The 24/25 BRCA 1/12 LMP National championship kicked off last weekend with Schumacher's Louis Parker taking the Round 1 win at West Bridgeford model car club
This was the West Bridgeford club's first attempt at hosting a national level event so to ensure things ran smoothly a club race\test day was organised on the Saturday prior to Sunday's national meeting. All but a handful of Sunday's entrants were there to prepare for the main event.
A challenging track layout greeted the near 50 strong entry in the 13.5 spec class which has become the staple of 1/12th racing in Europe. A number of high profile drivers were absent as around 20 regulars were away in Belgium competing at the Masters of Foam. There was still plenty of quality in attendance though including the IFMAR Spec World Championship runner up Mark Stiles and EFRA European Championships podium finisher Louis Parker.
Qualifying saw a battle for TQ between the 2 Schumacher's of Louis Parker and Sam Coult. Sam eventually took the overall TQ after 4 enthralling rounds of qualifying with Louis behind by less then a second. Mark was in 3rd another 3 seconds back after some technical issues prevented the Awesomatix driver from mounting a serious challenge
The single leg A final was a closely fought affair with Coult ,Parker and Stiles managing to extend a lead over the chasing pack in the first half of the 8 minute race. A mistake by race leader Coult allowed Parker to slip through into the lead and it looked as if the fight for the victory would be between these two as Stiles did not appear to have the pace of the lead pair. As the race progressed however, Stiles found his rhythm and managed to close the gap down to the leaders. At the 6 minute mark there was less than a second separating the top 3. Two minutes of intense racing ensued and on the penultimate lap a mistake by Sam Coult allowed Stiles to move into second place and mount a challenge for the lead still held by Parker. On the final lap it seemed that Parker would be able to hold on to the victory but the slightest brush of a corner marker threw his car wide on the infield and Stiles tried to seize the opportunity to pass . Unfortunately for Stiles the recovering Parker closed the door and Stiles was spun round, allowing for Coult to regain second. Parker completed the final lap to take victory ahead of Coult with Stiles third, his hopes of a last gasp win dashed.
A Final Result:
1.Louis Parker (Schumacher)
2. Sam Coult (Schumacher)
3. Mark Stiles (Awesomatix)
4.Aaron Morley (Awesomatix)
5. Alex Robertson (Awesomatix)
6. Daniel Mountford (Schumacher)
7. Neil Diver (Destiny)
8.Mathew Smithson (Awesomatix)
9.Jody Sherratt (Schumacher)
10. Andy Smith (Awesomatix)
Full Results can be found on the BRCA Results page and the video of the A final can be found on the BRCA 1/12TH scale nationals Facebook page.
Next up Stafford !