Cotswold Rd1 2011

Team Dremel`s Lee Stokes

Quick fuel stop for Kyle Branson

So Kyle Branson has made a strong start to the 2011 championship taking a maximum of 101 points in the 200mm touring class, as he looks to retain the title for the fourth year in a row.

After the long and cold winter everyone was looking forward to the opening round of the 2011 championship at the Cotswolds circuit. With the weather forecast looking very promising for the entire weekend it was looking like being a very enjoyable first round.

The Cotswolds circuit has been one of the driver’s favourites since its inclusion to our race calendar in 2006. The track can be very challenging with a good mix of fast technical sections and elevation changes.

After a cold night we awoke to sunshine on Saturday morning and it was not long before the first cars were out on the track. Grip levels were not too bad to start off with and they gradually increased throughout the day. With no rain forecast racers were hopeful that those grip levels would remain there for Sundays racing.

At the end of the day’s practice it was looking fairly tight in 200mm touring as most of the top drivers were separated by just a few tenths of a second, making for an interesting battle in tomorrow’s qualifying. In the Sports GT class it was Mark Green setting the pace racing for the first time with his 220mm converted serpent 733.

We had a total of 60 drivers booked in for Sundays racing, 34 in 200mm touring and 26 in Sports GT. Every single one of them was eager to make a good start to the national series. At around 9am drivers briefing was called where new chairman Grant Williams welcomed us all to the first round and talked us through the rules for this weekend’s racing. He also introduced the new committee members and what their roles will be for the year. Race director for the weekend would be Roger Cosgrove who talked us through the timetable for the day.

There would be 4 rounds of qualifying with a total of 7 heats to be run. The first heat would be starting at 9:30am.

Into qualifying then and the first heat was 200mm touring which was won quite convincingly by Irish Champion Chris Steele. Chris had made the trip over to compete at this meeting and had clearly got to grips with the track as he finished several laps up on most of the field during this run.

Next heat on was the Sports GT class and Mark Green was absolutely flying round and managed a time of 19/306.97 with a best lap of 15.64 which would definitely be a tough time to beat.
In 200mm touring Aaron Wearn making a return to 1/10th IC narrowly beat Chris Steele’s time to go top of the timesheet by just 2 seconds in heat 3.

James Connolly won the next heat of Sports GT but was still some way off Mark Green’s time.
Back to 200mm touring again and John Zottl had a very good run to go on provisional pole beating Aaron Wearn’s time by well over a lap.
In the last heat of Sports GT it was Ryk Pryke who took victory but his time was still unable to get near to Mark Green’s run earlier in the day. Ryk took fourth place overall after the first round narrowly missing out on third place by 1/100th of a second from James Connolly.

The last 200mm touring heat of the round and Kyle Branson went top just ahead of Jonathon Dobney. Both were able to get into 19 laps during this run.
The top 10 after round 1 of qualifying are as follows:

B.R.C.A. 1/10th I.C. 200mm Foam National

Round 1 At Cotswold Club on 27th March 2011

Peter Lague

Into round 2 then and it was starting to warm up a bit after a slightly chilly start to the day. In heat 1 200mm touring Chris Steele won again ahead of Neil Wallace in second both running the Shepherd V10 car.

Joe Keaveney then shortened the gap to Mark Green in Sports GT by 5 seconds with a near faultless run in heat 2.

In heat 3 Aaron Wearn improved on his time from the last round as he again won his heat convincingly.

Back to Sports GT again and James Connolly took victory and improved his earlier time with an 18/307.06. Running an extremely close second place in this race was Pete Hastings who finished just a tenth of a second behind James.
Neal King set a time of 18/301.72 to win the next heat of 200mm touring ahead of John Zottl in second and Andrew Hastings third.

Defending Sports GT champion Glyn Beal took the win in the next race around half a second ahead of Ryk Pryke. Glyn’s time only just beating James Connolly’s by one hundredth of a second in the overall standings. In this race there were also improvements for Richard Boult, Adam Crossland, and Mark Christopher who were all separated by less than a second.
In the last qualifier of this round Kyle Branson again took victory, slightly improving on his first round time. Mark Green and Adam Catchpole also set very fast times managing to get into 19 laps.

Straight into the third round of qualifying and heat 1 saw no improvements for Neil Wallace or Chris Steele; however Ian Coates taking third place in this race did better his time by nearly a lap.

In Sports GT Mark Green again chose not to run feeling very confident that nobody would be able to beat his time from round 1. Joe Keaveney won this race almost matching his time from the previous just a few tenths slower
Matt Chambers and Devendra Mahatme finished first and second in heat 3 both improving on their times from earlier on.

Pete Hastings went second overall in Sports GT with a 19 lap run in heat 4 and with a best lap of 15.70 was starting to catch up to Mark Green. James Connolly almost made a 19 lap run as well, just missing out by three tenths.

In 200mm touring Neal King again won his qualifier improving his time by around a second to take 5th place overall.

Adam Crossland won the last heat of Sports GT ahead of Glyn Beal and Lee Chapman. Adam’s time was good enough to take him 7th overall at the end of the round.

