Woods and Spashett won at Tamworth for third round of BRCA 1/12-scale series

0 Dec. 17, 2015, 8 p.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report by Johnaton Provost:
www.brca.org

The 2015/16 1/12th National Series headed to Tamworth for the 3rd round of the series. Tamworth is one of the regular venues and is always one to get mentioned at the EGM for the amount of work that the Tamworth club put in to making it happen.

Saturday

13.5 Stock Qualifying - After qualifying round 1 Mark Jewitt looked to be on for a repeat of Crewe with Matt Lax also looking strong one lap back from Jewitt. Peter Craig and Ollie Payne also seemed to be on the pace. After several changes throughout qualifying between Lax, Jewitt, David Gale and Craig, Lax would sit on pole from Jewitt and Gale.

E Final – George Brewer sat on pole for the E final. A very clean start led the field away. Despite a few comings together. Lee Ellis managed to make it up to 1st from 3rd on the grid, Tricia Whiteley takes 2nd and Brewer takes 3rd.

D Final – Robin Streeter on pole. A rough start with a few incidents shook the whole field up. New comer to 1/12th, Craig Parry made an electric start from 8th to 3rd. The top 3 battled around back markers. Parry took advantage and made his way up to 1st. Unfortunately for Parry, he got caught up in someone else’s incident and dropped to 3rd toward the end of the race. Giles Hodgkinson and Andrew Hicklin benefitted and were pushing hard. As the buzzer went, Hodgkinson takes the win from Hicklin and Parry who did not have time to make the time back up.

C Final – Simon Harris takes pole from Darren Newton and Kevin Creaser. Slightly rough start. Harris and Newton had a very close battle but Newton gets through and takes the win from Creaser and Jason Butterfield who made up 6 positions from 10th on the grid.

B Final - Fred Hatfield sits on pole from Andy Cottom and Richard Norris. Throughout the race, the majority of the field spread out. Paul Jenkinson and Kenneth Rogers had a great battle for 7th until in incident made Jenkinson roll over the barrier and loses out. Andrew Hastings from 5th on the grid takes the win from Fred Hatfield and Andy Cottom.

A Final – Matthew Lax from Mark Jewitt and David gale is how they line up. Another rough start, Lax loses out and drops to 3rd, Jewitt goes 1st with Gale in 2nd. More incidents saw the top 2 swap as the race went on. The pack spread out. Ollie Payne battling with Andy Sawyer. Top of the field coping well with the lapped traffic. Gale takes the win from Lax and Jewitt.

10.5 Stock Qualifying – David Spashett showed the same lightning pace seen at Crewe by dominating qualifying, 3 out of 4 times going a lap quicker than the entire field. Mark Stiles, Mick Farrell and Chris Kerswell all swapped positions through qualifying. Spashett will take pole from Kerswell and Stiles with just 0.15 seconds between 2nd and 3rd.

D Final – Andrew Edwards took pole from Gavin Rice and Nick Upton. The D final saw a clean start. The pack quickly spread out. With only a few incidents, it was a very clean final. The top 3 finished how they started, Edwards from Rice from Upton.

C Final – Kieren Manders took pole after a hard day, Chris Ashton and Louis Parker line up behind. A hectic start to the C final for most drivers. Chris Hudson was the first big mover from 10th to first but would lose out later on and finish in 8th.Parker and Ashton battle for 2nd. Ashton putting tremendous pressure on Parker causing Parker to make a mistake under the rostrum and loose out going down to 4th. Kieran is caught up in an incident and loses out to Ashton for 1st. Ashton took the win from Manders and Aidan Ripley comes in 3rd.

B Final – Darren Lee take pole from Jim Spencer and Ashley Wiffin. A clean start for the field. Spencer was immediately pushing on Lee for 1st. The two separated at the early stages by just 2 0.2 of a second. The top 3, battle through lapped traffic with some very close call. Spencer makes his move on Lee and takes 1st. Spencer in clean air, builds up a healthy lead from Daniel Holmes and Lee. Spencer takes the win from Holmes and Lee. A good effort from Nigel Hale moving from 8th on the grid to 4th.

A Final – Spashett from Kerswell and Stiles. Another very clean start from the field. Spashett makes a clean break. Stiles starts to push Kerswell. Andy Murray has problems and drops to 10th. 2nd, 3rd and 4th, all together on track. Stiles attempts a move off the back straight but just doesn’t have the gap close enough yet on Kerswell. Spashett has a very clear lead and pulls away from the pack. Some very close racing between Stiles and Kerswell. Stiles makes the move off the back straight and goes into 2nd. Stiles starts to build a gap to Kerswell. Spashett cruising to the finish with a buzzer to buzzer victory. Stiles takes 2nd from Kerswell.

