WLRC BRCA NATIONAL.

Good luck to Asman and Richard at this weekends National at WLRC.

We were going to come and support you both but, my bottom pulley that conects to the power steering and alternator fell off my Zafira yesterday when we were on the A127, lol, o.m.g. so I'm under the car for the weekend, but not to long hopefully, not a big job but fiddily.

Oh well good luck all.

BRCA Touring Car National Round One West London 16th/17th May 2009 Good
morning, after weeks of build up round one of this years touring car
championship is now with us, West London looks like an F1 padock this
morning with all the team pitting and preparing for practise, there
will be a lot of talk about the weather this weekend as we have been
promised a real mixed bag, at the moment it is dry but very windy.Once the cars start to hit the track we will get some times posted......

Practice
is now underway on track that has dried after heavy overnight rain, the
wind is a real issue in the paddock as teams struggle to keep their
gazebos tied down, but the upside is the wind is drying the track.
11.40amThe
pro stock runners were first out this morning on a very green track,
there is two practice runs for everyone before racing gets underway
around lunch time, many drivers were commenting on the fact the wind is
swirling around the circuit and this is causing the car to move around
on the fast parts of the track.The
second round of practice is now underway and the grip is now starting
to come up, the cars look a little better but the track temperature is
still very low.Qualifying gets underway at 1.15 pm, more news and photos once the serious part of the weekend gets underway.
12.55am
Practice
now over, with some drivers using new tyres and some sticking with old
it’s hard to get a good form guide, but needless to say the usual
suspects were looking good. In five cell modified Andy
Moore, Glen Doman and Olly Jefferies looked quick on the stop watch,
while Jay Westwood looked on the money in pro stock.
Drivers briefing is now complete and its time to get on with the main event round one of qualifying

3.00pm
The
first round of qualifying was interrupted by a light shower of rain,
hard luck for those guys in heat seven who had to tip toe around on
damp greasy track, but by heat eight, the top heat of Pro Stock , the
track was nearly dry again, Rob West led from start to finish, the
track was still not up to full speed and some drivers had already
prepared their tyres with additive and this compounded the situation,
Jay Westwood had busy first lap and dropped to last, Bryon Humphries
also had the same problem of tyres coated with additive and he
struggled before pulling off after only a few laps.
Modified are on track now and the sun is shining, but the track condition has changed once more.
Chris
Grainger started car one and was chasing Russ Williams time from the
previous heat, early pressure from Olly Jefferies disappeared when the
Associated driver rolled on lap one, Chris pulled steadily away from
Ben Cosgrove and Elliott Harper who were having their own battle,
meanwhile Olly was coming back up the field and caught Ben’s Hot Bodies
and got past, by the time the buzzer sounded Olly was back up to
Elliott but the young X-Ray star held on to take second behind a
cruising Chris Grainger.
So a perfect start for Chris in the defence of his title, and in Pro Stock Ryan Edwards leads from Rob West and Charlie Ware.

5.00 pm
Ashley
Wiffen showed he was a contender for this meeting with the fastest Pro
stock time in round two, Ashley suffered from a wet run in round one
and is still down the order but once we start to drop scores he will
shoot up the order.
Mark
Musgrove set the second fastest time in round two and showing his first
run was not just a lucky run Ryan Edwards was third, a fifth for Rob
West keeps him in second place behind Ryan on the overall listings,
with Mark Musgrove completing the top five for Schumacher. The Pro
Stock order is a still a little mixed up due the rain shower in round
one, but expect some sort of normality to return once we start to drop
bad scores and DNF’s.
Chris
Grainger once again set the pace in Five Cell Modified, Elliott Harper
struggled to hold on to Chris but held station to take second, Olly Jefferies left the fray with a crash after two
minutes, Andy Moore was going well until the Hot Bodies Cyclone had
brief moment on its roof. Running in the previous heat Chris Kerswell
set the third overall fastest time with Phil Chambers next up.
Russ
Williams is another driver from heat 11 who is going well with his
X-Ray, Russ is just behind Chris Kerswell and Johnny Aird completes the
top five after two rounds. 6.15pm Last
round of today and I think most drivers will be glad to get back to
their hotels, the wind has been swirling around the track all day and
keeping your gazebo pinned down has been as high a priority as posting
a quick time.
Rob
West stormed to fastest Pro Stock time with his Schumacher Mi3, Mark
Fuller was second in round three, a result which moves him up too third
overall behind Mark Musgrove, another good run by Ashley Wiffen sees
him imove up to just outside the top ten, once round four is completed
in the morning and drivers drop their worst score a clearer picture of
who is going to make the A final will be clear.
The
last round of Five Cell Modified was really close, Andy Moore ran new
tyres and won the round comfortably but behind Olly Jefferies, Elliott
Harper and Glen Doman were all covered by a second, at the moment the
top three looks a very open affair but like Pro Stock it will be down
to the two rounds on Sunday morning.
So still all to play for, and everyone is hoping for a little more sociable weather on Sunday...fingers crossed.

