Aldershot Foam 2008

B.R.C.A. 1/10th I.C. 200mm Foam National
Rd 1 at Aldershot Club 30th March

The BRCA 1/10th IC 200mm Scale Touring Championship got under way at the Aldershot Club in Hampshire this weekend the circuit has always been a challenging circuit with the tricky S bend leading onto the long straight followed by the very fast right hand banked bend then into a hairpin start finish, with the weather forecast for rain this could be a hard first round.

Saturday
About 40 drivers turned up Saturday and it got quite busy on the track with rain forecast for midday everyone wanted practice time, Mark Green set the Practice pace with lap times of 13.33 with Darren Johnson on 13.34 with his new drive XRay NT1 followed by Mark Gilliland 13.58 and Peter Watt on a best lap of 13.68. So not much in it between Serpent and XRay, at 1pm it started to rain most drivers came in only a few stayed out but by 1.30pm it was raining hard so everyone called it a day Nigel Moss race director and our own Malcolm Norwood (1/10th IC Secretary) stayed in race control so we could use the ic sections BBK Timing System. All fingers crossed for better weather for Sunday.

Sunday
With the track very wet after overnight thunder and lighting, Drivers Briefing Wayne Lander our new Vice Chairman explained this year we BRCA Section would enforce some rules i.e. deliberately hitting other cars when overtaking, holding up quicker cars on track or refuelling in the pit lane, would all hold penalty’s from a warning to a stop go penalty or lap deduction and may be a disqualification, The drivers called this to be LANDERED and Steve Launder was the referee. The new IC committee were introduce to everyone, then told everyone format for the day. Nigel Moss told us they were 45 drivers 4minutes between heats, and 4 rounds and finals, with rain forecast for 3pm first heat on the line at 10.10am.

Qualifying
With the track wet from overnight rain caution was the word for this round, in the second round it was still very slippery under the rostrum and the S`s by race control a few drivers change to rubber some found them better but not all. By round three the track getting dryer now apart from under the rostrum were if you put the power down to quick the cars would spin out with most drivers going back to foam tyres this next qualifier was the most important for final positions.

With qualifying over at 1.45pm and the threat of rain at 3pm a lot were asking if it was going to be a repeat of Brooklands last year when as the B and A finals started it poured down.

Finals

E Final
1st Matthew Cook
2nd Peter Spratley
3rd Haley Baker

D Final
1st Alex Brown
2nd Dave Forsythe
3rd David Gerard

C Final
1st Adam Walker Catchpole
2nd Gareth Bell
3rd Matthew Oke

B Final
1st Kyle Branson
2nd Kevin Taylor
3rd Neal King

A Final
1st Mark Green
2nd Darren Johnson
3rd Mark Gilliland

This final was going to be a close one after the qualifying results. Was it going to be Serpent or XRay? Full ten drivers on the line everyone got away and no collisions not that you would expect it at this high level of driving, the order changed so many times during this final between two expert drivers Darren Johnson and Mark Green Stephen Brown with his new drive for Team Magic was in 3rd place and 4th place Mark Gilliland who flew over from Ireland with his pitman. After the first fuel stop still Darren Johnson and Mark Green still doing battle but after a good fuel stop Mark Gilliland is now in 3rd place there seemed to be a problem with Stephen Brown`s car this unfortunately put him out of the race on lap 25 the look on Stephen`s face said it all he was well gutted. Robin Hammett was now in 4th place followed by Ben Cosgrove in 5th place but loosing place`s he had stripped his 2nd gear but kept on going, lap 61 saw something unusual Chris Slater`s car lost a wheel his pitman Aaron Wearn got the wheel back on and Chris was back on track only to get further problems on lap 65 when the car kept stalling, turned out to be a broken clutch pin. Mark Gilliland was still in 3rd place with Robin Hammett in 4th, then lap 91 Darren Johnson seemed to start to pull away from Mark Green but by lap 104 Mark Green has caught Darren and Mark starts pulling away from Darren these guys were having some great fun out there in front. Ben Cosgrove on lap 106 pulled off the racing line to let Mark Green and team mate Darren Johnson through by now a lot of back markers all went off the racing line to let the race leaders through.26 minutes the order was 1st Mark Green with a Serpent 2nd Darren Johnson with Xray 3rd Mark Gilliland Xray and 4th Robin Hammett again with Xray this was how they finished, Mark Green fastest lap was 13.34 and Darren Johnson was 13.33 so Darren got FTD.
If this is anything to go by this series will go to the wire for this year’s championship.

Many thanks from the BRCA 1/10TH IC Section to Aldershot Club Dave Skelton Chairman and Nigel Moss race control and the people in the cafe, a very well run meeting
See you all Next Round 2 Brookland 20th April.