Stotfold has been a venue on the 10th off road national calendar for several years now and has always been the final destination in the series. This year however it swaps round to play host to the first round of the 2011 series.

Those unfamiliar with the BRCA national series can expect 6 rounds of competition - each being a full two day weekend of racing with 2wd buggies on Saturday and 4wd sunday.

Stotfold is an all AstroTurf track and so copes well with rain - though the weather leading up to this event was great.

Darren Bloomfield glued about 500 tyres during the day.

Spring sunshine greeted us early in the day on Saturday, 2wd day, and racers were soon shedding their wintery coats to reveal their pale downy forms. 8th scale buggy national champion and all-round super racer Darren Bloomfield had turned up in anticipation of leaping from 16th on the reserve list, to entry point - but his hopes were dashed as only one driver bumped up into the 'I'm racing' spot and Darren had to sit glueing his tyres for the neo-race instead.

Following the usual format of these events, booking in was open very early in the day, in time for practice to start at 8am. Two rounds of three-minute practice gave drivers a chance to test out their vehicle of choice, and start to think about making changes to their set up.

2WD Photos	4WD Photos

Paul Worsley and his team took to the rostrum to deliver the seasons first drivers briefing prior to kicking off qualifying. The theme followed much the same pattern as in previous years, welcoming drivers to the event and celebrating the excessive amount of entries received for all nationals this year.

A special mention was made to Dave Church, Phil Sleigh, Andrew Jones and others who helped out, for their efforts throughout last years national season to deliver us world class commentating and entertainment.

Mike Bradbury - He's loving it.	Stu Wood from JEspares gives some advice

A couple of rule changes worth mentioning - personal transponders have become mandatory this season due to the withdrawal from the market of handout transponders. And the rule covering use of Lithium-Polymer (LiPo) batteries has been clarified, enforcing that all LiPos must be charged in a LiPo sac which has been purchased from a reputable UK supplier. Carrier bags with 'Li-Po Sac' written on, are not acceptable! The BRCA ruling is in fact so adamant that these safety rules must be adhered to, that any drivers found to be NOT using an appropriate sac will be removed from the event and asked to leave.

"Lithium-ion polymer batteries, polymer lithium ion, or more commonly lithium polymer batteries (abbreviated Li-poly, Li-Pol, LiPo, LIP, PLI or LiP) are rechargeable batteries (secondary cell batteries). Normally batteries are composed of several identical secondary cells in parallel addition to increase the discharge current capability." (Wikipedia, 2011)

Sac definition:

Pronunciation:  / 'sak/
Function: n
:  a soft-walled anatomical cavity usually having a narrow opening or none at all and often containing a special fluid.

LiPo Sac Definition:

Pronunciation: /'Li Po Sak/
Function: n
: A receptacle capable of containing fire and any other bad business emitted by a LiPo.

Another new rule for 2011 is the bodyshell hole dimensions which are now specced to be no larger than 10mm in any direction regardless of the manufacturers designated cut lines. This saw some drivers having to tape up holes in their bodyshells to fit with the rules - a bit silly really.

	Round 1 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Lloyd Storey 13/300.34 2 Grant Williams 13/302.04 3 Tom Cockerill 13/302.50 4 Lee Martin 13/303.26 5 Tom Yardy 13/303.70 6 Neil Cragg 13/303.89 7 Danny McGee 13/303.94 8 Simon Moss 13/305.60 9 Ellis Stafford 13/305.97 10 Nathan Waters 13/307.68

Day 1 - 2WD

Round 1 Qualifying.
Neil Cragg running in a lowly heat 8 set a new TQ but it was quickly eclipsed by Tamiya's Lee Martin. Tom Yardy was on fire in his run but an error on the last lap cost him valuable seconds - just missing out on Lee's time.

Lloyd Storey's Schumacher Cougar SV took round one of qualifying

Lloyd Storey made his first-ever national A-final last year at this very track and he proved his worth on the track by taking round one of qualifying, almost 2 seconds ahead of second place Grant Williams. With Grant Williams 2nd and Tom Cockerill 3rd it was a Schumacher 1-2-3.

