The 2018 BRCA Large Scale Off Road Series commenced last weekend at the Nene Valley Off Road Model Car Club centrally located in Northamptonshire.
The Nene crew should be commended as their preparation work had been hampered by the week after week of rain and snow that the UK has seen this winter, yes that’s right a week before our national the Nene was under 2inches of snow like most of the UK.
With the threat of an ever-popular championship in 2018 the racers were encouraged to preregister and with the Nene being centrally located we see a blip in the numbers at the Nene rounds and at one point we were looking at topping out about 86 drivers.
However, as race day approached numbers slowly dropped but due to the class splits, it was still looking as we would need to run 9 heats on race day.
Saturday was here before we knew it and practice commenced just before 11 following an informal welcome given by the LSOR section chairman. For those experiencing their first national weekend an additional briefing was given and out they all went; with 60 drivers in attendance they opted to run in “open practice format” rather than controlled sessions to enable people to come and go.
The first practice season came to a close at 2pm to enable the section to have an informal meeting with those present and take the time to reflect on the sad loss of our friend Dallas Mathiesen. Just before 3pm, as the track was drying the final practice season commenced.
Saturday evening finished off with Dane Whittleston and Peter Barns presenting the 2017 section trophies whilst I was busy in race control recovering data from our semi dead laptop to a backup machine which I carry to each meeting so we could race on Sunday. Our 2017 championship standings are available here
Following the presentation, the section had provided an hot buffet and associated drinks (soft ones versions if the exec are reading this :) ) as a gesture of our thanks to the drivers who travel the country supporting our ever popular series.
Saturday finished on a high with all drivers ready for Sundays race meeting and for me, there were 5 heart stopping minutes midway through the second practice season when one of the committee came running into race control, asking why there was an ambulance heading for the track with its blues and twos on!! Following a swift walk (for me), and when asked “is this Santa Pod” I said no love, you need to head another 1/4mile up the road my panic was over as the ambulance reversed slowly back down the lane it had gingerly come up only seconds earlier!
Race day,
Thanks to the clocks changing race day was here before we knew it and with the need to run 9 heats and to finish at a reasonable time the decision was made for an early driver briefing and to run 6-minute heats, even doing this the expected completion time was going to be 7pm. However, with the light and weather in our favour there would be no need for the Nene’s flood lights this visit.
The formal drivers briefing was given with the drivers introduced to Paul Keatley the sections head referee for 2018, who did a great job over the weekend and did not need to issue any penalties, despite witnessing some very close and fast racing throughout the meeting.
The 4WD buggies were soon out on the track doing there three heats of qualification and helping the track to dry a bit before the 2wheel drive guys ventured out for their qualification session and then finally the short course drivers followed with it taking just under 2 hours to complete a single round of qualification and we had three to do. The good news is that all rounds went without serious incident and for the first time the series had a female driver in each class, Sophie Finch in Short Course, Kayleigh Knight in 2 wheel drive and Heidi Shilcock in 4 wheel drive. With this being Kayleigh first competitive large scale race and is just over 14months since Sophie entered her first meeting, the 2017 Zenoah Challenge Cup and Heidi being a veturan in her 2nd season having completed in last years European Championship here in the UK. Welcome ladies and hopefully we will see you at many more race meetings this season.
Just before 14:30 the final heat of qualification came to a close with drivers eager to get out into their finals and be off home.
At the end of qualification, the standings were
| | 2 Wheel Drive | 4 Wheel Drive | 4 Wheel Drive |
| Rank | Name | Grade | Score | Best Round | Name | Grade | Score | Best Round | Name | Grade | Score | Best Round |
| 1 | Andy Blackburn | National | 0 | 3:0, 1:0 [2:22] | Stu Wood | National | 0 | 3:0, 2:0 [1:0] | Dave Parish | National | 0 | 2:0, 1:0 [3:2] |
| 2 | Karl Norris | National | 2 | 2:0, 3:2 [1:2] | Ian Oddie | National | 4 | 3:2, 2:2 [1:2] | Jack Keatley | National | 2 | 3:0, 1:2 [2:13] |
