BRCA Eastbourne Report
The BRCA 1/12 National series started last weekend, with round one hosted by the Eastbourne Club on the south coast; as always, a superb track and facilities would greet the drivers.
This year the series classes would consist of a Modified practice and 13.5 stock class on the Saturday, and Sportsman and Modified classes on the Sunday. A strong Team Associated group was in attendance racing the new RC12 R6. Touring car star Chris Grainger would also be joining the team for the weekend competing in both modified classes.
Qualifying on Saturday was a close affair in 13.5 stock; factory Team Associated driver Matthew Varah would line up fourth on the grid, with CML team drivers Matt White, Aaron Morley and Matt Rice also making it into the A final. This was Aaron’s first ever stock A final, so special congratulations should go to him! Further down the field, the B final would feature CML’s very own James Stewart in sixth and Team Associated veteran Nigel Hale would line up in tenth position. Mark Payne was also showing good form qualifying second in the C final. In Modified practice Chris Kerswell and Chris Grainger were making good progress on their setups in preparation for the following days racing.
In the 13.5 A final, the top four would break away from the field, with Matthew Varah making his way into third position. With third and fourth both closing on the second place car, a collision between them left Matthew unable to challenge for a podium finish, and therefore he finished in fourth place. Meanwhile behind the top four Matt Rice would make his way up to an impressive fifth from tenth on the grid, his best ever result at national level, well done Matt! Aaron Morley and Matt White also both raced hard to cross the line in an equal eighth position, which shows just how close the racing was. Well done guys! In the 13.5 B final Nigel fought hard to finish in an impressive fifth place whilst James would finish in ninth place after some early drama. In the C final Mark Payne would also battle hard to finish in sixth place.
Into Sunday, Qualifying for the sportsman class would once again provide some close racing with the order changing round by round. Matt Rice was looking super-fast once again and would line up fourth on the grid, joining him in the A final would be James Stewart in sixth and Nigel Hale in tenth. Mark Payne had a strong run to secure an eighth place starting spot for the B final.
The sportsman A final was another great race with Matt Rice finishing in third place whilst James was running in a comfortable fourth early on, before a small error of his own making had big consequences leaving him to finish ninth. Nigel would finish a strong seventh and was in contention for a top five finish for most of the run. In the B final Mark Payne would finish an impressive fourth, and was closing rapidly on the final podium position when the race ended!
Onto modified, Chris Kerswell was really getting to grips with his R6 and was looking able to challenge for TQ, unfortunately a small error in the last round of qualifying would deny him of this opportunity and he would line up in second on the grid. Matthew Varah would also make good progress throughout the day and would line up fifth on the grid whilst Matt White, Aaron Morley and Chris Grainger would line up sixth, eighth and ninth respectively.
The modified A final would lead to some mixed results for the team, Chris raced hard to finish second, just over a second from the leader whilst Matthew Varah was forced to retire early on in the race due to a severe tweak on his car. Aaron would once again race well to finish in sixth place with Matt White and Chris Grainger finishing in eighth and ninth positions.
Round 2 moves to the north of the country at the Barley Mow venue, see you there!
