Graham 'Northy' North recently joined the oOple team to cover some events in the North East, along with some other exciting project in the near future all being well. Northy is a TTech Racing sponsored driver and all round nutter - so thanks to G for his great help.

Northy: NERCR played host to the first of 5 rounds of the 2007 BRCA 1/10th Off Road North East Regional Series. The venue is a piece of essentially flat grass out side the Nissan Sports and Social club in the grounds of the Nissan Factory itself. For most competitors it is a good trek up the A19 and so the strong turn out of 71 drivers bodes well for the following rounds of the series. The North East region is very competitive with a good number of F1 (top driving level) and F2 drivers, but it was good to see a lot of new faces that were racing outdoors for the first time.

The breakdown of competitors was:

39 F5’s
6 F4’s
10 F3’s
10 F2’s
6 F1’s

The fight for the 10 places in the A final was going to be tough.

The track was laid out on the usual area used by the club, using the usual rope track marking and wooden jumps. There were more jumps than usual this year, but unfortunately they were left as bare wood which left them a little tricky in the wet round four shall we say! The track was a nice mixture of fast corners and some slower speed sections. Not the most challenging track in the world, but a good way to get peoples thumbs going after the indoor period. Intentionally or not, the area used was somewhat lacking in grass in areas, which further added to the difficulty of the track as most of these areas seemed to be in acceleration zones. Interestingly as the day went on it seemed that the mid-motor 2wd cars would be the best through these sections, much to the surprise of their drivers!

At the very start of practice the track was still a little damp from the morning dew, but this soon cleared so that most people were running yellows by the end of practice.

By the start of round one the track was bone dry.

Qualifying

At the end of round one the top ten were as follows:

1 – Ben Riley
2 – Dan Greenwood
3 – Craig Collinson
4 – Graham North
5 – Chris Pattinson
6 – Richard Isserwood – Vet! Ha ha
7 – Richard Coates
8 – Wayne Collinson
9 – Adam Skelding
10 – Richard Lowe

With everyone down to 14th place on 12 laps, the difference between 1st and 10th in this round was 19.25 seconds.

Round two, and the track was still dry and holding up well. The top 10 in this round were:

1 – Adam Skelding
2 – Richard Lowe
3 – Dan Greenwood
4 – Simon Cook
5 – Graham North
6 – James Dixon
7 – Steven Pierce
8 – Chris Pattinson
9 – Craig Collinson
10 – Tom Cockerill

Adam was the only person to break the 13 lap barrier, but the people on 12 laps went from 2nd place down to 19th place in the round. The difference between 2nd and 10th in this round was 17.87 seconds.

Round three, and the track was still dry and holding up quite well, but perhaps starting to slow a little. The top 10 in this round were:

1 – Richard Lowe
2 – Craig Collinson
3 – Tom Cockerill
4 – Adam Skelding
5 – Ben Riley
6 – Wayne Collinson
7 – James Dixon
8 – James Chappell
9 – Simon Cook
10 – Graham North

Both Richard and Craig broke the 13 lap barrier in this round, but the people on 12 laps went from 3rd place down to 20th place in the round. The difference between 3nd and 10th in this round was 11.29 seconds.

Round four, and between the slight break between the previous and this round there had been a very light shower. The round started off with the track only slightly damp but was drying all the time and producing faster laps times heat after heat.  People were running around looking for tyres, felling how wet the grass was on the track, and generally getting in a right old tizwas! Ha ha. It looked as if the conditions would come to the top heats (as everyone always complains about), but it was not to be. Part way through Heat 6 it started to rain again very heavily, so much so that the uber committed Andy Fox actually retired from the race, muttering something about how he’d “sooner eat his only remaining testicle”. Personally, I think Heat 7 had the worst of the weather, with the top heat having it a little better! So, dare I say it, the results of this round were a little screwed, but it certainly gave some people the chance to mix it up at the sharp end of qualifying and knocked a few of the regulars who had left it to the last round down a bit! The top 10 in this round were:

1 – Wayne Collinson
2 – Richard Lowe
3 – Stephen Adams
4 – Kevin Suggitt
5 – Glenn Atterton
6 – Adam Skelding
7 – Brett Tarrant
8 – Gary Waller
9 – Craig Collinson
10 – Tom Cockerill

As can be expected, slower times in this round only Wayne, Richard and Stephen getting 12 laps! The people on 11 laps went from 4th place down to 18th place in the round. The difference between 4th and 18th in this round was 25.82 seconds!!

