Cragg and Stafford Win at Oswestry
Round five of the BRCA 1:10 Off-Road Nationals was hosted by the Oswestry Radio Car Club. The track is an ‘old school’ grass track with a very fast straight with some man-made jumps. The 2WD event had saw lovely weather all day and the track surface held up very well indeed despite the power of the cars. Pole position for went to Neil Cragg with the Centro C4.1 as Lee Martin and his Tamiya managed to split the dominance of the Centro car to take second place on the grid followed by Tom Yardy, Phil Sleigh and Richard Lowe, all using the C4.1 with Richard running his for the very first time.
Neil wasn’t troubled in the first or second leg of the A final to take the overall win. With some great racing in the third leg it was Tom Yardy that took the win to give him second place overall with Lee Martin rounding off the podium in third.
For the 4WD event on Sunday, the skies were overcast and eventually the rain came down heavily during round two resulting in some of the earlier heat drivers getting the chance to score well. Thankfully the rain didn’t last too long although the racing surface was sufficiently soaked to cause some rather messy cars. By the end of qualifying the track was dry again and it was a close battle for the pole position with four different drivers taking the four rounds. Qualifying saw a Tamiya one-two, but for once it wasn’t Lee Martin on pole with Ellis Stafford just pipping him to that accolade. Third went to Neil Cragg and his Associated with the Schumacher of Simon Moss in fourth.
The finals could best be described as manic! Ellis took a comfortable first leg, but it all kicked off in the second leg. The top three ran nose-to tail for the whole five minutes with position changes due to the tiniest of errors from the intense pressure they were under. It all came to a head on the final run to the line as a coming together between Lee and Neil gave Ellis a chance of the win. Unfortunately in the rush to the line, Ellis’ transponder didn’t trigger the timing loop. Once this was sorted by the BRCA Officials, the net result was the win going to Neil and it would now all come down to the final leg. The third leg was just as exciting and this time it was Lee that held his nerve to take the win meaning the overall positions would be decided on count-back and it was Ellis that scored best to take the win ahead of Neil and Lee.
