Two For Tom As Lee Wins Championship
- what: brca national
- where: oswestry
- class: 1:10 off-road
- report by: racer staff
Round four of the Nationals were hosted by the Oswestry club located on the borders of Shropshire and North Wales. We had seen three different winners in 2WD, but Lee Martin had dominated the 4WD races up to this point…
The Oswestry club is based at the town’s Show Ground where they have a permanent multi-surface track in the corner. Unfortunately this is rather small and so for large events like their annual national, they lay out a larger track on a grass slope, adding a few man-made jumps to slow the cars down. Surprisingly, this is the only grass venue on the 2010 calendar and therefore is one of the most neutral venues, but it was the usual suspects who came to the fore.
Saturday
Two-wheel-drive qualifying was all about Ellis Stafford and his saddle-pack chassis-equipped X Factory as he raced to four round wins. As the grass top surface wore away, he was still able to be blisteringly fast and he sat on pole for the three finals ahead of Grant Williams’ Cougar SV and Schumacher’s Simon Moss. Come the A finals though and it was three drivers who took the wins. Lee Martin won leg one before Ellis took leg two. In leg three, five drivers were capable of taking overall victory and it was Tom Cockerill who raced from fifth on the grid who took the final leg win and the overall victory with his Schumacher Cougar SV. Simon Moss took second with two second places with Lee third, whist leg two winner Ellis was only fifth.
Sunday
The track was simply reversed for 4WD on the Sunday although the small ramps in the middle were removed after Ben Riley unfortunately highlighted that one was sticking up a little and this stopped his car dead! Qualifying saw the usual suspects at the sharp end as Lee Martin, Danny McGee and Ellis Stafford all took round wins but it was the man in form, Lee who would place his Tamiya car on pole for the A final ahead of Ellis’ Predator and the ever-consistent Paul Bradby with his Associated B44. Paul won the first leg after Lee and Ellis delayed each other in the middle of the race and it looked like the Scarborough driver would wrap up the meeting in leg two before his car stopped due to a connector failure in the middle of the race whilst comfortably leading. This allowed Lee to take the leg win and set up a deciding third leg. Lee’s win in leg two seemed to give him the confidence for leg three as his drove a controlled race and setting the fastest lap on his way to winning the leg and the meeting. Ellis finished second in the leg and took the runners-up spot whilst Paul Bradby could only finish fourth but with his leg one win, took the final spot on the podium.
Next Time
Round five heads a little further up the M6 motorway and the seaside resort of Southport for a weekend of racing. Lee Martin may have wrapped up the 4WD championship but it’s still all to play for in 2WD with the points being very close between a number of drivers.
For a full report from this race meeting, make sure you don’t miss the October issue of Racer Magazine, on sale 2 September 2010.