Andrew Jones drove his best ever 2wd race, finishing 23rd in round - the 8th fastest Schumacher Cougar in this round of qualifying.

Round 3 Qualifying.
Lee Martin put in a stunner with the only rear-motor'd car in the top 10 - taking round three with his Tamiya TRF201 just ahead of the new CML mid-converted Associated cars of Neil Cragg and Tom Yardy.

Tom Cockerill put in the quickest lap of the day on his way to a troubled 9th in round. Tom was on for TQ but a couple of mistakes in the closing laps of his run saw him drop down the order.

	Round 3 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 14/319.75 2 Neil Cragg 14/320.46 3 Tom Yardy 14/320.59 4 Simon Reeves 14/321.77 5 Lloyd Storey 14/322.03 6 Nathan Ralls 14/322.56 7 Danny McGee 14/322.57 8 Simon Moss 14/322.94 9 Tom Cockerill 13/300.55 10 Ellis Stafford 13/301.06

Round 4 Qualifying.
The final round of qualifying made it four different drivers had each taken a round of qualifying. Tom Yardy was on top this time and was clearly very happy with his new car - putting in the fastest time of the day to prove it.

Tom Cockerill put his car in second for the overall TQ. Neil Cragg put the second CML C4.1 car in the top three, not bad.

	Round 4 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Tom Yardy 14/318.77 2 Tom Cockerill 14/319.69 3 Neil Cragg 14/320.01 4 Danny McGee 14/320.08 5 Simon Moss 14/322.59 6 Grant Williams 14/322.79 7 Ellis Stafford 14/324.75 8 Lloyd Storey 13/300.43 9 Craig Collinson 13/301.05 10 David Poulter 13/301.51

Welsh crotch	How not to glue tyres - Steve Pierce

Trishbits

	Overall Qualifying - Round by Round
	position name round result Car 1 Tom Cockerill     Schumacher 2 Lloyd Storey     Schumacher 3 Tom Yardy     CML / Associated 4 Lee Martin     Tamiya 5 Neil Cragg     CML / Associated 6 Grant Williams     Schumacher 7 Danny McGee     Schumacher 8 Simon Moss     Schumacher 9 Craig Collinson     FABS 10 Nathan Ralls     Schumacher

Schumacher were the top manufacturer with 6 car in the A final. The highest placed Losi was B2 with Simon Reeves piloting. Lee Martin was running the only rear-motor car in the A final.

Schumacher had some new tyres at Stotfold - the first time they'd been seen in public after some secret testing over the past few weeks. The 'silver' compound mini spikes were described by Tom Cockerill as being a little like a really soft 'Green' tyre.

Apparently the tyre was produced for a customer in France so it could be a control tyre and work on various surfaces - astroturf and dirt alike. The silver compound is already used on the popular 8th buggy tyres where it's used in wet conditions - so they've now been released so people can use them as an option in wet conditions.

A FINAL LEG 1

2wd A final leg 1.
Tom Yardy took the first corner on two wheels, and Lee Martin was straight through, followed by Neil Cragg.
Tom Cockerill in first place and Lloyd Storey in 2nd place manoeuvred the track nice and cleanly.

Tom Leads them round the first corner	Lloyd Storey closes in on Tom

Neil Cragg and Lee Martin were battling it out in 3rd and 4th place -Neil was pushing Lee hard, but made an error and dropped down the order. Schumacher's Simon Moss fell off the track which lost him valuable places. Lloyd Storey tripped on a track marking and fell back a few places.

Lloyd parks it up whilst EVERYONE goes past. Hero to zero in no time at all.

Lee Martin was closing in on Tom Cockerill, but an error over a jump saw him drop down to 5th. Tom Yardy was back up to 2nd place, Grant Williams in 3rd, and Danny McGee in 4th.

Grant looked to be close to Tom Yardy, but a mistake saw Danny McGee take over 3rd place, whilst Tom Cockerill had a 3.6second lead over Yardy.

