2019/20 BRCA LMP12 Nationals Rd2 – Report

Round two of the 2019/20 BRCA LMP12 Nationals took place in Poole last weekend. A strong entry of over 70 racers took part in the weekend’s racing as the season builds towards the IFMAR world championships in January. The Dorset club has a smaller track area but laid a fast and flowing circuit that required good rhythm and accuracy to secure a fast time. Saturday would see drivers competing in 13.5 and 17.5 stock classes. Winner of the first round of the 13.5 championship, Olly Jefferies was in commanding form taking first place in all four rounds of qualifying. It was, however, very close at the front and he would line up on pole under a second ahead of David Spashett with Ollie Payne a further second back in third place.

The final would see a clean start from all ten cars with Olly Jefferies pulling out an early lead with David and Ollie locked in battle behind. Matthew Varah, Adam Catchpole and Any Murray would form a chasing group racing hard to catch the leader and gain position on each other. The lead car would be caught by a car recovering from an accident dropping Olly back towards second and third place. A touch of a corner was all Ollie Payne needed to pass David and the chase was then on. We were then treated to a nose to tail battle for the second part of the race until a mistake by a back marker in the final laps caused a collision that collected all three cars. All three were able to continue with Olly continuing in the lead, Matthew Varah who had been following not far from the lead battle would be promoted to second with Ollie following in third and David in fourth. With only a couple of laps to complete and despite a last corner move by Matthew the race would finish in that order giving Olly Jefferies two wins in two rounds.

F1 13.5 final result:
1. Olly Jefferies – Schumacher
2. Matthew Varah – Team Associated
3. Ollie Payne – Roche
4. David Spashett – Roche
5. Andy Murray – Schumacher
6. Adam Catchpole – Capricorn
7. Ben Vincent – Roche
8. Ben Elliot – Schumacher
9. Nathan Goodban – Schumacher
10.Mark Stiles – Roche

The 13.5 class also contains a F2 championship and Morgan Williams would claim his second consecutive pole position ahead of Ashley King and Mark Rogers. Morgan would drive a clean and controlled race to take a tone to tone victory. Behind him there was more action with mistakes from Ashley and Mark dropping them down the order allowing Kenneth Rogers, the winner of the first round of the championship, to race into second place from 8th on the grid. The final place on the podium was taken by Steve Donald in another great drive from 7th on the grid.

F2 13.5 final result:
1. Morgan Williams – Roche
2. Kenneth Rogers – Schumacher
3. Steve Donald – Schumacher
4. Richard Norris – Team Associated
5. Stuart Barber – CRC
6. Mark Rogers – Serpent
7. Ashley King – Schumacher
8. Geraint Williams – Xray
9. Antony Lockyear – Roche
10.James Varah – Team Associated

The 17.5 class is gaining momentum and saw a 50 percent increase in numbers at the round. It was very keenly contested with several drivers capable of securing pole position in qualifying. Marcus Askell would line up at the front of the grid just gaining the advantage on Mark Jewitt by a tenth of a second. The next four cars – Niall Cochran, Andy Sawyer, Adrian Thorpe and Gavin Clinch were all within a second of the lead pair. The final was controlled from the front by Marcus who built a substantial lead and brought the car home for his second win in this championship. Second place was keenly contested in the final minutes with Niall, having looked secure in second, being challenged by a hard charging Mark Jewitt who recovered from a first lap incident to finish just inches behind Niall.

17.5 final result:
1. Marcus Askell – Schumacher
2. Niall Cochran – CRC
3. Mark Jewitt – Schumacher
4. Gavin Clinch – Destiny
5. Andy Sawyer – Schumacher
6. Adrian Thorpe – Xray
7. Chris Hudson – Xray
8. Matt Baker – Destiny
9. Kevin Creaser – CRC
10.Peter Winton – Zen Racing

Sunday would see a small change to the track layout that introduced more of a chicane to the left hand side of the track producing a more technical layout. There would be more 13.5 turn blinky racing in the Sports class and the Open Modified class would take to the track. In Modified Olly Jefferies and Ollie Payne would be in a class of their own lining up less than a second apart but two laps clear of the rest of the field. Ollie Payne would take the pole position with Olly Jefferies second. Adam Catchpole would line up third from Andy Murray and Mark Stiles. In the final all cars got off to a clean start with the two leaders pulling away from the first lap. An early mistake by Ollie Payne would allow Olly Jefferies through and he then capitalised on this and built a small lead. Unfortunately he would be caught up in another cars accident dropping him back behind Ollie again. Ollie Payne would then drive a clean race to take his first win of this year’s championship. Olly would finish in second ahead of Louis Parker who completed the podium for the second time this year after a solid drive from seventh on the grid.

Modified result:
1. Ollie Payne – Roche
2. Olly Jefferies – Schumacher
3. Louis Parker – Schumacher
4. Mark Stiles – Roche
5. Matthew White – Roche
6. Daniel Robins – Schumacher
7. Adam Catchpole – Capricorn
8. Mark Rogers – Roche
9. Andy Sawyer – Schumacher
10.Andy Murray – Schumacher

In Sports David Spashett would again dominate and line his car up on pole position. Matthew Varah qualified in second place ahead of Ben Vincent. In an eventful race David would build an early lead and finish a lap up on the rest of the field. The battle for second and third featured many drivers throughout the race with Matthew Lax driving from fourth on the grid to secure second and an excellent drive from Nathan Goodban from seventh on the grid to finish in third place.

Sports result:
1. David Spashett – Roche
2. Matthew Lax – Xray
3. Nathanael Goodban – Schumacher
4. Matthew Varah – Roche
5. Andrew Smith – CRC
6. Mark Jewitt – Schumacher
7. Jim Spencer – Roche
8. Mick Farrell – Destiny
9. Gavin Clinch – Destiny
10.Ben Vincent – Roche

The next round of the championship will take place in Tamworth in December.

Source: BRCA [brca.org]