For the last round of the season, the section made a 2nd visit of the season to the seaside town of Blackpool, but this time to race on the dirt at North West Nitro. The weather forecast was changeable and with Saturday afternoon qualifying looking like a potential wash out, the committee prepared multiple plans and time schedules to cover ever eventuality.
After practice on Saturday morning a decision was made to run two rounds of qualifying to Sunday morning and just one Saturday afternoon. With 2 from 3 to count, some drivers chose to sit out Round 1 on Saturday in the hope of drier weather on Sunday and with the track constantly changing, the racing results were going to be hard to predict.
2WD
With just one full heat, qualifying was all about grid position for the final Sunday afternoon. Craig Chilvers started off where he finished the last round, in P1 Saturday night but Karl Norris but in a cracking 2nd run Sunday morning leaving pole a straight fight in Q3. Craig Chilvers pinched it by just 4 seconds to leave Karl in P2 and Mark Higgins completing the top 3.
P3 man, Mark Higgins had engine failure on the way to the grid meaning he had to sit this one out. For the rest, the main final started smoothly with all drivers getting away well. Craig and Karl managed to build a gap to the rest of the field but when Craig Chilvers lost drive after 15 mins it looked like Karl would secure his 2ndwin of the season. However, Karl then suffered a servo failure leaving Neil Griffiths to inherit the lead from P4 on the grid and he never looked back. Despite Craig managing to get his car back on track, he had lost too much time in the pits and could only recover to P5. Mr consistent Andy Blackburn came across the line in P2 and despite a badly damaged rear wing, Barry Mander held his nerve to take P3 and his first ever National Podium.
Short Course
With the Short Course Top 3 all sown up, this race was all about the lower top 10 positions with still all to play for between Andrew Stephenson, Jake Faulkner, Jake Humphries and Heidi Shilcock. Qualifying saw Ian Oddie and Alfie-Jack Shilcock share the spoils in the first 2 rounds with Ian clinching TQ in the final round. Short Course European Champion, Tayler Letchford completed the top 3.
Onto the finals and with a ½ final to contend before the main final, Jake Humphries sat on pole and despite a brief early pit stop managed to control the race to take the win with Neil Sivins and Simon Godney completing the top 3 and bumping up to the main final.
On the main final and as expected Ian and Alfie got away well and battled closely for the lead with Tayler cementing his place in P3. Unfortunately, Alfie had engine or clutch issues after 10 mins and needed multiple pit stops throughout the remainder of the race to keep the car going. This put him out of contention and allowed Ian to control the pace and gap to the field to comfortably take the win and maximum points in the National Championship. Tayler crossed the line in P2 despite a broken front shock absorber and Jake Faulkner won the battle of the field to cross the line in P3 and his first national podium. In the end Andrew Stephenson secured P4 in the National Championship, with Jake Faulkner jumping up to 5th with his podium finish to complete the top 5.
4WD
The only 2 championships still to be decided before the weekend were the National and Clubman championships in 4WD. In the national title it was a battle between defending champion Tommy Chung and Dave Ashton, with Tommy needing a win. The clubman title was down to the wire between Josey Schifano and Ian Gardiner.
In qualifying, Tommy had solid pace all weekend and took TQ in all 3 rounds to start on pole, with Dave Ashton P2 and Craig Orman P3. Ian Gardiner managed to secure P6 overall and spot in the main final with Josey only managing P12 meaning a route via the ½ final would be needed to challenge Ian for the clubman title.
The ½ final started well but with Martin Fitzpatrick and Josey colliding on lap 2 forcing Josey to retire, the clubman title was decided. Martin managed to recover to P3 behind local man, Ian Slater who used his track knowledge to climb from P3 to P1 and Stephen Hunt, who started on pole and crossed the line in P2.
The main final started with a huge collision of 7 cars in the first corner, but Tommy and Dave were clear and racing. Tommy had to win, and Dave just had to do better than Tommy. It looked like Tommy was building a good lead with the extra pace he had shown all weekend, but a mistake resulted in his front bumper becoming detached forcing a pit stop to repair or retire on safety grounds. Tommy unfortunately had to retire the car handing Dave the championship. I think it’s safe to say Dave’s focus then turned to just not breaking his car has he slipped from P1 to P3. Leon Satchell, after been last at the end of the first corner collision drove through the field to claim P1 and Ian Slater’s track knowledge helped him yet again has he secured P2.
Well done to Dave Ashton on his first LSOR Title and the 4WD National Championship and to Ian Gardiner for his 4WD Clubman Championship.
You can view all the results from the 2024 season and the final championship standings on the BRCA results page at https://www.brca.org/lsor-results
With the curtain now fallen on a fantastic season, the committee would like to thank all the racers and mechanics who have supported the series and to the 7 host clubs who have made the series the success it has been. We hope you have a fantastic winter, please do support your local club winter series and we hope to see you all back at the national events in 2025.
Our final act of the 2024 season will be the AGM later this month. Full details can be found at https://www.brca.org/brca-agm
