TQ for TC6.1 at Winter National

Olly Jefferies is top qualifier at BRCA Winter National.

For the second year in succession Olly Jefferies scored an impressive TQ at the BRCA Winter National with his Reedy powered TC6.1. The meeting which sees the top 32 qualifiers go through to a Reedy style Race of Champions, was held once again at the popular Ardent Raceway near Derby.

CML team drivers, Alan Bickerstaff and Zak Smith, along with Mark Hancock, joined Olly in the Race of Champions but it was disappointment for Chris Slater who didn't get a good set up on his car. Ben Putt was another team driver who couldn't get to grips with the unusually fast open flowing track. Ardent layouts tend to be very technical but for the Winter National, a much more flowing layout track was offered, so Chris and Ben would start as front runners for the Clubman class with their TC6.1's.

Zak Smith's TC6.1.

In the Race of Champions Olly got off to a perfect start wining nearly all his early races. However, there was an air of déjà-vu hanging over Olly, at the same time he was scoring wins so was Andy Moore. The pair tied on points last year and Olly lost the meeting via the tie break.

As the last round of Reedy Race approached, four drivers could of taken the win - Andy Moore, Ben Cosgrove, Elliott Harper and Olly. Olly raced last and knew, going in the race, what he had to do to win - take the victory in a faster time than Andy Moore’s best race time. Starting from eighth it was going to be tough!


Olly Jefferies' TC6.1.

The last race of the meeting proved to be one of the highlights with Olly squeezing through on the last corner to claim the victory. Unfortunately his time was not fast enough and Olly would finish second to Andy Moore, with Ben Cosgrove was third and Elliott Harper fourth.

"We came in to the event really confident but the track layout didn't really suit the set up we found in testing, I didn't find that edge that would give me fast consistent lap times and that proved costly, the track had few obvious overtaking places and sometimes you found yourself trying to pressure the driver ahead in to making an error, at this level that does not happen too often so for me it was slightly frustrating, however I did enjoy the event and it was good to have the whole team trackside again after the winter break" Olly told us.


Top 3 Race of Champions.

Alan Bickerstaff is a big fan of the event and was one of ten drivers coming over from Ireland for the Winter National. Alan would finish a fine ninth for Associated.


Chris Slater's TC6.1.

In the Clubmans, Chris Slater went some way to making up for not qualifying for the Race of Champions by finishing third overall, just in front of Ben Putt and Aaron Morley also driving a TC6.1.


Top 3 Clubmans.

Action photos courtesy of Cyclone Photography

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