BRCA Touring Car Round 1 Race Report

Round one of this seasons BRCA Touring Car series saw a new revised format with the old two day event now condensed in to a one day meeting, as well as the established modified and 13.5 boosted classes there is also now a 13.5 blinky class and a full entry of 110 drivers entered round one at the technical West London track

The new format meant less opportunity for mistakes and qualifying heats were very close, in modified it was X-Rays Olly Jefferies that took three of the four rounds of qualifying to line up ahead of Schumacher’s Elliott Harper and defending champion Associated’s Chris Grainger

In the 13.5 boosted class Zak Finlay took TQ and looked to be on for another dominant win, Zak took the win in all four rounds of qualifying while in the new blinky class Danny Booker took TQ

The new championship format means both finals scoring towards your championship points and Danny Booker was first to bag two wins in 2017, Booker looked untouchable as he took both legs of the blinky A final, two second places saw Colin Jackson finish second with Richard King completing  the podium in third

A mistake for Zak Finlay these days is a rare thing but on this day clipping a kerb and rolling the X-Ray in leg one proved costly, Darren Lee took advantage of the mistake and took leg one, Zak bounced back with a win in leg two but as it was in a slower time so the overall win went to Lee with Zak having to settle for second ahead of James Hart

The modified class looked on paper to be a close run thing between Jefferies and Harper and so it proved with Jefferies having to work hard for the leg one win over Elliott. In leg two Harper looked quicker in the early Laps but could not get close enough to Jefferies to attempt a move, then with Grainger closing in Elliott had to concentrate on defending his second place which allowed Jefferies to pull away and take a comfortable second leg win 

Jefferies went in to the West London national with an unbeaten record in the UK so far in 2017, given how he struggled at this venue at the end of last season many were expecting that run to end here but Jefferies left West London with his unbeaten record still in place , a maximum haul of championship points and looking forward to round two next month at Adur

Modified Top Five

Olly Jefferies

Elliott Harper

Chris Grainger

Zak Smith

Harley Eldridge

13.5 Boosted Top Five

Darren Lee

Zak Finlay

James Hart

Marcus Askell

Damian Giddins

13.5 Blinky Top Five

Daniel Booker

Colin Jackson

Richard King

Chris Clark

Shaun Batt