Blooming Brilliant Bank Holiday Weekend
BRCA 1:8 Rallycross – Ware
Report by Rob Cuss
The annual two-day BRCA 1:8 National was held this past weekend at the Ware venue. Some describe this event as the Monaco of the rallycross series in this country and Team Losi showed up with their own marquee! Living it up to its hype it was a fully booked race meeting and the track was looking fantastic thanks to some hard work by the Herts track team.
The two day format is practice and qualifying on the Sunday with the best three out of five runs to count and the finals take place on the Monday……let battle commence!
Sunday Qualifying
Elliot Boots showed early pace taking the first two rounds, however he dropped off with a few errors in the later rounds. Darren Bloomfield stepped up to the plate with some very consistent driving and would eventually TQ with Elliot second and the ever consistent Simon Willets in third with his Kyosho MP9 and fourth would be the first of the Team Associated drivers, Craig Drescher sporting the new Pro-Line Bulldog bodyshell.
Lee Martin also returned for this round after taking a break for the 1:10 off-road circuit, he would qualify in fifth. Neil Cragg, our current champion, had a bit of a mare be his standards and qualified eighth.
Monday Finals
The 10 year old Calum Niblett gets yet another mention…after an interesting qualifying session he ended up in the 128th and disappointed as this is his home turf…however this kid changes when he comes to finals, almost morphing into a totally different character. He went from the 128ths all the way to the 8ths… that’s two hours of driving folks and a top notch effort!
Another stand out move was Pete Stevens last corner all or nothing pass for the last bump up spot for a place in the semi’s, very Michael Schumacher, he was congratulated by all the drivers as he came off the rostrum!
The semi’s were not that exciting really Tony Truman had a spiffing drive to make the main, well done Teddy!
The Main event and the track was surrounded by eager spectators, the marshals were in position and ready to pounce like cougars on any car in distress, the drivers were ready the countdown begins, engines revving out till the four second mark, then deadly silence………GOOOOOOOOOOOOO and Bloomers gets away clean and into the first corner, Bootsie has a mare and gets bullied back a few spots, Lee Martin moves up into second as the rest of the cars bundle round the first lap, Bootsie then starts doing what Bootsie does best and gets himself back up to second with some great overtaking. Disaster strikes early for Craig Drescher as he breaks a fuel tank. Bootsie and Bloomers then go at it, with some great passes and some not so great passes this would continue till the first fuel stops. With Bootsie doing 7-8 minutes and Bloomers doing 9-10’s you can figure out that Elliot had not only to pass Darren but get away from him, this was not an easy task as Darren was in top form. The lead changed numerous times until Elliot’s throttle servo decided it was time to stop working…shame it was great race! This left Darren to fly round and take the win!
Lee Martin casually strolled round to take second after Bootsie’s mishap, Neil Cragg came in third after a somewhat off form weekend by his standards and Simon Willets came in fourth with his Kyosho.
Our intrepid reporter goes to Spain next Thursday for the Euro B, stay tuned for news and photos from there and wish the team luck! Next stop on the national tour is J12. Can Darren Bloomfield continue his winning ways, will Bootsie come back a vengeance or will Simon Willets repeat his J12 win from last year…..and don’t forget reigning champ Neil Cragg!!
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