BRCA 1/10th IC National Series Round 2 - 2016

Round 2 of the 2016 National Series saw the drivers arrive at the Cotswold track situated on Kemble Airfield near Cirencester. The meeting greeted drivers on the Saturday morning with a drying track and the first cars began practice at around 11 am. Unfortunately, rain, and then hail arrived about an hour later which would halt the proceedings for the rest of the day. On the Sunday morning, drivers returned to find a frost coated track which thawed as the sun came out. Drivers briefing was called and the new 10 minute practice heats were run from 9 am. Qualifying began around 10 am with the 1/8^th GT cars first out. Glyn Beal would take the win in Heat 1 ahead of Martin Thurston and Scott Hellawell.

Top 3 1/8^th GT after Round 1:

Heat 2 would see the returning Simon Smith take his Xray to the top ahead of the Serpents of Bob Harley and Ian Hartill. Another returnee Aaron Wearn would take the win in Heat 3 followed by Devendra Mahatme and local driver Ady Garlick.

Heat 4 would see reigning champion Glyn Beal post a run of 18 laps in 301.676 seconds in order to top the round ahead of Richard Kozakiewicz and again Devendra Mahatme. Richard would finish around a lap and a half behind Glyn with Devendra a further 4 seconds back.

Top 10 Sports GT after Round 1:

Heat 5 would see the Serpent of Mark Green dominate proceedings until around the 4 minute mark when he was forced to retire. This allowed teammate Alex Thurston to TQ the round with a run of 19 laps in 313.704 seconds ahead of Joe Kerry’s Capricorn and Matthew Cook on his Shepherd debut.

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Top 10 200mm after Round 2:

In Heat 1, Glyn Beal again took the win this time ahead of Scott Hellawell and Paul Dewsnap. This allowed Scott and Paul to move into 2^nd and 3^rd overall.

Top 4 1/8^th GT after Round 2:

Heat 2 would see Daniel Ludena’s Shepherd outpacing the Xray of Simon Smith with Bob Harley’s Serpent in 3^rd. After a retirement in Round 1, Daniel’s time would move him well into the Top 10 with Bob also improving on his time. Aaron Wearn would again take his Shepherd to the top in Heat 3 this time ahead of the Xray of Mark Owen and Neil Wallace’s Capricorn. Mark’s time would move him up the order with Aaron’s time proving to be just 0.001 seconds slower than his previous best. Glyn Beal would post the first 19 lap run of the Sports GT class in Heat 4 ahead of Richard Kozakiewicz and Peter Hellawell. Richard would maintain his 2^nd place overall with an 18 lap run with Peter moving up to 4^th.

Top 10 Sports GT after Round 2:

Mark Green bounced back from a retirement in Round 1 to top heat 5 with a time of 19 laps in 316.249 seconds. Alex Thurston would finish 2^nd with Peter Hastings in 3^rd posting his first 18 lap run.

Top 10 200mm after Round 2:

Into Round 3 and Paul Dewsnap would take the win in Heat 1 ahead of Scott Hellawell after mechanical problems for the other half of the field.

Top 4 1/8^th GT after Round 3:

Daniel Ludena would again top Heat 2 ahead of the brand new Mugen MTX-6 of Mike Manning and Simon Smith. Mike’s run would move him into the Top 10 overall. Aaron Wearn improved his time by 9 seconds on his way to topping Heat 3 from Neil Wallace and Mark Owen. Neil and Mark would also both improve on their times despite Neil not completing the whole run. Glyn Beal would make it three wins from three runs in Heat 4 after topping the heat in an even faster time than previous. Peter Hellawell would post his first 18 lap run to come in 2^nd with Richard Kozakiewicz in 3^rd.

Top 10 Sports GT after Round 3:

Joe Kerry would top Heat 5 with a new fastest time of 19 laps in 310.682 seconds. Alex Thurston would also improve his time by around a second to finish 2^nd with John Zottl taking 3^rd.

Top 10 200mm after Round 3:

Into the final round and Scott Hellawell would post his fastest time yet, topping the heat from Paul Dewsnap and Martin Thurston after problems for Glyn Beal in the warm up.

1/8^th GT A Final Grid:

Simon Smith would top his final heat from Bob Harley and John Russell. Simon’s final run would allow him to line up 6^th for the A Final with Bob joining him in 9^th and John starting 3^rd in the B Final. Heat 3 would see Neil Wallace become the latest addition to the 18 lap club allowing him to start 7^th for the A Final. Aaron Wearn and Mark Owen would finish in 2^nd and 3^rd to place them 9^th for the A Final and 1^st for the B Final respectively. Mark Newby would take the win in the final Heat 4 followed by Devendra Mahatme and Phil Edwards. Mark would place his Xray 5^th on the A Final Grid with the Shepherd and Serpent of Devendra and Phil lining up 7^th and 8^th for the A Final also.

