Kyle Wins at Cotswold to Become National Champ
The eighth round of the BRCA 1:8 On-Road Championship was hosted by the Cotswold club situated within the airport complex. The weather forecast was for a wet Saturday and a dry Sunday, but this tuned out to be the opposite which had all the drivers frantically adding wet set-ups to their cars and changing to damp tyres. Every driver decided a banker time was required due to the open nature of the surroundings and a lack of wind would add to the time taken for the track to dry out.
In first round of qualifying, it was the top five who pulled out a good lead. Kyle Branson then broke away with Tim Wood chasing hard. Neil Diver who was on a charge until some engine trouble whilst Andy North and Richard Hicklin made errors that resulted in slower times and no place in the top final at present. Round two saw similar conditions to round one but times were generally slower although Neil Diver did improve to guarantee a final position. With the rain steadily increasing, the likelihood of any improvements were slim with some drivers deciding to try full wet tyres but due to the standing water, it was proving difficult to keep the engines running. Kyle Branson therefore retained TQ with Tim Wood second.
The final blasted away in grid order with Kyle Branson starting to pull out a little lead over Tim Wood who was under pressure from Dan Ghibaldan. Kyle then made a mistake after his first pit stop and found himself half a lap down. As the track started to slowly dry, Kyle caught Tim and passed him after pitting one lap later. Neil Diver had issues with his one-way bearing and finished down the order. Jason Frost made very little mistakes, stayed out of trouble to finish a good third. The final results were as follows:
1 Kyle Branson – Serpent/Sirio/Contact – 85 laps 1815.31
2 Tim Wood – Serpent/Exceed – 84 laps 1809.73
3 Jason Frost – Serpent/IDM – 82 laps 1816.16
4 Dan Ghibaldan – Shepherd/IDM – 81 laps 1800.23
5 Karl Dransfield – Shepherd/IDM – 80 laps 1808.23
6 Andrew Hastings – Shepherd/IDM – 78 laps 1819.27
7 Nick Gilbert – Motonica/VOX – 76 laps 1805.69
8 Greg Fairlie – Serpent – 76 laps 1817.28
9 Ashley Gouveia – Serpent/Exceed – 69 laps 1595.29
10 Neil Diver – Shepherd/IDM – 48 laps 1294.67
With this win, Kyle Branson secured the BRCA National Championship for the first time after recording a perfect score of six wins from eight races.
