2018/19 BRCA LMP National Rd5 – Report

The fifth round of the 2018/19 BRCA 1/12th nationals took place in Poole last weekend. The Dorset club was looking for a repeat of their excellent event from last year and laid a technical track on a fantastically smooth carpet that had no tape joins and allowed for great racing. A capacity entry of 80 drivers thoroughly appreciated the Dorset club’s efforts. On Saturday racers competed in the 13.5 blinky stock championship with the field split into F1, F2 and F3 grades. In F1 championship leader David Spashett took pole position by the slimmest of margins from Ollie Payne. Previous national winner Olly Jeffries in his first event with his Schumacher car would line up third.

A furious pace was set early on in the race with the front running cars racing nose to tail. Contact between Ollie and David would drop David down the order and promote Olly Jeffries into the lead. Ollie Payne gave chase but then retired with a mechanical problem after clipping a corner. Olly then produced a fast and controlled drive to take the win. David Spashett staged a fantastic recovery racing his way back up to second place and Adam Catchpole completed the top three from fifth place on the grid. This meant that David secured the overall championship and is the BRCA Stock LMP champion for the 2018/2019 season.

F1 Stock result:
1. Olly Jefferies – Schumacher
2. David Spashett – Roche
3. Adam Catchpole – Capricorn
4. Matthew Varah – Team Associated
5. Ben Elliott – Schumacher
6. Ben Vincent – Roche
7. Mark Stiles – Team Associated
8. Louis Parker – Schumacher
9. Andy Murray – Schumacher
10.Ollie Payne – Roche

In F2 Andrew Smith’s season long front row lock out came to an end with Stephane Fiorini securing pole ahead of Andrew with Stuart Cartwright in third. Some highly competitive racing would see Andrew take the win with Stephane coming home second and Adrian Thorpe taking third place from 5th on the grid. Mark Payne also drove a great race taking his car from 9th on the grid to finish in 4th place.

F2 Stock result:
1. Andrew Smith – CRC
2. Stephane Fiorini – Roche
3. Adrian Thorpe – Xray
4. Mark Payne – Team Associated
5. Stuart Cartwright – Xray
6. Simon Harris – Xray
7. Jonathan Simblet – Roche
8. James Inight – Xray
9. Rob Jackson – Roche
10.Barry Lynch – Schumacher

In the F3 A-final Daniel Robins would take pole position from Chris Hudson and Morgan Williams. Junior driver Daniel would put on a dominating display in the final leading from the tone and lapping the whole field. Morgan Williams would finish in second place and in a brilliant drive Gareth Hollis would finish third from 9th place on the grid.

F3 Stock result:
1. Daniel Robins – Schumacher
2. Morgan Williams – Roche
3. Gareth Hollis – Team Associated
4. Martin Harris – Team Associated
5. Chris Hudson – Xray
6. Lee Moss – Roche
7. Thomas Ridgley – Schumacher
8. James Eaves – Schumacher
9. Chris Blackburn – n/a
10.Lewis Barker – Roche

On Sunday the field was split into Modified and Sports Modified classes. The sports modified class again running 13.5 blinky motors. In Modified Ollie Payne secured pole from Olly Jeffries and David Spashett. From the tone we were treated to some of the season’s best racing with the two lead cars separated by only a few inches. Olly Jeffries looking the faster car but Ollie Payne keeping a tight line preventing a move for the lead. Olly would clip a corner marker and drop back down the field before racing back up finish second behind Ollie Payne. The battle for third was equally as intense with David Spashett coming under pressure from fourth place Andy Murray who produced an excellent pass on the penultimate lap to take the final place on the podium.

Modified final result:
1. Ollie Payne – Roche
2. Olly Jefferies – Schumacher
3. Andy Murray – Schumacher
4. David Spashett – Roche
5. Louis Parker – Schumacher
6. Mark Stiles – Team Associated
7. Adam Catchpole – Capricorn
8. Andy Sawyer – Schumacher
9. Matthew White – Team Associated
10.Ben Elliott – Schumacher

In Sports Matthew Varah would take his second consecutive pole position from this year’s Sports Modified champion Ben Vincent with Niall Cochran in third. Ben put the pole man under some pressure in the opening lap before Matt began to stretch a small lead. A mistake would then drop him back down field but such was his pace he was able to race back to the front again and take the win from Ben. Third place was also strongly contested with Niall Cochran winning out to finish third from Jim Spencer.

Sports Modified final result:
1. Matthew Varah – Team Associated
2. Ben Vincent – Roche
3. Niall Cochran – CRC
4. Jim Spencer – Roche
5. Scott Morton – Roche
6. Daniel Mountford – Schumacher
7. James Stewart – Team Associated
8. Kenneth Rogers – Schumacher
9. Dean Johnson – Schumacher
10.Stuart Cartwright – Xray

The next and final round of the championship takes place in Chesterfield in March.

Source: BRCA [brca.org]