Sunday

Sport Modified Qualifying – Tim Wood took TQ after being top of the time sheet after every round. Jim Spencer was fighting but could not match Woods pace despite Spencer’s best effort. Spencer took 2nd. Matt Lax looked to be a contender for the first three spots in qualifying but could only manage 4th. Eugene Galley took the 3rd spot.

F Final - Lee Ellis took pole, Nick Upton 2nd and Robin Streeter took 3rd. After a rough start for the field, Ellis was taken by Upton in the first few moments. Despite a few problems with lapping the majority of the race was clean. Upton would pull a strong lead and take the win by 1 lap from Lee Ellis and high climber Chris House from 7th on the grid.

E Final – The would line up like this, Mark Passingham 1st, David Sedgwick 2nd and Andrew Edwards 3rd. Andrew Hicklin loses out on the first turn after an incident and drops to 9th but quickly made an attempt to push back up the field. The top 3 made a clean break and gapped the field. After some problems for Alan Leighton puts the push back on. Lee Palmer starts to pressure Leighton before Palmer makes a mistake and gives Leighton clean air again. Palmer would get back past Leighton. Passingham took the win from Sedgwick and Gavin Rice.

D Final – Vincent Formosa from Richard Norris and Joshua Coult. Formosa takes an early clean break with Stephen Rowley. Rowley and Formosa had a very close battle. Both of them have an incident and Formosa loses out and drops to 2nd. Rowley takes the win from Formosa and Kevin Creaser.

C Final – Elliott Cummings 1st, Daniel Bancroft 2nd and Andrew Hastings 3rd. A very close start between the field. Cummings starts to break away from Bancroft and Hastings. A few laps in Bancroft closes in on Cummings with the gap closing to 0.3 seconds. Cummings making his car a wide as possible to defend his position. Towards the end of the race, lapped traffic worked in Cummings favor and started to build a gap. The finish came down to 0.22 as they crossed the line. Cumming takes the win from Bancroft and Andrew North.

B Final – Kieren Manders starts out in front, James Stewart 2nd and Peter Craig in 3rd. Manders streaks out in front of the field, making up a2 second gap in the first 2 laps. Luke Burley, Andy Sawyer and Kellyann Bligh all battle for 2nd position. Meanwhile, Manders runs in to trouble and loses out massively after his steering lock hard over after contact with the barrio. That drops him back to 7th, his chances of catching the leaders looked very slim. Sawyer and Bligh battle each other. Bligh loses out after an incident and goes down to 4th. Luke Burley takes the win from Andy Sawyer and James Stewart. Manders ends up in 7th, an unfortunate end after such as good start. Note ha to be made of Louis Parker. He lined up 9th in the B on his first every 1/12th national after only driving in 3 club events in the car beforehand. Keep your eyes on 13-year-old Louis Parker, he defiantly has the potential to be a future champion.

A Final – Tim Wood from Jim Spencer and Eugene Galley. Wood pulls away tailed by Spencer who was pushing hard. Matt Lax makes it up to 3rd. Jim puts it in the wall hand gifts 2nd to Lax. Wood still out in front pushing hard with a strong lead. After a few more laps, Spencer make it back past Lax and starts to break away before visiting the scenery again and going back to 3rd. Wood walked away with the win with a 2 second lead as they crossed the finish line. Lax in 3rd and Spencer come home in 3rd.

Open Modified Qualifying – Chris Kerswell, David Spashett, Mark Stiles and Adam Catchpole all had a look in to top of the list. After round 3, Catchpole looked to be the one to beat. Out of nowhere Stiles go TQ for the first time in a number of years! Stiles was ecstatic as you can imagine.

B Final – Chris Ashton, Darren Newton 2nd, John Zottl 3th and Chris Simons 4th. Clean start for all. Ashton was a very early retirement and did not count as starting. The rest of the race was spread out giving Newton an easy cruise to the finish. He takes the win from John Zottl and Chris Simons.

A Final – Stiles from Catchpole from Spashett. Straight from the line, Spashett gets on the back of Stiles putting very close pressure on him. Stiles puts gets into an incident in the first few laps and that was his race over with a mechanical problem. Spashett takes the lead from Catchpole. Catchpole has a problem and drops to 3rd, promoting Chris Kerswell up to 2nd. Scott booth is the big climber from 7th to 3rd. Kerswell pushes Spashett but Kerswell discovers the scenery. He maintains 2nd thanks to his gap. Booth and Matt White have a very tight battle for several laps until Booth slides it off the end of the straight. Which allowed White to fit through the very small gap between Booth and the barrier. Spashett would take the win once again from Kerswell and Catchpole who was very close behind. A well done to Patrick Bandeira for making his first Open Modified A Final and finishing 6th.

A big thank you to all who attended. The Tamworth club once again put on a great show so a very special thank you to them.

Next time out will be in Milton Keynes at the 2016 Model Motorsport Show for the Reedy 1/12 Race of Champions! Mode details and coverage to come soon.