Simon Moss was down in 10th place after his earlier error, but was pushing hard on Craig Collinsons back door, and made a sneaky pass coming over the banked corner. A bad landing from the subsequent jump nearly saw Moss drop back down, but he quickly slipped back in line and held onto 9th.

Cragg follows Lee Martin	Grant closed up on the leader but an error dropped him down.

Simon Moss	Reigning double European Champ Lee Martin made several errors

Moss and Grant Williams - no team orders here.	The man - Tom Cockerill

Mistakes from both Lee Martin and Neil Cragg in the centre of the track required input from marshals and saw further changes to the race order.

With two minutes to go, Yardy made an error and flipped coming onto the straight, Danny McGee was through into 2nd place.Grant Williams followed suit and flipped on the straight, but no chaos ensued.

An incident with Nathan Ralls created upset on the rostrum, but then everyone was friends. Reigning 2wd national champion Tom Cockerill continued his lengthy lead and took the only 14 lap time of the race, winning the first a final leg of the season with ease.

	A final Leg 1
	position name result 1 Tom Cockerill 14/318.55 2 Danny McGee 13/302.33 3 Tom Yardy 13/304.43 4 Lloyd Storey 13/304.71 5 Neil Cragg 13/306.00 6 Lee Martin 13/309.22 7 Grant Williams 13/311.42 8 Simon Moss 13/315.06 9 Nathan Ralls 13/316.66 10 Craig Collinson 13/321.94

Neil Cragg had some strange modified slipper plates	Ellis Stafford had this new Orion Vortex R10 Pro esc with a 1-piece machined alloy top case. nice.

A final leg 2.
Clean start off the grid, but a bobble from Lloyd nearly saw Tom Yardy take up the 2nd position.
The first minute was quite uneventful, with the top 3 keeping very close but only pulling a small gap. Yardy was hot on Lloyds tail though, and their fight for 2nd place gave Tom Cockerill an inch or two of breathing space. Lloyd looked to be feeling the pressure from behind, but maintained his composure well, until Tom Yardy saw a stealthy inside line coming around the back of the track, and he was through into 2nd place.

First lap action	Cockerill, Storey, Yardy

Yardy fought Lloyd hard - Tom Cock pulled away	After passing Yardy

Tom Cockerill held a healthy lead from Tom Yardy, and 1st round TQ Lloyd Storey wasn’t far behind. The main battle was further back in 4th and 5th place, betweeen Simon Moss and Neil Cragg. The two were racing pretty much side by side around much of the track, with Cragg looking to make a clean pass. Cragg was hot on it, but Moss turned into the line and a wheel clip saw Moss come off worst, with Cragg promoted to 4th place and Moss left in the dust. Collinson moved up into 5th place whilst Moss was straightening himself up with the Marshals assistance.

With less than one minute to go, Yardy was now homing in on Tom Cockerill, waiting for an opportunity to take the lead. An altercation with the track marker however slowed Yardy right down, and Cockerill was way off ahead, once again the only finalist to put in 14 laps, and with it taking the leg and 2wd national win.

Yardy was piling on the pressure	But stacked it - puttin in 'the move' too early

	A final Leg 2
	position name result 1 Tom Cockerill 14/321.44 2 Tom Yardy 13/300.97 3 Lloyd Storey 13/301.15 4 Neil Cragg 13/301.50 5 Craig Collinson 13/304.63 6 Simon Moss 13/305.39 7 Danny McGee 13/309.62 8 Nathan Ralls 13/310.70 9 Lee Martin 13/314.54 10 Grant Williams 13/316.05

A final leg 3.
With the winner already decided, leg three was the race for 2nd place. Tom Cockerill participated all the same, to prove a winning point. The first lap of the race was very clean, with all drivers remaining in start order for the first couple of laps. Yardy was soon bearing down on Lloyd, looking to make a pass.

Lloyd was in a TOM sandwich	Tom Yardy was clearly faster than Lloyd in Leg 3 and looked for a way past.

The pair raced closely for the following lap, with Yardy waiting for Lloyd to succumb to the pressure, as they mounted the banked corner Yardy looked for an inside line, and as the two ramped off the following jump their wheels met briefly and things started to go bad; Lee Martin slipped through into 2nd place, Yardy straightened up and rejoined the race line in 3rd place, with Cragg in 4th, and Grant Williams through into 5th.

