Harper wins at EWS R3 as two Champions crowned early
Round 3 of the Essex Winter Series took place yesterday at the popular British series’ regular venue in the South-East of the UK where a win for Schumacher’s Elliot Harper keeps the championship wide open while Zak Finlay and Dan Blake secured titles. Harper secured pole position in the LRP Modified class, but he had a tight battle with Kyle Branson throughout. Branson, who took the win at Round 1 of the series in October, topped the opening round with his Awesomatix, before Harper took control to win the remaining rounds. The winner at Round 2 of the series, Alex Thurston, lined up third with his Mugen Seiki, ahead of Xray’s Harley Eldridge and the Schumacher of Peter Eagles. In the final, Elliott remained in control and quickly opened up a lead at the front ahead of Branson. The battle on track was for third, with Harley continually closing in on Alex. After keeping the pressure on, Eldridge finally found a way past Thurston in the final minute of the race to move to a podium position. Almost at the same moment, Branson tapped a corner, damaging his car. He held on to second place, but Eldridge quickly closed in. Branson did all he could to keep Eldridge behind, but with a damaged car it proved difficult, leading to Eldridge making an excellent high-speed pass through the infield section on the penultimate lap to add to Branson’s injury, Thurston then also managed to sneak through on the final lap to secure a podium result. All this action left Harper to cruise to victory at the front. This keeps the overall championship wide open, with Harper, Thurston and Branson each having a win with two rounds of the series left to run.
