BRCA Off Road Southport

This weekend was the 5th Round of the BRCA off road Nationals at Southport.  The Schumacher team have been on top form of late and they were once again hunting for some good results once again!!

2wd on the Saturday started damp after some overnight rain but soon dried out and led to some close qualifying & racing in the finals. The Schumacher team showed there pace with Tom Cockerill & Simon Moss TQ'ing rounds 2 & 3 respectfully, but unable to back these scores up with another top result. Grant also drove well during qualifying leaving the team 2nd, 4th & 5th on the grid.

The racing in the finals was very close and any mistake would cost a lot of places. After the three legs it was Grant Williams who did the best for the team, finishing 3rd overall, with tom 5th and Simon 6th.

On Sunday the racer's were treated to torrential rain during practice & round 1. At this point we were expecting the meeting to be cancelled at some point, but the rain eased of and the sun started shining, allowing the track to almost fully dry out for the finals.

Tom Yardy took round 1 of qualifying, closely followed by Tom Cockerill with his SX2. Tom backed up his 2nd in round 1 with TQ in rounds 2 & 3. In Round 4 it was champion designate Lee Martin who took the round, leaving Tom Cockerill to line up 1st for the finals. Tom was Joined in the final by Schumacher drivers Grant Williams, Simon Moss & Colin May who lined up 6th, 7th & 10th respectfully.

Legs 1 & 2 were a simple affair for Tom, leading from start to finish, closely followed by Yardy & Lee in each leg. This gave Tom the overall meeting honours and ended Lee's domination of the series so far this year. Grant managed to improve to 5th overall, with 3 4th's across the legs. Simon finished 7th & Colin 9th.

The series now moves onto the last round at Stotfold in August. With the 2wd championship still up for grabs, Tom Cockerill goes into the event in the strongest position, currently leading the Championship, with Schumacher driver Grant Williams also with an outside chance to take victory.

For a full report see http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/2010national-southport/

Thanks to Oople for the images.