Yardy made his move when Lloyd went wide on the banking	Lloyd and Yardy came over the jumps wheel-to-wheel

Things ended in tears for both drivers	...As Lee Martin took up the charge to catch Cockerill

Tom Cockerill had just under a 2 second lead, whilst Lee Martin and Tom Yardy were battling for 2nd place.
Lee Martin momentarily lost the line coming around the banked corner, which resulted in a gentle nudge from tail-gating Yardy, in the moment that the two cars re-aligned Cragg was hammering down hard, and Yardy and Craggs cars caressed as they came over the next jump.
Meanwhile Tom cockerills lead had extended to 2.6 seconds, followed by Lee Martin, Tom Yardy, Neil Cragg, Grant Williams, Lloyd Storey.
A mishap for Cragg saw him lose some places and move down to 6th place. Craig Collinson was in 7th,
The two Toms were the only drivers to get through for 14 laps, and Cockerill maintained his number one spot, keeping his winning position, followed by Tom Yardy in a well raced 2nd place.

Everyone enjoys a good race

	A final Leg 3
	position name result 1 Tom Cockerill 14/317.55 2 Tom Yardy 14/321.58 3 Lee Martin 13/300.04 4 Grant Williams 13/300.84 5 Lloyd Storey 13/301.44 6 Neil Cragg 13/302.83 7 Craig Collinson 13/307.02 8 Nathan Ralls 13/311.55 9 Danny McGee 13/313.26 10 Simon Moss 13/313.94

Reigning 2WD national champion kicked things off to a great start at Stotfold - especially considering he won the championship at this same track the rpevious year whilst watching the A finals from the marshalling position (B finalist).

The Schumacher team were out in full force with head designer Phil Booth and company owner Robin Schumacher in attendance to support the drivers.

Sunday 17th April 2011 - 4WD
The sun came out again on Sunday morning to kick off the 4WD event. All 120 pre-booked drivers turned up to race so none of the reserves managed to get a race this time. Jimmy oOple (thats me) was finally racing again after a while off the Nationals - running the Team Durango DEX410R with fellow oOple contributor and Jimmy's mechanic, Stu Evans.

Round 1 Qualifying.
Defending 4WD national champion Lee Martin took the first round of qualifying with his Tamiya TRF511 - he decided not to use the new shaft driven BJ4 Worlds Edition, oops, I mean TRF502X saying that he'd not tested on astroturf yet.

Ellis Stafford was still racing for Kyosho with his Lazer ZX5 FS2 - no sign of the new XFactory prototype but Ellis said he'd be racing the new car at the next round as like Lee Martin he's not had enough time to test the car.

Tom Yardy finished third in round with his Yokomo..

Paul Bradby made an early appearance in the top10 following his previous days disappointment. Lloyd Storey had a poor first run and didn't finish his race.

Tom Cockerill was running a naff shell on his SX3

Si Moss and Grant Williams discuss their respective runs

Round 1 Qualifying Times.

bo·keh
In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image.

I like my new 300mm F2.8 lens - it might be from the early 1980's and rattle like mad and focus really slowly - but its the 'best thing ever'. Worth a new-in-box XLS? yeah!

Round 2 Qualifying.

Ellis Stafford put in the best run in round two - four seconds ahead of Lee Martin back in second with Simon Moss a fraction behind for third with the new Schumacher CAT SX3.

Local Hero Kev Lee finally made an appearance after keeping a low profile all weekend. Kev is racing the Predator X11 with 'stand up' rear shocks.

