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BRCA Micro National Round 1 - Bury St Edmunds |
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BRCA Micro National Round 1 - Bury St Edmunds – 9th September 2007
Written by Cris Oxley
The Bury Buggy Club hosted the first ever round of the BRCA Micro Nationals on the 9th September at their excellent hall in Risby, on a day that would turn out to be filled with excitement from the offset. After a Saturday evening filled with beer, beer and more beer, Sunday morning saw a more sombre affair with half of the field nursing hangovers of varying strengths! Worse affected was Chris “Craig Bootle” Bottle who, in between dashing for the nearest toilet, looked like a pale version of death! The track would prove to be the talking point of the days to come. From first glance the track looked incredibly easy. A mixture of carpet and wooden flooring that saw a fast sweeping straight, into a cross-over, in an easy triple, into a 90 degree table-top jump, into a tall wall ride and then back over the loop, but how wrong could we have been. The wall ride was going to be the part of the track that would separate the men from the boys, and the short-sighted from the long-sighted! 
After Bury’s Leigh Welch and Micro Chairman Cris Oxley’s race briefings were finished the drivers got underway with practise and qualifying. Due to the relatively low turnout for the first round all the drivers found they had more than enough time to spare to ensure cells were topped up and cars prepped for each of the four qualifying runs.
Pro Stock From round 1 CML’s Wes Myles dominated the Pro-Stock class, lapping the entire field twice in his first qualifying round! Not only did his FTX Blaze looked dialled all day but his lap times were testament to his consistency and he deserved the Pro-Stock TQ and overall FTD that he took in round 3, from Steve Davies in second and Chris “Ralpphh!” Bottle in third. Wes and Steve were the only people to hit 15 laps all day which goes to prove that the two CML drivers are the men to beat in Pro-Stock. 
Qualifying1st - Wes Myles - 15laps / 5mins12secs 2nd - Steve Davis - 15laps / 5mins19secs 3rd - Chris Bottle - 14laps / 5mins3secs 4th - Dan Osborne - 14laps / 5mins15secs 5th - James Curtis - 14laps / 5mins16secs 6th - Chris Hudson - 14laps / 5mins17secs 7th - Simon Osborne - 13laps / 5mins8secs 8th - Steve Kilby - 13laps / 5mins20secs 9th - Chris Green - 12laps / 5mins1sec 10th - Dan Harding - 12laps / 5mins4secs After the tone Wes and Steve shot off over the table top and around the tight right hander ready to line up for the triple with Chris B and the rest of the pack bearing down fast. Wes misjudged the triple for the first time all day and was left spinning on his roof with the remaining cars shooting past him to drop him into last by half a lap. Whilst Steve cruised off into the distance the battle for second place between Chris B, Dan Osborne, Jamie Curtis and Chris Hudson was exciting from start to finish. Chris B started to ease out a gap to secure his 2nd place with 3rd being fought for by Dan, Jamie, Chris H and Wes who was moving though the field rapidly.With 3 minutes to go Wes had worked his way back to 3rd with Jamie breathing down his neck before a coming together just before the wall ride saw Wes’ shocks give up the ghost causing him to retire. With only afew laps to go it was plain sailing for Steve who was in front of the pack by a country mile. Chris B cruised home in 2nd position with 3rd place being taken by Dan who pipped Jamie to the post to grab the last place on the rostrum by 0.8secs! 
Final 1st - Stephen Davis – 15laps / 5mins15secs – FTX Blaze2nd - Chris Bottle – 14laps / 5mins2secs – FTX Blaze3rd - Dan Osborne – 14laps / 5mins8secs – FTX Blaze ST4th - James Curtis – 14laps / 5mins9secs – FTX Blaze5th - Chris Hudson – 13laps / 5mins8secs – FTX Blaze6th - Simon Osborne – 13laps / 5mins24secs – FTX Blaze ST7th - Dan Harding – 12laps / 5mins14secs – FTX Blaze8th - Steve Kilby – 11laps / 5mins4secs – FTX Blaze9th - Chris Green – 11laps / 5mins12secs – FTX Blaze10th - Wes Myles – 5laps / 2mins3secs – FTX Blaze Modified The Modified class was a close fought battle between the Blaze’s of Tekin driver Cris Oxley (using LiPo’s) and Jamie Curtis (using NiMh’s) with Cris taking TQ on round 4. There was a lot of surprise amongst the pits at how close the times were between the two cars considering their different battery chemistry. 
Qualifying1st - Cris Oxley - 14laps / 5mins3secs2nd- Jamie Curtis - 14laps / 5mins12secs3rd - Bill Pier - 13laps / 5mins0secs4th - Robert Chalmers - 13laps / 5mins7secs5th - Tom Hudson - 13laps / 5mins22secs6th - Paul Barns - 12laps / 5mins14secs7th - Graham Oliver - 11laps / 5mins3secs8th - Chris Green - 11laps / 5mins13secs9th - Steven Scott - 8laps / 5mins3secs 10th - Carl Venter – DNS 
The mod final was very similar to the Pro-Stock final with 1st place man Cris Oxley driving his Blaze off into the distance to take his first A-final win ever whilst Bill Pier, Paul Barns and Tom Hudson battled it out for 2nd place. Jamie Curtis’ brushed power Blaze had dropped back from 2nd to 5th on the first lap so he had all the work to do to catch up with some impressive driving from the brushless trio. Jamie managed to climb back up the field and disposed of Bill to take back 2nd position which he would then hold all the way to the chequered flag. With 2 corners to go Bill and Tom were still battling for 3rd place. Bill nipped over the line just in front of Tom who took home 4th position. 
Final1st - Cris Oxley – 14laps / 5mins5secs – FTX Blaze2nd - Jamie Curtis – 14laps / 5mins19secs – FTX Blaze3rd - Bill Pier – 13laps / 5mins8secs – FTX Blaze ST4th - Tom Hudson – 12laps / 5mins10secs – FTX Blaze5th - Paul Barns – 12laps / 5mins26secs – FTX Blaze6th - Graham Oliver – 11laps / 5mins3secs – FTX Blaze7th - Chris Green – 9laps / 5mins2secs – FTX Blaze ST8th - Steven Scott – 8laps / 5mins29secs – FTX Blaze 9th - Robert Chalmers – DNS Although a couple of drivers fell foul to the new rules set out by the Micro Section everyone went home with a smile on their faces and hopefully the enjoyable atmosphere from the day will follow us all over to Stafford on October 7th and for the remaining rounds thereafter. The new Exotek TEK18 chassis for the RC18 was the talking point in the pits for sometime as everyone had a look at Cris Oxley’s kit. With afew of the top boys taking the plunge and ordering these superb race chassis’ in is there any chance that the RC18 can beat a Blaze if in the right hands? Only time will tell. As with previous micro scale events the Blaze took the top spots in both classes and saw 80% of the entry running the superb buggy, it’ll take a serious bit of kit to change these drivers minds! The Micro Section would like to thank:The Bury Buggy Club for hosting a great event and making everyone feel so welcome.Wim from Action Model Centre for supplying a superb shop on the day.The Hereford club for the superb hospitality!Chris Bottle, Bill Pier and Wes Myles for the brilliant photos. For more information about the Micro Scale Nationals, photos and general discussion make sure you have a look at the Official BRCA Micro Scale Section website www.ukmicrox.co.uk |
