The fight for the British championship

Let’s start with the end: Mark Green (Serpent/Mega) is once again the British Champion. He was run very, very close by Neil Diver (Mugen/Nova Rossi) and Gareth Bell (Mugen/Nova Rossi).

With David Spashett and Ben Kelsall (Kyosho) not able to commit to the 1/8th series the battle was between defending champions Serpent, and Mugen. In the Serpent camp Mark Green, Richard Hicklin and Tim Wood were the lead contenders while Gareth Bell, Neil Diver and Dave Dixon led the Mugen attack.

First blood went to Mugen at Mendip where Dave Dixon used all his considerable years of experience to notch up a win. Neil Diver was second to put the Serpent team under early pressure. Mark won the next three meetings while Neil was steadily accumulating points with some great driving. The Bells’ early bad luck changed at Crystal Palace and Gareth’s smooth driving rewarded him with a second place to put him in the hunt.

Dave wins at Mendip, Neil picks up good points for 2nd

By mid season, personal circumstances forced Dave to miss a couple of meetings, Tim Wood had a string of bad luck, and despite having qualified for all the open finals Richard was too far back to be in contention. So it was down to Mark to fend off the chasing pack of Mugens for the next 5 rounds.

Neil took his first win of the year at Tibshelf to move within a few points of Mark. When Mark retired from the lead at Brookland it looked certain that Neil would clinch his second win, but up-and-coming Serpent Driver Jason Frost foiled him in the last two minutes of the race to snatch victory and take his first win!

Mark hit back at Tibshelf and the Bells took a very deserved first victory at Mendip.

Mark wins at Tibhshelf, Gareth would win the next two

Going into the last round at Brookland the championship was still not settled. For Mugen to snatch the title from Serpent, Neil needed to win and Mark had to be out of the top four. After the first ten minutes of the final it was far from over. Neil was leading and Mark was in third but been hard pressed by a Mugen pack of Kevin Brown and Pete Hastings.

When Neil started to run out of tyres, Gareth took over the lead and put a lap up on Mark and Neil. Mark and Neil traded places, but in the end Neil could only finish third.

So after dominating the championship for the last few years, Mark only just clinched the title, literally in the last 20 minutes of the season.

Mark Green - 2005 British Champion with his Pit Man Matt Baker

The Bells had a really strong end to the season winning the last two rounds so I suspect the fight is going to be even closer next year….

The top ten were

1. Mark Green, Serpent/Mega
2. Neil Diver Mugen/Nova Rossi
3. Gareth Bell Mugen/Nova Rossi
4. Michael Kerr Mugen/JP
5. Andrew North Mugen/ Nova Rossi
6. Pete Hastings Mugen/Nova Rossi
7. Tim Wood Serpent/Mega
8. Richard Hicklin Serpent/Mega
9. John Carr Serpent/Mega
10. Jason Frost Serpent /Mega

The final list of the results can be found here.

Emerging champions
The junior championship was fought out between Jason Frost, Tom Greenwood and Andrew Hastings. The stand out junior was Jason. Taking the overall win at Brookland just highlighted how fast he really is. Tom surprised just about everyone (himself at times) with his improved form and a fourth place overall at Brookland was outstanding! Andrew proved he could match that qualifying for the open at the last meeting of the year.

Jason takes his first win at Brooklands

A new contender for the junior title in 2006 is definitely going to be eleven-year-old Serpent driver Kyle Branson. After his great run of form at the 235 and 200mm Euro’s, Kyle came along to the last two rounds to have a go. After his first heat with a 1:8th car, heads were turning. He put in awesome performances to qualify in the A final for both events. Watch this space.

While we are talking about emerging champions, we need to talk about Ian Campbell and June Walton. Ian travels with his dad over from Ireland for every event and has made huge progress. June put in a great qualifying performance at Mendip to make it into the A final, pushing out the 132nd best driver in the world!

The final junior results are

1. Jason Frost
2. Andrew Hastings
3. Tom Greenwood
4. Ian Campbell
5. Kyle Branson

The full junior results can be found here

Brits Abroad.
We sent a team to the Euro B’s, the Over 40’s and the worlds. Our biggest success came at the over 40’s where Dave Dixon dominated and won the event. At the Euro B’s Gareth Bell did exceptionally well and was really unlucky not to make the final.

The British team in Germany at the Euro B's

At the worlds Dave Spashett was the top Brit, but as he acknowledges would have to commit a lot more time to 1:8th to make a big impression. Mark Green drove flawlessly but just didn’t have the horsepower. The Bells ran out of luck, and Scott finished 132nd again (Scott has competed in 3 world championships over eight years in three countries and two continents. He has finished 132 every time! ).

The British team with pit men in Messina

Old rivalries/private bets and retirements.
Phil Jones came back after a few years off, and while it pains me to say it, was much faster than I was. On the up side I won all private bets with Avo, the Bells and the Heath brothers (note to self, must stop drinking and making rash statements with the Bells!).

After many years of racing, Dennis Paul decided to call it a day. Hopefully we will still see him around.

Scott’s unofficial awards for 2005

• Best-dressed driver – It can only be the ladies favourite Merv Marshall

• Most persistent – It has to be Richard & Pete Hicklin. They just never give up

• Best pitman – Richard Sheriff. If only he could drive as well as he can pit.

• Worst Pitman – Guy Adam. He has normally gone for tea when your heat is on.

• Best Pit girl - The ever smiling Charl Edwards although she only just beat Justin Heath.

• Neatest Driver - Of course it’s Avo. Any one that can fold a t-shirt to fit into his top pocket is going to be hard to beat.

• Dream team. The Bells just piped the North’s again!

• Most keen. Bill and Ian Campbell who travel from Ireland for every event.

• Most chilled racer. Must be Scott, the 132^nd best driver in the world.

• Most stressed pitman. I don’t see anyone beating Alan Greenwood for a very long time.

• Bloke that has the most fun. Steve Woods and Chris Edwards share it.

• Best over 40 driver who runs a Mugen, comes from Eastleigh, is in the carpet business and has a welsh surname. It was close but Phil Jones just takes it!

• Quote of the year. Guy Adam “The car could not go round the end of the straight flat out all week so I thought I would try once more” after crashing out of his final at the Euro B’s

If you didn’t win an award this year, try again next year. Or just do what Phil did and pay me to make one up.

And finally
With record entries, great weather, great people, new talent and some unbelievably good racing, 2005 was one of the best seasons in the last few years. All the racers want to thank the people behind the scenes for making it all happen.

Roll on 2006….

Scott Nettleton
132nd best 1:8th Gas circuit racer in the world