	Round 2 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Ellis Stafford 14/311.24 2 Lee Martin 14/315.64 3 Simon Moss 14/315.86 4 Kevin Lee 14/316.81 5 Paul Bradby 14/318.00 6 Nathan Waters 14/318.02 7 Danny McGee 14/318.08 8 Keith Robertson 14/318.13 9 Craig Collinson 14/318.45 10 Grant Williams 14/318.67

	Lee Martin - Tamiya TRF511
	Lee Martin was racing the Tamiya TRF511 again - the shaft driven TRF502X apparently not having had enough testing during the previous months on this type of track for Lee to feel comfortable with it. Lee's car doesn't really have any new bits on it - indeed it looks like Tamiya maybe moved straight to the 502X and will develop that instead of refining the 511 belt-driven car. Clearly however - the TRF511 doesn't need a whole lot of developing since it's already a great car as the National and European titles prove.

Round 3 Qualifying.
Lee Martin went almost a quarter second better than Ellis had in round two to go take round 3 and take provisional TQ with a perfect score. Only Ellis Stafford could now surpass the near-unstoppable Tamiya hero.

	Round 3 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 14/311.00 2 Simon Moss 14/314.38 3 Ellis Stafford 14/314.69 4 Lloyd Storey 14/315.78 5 Paul Bradby 14/316.24 6 Nathan Waters 14/316.24 7 Tom Yardy 14/316.62 8 Neil Cragg 14/316.93 9 Tom Cockerill 14/319.07 10 Grant Williams 14/320.82

Tamiya Dave (Gibson) was piloting the latest Tamiya buggy - the seemingly fallen-out-of-favour 502X shaft driven buggy. Much has been said about the poor design on some aspects of this buggy - JT Models have this new steering link for the car that Dave was using. It places the steering pickup further forward, outward and upward! Everything is good again! YAY.

Tom Yardy has a nice beaver	Ellis gets advice from the the experts

Jon Dell is Lee Martins pitman for this year	RELAX! - Tamiya Dave works hard at marshalling

Round 4 Qualifying.
Ellis Stafford was set for overall TQ but had a roll on his last lap, he still TQ'd round four one second ahead of 2nd place Simon Moss, but had to settle for second on the grid for the A final. Lee Martin held onto TQ despite a relatively poor run that saw him finish 18th in round.

Trish Neal put in a storming run, finishing 11th in round just ahead of Richard Lowe.

Overall qualifying. Yes.

A final leg 1.
In rather an unconventional fashion in terms of a-finals, this one got off to a messy start. Mossy slipped on ice coming off the grid, and never recovered - he was out of the race before the end of the straight. The mishap entangled a few drivers in the disruption, and just two corners later Lloyd Storey too was out of the race.

Simon Moss wheelies like a maniac - and flips	You can't make it up - Moss goes head-on with his two team mates cars - in front of the boss!

Grant kicks Moss's spring aside and carries on	A big pile-up mid-pack - it's a rough race

Lee and Ellis quickly pulled a good gap on the rest of the field, Kevin Lee started to close in the gap but a cartwheel across the back of the track saw his drop down the order, and Nathan Waters was through into 3rd place.

An occurence involving a track marking and another car saw Kevin out of the game.

One minute into the race and the order was Lee Martin, Ellis Stafford, Nathan Waters, Paul Bradby, Grant Williams, Tom Yardy, Neil Cragg.

Two minutes into the race and Ellis was closing in on Lee Martin, whilst the gap back to Nathan Waters in 3rd place was a rather substantial 3.5 seconds.

Cragg was all over the place	Lee leads Ellis round

A roll-over from Ellis coming through the centre section though soon saw Nathan Waters bearing down on him. Nathan was putting up a good chase, but an error on the track marker saw him on his lid, losing him valuable time and gaining a Grant Williams, now hot on his tail, closely followed by Bradby.

A roll from Ellis - and that was it, Lee was off.

In an exciting moment on the back section, Yardy made a pass and was through into 4th place.

Whilst Lee, Ellis and Nathan were spread out at the front, the race was on between Yardy, Grant and Bradby who were racing closely in the middle. Cragg was just doing his own thing.
With less than one minute to go, Lee was well ahead going nice and steady, whilst the battle towards the back continued. An error from Yardy saw Grant move through into 4th place, and Bradders pushed hard on his rear. The trio continued a tight race around the track, and as the finish tone sounded, Yardy bounced off a track marking coming onto the straight, ending up on his roof as Grant and Bradders bezzed off ahead, whilst up at the front Lee Martin was cruising around solo style to take the first leg win.

