BRCA R2 Southport – 4wd Qualifying Round 2

After a sunny a pleasant Round 1 of 4wd Qualifying the weather has started to fluctuate and light rain is forecast towards the end of the round. We’re all watching the skies making our sportman’s bets and mystic Meg like predictions. In these situations everyone seems to become an amateur meteorologist and one smart fellow actually said “It’ll start raining, when the rain starts to come down”….. genius!

The 15 lap club…

Again, the first driver onto 15 laps was Andy Woods in heat 5. I know from personal experience that being on the lead lap can offer huge consolation when you didn’t have the greatest weekend. The rain now predicted for from Heat 9 or 10 onwards – this could play into Wood’s hands. By Heat 8, there was still no sign of the rain and Mark Smith and Mark Jones were able to displace Woods.

2022 BRCA 1/10th Offroad National Championships

Round 2 – Southport – 21/22 May 2022

Crystal balls….

Infact the rain would not arrive at all during Round 2. We would have to wait until heat 9 till a potential TQ driver took to the track. Ben Smith laid down some incredibly fast laps including a 19.44 to put in a 15/301.18 with Lee Martin the only driver close some 4 seconds behind. In heat 10, Neil Cragg nearly took it to the next level – the allusive 16 lapper – but a mistake requiring a marshal prevented that. There was an audible bustle in the crowd of spectators when Cragg still managed a 15/300.47 even with the error – thats provisional TQ with one heat to go.

Battle for TQ

In heat 11, the spectator crowds built up around the track as everyone wondered if Cragg’s time would be beaten. Both Tommy Hall and Paul Crompton looked rapid all day – Hall keeping it clean, Crompton keeping it fast. Tommy ran completely clean for the whole heat putting in a rapid time, but not enough to displace Niel Cragg or Ben Smith – going third with a 15/301.23. Crompton is laying down unbelievable individual laptimes, but it not converting it into a peak run time due to errors – going 4th with 15/303.35. Paul has the potential to make it to 16 laps – but he will need to be more consistent.

Top 10 overall after Qualifying Round 2….