Elliott Harper Dominates R2 of British 1:12 Nationals

Last weekend saw round two of the 2010/11 BRCA 1:12 National Championships take place at Ardent Raceway. On Saturday, Elliott Harper ran away with the Stock class driving his Speed Passion-powered CRC Gen-XL. He comfortably took TQ ahead of current European Champion Chris Kerswell, who was still getting to grips with his new Serpent chassis. The V-Dezign trio of Andy Griffiths, Matt Varah and Mark Stiles completed the top five.Elliott cruised to a comfortable win in the A final whilst Chris Kerswell pushed hard to try and keep up, but took too many chances and a mistake left him out of contention. Matt Varah also succumbed to an error and would miss out on a po dium spoting. With Elliott in a clear lead, the focus of everyone’s attention was on the battle for second; Mark pushed Andy all the way but just couldn’t find a way past in the dying laps, so had to settle for the third behind Andy.
Sunday saw the field split into two separate classes – Sports Modified and Open Modified. CRC/Tekin driver Mick Farrell picked up from where he left off at round one at Crewe by taking a comfortable TQ ahead of Adam Catchpole – a driver who hasn’t raced in the class for over two years. The A final looked like being a formality although it was anything but! Mistakes from Mick early in the run would see the lead swap between him and Adam for the first part of the race. Once both drivers had settled into a groove Adam was in the lead and despite doing everything he could, Mick just couldn’t close the gap and had to settle for second place.

In Open Modified, Elliott showed once again why he’s one of the World’s best drivers by taking TQ in every single round of qualifying. As on Saturday, Chris Kerswell showed flashes of brilliance, but just wasn’t able to put a consistent enough run together. In fact he was so focused on trying to beat Elliott that he didn’t account for Andy Griffiths, who put in a storming last run to take second on the grid. Chris would line up third ahead of Saturday’s podium finisher Mark Stiles. The final was even more of a rampage than Saturday for Elliott; he eventually lapped the entire field on his way to an easy win. Once again Chris crashed out of contention, and this allowed the V-Dezign trio of Andy, Mark and Matt Varah to fight over the remaining podium places. Matt came out on top and would cross the line second and his best ever result at a National. Mark got his own back after Saturday by fending off Andy Griffiths in the closing stages as these two finished third and fourth respectively.

The results leave Elliott as the clear leader in the Stock class championship with a maximum score after the first two rounds. In Open Modified it’s a bit closer, with round one winner Andy Griffiths leading Mark Stiles by two points. Mick Farrell leads Sports Modified with a win and a second although it’s still early days though and with four rounds remaining anything can happen! Round three takes place at Tamworth in three weeks time.

Look out for a more indepth report in Racer Magazine soon.

Results

Stock
Elliott Harper – CRC/Speed Passion
Andy Griffiths – V-Dezign/Nosram
Mark Stiles – V-Dezign/Castle
Andy Sawyer – Corally/LRP
Mick Farrell – CRC/Tekin
Matt Varah – V-Dezign
Matt Lax – CRC
Damien Holmes – V-Dezign
Chris Kerswell – Serpent/GM
Jim Spencer – Associated

Sports Modified
Adam Walker Catchpole – V-Dezign
Mick Farrell – CRC/Tekin
Mark Jewitt – V-Dezign
Matt Lax – CRC
Nigel Hale – Associated
Damien Holmes – V-Dezign
James Stewart – Associated
Jason Butterfield – Associated
Jim Spencer – Associated
David Gale – Xray

Open Modified
Elliott Harper – CRC/Speed Passion
Matt Varah – V-Dezign
Mark Stiles – V-Dezign/Castle
Andy Griffiths – V-Dezign/Nosram
Chris Kerswell – Serpent/GM
Andy Sawyer – Corally/LRP
Keith Robertson – Associated/Novak
Luke Burley – Associated
Mark Jordan – Associated
Kevin Creaser – CRC

Source: Racer