Green & Beal win BRCA 200mm season opener

The 2013 1/10th IC National series kicked off at the Mendip Model Racing Club over the weekend of the 30th and 31st of March. The weather for the weekend was dry on both days, with outbreaks of sunshine but chilling breezes. Numbers for each class were as follows, 24 200mm and 20 Sports GT. Mark Green was back once again to start his title defence with Peter Hastings sitting out this racing season meaning that a new Sports GT champion will be crowned. On the Saturday Glyn Beal would lead the way setting a blistering pace with returning Richard Draycott and Adam Crossland following suit. In 200mm it was much tighter at the top with Mark Green, Alex Thurston and Joe Kerry all setting quick lap times.

Sunday morning greeted drivers with freezing temperatures and drivers briefing was called for 830 am. At the briefing Grant introduced the committee once again and Steve Woodhams thanked everyone for making an effort in wearing their hi-vis vests. The first heat was scheduled to be on the line at 900 am. Heat 1 was time for the 200mm cars. Paul Bellinger won the heat with a time of 16 laps in 304.15 seconds, followed home by Steve Woodhams and Devendra Mahatme who both posted 15 lap runs. Heat 2 was won by Richard Draycott with 200mm convert David Gerard in 2nd and Darren Evans in 3rd. This proved that Richard had not lost any of his speed whilst he was away.

Onto Heat 3, this was won by the Xray pairing of Tobie Manser and Peter Spratley. Matthew Williams took 3rd for the heat with his Serpent 733 TE. All 3 drivers finished their runs on 16 laps, but Paul Bellinger regained the top spot from the previous heat. Heat 4 and Glyn Beal proved his dominance from the previous day to post a convincing TQ run. Glyn beat fellow Serpent driver Jason Thompson by a massive 20 seconds with Ben Lungley taking the 3rd spot.

Top 10 Sports GT after Round 1:
1. Glyn Beal – 18L in 306.61
2. Richard Draycott – 17L in 305.50
3. Jason Thompson – 17L in 311.17
4. Ben Lungley – 17L in 312.86
5. Mike Manning – 17L in 314.44
6. David Gerard – 17L in 317.74
7. Adam Crossland – 17L in 330.05
8. Steve Woodhams – 16L in 318.16
9. Richard Boult – 15L in 301.97
10.Darren Evans – 15L in 307.53

Heat 5 would prove a highly competitive race for the TQ. Joe Kerry won the heat by 7 seconds over Andrew Hastings who was in turn 3 seconds faster than Simon Wood. Although showing strong pace yesterday, Mark Green and Alex Thurston both hit troubles in the first qualifier.

Top 10 200mm after Round 1:
1. Joe Kerry – 18L in 313.00
2. Andrew Hastings – 17L in 303.08
3. Simon Wood – 17L in 306.56
4. John Zottl – 17L in 309.51
5. Mark Green – 17L in 282.12
6. Matthew Cook – 16L in 295.18
7. Paul Bellinger – 16L in 304.15
8. Tobie Manser – 16L in 310.71
9. Peter Spratley – 16L in 319.26
10.Matthew Williams – 16L in 329.34

With Round 1 complete, it was again time for Heat 1 and this time it was another returnee to the sport, Jason Leggett who took the win. Paul Bellinger took 2nd for the race with Steve Woodhams taking 3rd. Heat 2 and Richard Draycott again won the heat with a time 3 seconds faster than his previous run. This time followed home by Phil Edwards and Dave Williams. Phil and Dave posted 16 and 15 lap runs respectively.

Heat 3 was again won by Tobie Manser who improved his overall time by a second. 2nd for the heat was Mark Newby with Matthew Williams taking the 3rd spot. All 3 drivers recorded 16 lap runs. Heat 4 was again dominated by Glyn Beal, although this time he was joined on 18 laps by Ben Lungley and Mike Manning. The trio putting their two Serpents and Shepherd at the top of the time sheets.

Top 10 Sports GT after Round 2:
1. Glyn Beal – 18L in 302.16
2. Ben Lungley – 18L in 311.37
3. Mike Manning – 18L in 317.34
4. Richard Draycott – 17L in 302.36
5. Adam Crossland – 17L in 304.22
6. Jason Thompson – 17L in 311.17
7. David Gerard – 17L in 317.74
8. Phil Edwards – 16L in 303.15
9. Richard Boult – 16L in 304.61
10.Steve Woodhams – 16L in 318.16

Heat 5 was again hotly contested with Alex Thurston looking incredibly threatening over the first couple of laps. Unfortunately problems dropped him out of the race for TQ. Mark Green took the win with Joe Kerry in 2nd and John Zottl in 3rd.

