BRCA Winter Open Championship Win for Kyosho
Kyosho driver Kev Lee reports on his success at the recent BRCA Winter Open Championships held at Silverstone:
Last weekend I attended the BRCA Winter Open Championship, one of the biggest indoor events in the UK calendar. After an OK result in 2WD on the Saturday, I started Sunday with the Lazer and some confidence. It felt really good from practice and I was right on the pace straight away. I didn’t change anything from the previous week at EIR Belgium except for the tyres being Schumacher Minipins rather than Mini Spikes.
In the first round I went seventh with a couple of errors so I knew that I had the pace to challenge the front if I went clean. I didn’t change anything for round two except for raising the ride height a fraction. With Tony Evdoka’s words in my head of “Stop driving at 120 per cent,” I went out and did a much more sensible run and went second in round, which secured my A final placing. In the third I made a mistake on the first table top and ended up well down the field, so just used the run to explore some different lines and find out where I could push. In round four, I managed a clean run and another second in round which put me fourth on the grid over all.
I chose to put new tyres on for the first leg as the tyres used in qualifying were not going to last three legs. In leg one the car felt a little twitchy and I made a couple of errors that put me down a few positions finally coming in seventh. However, towards the end of the run it started to feel really good as the tyres bedded in and my laps were easily on the pace. I went into the second leg feeling confident with the car and after some close racing I managed to take the lead after a mistake from Tom Cockerill. I had a lot of pressure from Tom for the last few laps, but just managed to keep it in front and take the leg win. Leg three would prove to be the decider. Tom Yardy and Ellis Stafford were my closest rivals with Tony Truman and Lloyd Storey having an outside chance to win the meeting, so I knew who I had to beat if I was going to win. The final started very clean and apart from a couple of moves it was a train of about eight cars for four minutes of the race – I’ve never know anything like it. Unfortunately, I had lost a place to Ellis, and Tom was also sitting a couple of places in front of me so it was a frustrating time not being able to find a way up the order. In the last minute the train broke up a little and I found myself in third behind Ellis with Darren Bloomfield out front. It was now the last lap and Ellis seemed too far away for me to catch him, but he made an error and once marshaled I was right behind him with about three corners to go. I managed to stay with him and got a good line onto the table top before the start finish straight where Ellis left enough room for me to cut in on the inside. I punched the throttle and just edged in front of him over the loop by 0.002 seconds.
I was really impressed with the Lazer. It’s taken me a little while to get comfortable with it (probably because I’ve come from such a different type of car), but it was definitely confidence inspiring.
I have to give a big thanks to Tony for all the help he’s given me with it and without that I don’t think I could have done it. Indoor racing has never been my strength; this has really given me some confidence for this year.
Source: Kyosho Europe
