HB’s Andy Moore Wins Winter TC National at Ardent
The BRCA held its annual Winter National at the popular indoor venue at Ardent Raceway near Derby. This was the second year that Ardent had hosted the event and the format was for three rounds of qualifying with the top 32 drivers going through to a Reedy-style Race of Champions, whilst the remaining drivers contested a more familiar UK National format with round by round qualifying and three leg final.
All cars ran to the new 2012 BRCA Touring Car regulations as drivers were required to run 10.5T brushless motors and once again the Sorex tyre was the controlled rubber for the event.
In qualifying Olly Jefferies for Associated repeated his TQ performance from the 2011 Winter National where he finished second to Andy Moore and early on it looked like the battle for top honours would be once again centre on these two drivers. At the end of day one, three drivers were on equal points at the top with maximum scores as Olly Jefferies and Hot Bodies driver Andy Moore were joined at the top by a revitalised Ben Cosgrove.
Day two and the top three continued to take wins until Andy Moore broke the stalemate with a DNF. Then Olly scored a second then a third, and now the momentum was with Ben Cosgrove going into the two final races where a winner takes all situation had developed with Elliott Harper also waiting in the wings should any of the top three make a further mistake. Andy Moore took victory, then Ben Cosgrove followed suit. Olly had to win his race from eighth on the grid and do it in a faster time than Andy Moore to win. Olly took the victory on the last corner, but was nowhere near Moore’s fastest race time set in one of Saturdays finals, so for the second year in succession Olly would lose out via the tie break rule. Andy Moore had driven well all weekend and took a well-deserved victory ahead of Olly while Ben Cosgrove scored his best national result for a few years nudging out Elliott Harper to take third for Hot Bodies.
The Clubman section of the meeting saw TOP Racing factory driver Brian Eldridge win. After taking TQ Brian, took the first two legs of the A final and was no doubt disappointed at not making the top 32. This result saw Brian go some way towards making up for his disappointment with a dominant win. Making the trip over from Ireland was a number of top Irish contenders and Keith Dempsey was rewarded with second in this section just ahead of National Pro Stock front runner Chris Slater.
The event was well received by the full entry of drivers and the proven format of the Reedy Race-style of head to head racing always seems to capture the attention of drivers and spectators alike.
Source: BRCA
