BRCA Micro Nationals Round 4 – Tamworth – Race Report

[c0sie]

After a two month Christmas break the Micro Nationals returned to the carpet and travelled to Tamworth TRRAC club’s new venue for round 4. Entries were at an all time high with 68 drivers booked in for this event.

The track layout was challenging from the start. Corrugated plastic rumble strips, a perspex crossover, 12ft high wall ride, a gym mat filled ‘S-bend’ and a corner table top back onto the main 20m long straight would separate the men from the boys and make for exciting finals later on in the day!



Pro-Stock
Pro-Stock qualifying would see Atomic Carbon’s Craig Harris dominate throughout the day with his LRP Shark ST. Craig was the only man to see 12 laps in qualifying, followed by CML’s Keith Robertson who once again put his Associated RC18T into 2nd place on the grid as he did at Hereford.
CML’s Stuart Harlow qualified 3rd on the grid with his FTX Blaze and matched the time he had set in Modified qualifying aswell (now that’s what you call consistency!)
Microtech’s Simon Chambers, on his very first outing with a micro, qualified with an amazing display of driving into 4th place, only 5 seconds behind Stu and 1 second in front of the current Pro-Stock championship leader CML’s Steve Davis in 5th.

Qualifying
1st - Craig Harris – 12laps/5mins 25secs – LRP Shark ST
2nd – Keith Robertson – 11laps/5mins 6secs – Associated RC18T
3rd – Stuart Harlow – 11laps/5mins 17secs – FTX Blaze



The Pro-Stock A-final was a clash of the titans as 1/10th offroad superstars Craig and Keith battled it out for the top spot. After 4 minutes Craig and Keith were split by a matter of seconds however two small mistakes in the closing laps of the race put paid to the Microtech drivers challenge for 1st and he finished four seconds behind Craig.
Steve drove a strong race and battled his way to take the final podium position from Stu who dropped down from 3rd to 4th.
CML’s very own rallycross legend Wes Myles started and finished in 7th place after battling throughout the race with Simon Chambers and W.O.R.M’s Dan Osborne. As they crossed the line at the end of the race all three drivers were split by only 0.3seconds!!

A-Final
1st – Craig Harris – 12laps/5mins 20secs – LRP Shark ST – Atomic Carbon, MTroniks, Body Paint
2nd – Keith Robertson – 12laps/5mins 24secs – Associated RC18T – CML Distribution, Associated, Microtech
3rd – Steve Davis – 11laps/5mins 8secs – FTX Blaze – CML Distribution, Gecko Foams, Team Scream



B-Final
1st - Simon Osborne – 10laps/5mins 10secs – FTX Blaze ST – PhatBodies
2nd - Paul Hammond – 10laps/5mins 20secs – FTX Blaze
3rd - Matthew Lax – 10laps/5mins 27secs – FTX Blaze




Modified
In the Modified class all eyes were on the Championship leader, Tekin’s Cris Oxley. All he needed to do today was score 199 points from qualifying and the finals to guarantee himself the first ever BRCA Micro Scale Modified Championship.
Things didn’t exactly go to plan though as fellow Tekin driver Stu Harlow dominated Modified qualifying throughout the day with Cris settling for 2nd place on the grid and 99 valuable points towards his target.
Allan Davies rounded off the top 3 making an all FTX Blaze Modified top 3 in qualifying.

Qualifying
1st – Stuart Harlow – 11laps/5mins 16secs – FTX Blaze
2nd – Cris Oxley – 10laps/5mins 1sec – FTX Blaze
3rd – Allan Davies – 10laps/5mins 19secs – FTX Blaze



Only a win in the final would guarantee Cris the Championship and he had everything to do after Stu so dominantly took 1st place on the grid from him.
A crash in turn 3 just before the crossover put Cris down to last with everything to do and nine places to make up! As he crossed the line for the end of lap 1 he was back up to 2nd place, 6 seconds behind Stu and would need a perfect drive to have any chance of having any chance of catching the leader.
At the 4 minute call Stu was still comfortably 7 seconds in front of Cris until Cris put the hammer down and took those 7 seconds back out of Stu in only 3 laps!
With the race over and only 4 corners left to go Cris pulled off the move of the day to overtake Stu in mid air off the crossover and steal the victory from under Stu’s nose, therefore securing the Micro Scale Modified Championship with two rounds still to go!
Bill Pier drove a cool and calm race to take 3rd place after a shaky start to qualifying, proving that he will be a force to be reckoned with over the next two rounds of the series.



With 798 points from a possible 800 Cris Oxley was crowned the first ever BRCA Micro Scale Modified National Champion with 2 rounds still remaining!

A-Final
1st - Cris Oxley – 11laps/5mins 14secs – FTX Blaze – Tekin, Gecko Foams
2nd - Stuart Harlow – 11laps/5mins 16secs – FTX Blaze – CML Distribution, Team Scream, Tekin
3rd - Bill Pier – 11laps/5mins 32secs – FTX Blaze ST



Round 5 of the Micro Nationals takes place at Ellesmere Port on 3rd February with Pro-Stock wide open at the moment. Steve Davis, Craig Harris and Keith Robertson all have the chance to take the title and no doubt the racing will be as close at the points currently are!

The BRCA Micro Committee would like to thank the TRRAC club for putting on a brilliant days racing with an exciting track layout and Action Model Centre for providing a shop on the day.



For more details on the BRCA Micro Scale National scene please go to www.ukmicrox.co.uk

[Danosborne6661]

Wes Myles started and finished in 7th place after battling throughout the race with Simon Chambers and W.O.R.M’s Dan Osborne

Oii makes it sound like i came in 9th :P

[c0sie]

If you had come in the top 3 I woulda put your placing in the report

[c0sie]

Now with pics!