Associated Strong at Halifax BTCC
02/07/12

Fresh from a good result at the west London national the team travel north for a very different challenge.

The damage caused by the recent flooding cast a potential shadow over the Halifax BTCC round, the club had gone to great efforts to get the facility back up to acceptable operating levels, but then rain over the weekend made conditions very difficult.

Testing for the forthcoming national was the reason for the Associated team making the trip to Halifax but Saturday saw limited running early on as drivers waited for the conditions to settle.

“It was very difficult, the flood had left mud ingrained in to the tarmac which seem to come to the surface when it rained” said Olly Jefferies, “but we might have the same conditions for the national so we worked on set up as we normally would”


Olly and Alan hard at work.

On Sunday conditions were very similar but Olly and Alan Bickerstaff seemed to master the conditions better than most and were 1 – 2 after the first round for qualifying. Tyre choice was paramount and drivers were switching from slicks to wets in an effort to tame to the track, Olly and Alan got it pretty well spot on and the two Associated drivers lined up for the A final first and third with Chris Grainger second.

Also making the A final was Zak Smith, his Novak powered TC6 also got to grips with the slippy changeable conditions.

In the final Olly tangled with Andy Moore which allowed Chris Grainger through to take the win with Olly Second, Alan was fifth with Zak seventh.


Zak and Alan had a strong weekend with their TC6.1's.

“All in all it was a good result for us and it showed we could handle the different and changing conditions, hopefully the track will have settled a little by the national and the normal levels of grip with have returned, but if we are racing in similar conditions again at least we know we have a good set up and some data to draw from” Olly said