Harper & Spashett win British LMP Nationals Rd5
Last weekend saw round 5 of the BRCA LMP12 national series take place at the Swifts Raceway in the north of England. This round of the series saw Schumacher strengthen their team with touring car racer Elliott Harper and buggy driver and GT12 World Champion, Michal Orlowski. Taking on the very strong Schumacher team would be the Roche team of David Spashett, Adam Catchpole and Ollie Payne, and Yokomo’s lone factory representative, Mark Stiles. Over the two days there were three classes, with all drivers competing in 13.5 fixed timing class on Saturday, and drivers split between 6.5 fixed timing Modified on Saturday, and 13.5 Sports Modified on Sunday. On Saturday the tight and twisty track saw incredibly close racing across the field. In the end it came down to a last round battle for pole position between Harper, Catchpole, Spashett and Orlowski. A clean run from Elliott Harper saw his Eclipse line up on pole by less than a tenth of a second from David Spashett’s Roche.
The A-final saw a clean start for the leading drivers, with Elliott leading a closely bunched field. As the race progressed Elliott held back numerous attacks from Adam Catchpole, in the end taking a first victory for Schumacher in the 13.5 class by just over a tenth of a second from Adam Catchpole. Third place was taken by Michal Orlowski, who proved that he is quick to adapt to any class, whether it be on-road or off-road.
13.5T final results:
1. Elliott Harper – Schumacher/LRP
2. Adam Catchpole – Roche/Trinity
3. Michal Orlowski – Schumacher/LRP
4. Ollie Payne – Roche/Fantom
5. Mark Stiles – Yokomo/Reedy
6. David Spashett – Roche/Trinity
7. Matthew Varrah – Roche/Trinity
8. Craig Nutting – Roche/Team Orion
9. Luke Burley – Xray/Trinity
10.Andy Murray – Schumacher/Fantom
Sunday saw the battle for the win carried over from Saturday, with Spashett, Catchpole, Orlowski and Harper all looking like contenders for the honour of top qualifier in the Modified category. In the end contact between Adam Catchpole and Michal Orlowski saw David Spashett take his first Modified pole position of the year, just under half a second in front of Adam. Michal and Elliott were also within a couple of seconds of the leading duo. The A-final saw a clean start for the top five, but with an early mistake from Michal slowing the field up, it was left to David and Adam to battle it out for the win. In the end David never put a foot wrong, and crossed the line to take his first Modified win of the year, with Adam less that two tenths of a second behind at the flag. In the end Elliott managed to finish best of the rest in third, nearly half a lap back on the leading Roche pairing.
6.5T Modified final results:
1. David Spashett – Roche/Trinity
2. Adam Catchpole – Roche/Trinity
3. Elliott Harper – Schumacher/LRP
4. Michal Orlowski – Schumacher/LRP
5. Andy Murray – Schumacher/Fantom
6. Mark Stiles – Yokomo/Reedy
7. Ollie Payne – Roche/LRP
8. Matt Lax – CRC/ORCA
9. Louis Parker – Schumacher/Fantom
10.Chris Kerswell – Roche/GM
The 13.5T Sports Modified class saw another incredibly close battle for pole position. Matthew Varrah had a little more pace that the rest of the field, ending qualifying just over two seconds up on Craig Nutting and Luke Burley in second and third. The A-final saw a demonstration drive from Matthew, who simply eased away from the battle for second place to take a comfortable win with his Roche. In the end a four way battle between Craig Nutting, Luke Burley, Gavin Clinch and Mark Jewitt saw Craig’s Roche holding on for second, closely followed by Luke Burley’s Xray in third.
13.5T Sports Modified final results:
1. Matthew Varrah – Roche/Trinity
2. Craig Nutting – Roche/Fantom
3. Luke Burley – Xray/Trinity
4. Gavin Clinch – Roche/Fantom
5. Mark Jewitt – Roche/Trinity
6. Aidan Ripley – Schumacher/Fantom
7. Tim Wood – Serpent/Reedy
8. Patrick Bandeira – Roche/Trinity
9. Peter Craig – Schumacher/Fantom
10.Joe Hawnt – Serpent/Trinity
The final round of the series takes place at the Chesterfield club in late March, and with all three championships still up for grabs a great meeting is anticipated.
Source: BRCA [brca.org]
