Round two of the 2014-15 BRCA 1:12 National Championships took place at Swifts Raceway near Sheffield last weekend. A very challenging track layout greeted the drivers and would prove to be unforgiving even for the top racers. The weekend is 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. Chris Kerswell qualified third for Zen-Racing/Hobbywing ahead of the Reedy-powered Yokomo of Mark Stiles.
The A final was a lights to flag victory for Olly and he wasn’t challenged for the duration of the eight-minute race. After a somewhat scrappy first half, the race settled down with Spashett in second following a first lap crash. Mark Stiles ran third until a crash coming onto the main straight dislodged the motor sensor cable on his car and forced him to retire. Matt White enjoyed a consistent run from the middle of the grid to finish on the podium with a Zen-Racing chassis.
In the 13.5T class, Keith Robertson was top qualifier driving a Reedy-powered Team Associated 12R5.2 and converted that to the class win. It wasn’t a straightforward race for Keith though as round one winner Leigh Dibble put up a strong challenge and looked to have a faster car than Keith until a mistake left him with too much ground to recover before the end. Matthew Lax was an excellent third driving a CRC car.
Sunday
Olly Jefferies was once again dominant and comfortably took TQ in open modified. Chris Kerswell found his focus to join Olly on the front row just ahead of Dave Spashett and Mark Stiles.
The A-final was a much cleaner race than that seen at the first round of the championship. Jefferies briefly lost the lead to Kerswell in the early stages, but within a lap he had regained the top spot and proceeded to lap the entire field on his way to victory. David Spashett finished second ahead of Kerswell and Stiles in a fairly uneventful race.
In the sport 10.5T class, Keith Robertson was TQ, but a coming together with second qualifier Tim Wood at the start of the A final allowed Jim Spencer to take a controlled win from fourth on the grid. Jim was driving a Red Mosquito chassis, which is a lightweight version of the Team Associated R5.2 chassis that uses a thinner chassis plate and magnesium alloy parts. Andy Sawyer finished second for Corally/LRP. A massive thank you to all of the Swifts club officials and members who helped to organise and run the meeting, as well as everyone who assisted with set-up and packing away before and after the event. Round three takes place at Tamworth in three weeks.
Full results can be found here. For more info, details and results, please visit the 1:12 nationals section of the BRCA website here.
