Tom Cockerill wins at TORCH round of BRCA nats
This weekend the BRCA 10th Off-Road National series visited TORCH club in Titchfield, the deep South of England. A new venue to the 6 round national series for this year, having previously hosted an end of season final. The club had done a good job of laying a fairly open, race-able track, with plenty of features to keep drivers busy, but nothing too difficult that it was make or break for any level of driver. The national format sees just 2 rounds of 3 minute practice runs before drivers in to 4 rounds of qualifying and then finals, with just the A main having 3 legs to battle it out, 2WD on the Saturday and 4WD on the Sunday.
2WD Qualifying saw a breakaway group of 4 drivers at the top of the time sheets. Schumacher’s Tom Cockerill took the opening round , before Lee Martin showed his true pace in rounds 2 and 3, and Darren Bloomfield got to grips with the track for round 4, posting the fastest time of the day. This left Lee Martin on pole, followed by the Schumacher trio of Darren, Tom and Simon Moss.
The finals were anything but dominant for a single driver, giving some excellent close racing and a great display for the watching crowd. Lee Martin would take a flag to flag victory in leg 1, despite having to defend a late charging Tom Cockerill in the final minute. Leg 2 would see Darren make amends for his leg 1 error, taking advantage of a rare error from the pole man to take the leg win. This meant A3 would be the decider. The top 3 gapped the field early on leaving a great 3-way battle throughout. At half race distance Lee made an error, and Darren repeated this just 2 laps later, gifting the lead to Tom. As positions stood it would come down to fastest final time, which Tom took, just 0.7s in front of Darren.
2WD top 10 result:
1. Tom Cockerill – Schumacher
2. Darren Bloomfield – Schumacher
3. Lee Martin – Yokomo
4. Simon Moss – Schumacher
5. Tom Yardy – Team Associated
6. Nathan Waters – Schumacher
7. Neil Cragg – Team Associated
8. Craig Collinson – Team Durango
9. Danny McGee – Schumacher
10.Kevin Lee – Team C
Sunday saw a track layout change, opening up the tighter sections for the faster 4WD cars. Just like the previous national, 4WD qualifying was a battle of 2 drivers, Lee Martin and Neil Cragg. Neil opened up strong, taking the fastest time in Rounds 1 and 2, before Lee came back in round 3. The fourth and deciding round saw a few mistakes for Lee, handing the TQ to Neil, but once again the finals were going to be very close.
Tom Cockerill found some pace for the finals with his Schumacher buggy, allowing him to run at the front with Neil and Lee. Leg 1 Saw Neil take a flag to flag victory, but by no means easily. Lee was on him from the start and never more than a straight length behind, with Tom chasing Lee hard. Lee looked every way possible to make a move, not making contact once, but Neil did well to hold his line and take the win. Leg 2 was pretty much the same, Neil lead all the way, but his victory was far from easy, as once again Lee battled hard, getting alongside twice in the first lap, but never able to make the move complete. With the pressure off, Neil but in a brilliant display of driving to take the leg 3 by a 5 second margin, ahead of a close battle between Lee and Tom in second, to round out the podium positions.
4WD top 10 result:
1. Neil Cragg – Team Associated
2. Lee Martin – Yokomo
3. Tom Cockerill – Schumacher
4. Nathan Waters – Schumacher
5. Craig Collinson – Team Durango
6. Tom Yardy – Team Associated
7. Danny McGee – Schumacher
8. Greg Williams – Team Associated
9. Ellis Stafford – TLR
10.Kevin Lee – Team C
Source: Schumacher [racing-cars.com]
