Tamworth was the venue for the fourth round of the 2009/2010 BRCA Micro off-road National series.  The track was laid out during the morning over the carpet which had been used for 12th scales and the like the previous evening.  A quick drivers briefing was called at around 9:50am with a quick BRCA official meeting with a new rule proposed and passed within seconds - who said Micro stuff was slow?  nah!

Practice got underway at 10am sharp and was run in heat order to give the drivers a chance to learn the track before the proper stuff started.
Racing got underway at 11am with two heats of 2WD buggies & trucks kicking things off, followed by 7 heats of the more established 4WD vehicles. 

2WD series leader Danny Conway started as he meant to go on with a win in the 2WD class with his dominant converted LRP Shark.  Danny has cut the centre shaft after the spur gear and was still running a diff and driveshafts in the front to calm the steering - but after a few mumblings that this might not be entirely fair (4wd is 4wd - and this isn't) he removed the driveshafts and went a lap quicker in round two as if to prove a point.

The 2WD class still being a bit new meant there was still room for argument - round one saw one of the drivers run disqualified for having oversized wheels, by a whole 0.33mm!
Round one of the more popular 4WD class was taken by superstar LRP team driver Craig Harris.  Craig was using a new car he'd built himself for the first time at one of the National rounds. The car is based on the LRP Shark truck he's campaigned with great success for a while - but a custom made carbon fibre chassis rearranges the drivetrain and electrics extensively.  It seemed to go well, with Craig getting off to a good start.

After a false start where we started taking photos of the wrong Danny, eventually we were pointed in the right direction and found the 2WD dominator himself - Danny Conway, to get a look at his buggy and see what's so special.

Danny lands his 2WD (honest it is) on the big table-top jump

No driveshafts! - honest.	A pretty much standard Shark - just missing some shafts.

The centre shaft is cut off just after the spur gear	Danny can only tell his 2WD and 4WD apart by the wheel colour! - FACT!

There's a tiny amount of controversy around Dannys 2WD buggy - but there's clearly no advantage to converting a 4WD to 2WD, in fact generally speaking it's a disadvantage due to the non-optimal layout. The things that make the LRP a good 2WD are just what make it a good 4WD, the suspension and the wide and long design.

2WD qualifying. Danny Conway dominated the qualifying to take overall TQ. Craig Harris was the most consistent behind Danny, with three 2nd place finishes but it was only good enough for third on the grid by virtue of Thomas Grahams win in the final round.

Overall Top 10 Qualifying - 2WD

No prisoners taken at scrutineering!

Warriors

4WD qualifying saw Mark Stiles steal away the win in round two and nearly do it again in round three - Craig having to throw the hammer down a little after hearing he wasn't in the lead! Craig took round three by 3 seconds from Mark with Keith third. Craig had a poor run in the final round of qualifying and only Mark Stiles could now take the TQ away from him - but it wasn't to be. Keith Robertson took his best time of the day, just missing out on 19 laps to take the round by 4 seconds from Mark.

Overall Top 10 Qualifying - 4WD

Wim Goss from Action Model Centre was on hand with a nice range of micro gear and other stuff. Wim loves Micros. But he loves it when people smash them up, even more!

Race control ran a smooooth meeting

2WD A final
As he'd done in qualifying Danny Conway dominated the final after a slightly shaky start and losing a couple of places he was quickly back into the lead and sailed to an easy victory - 17 seconds ahead of 2nd place man Thomas Graham.

Danny Conway leads over the table top lap1	Danny over the 'double' type jump

	Dan Osborne

2WD A final results

2WD A final winner - Danny Conway

The other top drivers all agreed one thing - Craig Harris's car was the best on the day. This being its first National outing, we went to look at the new car Craig had put together.
The car had only done one small club meeting and Craig was happy to admit it wasn't in any way a real test for Tamworth so he wasn't sure how well it'd do. Winning round one and three - and going on to take overall TQ proved it worked at least.

The chassis is hand made from custom made carbon fibre - the lower side of the main plate being raw carbon without a gloss finish so it could be more easily bent (by cutting 2/3rds way through the nose piece) to give some 'kick up'. The car is of course based on the LRP Shark that Craig has used for a long time now - but here he's using the gearboxes from the Nitro version to mount to his special chassis. A slipper helps handle the power from his new Ezrun brushless controller and JP 6800kv motor combo.

