Jefferies wins his last race for Team Associated
Round 3 of the BRCA 1/12th scale nationals took place in Tamworth last weekend. Once again the entry was almost full with more than 100 drivers competing on each day. The event would see Olly Jefferies driving an Associated car for the final time before he switches to Xray for 2014. Olly has been in dominant form this winter having won 3 of the first 4 national events in the stock and modified classes. In the Stock class on Saturday Olly set a blistering pace in the early rounds, but a fast run from David Spashett would see him line up on pole position for the A-final with his Zen Racing RS chassis. Olly was 2nd for Associated/Reedy/LRP. Championship leader Adam Catchpole failed to make the A-final after finishing 2nd at both of the first two events. In the A final Olly capitalised on a rare mistake from Spashett to then go on and win the race. A fine drive from CRC’s Mick Farrell netted him the final podium place.
The 13.5 class was again dominated by Keith Robertson. The CML employee won the A-final for the third time in a row to make it an Associated/Reedy double. In the ever popular GT12 class Chris Ashton took TQ and the win for Schumacher Racing. The team prize was won by Team Corally, while the Spirit of the Meeting award sponsored by Dremel UK was presented to Kenneth Rogers for his tireless efforts in helping fellow racers to both get to national events and enjoy themselves as well.
Sunday sees a separate event and faster motors for the LMP12 classes. In Open Modified Olly Jefferies comfortably TQ’d. Mark Stiles was lying 2nd with his Reedy/LRP powered Yokomo for most of the day until he was pipped by David Spashett in the final qualifying round. Serpent’s Chris Kerswell was having a tough weekend but managed to qualify 4th ahead of a very fast but accident prone Adam Catchpole, driving a Corally. The A-final was a lights to flag win for Olly; he was never challenged and eased away at the front, eventually winning by 5 seconds ahead of Mark Stiles who put his Yokomo on the podium for the third national in a row. Andy Murray completed the podium driving a V-Dezign car. David Spashett slipped from 3rd to 5th in the closing stages with a radio problem, allowing Matt Varah to move up to 4th place and complete what was a strong weekend for the privateer Yokomo runner.
In the Sport class Keith Roberston got his 2nd TQ in as many days, but a mistake in the early stages of the A-final allowed David Gale to take a popular win. Those who have been around RC for a while may remember David as a former European Champion in Pro10 and the man behind ‘Gale Force’ batteries in the 90’s. GT12 was once again won by Chris Ashton who was driving one of 9 Schumacher cars in the A-final. The team prize for Sunday was won by Team Yokomo, with the Dremel sponsored ‘Spirit of the Meeting’ award going to Rob Ellis – a dad who always mucks in to help build the tracks raced on at the nationals. The next event on the calendar is round 4 at Crewe in January.
Source: BRCA [brca.org]