Top 10 200mm after Round 2:
1. Mark Green – 18L in 310.66
2. Joe Kerry – 18L in 313.00
3. Andrew Hastings – 17L in 303.08
4. John Zottl – 17L in 305.34
5. Simon Wood – 17L in 305.66
6. Matthew Cook – 16L in 295.18
7. Jason Leggett – 16L in 300.30
8. Paul Bellinger – 16L in 304.15
9. Tobie Manser – 16L in 309.84
10.Mark Owen – 16L in 314.93

Straight into Round 3 and Paul Bellinger backed up his Round 1 win to top the group from Sports GT converts Bob Harley and Steve Woodhams. Paul posted a run 1 second slower than his previous best with Bob also 1 second short and Steve also failing to improve. Heat 2 and it was again Richard Draycott who took the win with David Gerard and Jason Fox in 2nd and 3rd. Richard joined the 18 lap club with a run in 316.95 seconds, David posted a 17 lap run and Jason a 16 lap run.

Heat 3 and Peter Spratley took the win with Mark Fagan in 2nd and Tobie Manser in 3rd. Peter posted his fastest run of the day, moving him into the Top 10 once again. Mark and Tobie also posted competitive 16 lap runs. Onto Heat 4 and there was no surprise as to who was at the top. Glyn Beal won from Ben Lungley and Adam Crossland. Adam improved his time with Glyn and Ben just shy of their previous bests.

Top 10 Sports GT after Round 3:
1. Glyn Beal – 18L in 302.16
2. Ben Lungley – 18L in 311.37
3. Richard Draycott – 18L in 316.95
4. Mike Manning – 18L in 317.34
5. Adam Crossland – 17L in 302.15
6. Jason Thompson – 17L in 302.53
7. David Gerard – 17L in 302.58
8. Ryk Pryke – 17L in 315.08
9. Jason Fox – 16L in 303.04
10.Phil Edwards – 16L in 303.15

Heat 6 and Alex Thurston put his problems from the first two rounds behind him to take TQ over his Serpent teammates Joe Kerry and Mark Green. Alex set a time of 18 laps in 308.86 seconds to move into the overall TQ position with Joe 1 second behind and Mark a further 4 seconds adrift.

Top 10 200mm after Round 3:
1. Alex Thurston – 18L in 308.86
2. Joe Kerry – 18L in 309.75
3. Mark Green – 18L in 310.66
4. Andrew Hastings – 17L in 303.08
5. John Zottl – 17L in 305.34
6. Simon Wood – 17L in 305.66
7. Matthew Cook – 16L in 295.18
8. Jason Leggett – 16L in 300.30
9. Paul Bellinger – 16L in 304.15
10.Peter Spratley – 16L in 304.34

In to the final round of qualifying. Jason Leggett took the win in Heat 1 to further improve his time and cement his 7th place starting position for the A Final. Paul Bellinger took 2nd for the race and would start from 10th position in the A Final. Barry Whitehead took 3rd place and would start from 2nd in the C Final. Heat 2 and Richard Draycott made it 4 out of 4 wins in qualifying and would start 3rd in the A Final. 2nd for the heat was David Gerard with Jason Fox in 3rd, David would start from 7th and Jason from 8th in the A final.

In Heat 3 Mark Fagan took the win from Scott Hellawell and Tobie Manser. Mark would start the B Final from 3rd with Scott and Tobie 4th and 2nd respectively also in the B Final. Heat 4 and Glyn Beal once again took the win to secure the overall TQ, Ben Lungley took 2nd for the heat to line up 2nd for the A Final and Adam Crossland took 3rd to line up 5th in the A Final.