Sports GT A Final Grid:

Heat 5 would see Mark Green lay down an impressive run of 19 laps in 303.946 seconds giving him the TQ for the meeting. Joe Kerry would come in 2^nd and Alex Thurston in 3^rd with both drivers also running times that were quicker than the previous TQ. This allowed them to start 2^nd and 3^rd on the A Final grid. An impressive final run, in which he just missed out on 19 laps, allowed Matthew Cook to line up 4^th on his Shepherd debut.

200mm A Final Grid:

After a lunch break, the finals got underway with the 1/8^th GT A Final in which there was drama even before the start with the pole sitter, Glyn Beal, not making it to the grid. This allowed Scott Hellawell to lead the field away followed by Paul Dewsnap and Martin Thurston with Glyn joining almost a lap behind the leader. By Lap 9, Glyn had begun his climb up the field by taking 3^rd place which then became 2^nd place on Lap 19. Scott was holding a strong 1^st place with a good gap to 2^nd place however Glyn was getting closer and closer every lap. On Lap 33, Glyn caught up to the back of Scott and made the overtake. Unfortunately for Scott, for the few previous laps his steering servo had been failing and so he was forced to retire. This allowed Glyn to take the win with Paul in 2^nd and Martin in 3^rd.

1/8^th GT A Final Result:

This result means that Glyn Beal continues to lead the championship with a perfect score of 202 points, Paul Dewsnap is now in 2^nd with 197 points and Scott Hellawell is 3^rd with 196 points. The next final to be run would be the Sports GT B Final with Martin Trice, Jim Beesley and John Russell heading up the grid. Martin would lead away the field until Lap 9 when Jim would take the lead. Not long after, a fast starting Mark Hepworth would overtake Jim for 1^st and Jim would then retire on Lap 34. A race of attrition, Mark would continue to lead, winning the race with a 9 lap margin over John in 2^nd place with Dave Waters completing the Top 3.

Sports GT B Final Top 5:

Next up would be the 200mm B Final that saw Mark Owen sitting on pole ahead of Ady Garlick and Devendra Mahatme. At the start, Mark would fall down the field allowing Ady into the lead with Devendra and Dave Wood in 2^nd and 3^rd. On Lap 4, a recovering Mark would take 3^rd place from Dave. Devendra would unfortunately retire on Lap 17 allowing Mark into 2^nd and Dave back into 3^rd which is the order that the race would finish in.

200mm B Final Top 5:

The first A Final of the day would be the Sports GT A Final with Glyn Beal sitting on pole ahead of Peter Hellawell and Richard Kozakiewicz. The race would start with multiple collisions meaning after the first lap, Glyn would lead ahead of Simon Smith and Mark Newby. Daniel Ludena would make a pass on Mark for 3^rd place on Lap 3 and problems for Simon on Lap 11 would see him fall down the order allowing Daniel into 2^nd and Devendra Mahatme into 3^rd. After the first fuel stops, Richard would emerge in 2^nd place with Devendra continuing to hold 3^rd place after Daniel hit problems and retired. On Lap 32, Peter would overtake Devendra for 3^rd place and enter the battle for 2^nd place with Richard. The pair would swap positions a number of times until Lap 51 when Peter would establish himself in 2^nd place. Glyn Beal would lead until the end and win with a 5 lap margin over Peter in 2^nd with Richard around half a lap behind in 3^rd.

Sports GT A Final Result:

This result now means that again Glyn Beal leads the championship with a perfect score of 202 points with Peter Hellawell in 2^nd on 198 points and Devendra Mahatme holds 3^rd place with 195 points. The final race of the day would be the highly anticipated 200mm A Final. Winner of the previous round, Mark Green, would sit on pole position with Joe Kerry in 2^nd and Alex Thurston in 3^rd. The race would begin with Mark, Joe and Alex running close for the first few minutes until Mark would start to pull a small lead on the rest. After the first fuel stops, the gap between Mark and Joe would be reduced thanks to some fast pit work by Joe’s team. Mark would then pull out the gap again and the same thing would continue to happen after the pit stops. The top 3 would remain the same until the half way point where Joe managed to close the gap enough to be able to overtake Mark during the pit stops. The next 10 minutes would see the two drivers running nose to tail until, with around 2 minutes to go, Mark would make his move for the lead.

200mm A Final Result:

Another class in which the leader has a perfect score, Mark Green continues to lead the championship on 202 points with Joe Kerry in 2^nd with 198 points and Alex Thurston in 3^rd with 196 points. On behalf of the BRCA 1/10^th IC Committee I would like to thank the Cotswold club for a well organised meeting and the racers for supporting the section. The next race will take place on the 7^th and 8^th of May at Halifax.

Peter Hellawell