Lee Martin on his way to a 4th National 4WD title?

	A Final Leg 1
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 14/311.12 2 Ellis Stafford 14/316.42 3 Nathan Waters 14/319.99 4 Grant Williams 14/322.31 5 Paul Bradby 13/300.65 6 Tom Yardy 13/303.47 7 Neil Cragg 13/320.88 8 Kevin Lee 01/24.45 9 Lloyd Storey --/-------- 10 Simon Moss --/DNS

Simon Moss - Schumacher CAT SX3   Simon Moss and 6 other Schumacher drivers were piloting the new CAT SX3 buggy in 4WD - an evolution of the original SX design with a central motor location and revised drivetrain. The new car isn't available yet but is already showing its pace in testing and here at the opening National with Simon Moss qualifying 3rd. It uses a similar feature set from the older generation cars - 3 belts and 'reverse motor' which runs the same direction as the wheels. The new motor location should help balance the car and put the power down. The original SX layout was really designed for NiMh cells with a 4-2 split but was born at the dawn of Lipo acceptance. With the new car being fully developed with help from team drivers and Tom Cockerill's summer work placement - the new layout is sure to be a huge hit. Simon Moss with his new SX3     Durango drive boots Like a few other Schumacher drivers - Simon was using Team Durango driveshaft boots to protect his differentials from dirt ingress. We believe he might have been testing a lightweight differential option under those covers.

A final leg 2.
The second leg of the 4wd A final started much better than the first, with all cars completing the first lap. Mossy left the grid in the right direction but his bad luck continued as a kerfuffle coming around the first corner saw him drop down to last place. By the end of the first lap the top five were Lee Martin, Ellis Stafford, Nathan Waters, Kev Lee, Neil Cragg.
Kev Lee pulled a smooth move on Nathan coming through the third lap, and was super-quick to start closing in on Lee and Ellis.

Lee Martin quickly built a gap out front

Ellis slowly catching Lee

Neil Cragg rolled it over the jump before the straight, sending him down to the back of the pack. An error from Nathan Waters saw him demoted to 6th place, whilst Mossy had gained three places in the first few laps after his unlucky start to the race. Paul Bradby was now in 4th place, and Tom Yardy in 5th.

Lee Martin up at the front seemed to pull a lead on Ellis for the first few laps, but two minutes into the race and Ellis was stepping up the chase.

Lee was closing up on Lee but a rare mistake from Lee allowed him past.	The fight had only just begun

Lee chases down the hill - Ellis out front.

A mis-judged corner for Lee saw Ellis take up 1st place, and he tried to pull off ahead of Lee, but Lee was having none of it and stayed close to his tail, awaiting an opportunity to pass. Coming over the back of the track Lee throttled hard and was past Ellis, reclaiming the lead for a further lap. Yet Ellis pulled the exact same move on Lee 22 seconds later, to gasps from the audience, and again he was in the lead.

Lee goes on the inside	....For the lead

Ellis goes on the inside	...for the lead!

Lee and Ellis were really on par in the finals - these two battled intensely.

Lee was super fast and looked every way to make a pass, but an error coming across the back straight saw Lee flip and required marshalling, which gave Ellis some breathing space Kev Lee had been closing in on the pair, and with Lee on his roof Kev was through into 2nd place.

Ellis now had a 2.6 second lead, and wasn’t looking back. Lee Martin was close to Kev Lee, but a flirt with the track marker set him back. No-one could catch Ellis as he took the second leg win.

Lee Martin rolls and drops to 3rd	Big 'E takes the leg - and is happy. "that's the first time I've seen daddy smile..."