Mark Green, Adam Catchpole, and Jonathon Dobney all improved their times with Jonathon managing a 16.00 lap which was the fastest all weekend in 200mm touring. Kyle Branson running an average lap time of 16.22 in this race would have finished a certain first place overall but ran out of fuel just before the finish.

Chris Steele

Adam Catchpole

Neil Wallace

Team Shepherd were well represented over the weekend

So now it was time for the fourth and final round of qualifying and in 200mm touring Neil Wallace got an 18 lap run to win the first heat.

In the first heat of Sports GT it was Joe Keaveney again taking victory in heat 2 as he matched his time of 18/303 for the third run in a row. Simon Smith improved to get an 18 lap run in 315.55.

In heat 3 200mm touring Matt Chambers again took the win but was unable to beat his previous time from round 3.

Pete Hastings won the next heat of Sports GT managing another 19 lap run but he was just a few seconds short of improving his overall time.

Dave Allen did a great Job scrutineering all weekend

Back to 200mm touring and Neal King came out on top again with an 18/300.96 run. John Zottl and Andrew Hastings finished second and third both improving their times and securing their places in the A-main final.

Glyn Beal finally managed to get a 19 lap run in his last qualifier and took third place overall as well. There were also improvements for Richard Boult, Lee Chapman, and Andy Gregory in this run.

In the penultimate qualifying heat of the day Kyle Branson further improved his best time and therefore took pole position for the final. Jonathon Dobney also improved slightly to take fourth overall and Simon Wood also put a good run in moving him into the top ten at sixth.

Simon Smith managed to win the Sports GT B final with his 220mm converted Xray NT1 just a few seconds ahead of Chris Daft’s Kyosho. Jason Fox completed the top three to get his Shepherd V10 onto the podium.
After suffering from radio problems for the whole of Saturdays practice, last year’s 3rd place finisher in the championship Alex Thurston found himself starting from pole in the B final 200mm touring. Alex drove to victory, holding off the challenge of Matthew Cook. Paul Bellinger completed the top three.

Onto the A-main finals now and it was the Sports GT class out first.

Alex Thurston ahead of Matt Cook

It was a good start off the line with most holding their positions. Then on the last corner of the first lap there was a collision between Pete Hastings and Mark Green. This allowed Defending champion Glyn Beal to move through into first place. A few minutes later however, Mark had managed to work his way back up to Glyn and was now fighting for the lead. A slight mistake by Glyn and Mark raced through into the lead until we reached the first set of fuel stops. Mark was running 4 ½ minute pit stops so would need to make an extra stop over the 30 minute final whereas Glyn was able to just make 5 minutes so would only have to stop for fuel 5 times. At the end of the 30 minute final it was Mark Green who came out on top with Glyn finishing second and James Connolly taking third just behind Glyn.

So it looks like Glyn Beal may face some tough competition if is to retain the Sports GT title again this year.

In 200mm touring it was again a clean getaway off the line for most. Joe Kerry and Chris Steele both missed the start after engine cuts on the line and rejoined the race from the pit lane. After the first lap it was Kyle out in front followed by Jonathan in second, with Simon and Neal third and fourth. Chris Steele retired after just 11 laps and Andrew Hastings also retired shortly after. Joe Kerry and Neal King both retired from the race around the halfway point leaving just six cars remaining. Jonathan Dobney and John Zottl were forced out of the race but did rejoin a few minutes later on. With 76 laps gone Mark Green who was running in 2nd place also had to retire after breaking a rear shock which allowed Adam Catchpole up into second place and Simon Wood into 3rd. This was the order they crossed the finish line with Kyle on 108 laps, Adam 106 laps, and Simon 105 laps.

Trophy Winners

Many thanks to the Cotswold club for hosting such a good opening round to the year. Also thanks to Roger Cosgrove who did an excellent job in race control over the weekend. Thanks to Julie Thurston and Mark Christopher for all the photos they took as well.
Next up is round 2 at Halifax April 16th / April 17th.

Joe Kerry

1/10th IC PRO

With qualifying out the way there was time for a lunch break before the finals got underway.

First up was the 200mm touring D final which was won by Nigel Philpott with his Xray NT1 four laps clear of second placed Suraj Amonkar with Daren Evans one lap further back taking third place.

Next up was the Sports GT C final. Martin Trice took victory ahead of Dave Pittaway with Peter Hellawell finishing in third place.

In the 200mm touring C final David Brimley starting from first on the grid got off to a good start and never looked back as he won by three laps from Matt Chambers. The battle for third place in this final went right down to the wire as Tom Evans managed to successfully fend off the challenge of Devendra Mahatme to cross the line a few tenths ahead.

Roger Cosgrove did an excellent job as race director for the meeting

Defending chapion Glyn Beal

Neal King 5th place overall

Ryk Pryke 6th after round 3

200mm Touring A finalist

Sports GT A finalist

Mark Green passes Glyn Beal to move into the lead

Mark Green laps 3rd place finisher Janes Conolly

Sports GT A final start

A well turned out Team Dremel

Nigel Philpott 200mm Touring D final 1st

Darren Evans 200mm Touring D final 3rd