So after qualifying the top 10 looked like this: 1 – Richard Lowe 2 – Adam Skelding 3 – Craig Collinson 4 – Dan Greenwood 5 – Ben Riley 6 – Wayne Collinson 7 – Graham North 8 – Tom Cockerill 9 – Simon Cook 10 – Chris Pattinson BQ - James Dixon

Top F2 – Graham North - A7
Top F3 – Chris Pattinson – A10
Top F4 – Stephen Adams – B5
Top F5 – Wayne Collinson – A6  ----  I guess this could be a regular thing!!

Top under 19 – Tom Cockeril – A8
Top under 16 – Matthew Latham – C4
Top under 13 – Gregg Williams – C1
Top veteran – Glen Atterton – B8

Finals

Well the weather held out for the finals, with the track returning to a dry state and even going dusty in the worn areas.

Apologies for the lack of top 3 pictures, the day just seemed to go so fast, I now know how hard it must be for Jimmy to race and get good pictures. Anyway the top 3 from each final were:

B Final
I did get to watch a little of the B final, so I can tell you that Jim Dixon got away on the start from 1st place and lead into the first corner, but Mr. Isherwood was a little naughty and gave him a couple of love taps as they went round the sweeper. Brokeback Greenwood pointed out that this was one of the advantages of the X-6, that there was nothing sticking out of the back to get caught up on, mmmmm……..  Anyway Jim drove away from the pack a little and gave himself a bit of breathing space, while the two Richards battled it out for 2nd place, coming together on the final lap I believe, and eventually finishing less than a second apart. The eventual result was:

1 – Jim Dixon
2 – Richard Isherwood
3 – Richard Coates

A Final
I’m afraid I can’t tell you exactly what happened in this final as I was busy racing in it! What I can tell you is that Ben Riley made an awesome start, wheelying his car off the grid, and rolling it end over end onto the other side of the track to allow the whole grid to get past, I’m sure he did this just to give everyone a chance! Unfortunately he retired after 8 laps with some sort of electrical failure I think. I managed to survive the first lap, and as we started the 2nd lap we were almost in formation order (apart from the missing Ben). Unfortunately for me I was helped by a couple of other cars down the pack to 9th place (still in front of Ben!), I then went on a passing frenzy and eventually got myself back up to 5th at the flag after a few passes and a good battle with Simon Cook towards the end. Not sure what else really happened, but Tom Cockerill must have had a good run as he came from 8th on the grid to finish 3rd.

The finishing order was:

1 – Richard Lowe
2 – Dan Greenwood
3 – Tom Cockerill
4 – Adam Skelding
5 – Graham North
6 – Simon Cook
7 – Craig Collinson
8 – Chris Pattison
9 – Wayne Collinson
10 – Ben Riley

All in all it was a good start to the North East regional series, I think everyone had a good day, despite the undecided weather.

A special mention is required for Natalie Williams (Gregg’s sister), racing in her first regional event. She didn’t finish anywhere near last in any of the four rounds, beating some people who have been racing for a while, and also finished 4th in her final (G final). If she improves at the rate Gregg has done over the last couple of years the boys will need to watch out, as she’ll be kicking your arses! Ha ha.

I’d like to thank everyone at the NERCR club who helped build the track, run the meeting and pack the track away!

Unfortunately the next round of the 2wd regional series at Teesside on the 6th of May has been cancelled, so the next round is the first 4wd round at Bury Metro on the 19th of May. There have been some changes to the track at Bury over the winter, so it should be fun. I hope to see you all there!

Sorry for the lack of action picture, poor camera settings, poor light, me being tight and not buying any other lenses, and just general lack of time all added up to not many decent action shots, and certainly no where near Jimmy’s standards! I must try harder next time. (Jimmy: He lies, he's a god)

Anyway, here is a link to some more pictures that Tel took at the event including all the top three in each final pictures: http://www.telsshells.com/ne_regionals_-_durham.htm

Here is a link to the overall results from the meeting on the NERCR website: http://www.nercr.net/results/2wdregr1apr07/index.htm