a trip to the Cotswolds track in early July.

Thanks to Joe Kerry for the report.