Sunday Morning
Overnight
rain means a wet track greets competitors as they arrive for day two of
this the first touring car national of 2009, talk yesterday was
dominated by the weather and in particular the strong winds, this
morning everyone is looking skyward as rain threatens to be the
governing factor in day two.
This
year we have a constructors championship with five major manufactures
fighting for honours, six driver, three in Pro Stock, three in Five
Cell Modified, the Horizon team were missing from photo call but we
will catch up with them during the day and when it stops raining

Team Associated	Hot Bodies
Team Schumacher	Team X-Ray

10.45 am

Rob
West decided to sit out the first wet round of Sunday morning, the rain
is now falling hard and it’s becoming a case of survival of the driest.
You had to go a long way down the overall order to find the fastest Pro
Stock car in round four, that honour went to Kenney Falconer, Mark
Fuller was second and that run promotes him to second overall behind
Rob West, Jay Westwood was third in that round, a score which lifts him
up into the A final.
Large
puddles formed for the Modified boys but a full top heat made it out on
to the track for their run, Olly Jefferies got by Chris Grainger and
Elliott Harper early on but was mugged later in the run by round four
winner Glen Doman and a fast finishing Andy Moore.

It is very wet !!!!!	Johnny Aird gets lost at sea...

The rain is giving Irish driver Alan Bickerstaff a bad hair day, nice pink dryer Alan
11.15
The sun is out but its going to take a long time for the track to dry and get back up to speed..
12.25 pm
On
a drying track it was more a case of the BRCA national drifting
championship as cars struggled on a drying greasy track, Kenny Falconer
won the round once more but Kenny will regret some poor early scores as
he fails to make the A final, Hot Bodies driver Jonny Bowden was second
in round five with Zak Smith third.
Drama
as the top mod heat lined up without Chris Grainger, water in the car
from the previous round causing a terminal problem for Chris and he did
not start. Olly Jefferies won the round from Andy Moore but second for
Andy was enough to give him pole for the A, Olly will line up second
with Chris third and Elliott next up, Glen Doman claims fifth.

2.20 pm A
flag to flag victory for a very on form Rob West in the first leg of
the Pro Stock A final, behind Jay Westwood struggled to stay with his
Schumacher team mate but held of an early challenge from Jonny Bowden,
Ashley Wiffen had a great run coming through from tenth on the grid to
complete the A final top three.
The
Five Cell Mod B final leg one saw a great race with Russ Williams
taking the win but a great run through the field saw Alan Bickerstaff
close right up to Russ by the last lap, Russ held on to take a well deserved win.
Andy
Moore and Olly Jefferies made a clean start from the front row of the
modified A final grid, while behind Chris Grainger ran so wide in turn
one it looked like he was heading for the cover of the Schumacher
gazebo, that mixed the mid field up a little as Chris eased back in to
the pack, Andy Moore eased a two second gap to from Olly
who seem to settle for second by the mid point, Glen Doman had one of
his famous stealth West London runs, he kept out of trouble kept the
hammer down and finished third.