The chassis is longer than a stock blaze to give added stability over bumps.

Hmmm, its like a mini BJ4 or something!	There's a slipper in there!

The araldite is to support the weakened chassis	Quality conversion!

Losing can sometimes be hard!

Its orange!

Mark Stiles is the defending champion and is on top form this year already. Mark is another driver using the ubiquitous LRP Shark Factory Team truck - converted to a buggy with the aid of a Phat shell. Mark is using a HUGE LRP 10th scale brushless ESC in his buggy to power the sensored Novak Mongoose motor.

	Big badboy ESC! Possibly overkill?

Mark 'hero' Stiles is one of those 12th scale on-road flat-track dancers and can be regularly seen trueing new foams at his table - some of the evidence is in my camera bag as I speak! Where some drivers like Craig Harris always run rubber tyres, Mark is in love with foams as you'd expect. Knobbly tyres - what a thought! :)

4WD A final
The 4WD main eventl was a nail biting affair - with Craig Harris on Pole looking like he might take an easy win.  From the start it was Craig with a seemingly invisible bit of string pulling Mark Stiles and Keith Robertson close behind - clearly it wasn't going to be so easy after all.  Craig couldn't shake the terrible twosome of flat-track dancers behind, as the three rapidly pulled away from the rest.

Craig leads Mark - Keith just off camera behind	Craig screws up!
Keith took the lead but gave it up moments later - Craig was quickly back in sight of the lead.

Craig lead them over the large table top in front of the rostrum a rare mistake saw him off the track and needing marshalling, dropping to third in the process. Keith Robertson now lead after a mistake from Mark allowed him through. Mark was hot on his heels - Craig was far from out of it as he started to reel in the battling front duo. Keith got out of shape over the mats and Mark was quick to sweep around the outside and take the lead - and as Keith got his wheels back on the ground Craig was all over him. Before the first lap of the race was over - Craig was back into the lead as Mark made a mistake and the order was once again 1-2-3 with the threesome far out in front of the rest.
Craig was, in his own words, now in cruise mode - and it looked like it. Sure he was quick and was even pulling a small gap on the chasing pair, but Craig was schmooooooooove like no other. It looked like he wasn't trying as his car was planted to the floor whilst both Mark and Keith threw their little buggies around the track like they hadn't paid for them. Crashing, tumbling and bouncing off everything might be an exageration - but it sounds funny so we'll keep it. They were on the ragged edge.

Craig leads Mark - Keith just off camera behind	Dan Osborne

Keith and Mark swapped places, with Keith now leading the charge on Craig out front. The three started to spread out a little and Craig looked like he might well walk away with the race from this point - but then disaster! Craig came through the middle of the track whilst another car was being marshalled, sadly the marshall obscured his view of the track and he had to literally 'guess' his way through - which wouldn't have been a problem but for the car crashed on a corner in front of him.

Mark Stiles chasing Keith back in third	Mid-Race Craig was in a groove out front

Hands on Craig as Mark Stiles peek-a-boo's thru the chair on his way to take the lead.	Mid-Race Craig was in a groove out front

Craig got tangled up, summoning gasps from the viewing crowd as Mark and Keith both quickly capitalised and sailed through. Backmarkers were now mixed in with the three who were fighting for the win - Keith took over the lead and Mark dropped back as he tangled with another car over a jump. Craig closed up on Mark - taking him on the inside for 2nd. The pair continued to battle to the line with Mark retaking second until a final corner move by Craig for the finish line saw him win the battle.

Keith Robertson took the lead for a final time and didn't look back.	.....It was now between Craig and Mark

Mark and Craig came onto the straight together for the final time - Mark would surely hold on for 2nd...?	........But a steely face of determination and anger saw Craig through for a cheeky 'steal' on the very final corner.

Keith Robertson took the hard fought win, Craig Harris 2nd and Series leader and defending champion Mark Stiles third.

4WD A final results

Keiths winning car is the LRP Shark / FTX Blaze - whatever the heck it is, it's good. Powered by Novak Mongoose sensored brushless.

Keith took a great win and decided to put plans of a retirement on hold!