Round one of the 2014-15 BRCA 1:12 Scale Nationals took place at Tonbridge in West Kent last weekend. A large and highly technical track layout greeted the drivers and for the Brits who attended last month’s IFMAR World Championships in Florida the sight of a technical layout and good grip levels were very welcome! The weekend was split into two separate race meetings, with classes for 13.5T and 10.5T stock on Saturday and 10.5T and open modified on Sunday.

Saturday
In the 10.5T stock class, Olly Jefferies was in commanding form driving his Reedy/LRP-powered Xray chassis. He won all four rounds of qualifying and was top qualifier ahead of reigning British Champion in this class David Spashett, driving the Zen-Racing car he has designed and developed himself. Mark Stiles was third for Yokomo/Reedy. The A final was a lights to flag victory for Olly and he wasn’t challenged for the duration of the eight minute race. This was in no small part due to a great race for second between Spashett and Stiles, with the pair circulating less than 0.5 seconds apart for well over six minutes. A number of small errors from Dave allowed Mark to continually challenge, and in the end the pressure told and Dave hit a corner marker exiting the chicane. Mark slipped through and continued to take a well-earned second place, with Dave crossing the line in third.
In the 13.5T class, Keith Robertson was top qualifier driving a Reedy-powered Team Associated 12R5.2, but in the A final a mistake by Keith early in the race allowed Leigh Dibble to take victory at his first major meeting driving for new chassis sponsor Zen-Racing.

Sunday
Sunday’s open modified class saw a low entry of just 20 cars, but with most of the fastest drivers competing in this category it remains the class that everybody would like to win. Unfortunately that looks like being a rather tall order again this year, as Olly Jefferies was once again dominant and comfortably took TQ. Mark Stiles looked to have his Yokomo R12C3.1 chassis well dialled into the track and drove it well to qualify alongside Olly, with Dave Spashett third.
The A final was a messy affair; a number of accidents early in the race led to the field becoming very fragmented. At the four-minute mark Olly was maintaining a two second advantage over Spashett with the pair having lapped up to Mark Stiles, who had recovered to third after a scrappy opening five laps had left him well down the field. At this point in the race the carpet track surface began to lift on the fast sweeper, and after further deterioration the race had to be abandoned. A vote was taken among the drivers and it was decided to declare a result base on the running positions at that point. An unfortunate end to what was otherwise an excellent weekend.
In the 10.5T sport class, Keith Robertson redeemed himself following Saturday’s mistake to take the win ahead of Jim Spencer and Mark Jewitt.
A massive thank you to all of the West Kent Radio Car Club officials and members who helped to organise and run the meeting. They overcame a number of difficulties throughout the weekend and remained professional and well organised throughout.
For more info, details and results, please visit the 1:12 nationals section of the BRCA website here. Round two of the championship takes place at Swifts Raceway near Sheffield in three weeks time.