BRCA 1/10th IC & GT8 Nationals Rd8 – Report
The final round of the BRCA 1/10th IC & GT8 Nationals was held at Brooklands Raceway in Kent last weekend. Despite a poor weather forecast many drivers made the trip with points and final championship places up for grabs. Saturday was wet and rainy all day with only a few drivers venturing on to the track but most preparing wet cars for race day. No rain at driver’s briefing but a damp track made qualifying interesting. Round 1 of 200mm Touring saw Mark Green take TQ with 15 laps, Matthew Cook came in 2nd and Stewart Mcleod in 3rd. In 220mm TQ Devendra Mahatme scored 14 laps with Phil Edwards and Jamie Paton behind. GT8 Q1 TQ was Christopher Slater from Gareth Bell and Craig Woods.
The track started to dry by round 2 with James Conolly moving up to 2nd in 200mm Touring and Barry Abbot taking FTD in 220mm with 15 laps. Gareth Bell took TQ in GT8. In round 3 James Conolly took 200mm TQ and in 220mm Barry Abbott did 16 laps improving his TQ. Chris Slater did 15 laps taking TQ back in GT8 from Gareth. By round 4 the rain had started so no change in positions. The rain abated and after a short lunch break the finals listing was up.
Just before the start of the 200mm Touring A-final rain began to pour down with drivers frantically trying to choose the right tyres. Mark Green took the lead with Devendra Mahatme in 2nd and Steward Mcleod 3rd. No change till late in the race with Mark suffering several flame outs but still managing to take the win by less than a lap. Matt Cook came in to change tyres and then stormed up the field eventually taking 3rd from Stewart at the end of the race on the last lap by one second, making it a podium clean sweep for Serpent.
In the 220mm GT A-final and despite the rain stopping the wet track again gave the advantage to the drivers who had selected the right damp tyres. FTD Barry Abbott (Xray) carried on from qualifying keeping the lead and eventually winning by two laps. However the next few places were very close all race with Devendra Mahatme and Richard Kozakiewicz closing on 2nd placed Jamie Paton (Capricorn) all on the same lap. Jamie held on for 2nd with Devendra (Serpent) less than two seconds behind and Richard the same after 30-minutes of racing.
A relatively dry track saw FTD Chris Slater take the lead in his electric GT8. Chris drove smoothly from start to finish with good pit stop battery changes to take the win by one lap from Paul Bellinger in a nitro GT8. Gareth Bell took the final podium place.
Next up was the presentation for the overall championships. In 200mm Touring Joe Kerry (Capricorn) had already clinched the title and wasn’t at Brooklands. Matt Cook (Serpent) took a well deserved 2nd place with Steward Mcleod (Xray) in 3rd.
In 220mm GT Mark Green (Serpent) took the overall title just in front of last year’s winner Glyn Beal (Capricorn). Barry Abbott (Xray) capped of a good weekend by taking the final championship podium spot.
In GT8 Nitro Glyn Beal took the title from Matt Baker and Barry Thompson.
GT8 Electric had Paul Bellinger taking the overall from Craig Woods and Simon Rameswari.
Source: BRCA [brca.org]
