Martin and Cragg Share 4WD Championship
The final round of the BRCA 1:10 Off-Road Nationals saw the racers make their annual pilgrimage to the Kidderminster track. One of the oldest tracks currently hosting national meetings, there is always close racing on its compact design. After a damp start on Saturday for the 2WD event, the track was mostly dry despite the odd bout of light drizzle. That was until the final heat of the last round of qualifying when the skies unleashed a torrential downpour. No track could realistically have withstood the amount of rain that came down so with racing reluctantly abandoned for the day the results were declared on qualifying results.
This meant that the pole position of Simon Moss with his Speed Passion-powered Schumacher Cougar SV2 secured their first National win for eight years. In second place was the Reedy-powered Centro C4.1 of Tom Yardy and the LRP/Reedy Centro of Neil Cragg in third. Lee Martin (Tamiya Vega/Speed Passion) had already done enough to take the 2WD title and he was joined on the final championship podium by Neil Cragg (Centro/Reedy/LRP) in second and Darren Bloomfield (TLR/Orion) in third.
The 4WD event on Sunday thankfully saw no more rain and those present witnessed a truly thrilling finale to the championship. Lee Martin had one hand on the trophy, but Neil Cragg could still tie by taking the TQ and win. Neil did half the job by sealing the pole position, but there was nothing in it between the top drivers. The three legs of the A final were great to watch and the result literally went down to the final corner of the final race. It was Neil that held his nerve to take the win for the meeting with his LRP/Reedy Associated ahead of the Losi/Orion of Darren Bloomfield and the Reedy/Associated of Tom Yardy.
In the championship, this meant Lee Martin (Tamiya/Speed Passion) and Neil Cragg (Associated/Reedy/LRP) became joint champions – the first time this has happened since the 2WD title was tied between the legends Craig Drescher and Kevin Moore in 1990. Joining Lee and Neil on the podium in third place overall was a very pleased Danny McGee (Tamiya/Tekin).
Don’t miss a full report from the event in a future issue of Racer.
