Joe Kerry wins British 200mm nationals Rd6

The 6th round of the British 1/10 200mm Championship was held last weekend at the excellent Mendip track in Weston-Super-Mare. The Weather was superb for the entire weekend with temperatures over 30 degrees. There was very little grip to start with but this slowly improved during Saturday’s practice. Joe Kerry set the fastest time with his Serpent, with team mate Mark Green just one tenth behind. During qualifying many drivers were struggling to make the 5 minutes due to a combination of the fast track layout and hot temperatures. At the end of qualifying TQ went to Joe Kerry with Mark second around 3 seconds behind. Both were the only drivers to complete 18 laps throughout qualifying.

Qualifying Results:
1. Joe Kerry – Serpent/O.S Speed/Xceed – 18L 313.36
2. Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi/Xceed – 18L 315.99
3. John Zottl – Shepherd/Sonic/Matrix – 17L 302.38
4. Simon Wood – Xray/Reds/Matrix – 17L 303.40
5. Andy Hastings – Shepherd/Sonic/Shepherd – 17L 303.86
6. Dominic Carter – Serpent/Novarossi/Contact – 17L 305.79
7. Pete Hastings – Shepherd/Sonic/Shepherd – 17L 305.93
8. Matthew Cook – Hot Bodies/O.S Speed/Contact – 17L 310.19
9. James Conolly – Serpent/Novarossi/Xceed – 17L 310.35
10.Jason Leggett – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed – 17L 313.92

The tyre strategy was going to be very important as the wear was very high. Joe used the last qualifier to test out some tyres for the final which seemed to work quite well using a harder shore on the outside tyres. It was a clean start to the main final with Joe leading off the line and Mark following close behind. After the first few laps Joe began to pull away from Mark and open up a small gap. At 4:30 minutes Joe came in for fuel and Mark briefly took over the lead as he was going for 5 minute stops. At the halfway point Joe had continued to increase the lead and was now ahead of Mark having already done one extra fuel stop. When Mark came in for his fuel stop, Joe then had a comfortable lead which he maintained until the finish to take the win.

Final Results:
1. Joe Kerry – Serpent/O.S Speed/Xceed – 102L
2. Mark Green – Serpent/Novarossi/Xceed – 99L
3. John Zottl – Shepherd/Sonic/Matrix – 98L
4. Matthew Cook – Hot Bodies/O.S Speed/Contact – 96L
5. Jason Leggett – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed – 94L
6. Pete Hastings – Shepherd/Sonic/Shepherd – 94L
7. James Conolly – Serpent/Novarossi/Xceed – 92L
8. Andy Hastings – Shepherd/Sonic/Shepherd – 82L
9. Dominic Carter – Serpent/Novarossi/Contact – 80L
10.Simon Wood – Xray/Reds/Matrix – 55L

The results mean that the championship battle continues between Mark and Joe. The next round of the British National Series will take place at the very tight and technical Colchester circuit on 17th/18th August.

Thanks to Joe Kerry for sending the report.