The first round of the 2025 season was held at the Halifax circuit on the Easter weekend 19th and 20th April. On Saturday morning the drivers were greeted by dry weather with a good forecast all weekend. Lots of work in the pits with many drivers testing new equipment and greeting old friends. Initially the track was very dusty but gradually the grip improved if you were on the ’racing line’. However off this the cars were quite unpredictable.  

Sunday morning was dry . After a short period of open practice for those drivers unable to attend  Saturday, Chairman Bob Harley gave the driver’s briefing. It was nice to welcome some new faces amongst the 30 drivers entered.

The early pacesetters were the usual suspects including Multiple National champion Mark Green, Matt Cook and Richard K in 220 , Ollie Williams in 200mm. Matt & Richard kept swapping TQ . A special mention to newcomer Jen Garrett in 220 who was very fast all weekend. After 4 rounds of qualifying the positions were as follows :

GT8 Electric

TQ Mark Green 

2nd Nigel Fox

3rd Josh Dando

200mm Touring

TQ Ollie Williams

2nd Ollie King

3rd Neil Wallace

220mm GT

TQ Matthew Cook

2nd    Richard Kozakiewicz

3rd Mathew Baker

Wide Touring

TQ Devendra Mahatme

2nd Paul Dewsnap

3rd Nigel Philpott

 Just prior to the trophy presentation Bob Harley presented a BRCA Section Award for 2024 to Devendra Mahatme. This was a complete unexpected surprise for the recipient but much appreciated .

TQs 

B Final GT8 E

This turned out to be a close tussle with young Alfie Wadsworth taking the first leg and Ben Wright the second. It was decided on the final leg with Alfie driving calmly with a very nervous Dad John , watching trackside. Alfie eventually took it including showing a couple of 360s ! Ben took second overall with Ken completing the podium.

1st Alfie Wadsworth (Serpent)

2nd Ben Wright

3rd Ken Penny

B Final 1/10

Another close race with Dev initially in front. Phil was chasing hard and took over the lead with this swapping several times before Phil managed to pull away eventually winning by 8 seconds after 80 laps. A charging Bob Harley took third.

1st Phil Edwards (Serpent)

2nd Devendra (Capricorn)

3rd Bob Harley (Infinity)

A Final GT8 E

Mark Green and Nigel Fox dominated all three legs as per qualifying. However the battle for third was very competitive. In leg 2 Robert Shepherd finished 0.05 seconds ahead of Josh Dando. Then he followed that by beating Josh by 0.38 seconds in the final leg . Now that is close racing !

1st Mark Green (Serpent)

2nd Nigel Fox

3rd Robert Shepherd

A Final 1/10

This was another great final . Matt and Richard led off with Matt always just having the edge.  There was an intense battle for third place between Mark, Jen and Mathew with all of them occupyng the third spot at some point.After 30 minutes Matt came home 1 lap ahead of Richard. Jen capped off an impressive debut taking third just 5 seconds ahead of Mark, with Mathew just another 5 seconds behind. 

1st Matthew Cook (Mugen)

2nd Richard Kozakiewicz (Serpent)

3rd Jen Garrett (Shepherd)

A great start to the season with great weather and some very competitive racing.

Thanks to all at the Halifax club for putting on such an enjoyable meeting. Particular thanks to Muriel and Bev in race control who kept thins running smoothly as per usual.

The next round is at Cotswold on the 10th/11th May. It would be nice to see some more newcomers as well as some old faces. We are a very friendly and inclusive section.

There is always help on offer if needed.