Tuesday 25th February

Darren beats all the GT12 class cars with his Mardave!

This was the first week of running a GT12 class in addition to the usual club spec Mardaves and it was interesting to compare their performance on what was quite a twisty track.

Qualifying

Darren Ford driving his Mardave was by far the fastest on a tricky track and completed 32 laps, four more anyone else in the class and two better than the top GT12 driver. There were four drivers on 28 laps, separated by less than two seconds, Mike Simpson, Lee Bishop, Daniel Williams and Paul Galbraith.

In the GT12 class Bob Harley scored 30 laps, David Statham 29 and Chelle Snowden 28.

 Track

A larger track design this week with plenty of bends to test the accuracy of the driving.

Finals

The two classe were combined for the finals.

Courtney Orme was the fastest Mardave driver in the “C” final with 23 laps, Joshua Galbraith was one lap down on 22, followed by Roy Matthews with 20 laps.

The “B” final was a “Team Parker” dominated race with Richard Parker winning on 27 laps and Louis second also on the same lap. A good drive by Paul Galbraith earned him third place with 26 laps.

Darren Ford lead off from pole position in the “A” final and continued his fine driving to win with an impressive 32 laps in his Mardave with GT12 drivers David Statham and Bob Harley taking second and third places with 31 and 30 laps respectively.

A good start to the superleague which runs throughout the year on alternate months with drivers best five from a possible six scores to count.

Darren Ford, Lee Bishop and Courtney Orme all scored maximum 41 points in their respective divisions, with David Statham scoring 40 in the GT12 class.

The Club will be also racing a GT12 Class to BRCA Super Cup rules in addition to the usual Mardave class from Tuesday 25th February 2014.

Tuesday 18th February

Qualifying

Dave Tomlinson took the top qualifier position with 38 laps with David Simpson and Daniel Willliams in second and third positions respectively just 1 lap down.

In division 2 Lee Bishop was again in excellent form with 36 laps, being fourth overall qualifier  for the second week running, Paul Galbraith was three laps behind on 33 and Jenson Butlin third with 31 laps.

Joshua Galbraith, Selina Woods and Courtney Orme keenly contested division 3 with all of them managing 29 laps.

Track

A four carpets wide track again this week with a very fast section.

Finals

Joshua Galbraith took a 7 point lead in division 3 with some great driving in the “B” final achieving 41 laps which was 1 lap better than an “in form” Courtney Orme managed in the “C” final. Roy Matthews the joint leader at the start of the evening had a motor pinion come loose on lap 19 which forced a retirement.

In division 2 Lee Bishop had an excellent drive to be top driver and third overall with 50 laps and third place in the “A” final. Paul Galbraith could not quite match this but still got a very creditable 46 laps followed by Jenson Butlin with 32.

The climax of the evenings racing was the “A” final and what a race it turned out to be!  Dave Tomlinson started from pole position followed by David Simpson and Lee Bishop.  Dave built up a slight lead but David Simpson eventually caught him up and everyone was treated to several minutes of high speed wheel to wheel racing at lap times of around 9 seconds.  A couple of minor errors from Dave gave David chances to take the lead, but when he did a mistake let Dave through and he held on to win by 1/10th of a second on 51 laps.  Behind the leaders Lee Bishop and Daniel Williams were fighting it out for third place, Lee got the upper hand, both drivers achieving 50 laps.

This was without doubt the best race seen so far this year – can it get any better than this?

Tuesday 11^th February 2014

The winter league resumed with round 2 this week, Darren Ford dominated the qualifying and achieved 38 laps which was two laps better than anyone else. A resurgent Lee Bishop stormed into second place overall qualifying with some great driving in heat 2 with Richard Parker third and Dave Tomlinson fourth.

Paul Galbraith drove well to be second in division 2 and a fine performance from Jenson Butlin earned him third place.

Division 3 is very competitive at the moment, Joshua Galbaith was top qualifier followed by Roy Matthews and Selina Woods.

Track Layout

Finals

In the finals Josh was the best in division 3 giving him a maximum 41 points, Roy second and Courtney Orme third.

Lee Bishop continued his good form by taking fourth place in the “A” final to be top division 2 driver and score maximum points, Paul Galbraith was second and Robert Hambridge third.

Darren Ford led the “A” final from pole position achieving the fastest lap of the evening at 8.87 seconds and seemed to have the race in the bag until lap 44 where disaster struck and forced his retirement from the race. Richard Parker took full advantage of the opportunity to win. There was a very close battle for second place between Daniel Williams and Dave Tomlinson with Daniel crossing the finishing line just 1/10^th second ahead of Dave – that was close!

After two rounds Richard leads division 1, Dave Tomlinson is second and Louis Parker third.

Paul Galbraith is the leader in division 2, Jenson Butlin is second and Jack Cook third – they all better watch out for Lee Bishop after his performance this week.

Roy Matthews and Joshua Galbraith have equal points at the top of division 3, I expect a close contest between these two drivers as the league progresses, Kevin Flamson is in third place.

Tuesday 4th February 2014

This was the second of the two planned trial weeks running a GT12 Class in addition to the usual Mardave Class.

Daniel Williams was the top qualifier in the Mardaves with Richard Parker second, both drivers getting 32 laps, Mike Simpson was third on 31.
In the GT 12 class Lee Speight, David Statham and Michelle Snowden were very quick and achieved 36 laps each with Louis Parker and Bob Harley on 34.
Classes were combined for the finals, Daniel was the only Mardave class driver to make the “A” final in which Lee Speight had a very impressive race to win on 36 laps, Michelle, Bob and David Statham finished second, third and fourth respectively on 35 laps – an exciting race.