Elliott Harper dominates BRCA 1/12th Nats Rd2
Last weekend saw round 2 of the 2010/11 BRCA 1/12th scale nationals take place at Ardent Raceway. On Saturday, Elliott Harper ran away with the stock class driving is Speed Passion powered CRC Gen-XL. He comfortably TQ’d ahead of current European champion Chris Kerswell, who is still getting to grips with his new Serpent car. The V-Dezign trio of Andy Griffiths, Matt Varah and Mark Stiles completed the top 5. Elliott cruised to a comfortable win in the A final. Chris Kerswell pushed hard to try and keep up, but took too many chances and a mistake left him out of contention. Matt Varah also made an error and would miss out on a podium placing. With Elliott in a clear lead, the focus of everyone’s attention was on the battle for 2nd; Mark pushed Andy all the way but just couldn’t find a way past in the dying laps, so had to settle for the 3rd step of the podium behind Andy.
Stock results
1. Elliott Harper – CRC/Speed Passion
2. Andy Griffiths – V-Dezign/Nosram
3. Mark Stiles – V-Dezign/Castle
4. Andy Sawyer – Corally/LRP
5. Mick Farrell – CRC/Tekin
6. Matt Varah – V-Dezign
7. Matt Lax – CRC
8. Damien Holmes – V-Dezign
9. Chris Kerswell – Serpent/GM
10.Jim Spencer – Associated
Sunday saw the field split into two separate classes; sports modified and open modified. CRC/Tekin driver Mick Farrell picked up from where he left off at round 1 by taking a comfortable TQ ahead of a driver who hasn’t raced in the class for over 2 years; Adam Catchpole. The A final looked like being a formality, but it was anything but that! Mistakes from Mick early in the run would see the lead swap between him and Adam for the first part of the race. Once both drivers had settled into a groove Adam was in the lead and despite doing everything he could, Mick just couldn’t close the gap and had to settle for 2nd place.
Sports Modified results
1. Adam Walker Catchpole – V-Dezign
2. Mick Farrell – CRC/Tekin
3. Mark Jewitt – V-Dezign
4. Matt Lax – CRC
5. Nigel Hale – Associated
6. Damien Holmes – V-Dezign
7. James Stewart – Associated
8. Jason Butterfield – Associated
9. Jim Spencer – Associated
10.David Gale – Xray
In open modified, Elliott showed once again why he’s one of the world’s best drivers by taking TQ in every single round of qualifying. As on Saturday, Chris Kerswell showed flashes of brilliance, but just wasn’t able to put a consistent enough run together. In fact he was so focused on trying to beat Elliott that he didn’t account for Andy Griffiths, who put in a storming last run to take 2nd on the grid. Chris would line up 3rd ahead of Saturday’s podium finisher Mark Stiles. The final was even more of a rampage than Saturday for Elliott; he eventually lapped the entire field on his way to an easy win. Once again Chris crashed out of contention, and this allowed the V-Dezign trio of Andy, Mark and Matt Varah to fight over the remaining podium places. Matt came out on top and would cross the line 2nd; his best ever result at a national. Mark got his own back after Saturday by fending off Andy Griffiths in the closing stages; these two finished 3rd and 4th respectively.
The results leave Elliott as the clear leader in the stock class with a maximum score after the first 2 rounds. In open modified it’s a bit closer, with round 1 winner Andy Griffiths leading Mark Stiles by 2 points. Mick Farrell leads sports modified with a win and a 2nd. It’s still early days though and with 4 rounds remaining anything can happen! Round 3 will take place at Tamworth in 3 weeks time.
Open Modified results
1. Elliott Harper – CRC/Speed Passion
2. Matt Varah – V-Dezign
3. Mark Stiles – V-Dezign/Castle
4. Andy Griffiths – V-Dezign/Nosram
5. Chris Kerswell – Serpent/GM
6. Andy Sawyer – Corally/LRP
7. Keith Robertson – Associated/Novak
8. Luke Burley – Associated
9. Mark Jordan – Associated
10.Kevin Creaser – CRC
Thanks to Mark Stiles for the report.
