Aldershot 26th June 2005 

Round 5 of the BRCA 1/10^th I.C. Scale Touring Championships got underway on the weekend of the 25^th/26^th June 2005 at Aldershot in Hampshire, UK.  4 races down, 4 to go, and Darren Johnson was leading the push for the title by a single point from Steve Brown.

As can be seen from the picture above, the Aldershot track is a compact, technical challenge.  Although it has a very fast banked sweeper at the end of the straight, most of the time on the track is to be made from holding precise lines through the hairpins and chicanes on the circuit.  Many top drivers were to be seen in practice on the Saturday afternoon preceding the racing on the Sunday.  One particular face seen trackside was David Spashett, who looked very quick driving what looked like a Kyosho FW-05RRR.  The quickest driver however was Mark Green, who clocked a staggering 13.1 second lap!

The usual problems of ‘peg-hogging’ once again reared its ugly head again as drivers struggled to get track time due to others not observing the etiquette of replacing their name peg.  This problem looks set to be alleviated when the 2.4Ghz  become legal for use at BRCA events; of course, then the problem will be preventing 20+ cars from being on track at once!

The grip levels were unusually high at Aldershot over the weekend of racing.  The dusty air kicked up by earthworks nearby usually covers the track, which keeps lap-times down until the 1/10 touring cars hit the track and lay clean rubber on the racing surface.  The times being recorded on Saturday afternoon were enough to make it obvious that a VERY fast time would be needed to qualify well on the Sunday.

The very warm weather on the Saturday also saw many drivers struggling to last the 5 minutes needed to put a time in.  There was considerable debate in the pits as to how to make the cars last long enough, given the warm air and high grip which increased fuel consumption.

Nick Adams, the race director, promptly called a halt to practice at 6.00 pm and the drivers dispersed to make their way home or to their respective hotels or campsites.  A lot of good quality set-up work had been done, and most drivers left the track happy with their cars and confident for Sunday’s racing.

 Sunday arrived, and with it considerable cloud cover. Although the track was now cooler than during Saturday’s practice, the clouds did hint at rain, and certainly early on during Sunday morning some drivers were seen looking skyward with a worrisome look on their faces.  However, the rain did not materialise, and racing carried on in the dry.

Nick duly gave his driver’s briefing from the rostrum at 9.30, Bob Harley adding that the driver’s should be aware of their own safety before going to marshal a car; well said Bob, we don’t want any nasty accidents.

Round 1 got underway, and straight away it was that man, Mark Green who stamped his authority on proceedings with the first 23-lap score of the day.  In fact Mark very nearly broke the 13-second lap barrier during this run, with one lap recorded at 13.03 seconds!! Well done Mark.  In fact Mark would go on to take TQ with the only 23 lap scores being posted by him.

Round 1 would in fact, be very indicative of who would make the A Final.  The only major improvement during qualifying came from 2004 Rubber Champion Darren Johnson, who blazed round the track in Round 3 setting a time of 22 laps in 5:04; a time that would secure him 4^th place on the grid for the A Final.

(Note from editor Malcolm.  Mark Green's time of 23/305.63 is just 2 seconds of his lap record at Aldershot, 23/303.27, which was recorded with an 'Outlaw' spec 200mm car, no doubt with 5 port engine and a Lola shell.  Food for thought there!)

The top 10 200mm qualifiers were:

In 235 Open, the top 10 looked like this:

After a short break at the end of qualifying, the finals got underway with the 235mm class first on track.  The results were:

235mm B Final

235mm A Final

Next out on track was the 200mm class; a very high standard of driving throughout qualifying meant some drivers normally seen in the higher finals were finding themselves a little lower down the field than they had expected.  The results were:

200mm F Final

200mm E Final

200mm D Final

200mm C Final

200mm B Final

200mm A Final

With all other finals complete, it only remained for the 10 fastest 200mm drivers of the day to make their way to the start for the A Final.  Mark Green was pole position. With the warm-up complete, the cars were lined at the start, awaiting the buzzer; then they were off!  Unfortunately, Mark Green ran into problems early on into the race, and spent a considerable amount of time in the pits, effectively killing his chances of a win.  Without doubt, Mark did look the quickest driver in the A Final, but as the old adage goes, ‘to finish first, first you must finish’.  Bad luck, Mark.  The consistently quick drivers in the final were local drivers Steve Brown and Darren Johnson, and it would be Darren who would take the win, only 5 seconds ahead of Steve, with both drivers on 128 laps, 3 laps clear of Gareth Bell.

Thanks to Nick Adams of AMCC for his sterling hard work in Race Control.  Well done, the meeting ran very smoothly thanks to you!

Report by Joe Keaveney, Edited and converted for the web by Malcolm, with a bit of help from FrontPage!

Pictures by Joe.