Spashett & Farrell win at BRCA LMP12 Nationals Rd1
Last weekend saw the first round of the 2017/18 British Championship for LMP12 pan cars. The first race of the season took place at the Eastbourne track in the south of England. The club has a regular facility in a sports hall, and laid out a fantastic track on ETS carpet. The track used a mixture of hard drainpipe markers and small bot-dots on the tricky corners. The layout made for great crash-free racing, and saw the drivers unanimous in their praise for the new ‘small’ bot-dots. The Championship has three classes being contested, on Saturday all drivers compete in the 13.5 Stock class, and on Sunday drivers choose either 6.5 blinky Modified or 13.5 blinky Sports Modified.
The series saw multiple World Champion David Spashett defending his Stock title and Adam Catchpole aiming to claim a second title in the Modified class. In addition to these drivers there were a host of drivers looking to unseat the champions. Saturday saw the whole field run Stock, and it was the smooth driving of David Spashett that led the field. David’s Roche was exactly the same speed as the rest of the leading drivers over a lap, but his consistency over a run saw him claim a comfortable pole from Adam Catchpole’s Xray and Ollie Payne’s Roche. The A-final saw a masterclass from David, who after early pressure from Adam, simply drove away from the field to win by almost a lap from team mate Ollie Payne. Adam claimed the final podium position in third on his national debut for Xray.
13.5 Stock final results
1. David Spashett – Roche/Motiv
2. Ollie Payne – Roche/Motiv
3. Adam Catchpole – Xray/Muchmore
4. Matthew Varrah – Team Associated/Reedy
5. Matt Rice – Team Associated/Motiv
6. Ben Vincent – Schumacher/Fantom
7. Mick Farrell – CRC/Motiv
8. Matt White – Team Associated/Motiv
9. Aaron Morley – Team Associated/Motiv
10.Andy Murray – Schumacher/Fantom
Sunday saw the majority of the field stick with the 13.5 class, with ten of the superstars moving over to the Modified 6.5 class. In Stock it was the CRC of Mick Farrell that over the four rounds proved the quickest – in the end posting the only 38 lap run of qualifying. The gap however was small, with Mark Jewitt, Ben Vincent, Matt Rice and Luke Burley all being close over a full run. The final saw a rocket start in to the lead for the Xray of Mark Jewitt, but small mistakes allowed Mick to retake the race lead and control the pace, to take his first win in two years. Mark Jewitt kept the pressure on and was rewarded with second position, from the Team Associated of Matt Rice who capped off a fantastic weekend with his second National podium in third.
13.5 Sports Modified final results:
1. Mick Farrell – CRC/Motiv
2. Mark Jewitt – Xray/Muchmore
3. Matt Rice – Team Associated/Motiv
4. Neil Diver – Roche/Motiv
5. Tim Hancock – Zen Racing/Trinity
6. Gavin Clinch – Roche/Motiv
7. Nigel Hale – Team Associated/Reedy
8. Luke Burley – Xray/Motiv
9. James Stewart – Team Associated/Motiv
10.Ben Vincent – Schumacher/Fantom
The Modified class saw European Junior Champion Ollie Payne dominate every round of qualifying with his Roche to claim his first Modified pole position. The only driver close to his pace was Chris Kerswell, who looked to have a very good chance of the win with his Associated. Third on the grid was last years Champion, Adam Catchpole. The final saw a hectic first few laps, with Ollie looking to be having problems with a car that broke away entering corners. This meant that after several near misses, Chris collected Ollie demoting the pair down the field. This left David Spashett to take the lead, which in typical fashion he never looked like losing. In the end the speed of Chris Kerswell’s Team Associated saw him recover to second, and with a few more laps it could have been a maiden win for the R6.
6.5 Modified final results:
1. David Spashett – Roche/Trinity
2. Chris Kerswell – Team Associated/Reedy
3. Adam Catchpole – Xray/Muchmore
4. Ollie Payne – Roche/Trinity
5. Andy Murray – Schumacher/Fantom
6. Aaron Morley – Team Associated/Reedy
7. Damian Giddings – Xray/G-Force
8. Matt White – Team Associated/Reedy
9. Chris Grainger – Team Associated/Reedy
10.Matthew Varrah – Team Associated/Reedy
The next round of the series takes place in Birtley, in North East England, in late November.
Source: BRCA [brca.org]
