BRCA NATONAL ALDERSHOT ROUND 1.

Reflections on the first National meeting of the new season.......
With
round one now done and dusted lets take a little time to reflect and
look back at the first round of this years national touring car
championshipWith
every ongoing year the BRCA TC committee attempts to keep the national
series fresh and innovative, we also aim to try and give competitors a
well run and enjoyable meeting, our long term aim is to attract new
drivers to the national scene and encourage high levels of skill and
sportsmanship, to this aim the rules are tweaked every year and from
the drivers response to round one it looks like we have got it right.

This
years championship kicked off at Aldershot and saw a win for defending
modified champion Chris Grainger, in the new and exciting Pro Stock
class Glen Westwood took the victory spoils, the Pro Stock class is
typical of the way in which new technology is taken onboard within the
touring car championship, it also gives the opportunity for drivers not
wishing to race the ultra high speed modified class to show their stuff.

It is noticeable that there is a breath of fresh air running through
the national touring car scene at the moment, at Aldershot, despite the
bad weather on Sunday, everyone seemed to be having a good time and the
feedback from the drivers was very positive, long may that continue.

Some
of you who were not present at Aldershot may have spotted the live
updates on the central booking web site, this is something new that we
hope to develop as the season moves on, we are working with limited
technology at the moment and very limited knowledge by the writer....
me. I hope that my IT skills, and spelling will improve during the year
and the live page will become a must read item for those of you who are
interested in the national scene but are not able to get to the races.

So that's the BRCA hard sell out of the way, now lets take a look back at round one.

The
first of the two day format TC nationals got underway in great weather
conditions with controlled practice on Saturday morning, three rounds
of practice in heat order saw drivers improving their times and fine
tuning their set ups prior to round one of qualifying.

A big
thanks to the Team Doris girls who were tasked with sorting out the
marking of the Sorex control tyres, Mini and Fran could be seen with an
array of different coloured nail varnish, but this was different
colours for different sets, and nothing to do with any reasons of
vanity. Thanks girls

Mark
Burgess conducted his first major drivers briefing of 2008 as everyone
assembled around race control, with new rules in place and a new
emphasis on health and safety these briefings are now more important
than ever, so it was a case of pin back your ears and listen carefully
to Mr B.

Round one of qualifying went very much to the form book
with Chris Grainger (Yokomo) posting the quickest time in modified and
Glen Westwood (Serpent) leading the Pro Stock class. Qualification for
touring car nationals is now done on a round by round basis, this
caused a non starting Olly Jefferies (Hot Bodies) to drop to the back
of the field in round two after finishing second to Chris in round one,
Chris continued to dominate up front in round two as did Glen Westwood.
A
win for Olly in round three saw him climb back up the order a little
but it was still Chris heading the sheets, Glen Westwood was looking
unstoppable in Pro Stock, but it was noticeable that other drivers
including Glens brother Jay were now starting to get to grips with
gearing and set up and were closing the gap to Glen at this point,
notably Rob West and Byron Humphries (Schumacher) and yet another
Serpent in the hands of Mark Sadler were closing in on Glen.

So
if Glen and Chris were leading the way up front, who of the established
drivers were strugling at this point? in modified the Associated duo of
Andy Robson and Alan Bickerstaff looked quick, but the times did not
reflect this, last years 19 turn champion Chris Kerswell was also not
where the form books would have put him prior to the meeting, some
consolation for Chris was his Corrally team mate Chris Delves was going
well and looking good for an A final place, Glen Doman was also going
well for Corrally on a track were he took a national FTD a few years
ago.

Schumacher were looking strong in both classes, Rob West
and Byron Humphries were flying the flag for the Northampton based team
in Pro Stock and Matt White and Russ Williams were looking good in
modified.

With round by round qualifying its not always easy
to see who is going quickly, by virtue of one bad score you could be
languishing down the order a little, the only true picture emerges once
all five scores are in, the worst two scores are then dropped and you
have the overall picture.

By
the end of day one everyone was grateful for a full days dry running,
but most people were predicting rain on Sunday, nothing else to do
except go back to the hotel and get your car waterproofed as best you
can. Another innovation for this season is a short practice run on
Sunday morning, this was introduced in case the track was wet, it
turned out to be dry at this point, but the rain did come and it came
in spectacular fashion with thunder and lightning, Qualifying was
stopped while the storm cleared.

Glen Westwood continued to lead
the Pro Stock class with his brother Jay playing a supporting role in
second while in modified Olly Jeffries put in two stunningly quick runs
on the damp track to take FTD, his first ever modified national FTD, so
it was Glen and Olly that would start on pole position for their
respective A finals.

Finals at BRCA touring car nationals are
always keenly contested and Aldershot 2008 was no exception, Mar
Burgess and Eddie Williams shared the thankless task of race referee
and did a top job, thanks guys.

Glen
Westwood had driven faultlessly up to this point but in leg one of the
finals he made an uncharacteristic mistake at the chicane, effectively
handing the leg one win to brother Jay, in modified Chris Grainger
gambled on slicks for the first final while the rest of the field sat
on the grid on intermediates, it was a decisive move which gave the
first leg win to Chris over Olly.

Leg two and Glen made amends
leading from start to finish in modified the rain fell as the cars sat
on the start line, the cars crawled around for a few laps until the
grip came up, by that time Chris had edged a big enough lead and
despite some fast laps from Olly he was not able to catch the Yokomo
man, this result effectively won Chris the meeting.

The final
leg of the finals saw Glen Westwood seal maximum points for the meeting
with another A final win and make history by being the first winner of
a BRCA Pro Stock meeting, Jay Westwood would finish second and making
it a Serpent 1-2-3 was Mark Sadler, quite a result for a team not
renowned for its results in electric touring cars.

Olly and
Chris threw caution to the wind in the last final, with nothing to
loose or gain they had "just how fast can we go and not care if we
dump" kind of run, an impressive demonstration of just how fast an
electric touring car lap at Aldershot, Olly came out the winner after
an impressive display enjoyed by all the onlookers.

Unluckiest
man in the modified A final was Elliott Harper, three bad finals spoilt
a really good qualifying performance for the young X-Ray star, Elliott
is desperate for a good national result and surely that is just around
the corner.


So
now its on to Cotswold, does the advantage swing towards Olly for the
next round at a track he knows well, Andy Moore is back for the next
round and don't dismiss Chris again, we all remember what happened last
year, expect Elliott to be in the mix as well, in Pro Stock we will see
if the Serpent result was a fluke or can the Westwoods carry the
momentum through the season, a preview will be posted for the next
round a week or so before the event so keep an eye for it on Central
Booking.

Adrian Jefferies
BRCA TC PRO