Branson Does The Double At BRCA 1:8 On-Road Round 8

• Meeting: BRCA Round 8, 1:8 IC Circuit
• Date: 19th September 2010
• Location: Brooklands, Kent
• Report by: Andy North

The 8th round was a second visit to the Brooklands circuit in Kent. With all the main players present, it would become a very competitive race weekend. Team Serpent had again Mark Green and Kyle Branson present to help the team in their quest for the championship. Team Shepherd also had Neil Diver present to help team leaders Pete and Andy Hastings. The Irish racers were again present to increase the competition. The Mugen Team still awaiting the release of the MRX5 chassis had to contend with the MRX4X which they have used all season. The imminent release of the MRX5 will however rejuvenate the team and push them back to the front, fighting for race wins again.  The Motonica team of Daniel Bancroft, who has been constantly quick all season, was running the new BP (BH935) racing engine which showed promising speed for a relatively new engine unit.

Sunday was a dry day with plenty of grip from the previous days practice. From Saturday, it was evident that the quickest cars were Mark Green and Kyle Branson. The main issue was completing a 5 minute run without a fuel stop. All the drivers tried this but the majority decided that the best approach was to set the engine to run flat out and do a fuel stop. Andy North managed to set his engine to do 5 minutes which allowed him to record 2 banker scores to almost guarantee a final position but the lap time pace was slow and later in the day decided to adjust the settings for maximum speed.

The qualifying positions were as follows:

• 1)         Kyle Branson – Serpent – Sirio – 22 laps 309 secs
• 2)         Mark Green –  Serpent – Novarossi – 22 Laps 309 secs
• 3)         Pete Hastings – Shepherd – IDM – 2 laps 298 secs
• 4)         Tim Wood – Serpent – Mega – 21 laps 301 secs
• 5)         Neil Diver – Shepherd – IDM – 21 laps 302 secs
• 6)         Daniel Bancroft – Motonica – BP – 21 laps 303 secs
• 7)         Richard Hicklin – Serpent – Mega – 21 laps 303 secs
• 8)         Andrew North – Mugen – IDM – 21 laps 304 secs
• 9)         John Carr – Serpent – Mega – 21 Laps 306 secs
• 10)       Giorgio Acanfora – Mugen – Mega – 21 Laps 308 secs

The main final blasted away without Pete Hastings who had hit problems during the warm up and also Daniel Bancroft. Kyle Branson led away from pole position with Mark Green chasing down but Kyle withstood the pressure with them both pulling out a lead to Neil Diver and Tim Wood. Neil then picked up the pace and had pulled back the gap to Mark Green and battled for second position until a mistake by Neil, put him out. Up front Mark encountered running out of fuel and engine trouble which put him out. Andy North was also suffering from a lean engine setting and retired after 20 minutes. Tim Wood also suffered engine problems and finished down the order. Pete Hastings however managed to only lose 3 minutes at the start and finished in fourth. Upfront, Kyle stayed out of trouble to win by 3 clear laps over John Carr and Daniel Bancroft.

The final results are as follows:

• 1)         Kyle Branson – Serpent – Sirio – 125 laps
• 2)         John Carr – Serpent – Mega – 122 Laps
• 3)         Daniel Bancroft – Motonica – BP – 112 laps
• 4)         Pete Hastings – Shepherd – IDM – 110 laps
• 5)         Tim Wood – Serpent – Mega – 85 laps
• 6)         Andrew North – Mugen – IDM – 77 laps
• 7)         Mark Green –  Serpent – Novarossi – 40 Laps
• 8)         Neil Diver – Shepherd – IDM – 32 laps
• 9)         Giorgio Acanfora – Mugen – Mega – 27 Laps
• 10)       Richard Hicklin – Serpent – Mega – 5 laps

The final race is at the Cotswold Circuit with the championship still to be decided.