	A Final Leg 2
	position name result 1 Ellis Stafford 14/312.30 2 Kevin Lee 14/315.77 3 Lee Martin 14/317.46 4 Tom Yardy 14/320.20 5 Nathan Waters 14/320.48 6 Paul Bradby 14/321.03 7 Neil Cragg 14/321.54 8 Lloyd Storey 13/300.26 9 Grant Williams 13/303.47 10 Simon Moss 13/307.47

Ellis Stafford's Lazer ZX5 FS2   Ellis Stafford was running the Kyosho Lazer ZX5 FS2 here at Stotfold and we've seen a recent surge in interest for Kyosho - perhaps they're getting a little more 'serious about racing'? Ellis was of course using his new steering ackerman link that he develped at the Petit race - which we covered in our report of that race in January. The link worked then and clearly worked at Stotfold as Ellis was bang-on the pace. Ellis used an Orion 6.5 motor   Ellis used the new Orion ESC New Orion 90c cells - MADNESS

Tony E-Vodka	Get Dave Church on the Mic and he goes nuts!

There was some controversy when Nathan Ralls feeling ill went for a sleep and didn't realise he was in the B final (which marshalls the first leg of the A). So Nathan wasn't ready for marshalling duties on A final leg-1. Nathans fellow racing friend tried to marshall for him but the new rules state that all marshalls need to be racing at the event, which Nath's friend wasn't. Andy Jones volunteered to marshall but because Nathan hadn't told the organsiers before hand he got the penalty which was severe - zero points for the meeting! Now that's harsh. Nathan went home.

A final leg 3.
A very clean start for the third leg of the A final saw Mossy keep his starting position and close to Lee and Ellis. On the second lap Kevin Lee made a pass and was through into 4th place, followed by a rapid promotion to 3rd place coming past Mossy over the back straight.

Lee and Ellis pulled a good lead, with Kevin Lee closing in, and Mossy further back followed by the rest of the pack.
Kevin Lee soon joined the lead pair, and the three kept very close as they navigated the track, but Kev caught a track marker and required marshalling, losing valuable places and resulting in a pile up as he rejoined the racing line, Neil Cragg too was caught in the pile up and unfortunately was out of the game with resulting injuries.
Lee and Ellis were well ahead by now, with 3rd place Mossy some distance back, closely followed by the rest of the pack.

First corner - A3	Cars darting off in all directions

Ellis was very very keen to make a pass, pressuring Lee hard for an error. He took the inside line coming through the centre section, and the pair mounted the next jump side by side. Ellis by now had severe noises coming from his car - which didn't seem to slow him down one bit but were getting worse by the second.

Ellis hunted Lee down for a while - close racing	Ellis dives for the inside line

Ellis and Lee jump together	Lee is 2 inches back as the pair come into land

Lee jumped onto the inside line but the pair became entangled on the next corner, seeing a total rolypoly from Lee, and Ellis firmly in the lead. Bad luck for Ellis as he rode the length of the straight though, his car finally gave up and he pulled to the side and looked sad.

The two come together - hard to say who's fault	Lee comes off worst and Ellis is through for the WIN

But ellis is forced to retire with a blown rear gearbox	Lee Martin took the first 4WD national

With 1 minute 45 seconds left to go, Lee was well ahead, if he kept it nice and clean it would be unlikely that anyone would catch him.
2nd place man Mossy was 4 seconds further back, but had pulled a lead on the other drivers whose race order had swapped and changed a few times. Nathan Waters was in 3rd place, Grant Williams in 4th, then Lloyd Storey, Paul Bradby, Tom Yardy, and local superstar Kev Lee.

In a relatively uneventful final minute, Lee maintained his 4 second lead and took the 3rd leg win, and with it the 4wd national win.

	A Final Leg 3
	position name result 1 Lee Martin   2 Simon Moss   3 Nathan Waters   4 Grant Williams   5 Lloyd Storey   6 Tom Yardy   7 Paul Bradby   8 Simon Moss   9 Lloyd Storey   10 Neil Cragg

Lee Martin took the opening round of the 4WD BRCA 10th off road national series. Meaning both reigning national champions won their respective championship-title classes. You can follow the discussion of this years BRCA national series on the dedicated forum HERE

Thanks for reading. The new video camera should arrive 3 days after the Stotfold national - but we'll try to include some quality video at the next round. Thanks to Schumacher for helping with our cost to cover this series - they've made it possible and have shown their commitment to THE best class of racing so please show them your support.