Kyle Branson wins 1/8th Euro A warm up

With just seven weeks to go before the 1/8th IC European A Championships gets underway at the Halifax track in England, last weekend was the pre-event warm up race providing the participants the opportunity to gain some valuable track time ahead of the main event. With a lower than anticipated entry due to busy race calendars across Europe, we still had the presence of Italian Marco Vanni, German Oliver Mack and Emil Kostadinov. With such a low entry, the club decided to arrange free practice for all day Friday and also Saturday and Sunday morning until a break for lunch. The format after lunch was for three rounds of qualifying and 30 minute finals for all competitors. With the lap timer on all weekend, it was good to gauge comparative lap times and the magic five minute run time setup which would prove essential come qualifying.

On Saturday the man to beat was Kyle Branson, the former British 1/10th and 1/8th National Champ and multiple Worlds and European semi finalist, with his Mugen/Sirio/Contact and Runner time setup combination was on top form posting 14.6 second lap times with medium grip conditions. During the lunch break on Friday, the host club decided to spray the track with Tornado track solution to provide more grip and this was evident during the afternoon session as drivers were starting to post 14.5 second lap times.

When the European drivers arrived, the testing got really serious with the aim to set down a marker early on for the rest of the competition to work towards. After qualifying on Saturday, Kyle Branson recorded 21 Laps in 308 seconds which Broke Mark Green’s previous track record of 21 Laps in 309. Oliver Mack was next best with a time of 20 Laps in 300 seconds, just missing out on the magical 21 Lap run which will be the aim come the main event. Adam Catchpole (Shepherd/Sonic) was next best with 20 Laps 301 seconds in the final round but was confident of running 21 Laps if he had not had a lean engine on the last two laps. The remaining drivers were separated by seconds and the top ten was as follows:

1. Kyle Branson – IDM/Mugen/Contact/Runner Time/Sanwa – 21 laps 308.53
2. Oliver Mack – Shepherd/Picco/Matrix – 20 laps 300.40
3. Adam Catchpole – Shepherd/Sonic/Contact/Runner Time – 20 laps 301.13
4. Andy North – Mugen/Sirio/Contact/Runner Time – 20 laps 302.32
5. Andy Hastings – Shepherd/Sonic/Runner Time – 20 laps 303.87
6. Daniel Bancroft – Motonica/Vox/Mecca – 20 laps 305.25
7. Pete Hastings – Shepherd/Sonic/Runner Time – 20 laps 307.74
8. Tim Wood – Serpent/Exceed/ Radio Racers – 20 laps 309.25
9. Marco Vanni – Capricorn/Novarossi/Matrix – 20 laps 309.99
10.Neal King – Mugen/Sirio/Contact/Runner Time – 20 laps 314.40

The final started with Kyle quickly stretching his lead upfront over Mack, with an hard charging Catchpole and North in pursuit. Andy Hastings made a mistake onto the main straight and dropped back. Mack then took to the grass and lost almost a lap to the leaders. Up front Branson had a comfortable lead and was pacing himself to the finish. Catchpole had managed to pull a lead over North who was struggling with low receiver battery which would eventually go flat on the last lap costing him a certain 3rd place. Andy Hastings took advantage to claim third position. The results were as follows:

1. Kyle Branson – IDM/Mugen/Contact/Runner Time/Sanwa – 117 laps
2. Adam Catchpole – Shepherd/Sonic/Contact/Runner Time – 116 laps
3. Andy Hastings – Shepherd/Sonic/Runner Time – 112 laps
4. Andy North – Mugen/Sirio/Contact/Runner Time – 111 laps
5. Daniel Bancroft – Motonica/Vox/Mecca – 111 laps
6. Pete Hastings – Shepherd/Sonic/Runner Time – 110 laps
7. Neal King – Mugen/Sirio/Contact/Runner Time – 108 laps
8. Oliver Mack – Shepherd/Picco/Matrix – 65 laps
9. Marco Vanni – Capricorn/Novarossi/Matrix – 19 laps
10.Tim Wood – Serpent/Exceed/ Radio Racers – 2 laps

Sunday was yet another hot day with the potential for even faster lap times. Branson was again the man to beat and he actually broke the track lap record with a 14.3 second lap. In qualification he also recorded a quicker time of 21 laps 306 seconds which now stands as the outright track record. The chasing pack were also closer with Catchpole, Mack and Wood also breaking the magical 21 lapper with Catchpole the nearest challenger and in the process beating Greens previous lap record.
The top ten was as follows:

1. Kyle Branson – IDM/Mugen/Contact/Runner Time/Sanwa – 21 laps 306.27
2. Adam Catchpole – Shepherd/Sonic/Contact/Runner Time – 21 laps 309.98
3. Oliver Mack – Shepherd/Picco/Matrix – 21 laps 313.82
4. Tim Wood – Serpent/Exceed/ Radio Racers – 21 laps 318.01
5. Neal King – Mugen/Sirio/Contact/Runner Time – 20 laps 301.91
6. Andy Hastings – Shepherd/Sonic/Runner Time – 20 laps 302.98
7. Daniel Bancroft – Motonica/Vox/Mecca – 20 laps 303.30
8. Andy North – Mugen/Sirio/Contact/Runner Time – 20 laps 303.64
9. Pete Hastings – Shepherd/Sonic/Runner Time – 20 laps 305.96
10.Marco Vanni – Capricorn/Novarossi/Matrix – 20 laps 306.81

The final again started with Kyle dominating the entire race from start to finish. The battle for second was between Neal King and Daniel Bancroft after Catchpole and Mack hit minor problems early on but still finished the final. The first casualty was Wood followed by Pete Hastings and North who suffered a broken front belt. In the final stages King had a 6 second lead over Bancroft to take a well deserved second place.

Final result
1. Kyle Branson – IDM/Mugen/Contact/Runner Time/Sanwa – 117 laps
2. Neal King – Mugen/Sirio/Contact/Runner Time – 108 laps
3. Daniel Bancroft – Motonica/Vox/Mecca – 111 laps
4. Oliver Mack – Shepherd/Picco/Matrix – 114 laps
5. Adam Catchpole – Shepherd/Sonic/Contact/Runner Time – 116 laps
6. Andy Hastings – Shepherd/Sonic/Runner Time – 112 laps
7. Marco Vanni – Capricorn/Novarossi/Matrix – 109 laps
8. Andy North – Mugen/Sirio/Contact/Runner Time – 48 laps
9. Pete Hastings – Shepherd/Sonic/Runner Time – 36 laps
10.Tim Wood – Serpent/Exceed/ Radio Racers – 16 laps

The next stop is the main event on the 22nd to 27th July 2013. Let us hope the weather is good and everyone is looking forward to some great racing ahead. If you require any further information please email north_andrew@sky.com or alternatively visit halifaxeuros.co.uk.