Top 10 Sports GT after Round 4:
1. Glyn Beal – 18L in 302.16 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed
2. Ben Lungley – 18L in 311.37 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed
3. Richard Draycott – 18L in 316.95 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed
4. Mike Manning – 18L in 317.34 – Shepherd/Novarossi/Matrix
5. Adam Crossland – 17L in 302.15 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed
6. Jason Thompson – 17L in 302.53 – Serpent/Picco/Xceed
7. David Gerard – 17L in 302.58 – Xray/RB Murnan/Matrix
8. Jason Fox – 17L in 313.96 – Shepherd/Xceed/Matrix
9. Ryk Pryke – 17L in 315.08 – Xray/Sirio/Matrix
10.Richard Boult – 17L in 318.65 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed

So for the Sports GT A Final it can be seen that we have 6 Serpents, 2 Shepherds and 2 Xrays. In the engines department we have 6 Xceeds, 1 Novarossi, 1 Picco, 1 RB Murnan and 1 Sirio. In terms of tyres there are 6 sets of Xceed and 4 sets of Matrix.

Onto Heat 5 and Mark Green won the heat after trying his hardest to knock fellow Serpent driver Alex Thurston off the top spot, unfortunately Mark’s best efforts would leave him just 0.09 seconds shy of Alex’s previous time giving the 14 year old the TQ. Mark would line up 2nd on the grid for the A Final. 2nd and 3rd for the heat went to Andrew Hastings and Joe Kerry, Andrew would line up 4th and Joe 3rd both for the A Final.

Top 10 200mm after Round 4:
1. Alex Thurston – 18L in 308.86 – Serpent/IDM/Contact
2. Mark Green – 18L in 308.95 – Serpent/Novarossi/Xceed
3. Joe Kerry – 18L in 309.75 – Serpent/OS/Xceed
4. Andrew Hastings – 17L in 301.78 – Shepherd/Sonic/Shepherd
5. John Zottl – 17L in 302.43 – Shepherd/RB Murnan/Shepherd
6. Simon Wood – 17L in 305.66 – Xray/Novarossi/Matrix
7. Jason Leggett – 17L in 318.15 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed
8. Matthew Cook – 16L in 295.18 – Hot Bodies/Novarossi/Contact
9. Mark Owen – 16L in 303.28 – Xray/Novarossi/Contact
10.Paul Bellinger – 16L in 304.15 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed

So for the 200mm A Final we see that there are 5 Serpents, 2 Shepherds, 2 Xrays and 1 Hot Bodies. In engines we see 4 Novarossis, 2 Xceed, 1 IDM, 1 OS, 1 RB Murnan and 1 Sonic. The tyre statistics show 4 sets of Xceed, 3 sets of Contact, 2 sets of Shepherd and 1 set of Matrix.

So with a 30 minute lunch break called to give race control time to sort the finals, the first final up would be the 200mm C Final. Bob Harley would start the race from pole with Barry Whitehead and Nigel Philpott starting 2nd and 3rd respectively. After the final had begun, the race order had completely reversed within the first lap leaving Nigel out in front from Barry. Nigel would hold his lead until Lap 8, when he hit trouble dropping him back to 3rd. Barry would inherit the lead and hold it Lap 13 when Bob would come back and take the position. Bob was looking like he would take the win until he too lost out to problems handing the win to the Serpent 733 of Barry Whitehead. Bob’s Serpent 747 took 2nd with Nigel’s Xray NT1 in 3rd.

The Sports GT B Final began with pole man Peter Hellawell leading the field away with Jim Beesley and Steve Woodhams in close pursuit. On Lap 10 Dave Williams found a way past Steve and just 2 laps later moved into 2nd as Jim dropped back. Lap 15 and Steve again found his way back into 2nd benefitting from his 6 minute fuel stops. On lap 16 Dave made way for Martin Trice to move up into 3rd place. For the next 20 or so laps Martin, Dave and Devendra Mahatme traded the 3rd position until Devendra took it and held it until the finish. Peter Hellawell took the win with his Serpent 747 ahead of Steve Woodhams’ Mugen Seiki MTX4R and Devendra Mahatme’s Shepherd V10. 4th place went to David Williams with the Serpent 733 of Darren Evans rounding out the Top 5.

The 200mm B Final proved to be a race of attrition starting with pole man Peter Spratley leading after the first lap with local hero Charlie Nash in 2nd having climbed 6 positions in the first lap and Devendra Mahatme in 3rd. Charlie would then take the lead on lap 2 as Peter began to hit troubles. After lap 5 Charlie was leading with Mark Fagan and Tobie Manser following closely. Mark Newby and Tobie Manser switched 3rd place for the next 10 laps until Lap 17 where Mark Fagan found a way past early leader Charlie. On Lap 27 Mark Fagan dropped out of the race and the lead leaving a two way battle for the lead between Charlie and Tobie. Mark Newby managed to find a way into 2nd place pushing Charlie into the final podium position. Tobie Manser took the win with his Xray NT1 ahead of Mark Newby’s Shepherd V10 and Charlie Nash’s Xray NT1. Devendra Mahatme’s Shepherd V10 took 4th with the Serpent 733 of Matthew Williams in 5th.