| 3 | Mark Higgins | National | 5 | 2:2, 3:3 [1:4] | Rick Ashman | National | 6 | 3:3, 2:3 [1:4] | Steve Jones | National | 5 | 2:2, 3:3 [1:20] |
| 4 | Dave Ashton | National | 6 | 2:3, 1:3 [3:4] | Chris Sutcliffe | National | 8 | 3:4, 2:4 [1:6] | Lee Chapman | National | 7 | 2:3, 3:4 [1:5] |
| 5 | Matthew Chapman | National | 9 | 2:4, 1:5 [3:7] | Craig Orman | National | 9 | 1:3, 2:6 [3:21] | Martyn Williams | Clubman | 8 | 1:3, 3:5 [2:5] |
| 6 | Dean Coulson | National | 11 | 2:5, 1:6 [3:10] | Leon Satchell | National | 10 | 3:5, 1:5 [2:9] | Martin Fitzpatrick | Clubman | 10 | 1:4, 2:6 [3:7] |
| 7 | Andy Knight | National | 13 | 3:5, 2:8 [1:9] | Roger Smith | National | 12 | 2:5, 1:7 [3:9] | Matthew Buxton | National | 10 | 2:4, 1:6 [3:12] |
| 8 | Oliver Whittleston | Clubman | 14 | 2:7, 1:7 [3:9] | Ayaz Aslam | National | 13 | 3:6, 2:7 [1:9] | Stephen King | Clubman | 13 | 3:6, 2:7 [1:13] |
| 9 | Kevan Churchill | Clubman | 14 | 2:6, 3:8 [1:12] | Dave Griffiths | National | 15 | 3:7, 2:8 [1:22] | Josey Schifano | Clubman | 17 | 1:7, 2:10 [3:11] |
| 10 | Saul Morris | National | 14 | 3:6, 1:8 [2:21] | Charles Butterworth | National | 20 | 3:10, 2:10 [1:12] | Robert Harpham | Clubman | 19 | 1:9, 3:10 [2:18] |
| 11 | Mindaugas Klenauskas | Clubman | 20 | 2:10, 1:10 [3:13] | Kerry Thorpe | Clubman | 20 | 1:8, 2:12 [3:15] | Andy Love | National | 19 | 3:9, 1:10 [2:23] |
| 12 | Mark Cove | Clubman | 21 | 2:9, 3:12 [1:17] | Ryan Preece | Clubman | 21 | 3:8, 2:13 [1:17] | Rob Walker | Clubman | 20 | 3:8, 2:12 [1:12] |
| 13 | Terry Jackson | Clubman | 22 | 3:11, 1:11 [2:12] | Gary Burns | Clubman | 21 | 1:10, 2:11 [3:19] | James Bernhardt | Clubman | 23 | 2:8, 1:15 [3:22] |
| 14 | Dave Grimshaw | National | 24 | 2:11, 1:13 [3:21] | Andrew Gilbert | Clubman | 25 | 3:11, 1:14 [2:16] | Sophie Finch | Clubman | 24 | 2:11, 3:13 [1:14] |
| 15 | Colin Lupton | Clubman | 27 | 2:13, 1:14 [3:15] | Jim Whitehead | National | 25 | 1:11, 2:14 [3:16] | Mark Riseley | Clubman | 25 | 1:11, 3:14 [2:14] |
| 16 | Duane Bingham | Clubman | 28 | 3:14, 2:14 [1:18] | Ron Morgan | Clubman | 28 | 3:13, 2:15 [1:18] | Simon Godney | Clubman | 25 | 1:8, 2:17 [3:17] |
| 17 | Paul Parker | Clubman | 31 | 1:15, 3:16 [2:18] | Heidi Shilcock | Clubman | 30 | 3:12, 2:18 [1:19] | John Hall | Clubman | 30 | 2:9, 1:21 [3:23] |
| 18 | Bob Weaver | Clubman | 31 | 2:15, 1:16 [3:20] | Richard Smith | Clubman | 33 | 1:13, 3:20 [2:21] | James Clark | Clubman | 31 | 2:15, 3:16 [1:22] |
| 19 | Paul Diver | Clubman | 33 | 2:16, 3:17 [1:19] | Robin Rymer | Clubman | 34 | 1:16, 3:18 [2:19] | Nick Williams | Clubman | 32 | 3:15, 1:17 [2:21] |
| 20 | James Bloomfield | Clubman | 36 | 2:17, 3:19 [1:20] | Paul Gresty | National | 34 | 3:14, 2:20 [1:21] | Wally Oates | Clubman | 35 | 2:16, 1:19 [3:21] |
| 21 | Kayleigh Knight | Clubman | 37 | 3:18, 2:19 [1:22] | Kevin Sexton | Clubman | 37 | 3:17, 1:20 [2:22] | Shane Robertson | Clubman | 36 | 1:18, 3:18 [2:19] |
| 22 | Zach Whittleston | Clubman | 41 | 2:20, 1:21 [3:22] | Matthew Perry | National | 37 | 1:15, 3:22 [2:24] | Wayne Robertson | Clubman | 36 | 1:16, 2:20 [3:20] |
| 23 | | | | | Phil Chester | Clubman | 40 | 2:17, 1:23 [3:22] | Jim Whitehead | National | 41 | 3:19, 2:22 [1:23] |
| 24 | | | | | David Mcglynn | Clubman | 45 | 2:23, 3:22 [1:24] | | | | |
Before we could head home we had 9 finals to run, 3 of which being the main class finals of 30 minutes duration so after a quick break the first final commenced and 4 hours later the last final was completed.
The results for this meeting and championship positions are available here ,congratulations to our class winners and to all those who took part over the weekend and we look forward to doing it all again in a months time but hopefully without the damp weather and the IT challenges
In light of the series popularity and taking on the views of the drivers in attendance at round 1 the committee are looking into the feasibility of holding a round of qualification on Saturday afternoon between 3 and 5 to ease the time pressures on a Sunday. Initial analysis has been performed which indicates that utilising this format will provide the benefit of an earlier finish if attendance levels are low and for the odd event a 6pm finish will still be encountered.
On behalf of the 2018 BRCA LSOR section committee can I thank all who entered race 1 and for those who dropped out at the last minute we hope to see you soon. My plea is can those who are planning on entering our series as we travel the country please pre-book via the events area of this website because it makes all the difference in the events planning has you can see above. As a reminder, booking in online closes a week before the event to enable race control to configure the weekends programme.
Darren Worth
2018 BRCA LSOR Section Chairman
BRCA - British Radio Car Association