Lee Martin and Neil Cragg Win at Oswestry

Round four of the BRCA 1:10 Off-Road Nationals took us to Oswestry in Shropshire. For this meeting there was a change away from the usual Astroturf surface to an old school grass track with a few man-mad jumps. The forecast was for bad weather, especially at for the 2WD event on Saturday – and it was right!With rain falling on and off for most of Saturday there was plenty of car cleaning to be done and although the conditions threw up a few interesting results, it was the usual suspects that made up the top ten after qualifying. After the four rounds it was TLR driver Darren Bloomfield who sealed his first pole spot of the year.

Thankfully there was respite from the rain for the finals and the crowd were treated to some great racing. After the three legs championship leader Lee Martin came out on top with his Speed Passion-powered Tamiya/Vega 201 ahead of Neil Cragg’s Reedy/LRP-powered Associated/Centro C4.1 with Darren in third with his TLR 22 using Orion power.

The weather was better for Sunday and the 4WD event and although the track was mostly devoid of grass by now, it held up really well to the pounding of the 12 heat schedule. This time is was Neil Cragg who was fastest in qualifying, but again it was all very close. Neil held it together under immense pressure in the finals to take the win with his Reedy/LRP Associated B44.1, Ellis Stafford drove his X Factory X-7 prototype with Orion power to a fine second place with Lee Martin only able to make third overall this time with his Tamiya TRF11/Speed Passion combo.

Read a full report in the October issue of the magazine that goes on sale 6 September.