Like
most people present at the weekend I have now dried out and recovered
from Hurricane Hillingdon, time to reflect a little on round one of
this years BRCA touring car championship. Obviously
the weather was a major factor during the weekend and I would like to
officially thank the West London club for their efforts in not only
keeping the meeting running but maintaining an air of normality in
extreme conditions, I wont name anyone in particular as it appeared to
be a real team effort, I think most people felt a little
sorry for the West London club, the Wet London curse struck them again
and to be honest they really don’t deserve that.

The West London track looked great, you would think it was a lovely sunny day

An
EGM was held to discuss changes to the modified lipo weight limit, I
don’t really want to go into the in’s and out’s of this meeting but
needless to say a decision was made too keep things as they are for now
rather than risk a change which could be later turned around and the
results from round one scrapped, something nobody really wanted. On
track it was good to see new driver / car line ups and in particular
the paring of current TC national champ Chris Grainger and the
Schumacher Mi4, all eyes were on Chris and early on he looked like
continuing where he left off last year, but finals did not go well for
Chris. Same could be said of Elliott Harper, tipped by many to be this
year’s champion Elliott will hope that his first round score will be
one he drops as the season progresses. With
changes taking place at Mirage Ben Cosgrove finds himself back behind
the wheel of a Hot Bodies Cyclone once more, the loss of the X-Ray
distributorship meant a possible lack of an X-Ray team, but at the last
minute a talented group of private X-Ray drivers got together to enter
a team. Noticeable drives at the weekend? well
Phil Chambers and Johnny Aird all faired well in the five cell modified
class both making the A, Colin Price was unlucky not to make the A as
he looked quick all weekend, the same could be said of Russ Williams
and Chris Delves. In Pro Stock Ashley Wiffen went well but the star of
this Class has to be Mark Fuller, two second places and a fourth saw
the X-ray driver line up second on the grid for the Pro Stock A final
behind a cool Rob West who sat out the last two rounds and still
maintained top spot. It’s
fair to say that the weather did cause a few upsets but all in all most
drivers just got on with the job and very few complained or went home…a
credit to you all given the conditions. With
exception of the last modified A final (which we will sweep under the
carpet for now) the driving was exceptional in all classes and even
watching some of the lower finals was a real pleasure. Well
done to overall winners Andy Moore and Jay Westwood, Andy dominated
from the front while Jay had t work his way from third on the grid.The
constructors cup is something that is difficult to follow on the day so
I will probably report on this part of championship in the week after
the meeting, I can now confirm that the last minute X-ray boys took the
greatest number of points from round one and they are one point ahead
of Schumacher, at the moment its all still close and that’s how we want
it.
Team Scores after Round One

Team	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Best 4 from 5
X-ray	567	0	0	0	0	567
Schumacher	566	0	0	0	0	566
Hot Bodies	557	0	0	0	0	557
Associated / CML	552	0	0	0	0	552
Horizon Hobby UK / Spektrum	548	0	0	0	0	548

Surprise, Surprise. Xray are winning the construtors championship lol.

As
you can see it’s about being consistent, a win by one of your drivers
will give you a good score but if someone on your time has a bad day it
can drag the team score down, I think this aspect of the series will
become “interesting” as the season develops and team leadership and
motivation may become a factor in the outcome. Thank you to my partner in Crime Chris “Crisis” Kerswell for his help with the scoring on the Constructors Cup Well
that’s round one over with, for me my driver of the day was Glen Doman,
he did a great job from fifth on the grid, he kept his head while
others around him lost theirs, no big surprise to me as Glen has been
doing this for years and that earns him the respect of some of the more
well known names around him, he is one man you would always have on
your team and you know you can trust to do a good job. With
Monaco out of the way we move to Monza and the fast flowing Halifax
track, Andy Moore goes well here and has made a good start to the
series and he is looking to put a few bad domestic seasons behind him,
Chris Grainger, Olly Jefferies and Ben Cosgrove traditionally go well
here, Phil Chambers was also quick here last year, of the Pro Stock
drivers they will need to match Rob West on a track he likes, lets hope
for good weather, see you in Yorkshire in four weeks