South East GT12 Regional Rd1 – Report

The popular South East Regional returned to the West Kent club last weekend. Drivers were treated to an excellent track laid by the dedicated West Kent team the night before. A smaller track area compared to their typical club tracks, but with addition of track side pitting adding to the atmosphere. A healthy entry of 22 GT12, nine LMP with Mini and Touring cars offered as support classes saw a total entry of 49 drivers. As the racing got underway the early pace setters were Niall Cochran in GT12, closely followed by Tim Hancock who was in the heat before. After four rounds of qualifying Niall came out on top by six seconds from Tim, 3rd was Tristan Rozier and James Scott completing the top 4.

In LMP it was Ollie Payne and David Spashett who would break away from the field and battle for the overall TQ, after the four rounds David pipped Ollie by just over one second. 3rd was newcomer to LMP Billy Fletcher who is trying out some 12th scale over the winter alongside his touring car events, Stephane Fiorini completing the top 4.

In the GT12 A-final, after a clean start Niall led the field away. Now on track at the same time Tim was able to keep up with Niall, for the entire 6-minute race the pair only separated by a couple of seconds. Upon closing in on backmarkers the gap would diminish giving Tim the opportunities to pass, much to the crowds excitement however Niall held his nerve to cross the line a couple tenths in front of Tim. James Scott had a solid final coming in 3rd.

In the LMP final David would lead the pack off, with Ollie following closely. A rare mistake from David would let Ollie through. A lead he would hold for the remainder of the race. Stephane Fiorini completing the podium.

Source: BRCA [brca.org]