British Open GP – Report

The second edition British Open GP took place at the Halifax circuit in West Yorkshire. The event would cater for 1/10th 200mm, 1/10th Sports GT, 1/8th GT, 1/8th IC and 1/8th electric with over 80 entries making it an exciting weekend. The race would take a similar structure to that of the popular ENS series with round by round qualifying and a single sided bump up finals format. Along with the race, a social event was hosted on the Saturday evening along with a raffle with prizes donated by the event sponsors. With the area known among racers as having its own climate, rain would make for challenging conditions throughout qualifying.

In the 1/10th 200mm class, reigning champion Alex Thurston would take the TQ after four rounds ahead of James Conolly and Matthew Cook. In the final, Matthew Cook would come out victorious ahead of Alex Thurston and Nigel Philpott.

In the 1/10th Sports GT class, Glyn Beal would set the pace from class newcomer, Daniel Thorpe and class returnee Jason Fox. In the final, Glyn would lead from start to finish to take the win ahead of Simon Wood and Jason Fox. Special congratulations go to Bailey Rice-Draycott who at only 8 years old won the B-final to bump up into the main event and finish a respectable 8th.

In the 1/8th IC class, Mark Green would take a slim TQ ahead of Kyle Branson and Tim Wood. In the final, after losing the lead briefly to Kyle, Mark would take an unchallenged win from Andrew Hastings with Karl Dransfield completing the podium.

In the new for 2016 1/8th GT class Glyn Beal would qualify on pole position with Scott Hellawell close behind and Martin Thurston in 3rd. In the final Glyn would again drive a faultless race to become champion in another class. After missing the start, Scott Hellawell would come in 2nd and Martin Thurston would complete the podium driving a RTR car.

Finally in the 1/8th electric class, Alex Thurston would take the TQ from Paul Bellinger and Mathew Baker. The two legged A Final would be a similar story with Alex taking a dominant win ahead of Gavin Clinch and Franck Dambrine.

Thanks to Peter Hellawell for the report.