BRCA 1/8th National - Rnd 7

The weather had looked a bit suspect in the week leading up the race, and there was a little rain on the morning, but that soon gave way to some warm and dry conditions and some excellent track conditions. Qualifying got underway with champion elect Darren Bloomfield (Savox) in excellent form and he set the fastest time in round 1, a couple of seconds in front of Elliott Boots (RB/Savox), who was in turn 1 second in front of Craig Drescher (AE/Reedy/Byron/Proline). This year the Slough national was scheduled the week before the Pro-Line International Challenge 2010 race, rather than the week after which I assume contributed to the fact that times were not as close as they had been 1 year ago. Last year the majority of drivers had had 3 days running the week before the national and it made for some of the closest racing I have ever seen in Off-Road.

Darren continued his excellent form in round 2 this time posting a time some 5 seconds clear of the field. Neil Cragg (AE/Reedy/Byron/Proline) had started to get into his stride by this time and he would take 2nd in round. Neil freely admits to not getting on with this track, for reasons he is at a loss to explain so getting up with the front runners was a bonus for him. Graham Alsop (RB) took 3rd in round showing a more competitive streak than he has for a while, which was good to see. Darren went all out for the elusive 9 lap run that to my knowledge has never been achieved in recent times at Slough on any of the slight variations of the layout. He got very close, but 1 small error in the rhythm section cost him around a second and left him with an 8 in 300, a good effort all the same. Jon Hazelwood (Proline/Byron/Savox) was the man on the move in round 3, driving the Agama car for the first time he had had a tough couple of rounds, but put a run together in round 3 to take 2nd in round, 4 seconds off Darren. Neil continued his improvement, and after taking some tyre selection advice from Darren, Neil improved by a further 4 seconds to take 3rd in round just behind Jon. Neil felt, but for 1 iffy lap where he got his car out in the loose a couple of times, he could have got within 2 seconds of Darren. Craig made a set-up change to his car in this round that he felt was an improvement and which allowed him to take 4th in round, despite a costly mistake, and 4th overall. During the lower finals the main talk in our pit was about what tyres to take for the final, thus far the wear rate on the proline Holeshots had been pretty good so it was decided to go with those in M3.

The start of the final saw Darren and Neil drive clean first laps and start to edge away. Then Darren made a mistake that dropped him back to around 4th and gave Neil a clear track. Darren then had a terrible couple of laps that dropped him to the very back. Neil was running at the front but he was very aware that he had to look after his tyres as the guys in the B final had trouble making them last the distance. Graham Alsop was running in second, and he had gone for a more durable tread pattern that allowed him to push very hard which meant he could keep Neil close. By this time Darren had made his way back into the frame with some flat out driving that had taken right through the midfield. At around the 15 minute mark it was obvious that Neil was not going to make his tyres last, and he was already starting to suffer, meaning that he could not push at all and that kept the pack close. Darren meanwhile had got up to 3rd and was now chasing the 2 leaders down and after his final fuel stop it was only a matter of time until he would get to Neil. Neil was virtually down to the canvass on his rear tyres leaving him defenceless against Graham and Darren. Darren got by both and went on to win the event that I think will make him the BRCA Champion for 2010. Graham took a good second and Neil nursed his car round to take 3rd, still his best result at Slough though!