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| With the weather turning cold and wet outside, most racers contemplate hibernation over the winter months but for those who wish to race all year round, the Carpet Wars Championship provides a high level of competition and organisation over the winter months. Set in the University of Greenwich Sports Hall in Chatham and organised by Maritime Racing Club, the championship is to be fought out over 6 rounds with the best 4 rounds to count. It culminates in an international meeting on the 27th and 28th of March 2004, where the Xray international team and some of the best drivers across Europe will attend. |
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As the name suggests, the racing is on carpet, using the Road Rail track marking system and the FABcount race software. Having spoken to the racers on the day, the majority had only praise for these two elements. Road Rail is firm but forgiving in denoting the track position and the FABcount software is very informative, announcing everything from which car is leading to which car is about to be lapped (useful to both the lapper and the lappee) and keeps to the meticulous time table of the days events.
The series is sponsored by Xray, Racer Magazine and Vega, with the potential for 120 drivers at each meeting, split between 27T stock and 12T modified classes. Should there be sufficient numbers, 1/18th and 1/12th micro cars will also be accommodated. The series is bound to be hard fought, as some of the nationâ™s top drivers will be in attendance. |
| Qualifying |
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Stock
With 70 drivers in this class, it was a sell out and provided some of the closest racing all day. After round 1, 2002 BRCA Stock champion Olly Jefferies lead the way with 25 laps in 301.28 from a hard chasing Stuart Rand only 4 seconds behind. In third, Gavin Clinch was 8 seconds off the FTD time set by Olly but this represented the best part of a lap over the indoor course. In round 2, Stuart improved to post the first 26 lapper in 307.34 and Colin Witt leapfrogged both Olly and Gavin into second, 4 seconds off Stuartâ™s time. Olly was demoted to third despite having improved his time from the first round. In round 3, Stuart raised the bar again to 26 laps in 304.28 but Colin hung on to still be within 3 seconds in second place overall. Steve Henry jumped from eighth to third in this round with a time just 0.17 seconds slower than Colin. In the final round, with the grip at its highest, Stuart nearly broke into the 27 lap region but missed out by exactly 1 second and still claimed pole in the A final. Second on the grid went to Colin, having not improved in the final round and the third grid slot was claimed by Steve, also on the back of his round 3 time. Eventually, the whole of the A final was covered by just one lap, around 12 seconds for the top stock drivers. |
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| The modified class was also sold out with 50 drivers and was headed after the first round by Glen Doman on 28 laps in 308.92. Richmond Rogers was a close second place, finishing less than a second off FTD. Kevin Brunsden completed the top three with 27 laps in 300.44. Round 2 saw Richmond take over at the top with 28 laps in 302.16, just over 2 seconds ahead of Kevin, with Glen being pushed back to third, even though he improved to 28 laps as well. In round 3, Richmond improved his time again to 29 laps in 307.09, the only driver to break that barrier that round. Kevin remained in second, missing out on 29 laps by 0.38 seconds, while Glen stayed in third, 0.4 seconds away from Kevin. The final round resulted in the top four drivers setting times in the 29 lap area, with the timesheets headed by Kevin Brunsden, from Glen Doman and Richmond Rogers. These rounds confirmed that the modified drivers were not short on car control and set up as each heat was a blur of machinery speeding around the track in a scale saloon train. |
| Finals |
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Stock
With 7 finals, not all the drivers can be mentioned but the winners of the G to B finals are listed below.
G Final Lee Carter
F Final Warren Earl
E Final Colin Duck
D Final James Scott
C Final Chris Proctor
B Final Darren Cole
The A final was close for the first minute, with the top three of Stuart, Colin and Gavin circulating in nearly identical lap times but a group of unbeatable laps during the middle of the race saw Stuart accelerate away to a 4 second win from Gavin, who was closely pursued by Colin right until the final lap. The gap between Gavin and Colin was only 0.25 seconds at the end, showing just how close they were. |
| Modified |
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The winners of the E to B finals in modified were.
E Final Dan Watts
D Final Andrew Thompson
C Final Colin Gladwin
B Final Keith Helmke
The A final began with a coming together in the first couple of corners, which resulted in the pole man Kevin Brunsden escaping at the front of the field and building up a small cushion from the rest of the drivers. Behind him, a battle between Adam Rogers, Adam Hampton, Olly Jefferies and Chris Delves developed, culminating in Adam Rogers breaking free from this group and setting out to reel Kevin in. With only 1 minute remaining, Adam was within 2 seconds of the leader and gaining fast. The crowd was in a trance as both cars sped round the track with a reducing gap between them but the 5 minute timeout arrived while Adam was still behind Kevin. He hung on to record the inaugural modified A final win of the series, 0.14 seconds ahead of Adam, with Adam Hampton in third. |
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Thanks must go to the race organisation of Ian Knight, without whom the meeting would not have run as smoothly and the racing would still have been going well into the night. Also, the committee of Maritime Racing Club must be applauded for setting up and clearing away the carpet and track before and after the meeting and for providing such important services as the scrutineering, transponder distribution and the food counter (without which many racers would have gone hungry thank you Tracey).
Maritime Racing would like to give special thanks to Centre-Point for theyâ™re backing of the Carpet Wars Championship, Richard Weatherly for the track design and Steven Fabray from FABcount to over see the dayâ™s events
As this is written, there are still entry spaces but these are likely to be filled very quickly judging by the turnout for the first round.
For report and details from individual rounds click here. |
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