The Sports GT A Final lined up with Glyn Beal in 1st, Ben Lungley in 2nd and series returnee Richard Draycott starting in 3rd. The race kicked off with the Top 3 in qualifying order until Lap 34 when Richard managed to get past his Serpent teammate Ben Lungley. Ben quickly responded by taking back the position just 2 laps later. Lap 50 saw Ben hit problems and drop back to 5th, moving Richard into 2nd and Ryk Pryke into 3rd. On Lap 63 Ben found a way back to the 3rd spot sparking a series of overtakes between himself and Ryk. The race looked as though it would finish this way but it was discovered that Adam Crossland’s transponder had miscounted. With the result altered the podium was declared as Glyn Beal from Richard Draycott and Adam Crossland, Ben Lungley was 4th. This was a great result for Serpent and Xceed, with all of the Top 4 drivers using the Serpent 747, Xceed engines and Xceed tyres. Ryk Pryke rounded out the Top 5 with his Xray NT1.

Sports GT A Final Results:
1. Glyn Beal – 105L in 1812.98 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed
2. Richard Draycott – 101L in 1809.94 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed
3. Adam Crossland – 99L in 1807.57 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed
4. Ben Lungley – 98L in 1808.44 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed
5. Ryk Pryke – 93L in 1801.16 – Xray/Sirio/Matrix
6. David Gerard – 85L in 1632.91 – Xray/RB Murnan/Matrix
7. Mike Manning – 68L in 1423.39 – Shepherd/Novarossi/Matrix
8. Jason Thompson – 8L in 152.90 – Serpent/Picco/Xceed
9. Richard Boult – 1L in 19.14 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed
10.Jason Fox – 1L in 52.89 – Shepherd/Xceed/Matrix

The last final to be run was the 200mm A Final. The grid lined up with the Serpent trio of Alex Thurston, Mark Green and Joe Kerry starting at the front. Alex led away the field until only the 4th corner where Mark Green took advantage of a gap that had opened. Mark led the way with Alex and Joe following closely. On lap 4 Alex made a mistake that dropped him down the order allowing Joe into 2nd and John Zottl into 3rd. On Lap 6 John found a way into 2nd and held position until Lap 20 when Joe retook the 2nd place. On Lap 22 Alex found his way back into the Top 3 and began to chase down his Serpent teammate Joe Kerry. The positions held until Lap 73 when Alex found his way past into 2nd once again. The race would end like this with Mark Green’s Serpent 747 taking the win from Alex Thurston’s Serpent 747 and Joe Kerry’s similar machine. Simon Wood took 4th with his Xray NT1 and Andrew Hastings’ Shepherd V10 took 5th.

200mm A Final Results:
1. Mark Green – 101L in 1812.53 – Serpent/Novarossi/Xceed
2. Alex Thurston – 100L in 1802.11 – Serpent/IDM/Contact
3. Joe Kerry – 99L in 1811.56 – Serpent/OS/Xceed
4. Simon Wood – 96L in 1807.56 – Xray/Novarossi/Matrix
5. Andrew Hastings – 95L in 1802.41 – Shepherd/Sonic/Shepherd
6. Jason Leggett – 94L in 1816.71 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed
7. Mark Owen – 87L in 1809.30 – Xray/Novarossi/Contact
8. John Zottl – 83L in 1525.41 – Shepherd/RB Murnan/Shepherd
9. Paul Bellinger – 67L in 1592.95 – Serpent/Xceed/Xceed
10.Matthew Cook – 17L in 356.34 – Hot Bodies/Novarossi/Contact

This result seems a very popular result for Team Serpent who locked out the podiums in both classes. I would like to thank Mendip club for hosting and running the meeting and also to the people who kept us fed throughout the weekend in the cafe. It was great to see many series returnees at this meeting.

The next round takes the series to the Wombwell circuit for the first time in a decade on the weekend of 20th & 21st April.

Thanks to Peter Hellawell for the report.