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| The Fourth round of the brca national rally x championship took place at holbeach on the 28th and 29th of may,29th being the bank holiday monday,with this being a 2 day event the schedule is different to that normally used at an ordinary brca national,this is based more upon the efra schedule and rules,practice and qualifying would take place on the sunday,having 1 round of practice and 5 rounds of qualifying were the heats would be rotated each round,with the best 3 out of the 5 to count,the finals would take place on monday which would be of the christmas tree format,semiâ™s,quarterâ™s,eighthâ™s etc and would consist of the top 6 finishers from each final progressing to the next making them 14 car finals,all finals would be of 20 minutes duration with the exception of the main final which would be of 45 minutes duration,the weather forecast for sunday was cloudy but dry with occasional sunny spells in the afternoon which turned out to be true and for monday,well bright start to the day but to gradually get worse throughout the day turning to heavy rain late afternoon and guess whatâ¦â¦â¦â¦.. that also turned out to be true! |
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| The track was all grass,long open,flat and fast with a sweeping corner,a number of chicanes,twisty infield section and a wooden tabletop jump! The grip was immensely high to start but changed completely during the 2 days of racing. Practice started and i was in heat 9 the last of the day,the practice went well,car felt exceptional and the new nosram evo engine was also running exceptionally well proving to have the horsepower and the top end needed,apart from the immensely high grip very little changes would be needed for the first round. |
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First round and even with spikes cut off worn tyres the grip was still immense,still having too much grip to push the car hard i put a consistent run in which got me 8th in the round,very close times with just 4 seconds seperating 6 positions,fellow team mate jon hazlewood (xray) got 3rd in the round behind jamie booth in 2nd and david crompton 1st.
Second round and with a couple of changes to the car to reduce the amount of grip it was generating,i was able to push the car in the fast corners and get a quicker time,8 seconds quicker than that set in the first round,this got me 3rd in the round with jamie booth in 2nd and david crompton 1st,fellow team mate jon hazlewood (xray) got 4th in the round. |
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| Third round and now with less grip on the track we decided to leave the car the same for this round,the car felt very comfortable now which allowed me to push the car very hard,too hard in respect as i then made a couple of errors which needed marshalling,this led to a slower time than that set in the first round so one to forget if we could, fellow team mate jon hazlewood (xray) set tq in this round with jamie booth in 2nd and david crompton in 3rd. |
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| Fourth round and we made a slight adjustment to the car and again the car felt comfortable and with a tweak of the engine it was fast too,knowing i needed another good result to back up my first 2 rounds,a consistent run was needed,the track had slowed slightly but this round was very close indeed just 3 seconds seperating the top 6,i got 6th in the round which had now secured me with a place in the semi finals, fellow team mate jon hazlewood (xray) got 2nd in the round behind jamie booth in 1st. |
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Fifth and final round and from being immensely high grip to now not so much,the car felt superbly balanced,unfortunately my clutch wasnâ™t engaging when i wanted it to which led to a couple of errors too many,fellow team mate jon hazlewood (xray) also had a terrible run trying to pass slower cars,it was david crompton who set tq in this round which gave him tq overall and a direct place into the main final.
End of qualifying and the drivers who would qualify straight into the semiâ™s are
1 - Jamie Booth
2 - Jon Hazlewood (XRAY XB8TQ)
3 - Brennan Ralls
4 - Dave Bailey
5 - Tommy Chung
6 - Graham Alsop
7 - Ryan Donovan (XRAY XB8TQ)
8 - Stephen Childerhouse
9 - John Holmes
10 - Stephen Johnson
11 - Karl Jackson
12 - Stewart Wilcox
13 - Lee Taylor
14 - Adrian Svensson
15 - Elliott Boots
16 - Darren Cole |
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Monday and the day started bright and dry but soon began to change,the heavens opened and the rain came down,up first was semi b and the top 6 moving up to the main final were
1 - Jon Hazlewood (XRAY XB8TQ)
2 - Stephen Childerhouse
3 - Dave Bailey
4 - Graham Alsop
5 - Steve Haynes
6 - Mike Cradock
Next,i was up,semi a and the rain had cleared,we had left the car the same as it was in qualifying and just put new tyres on,the car was dialed and stayed consistent throughout the 20 minutes final,the top 6 moving up to the main final from this semi were
1 - Jamie Booth
2 - Ryan Donovan (XRAY XB8TQ)
3 - John Holmes
4 - Karl Jackson
5 - Elliott Boots
6 - Matthew Perry (XRAY XB8TQ)
With the top 6 from each semi final going up to the main final to join david crompton who secured his place with overall tq,that leaves 1 more driver to make it a 14 car final and that would be the fastest 7th place out of the 2 semiâ™s,with semi a being the fastest out of the 2,it was Brennan Ralls to fill that last position in the main final.
These are the grid positions for the main final
1 - David Crompton
2 - Jamie Booth
3 - Ryan Donovan (XRAY XB8TQ)
4 - John Holmes
5 - Karl Jackson
6 - Elliott Boots
7 - Matthew Perry (XRAY XB8TQ)
8 - Jon Hazlewood (XRAY XB8TQ)
9 - Stephen Childerhouse
10 - Dave Bailey
11 - Graham Alsop
12 - Steve Haynes
13 - Mike Cradock
14 - Brennan Ralls |
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| Main final of the day and the heavens had opened once again and this time continued throughout the whole 45 minute final,the flag dropped and off we went,david crompton led the field with myself gaining a place on the first lap and closely following behind in 2nd,jamie booth was also very close behind me in 3rd and in 4th not so far behind was john holmes,despite the severe rain and slippery conditions the car was still performing exceptionally well,i stayed in 2nd place for a number of laps. |
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| Unfortunately not close enough to challenge the lead, fellow team mate jon hazlewood (xray) who had started in 8th position had gained a position each lap to see him quickly catch the leading pack and place himself in 4th,lap 6 and on the approach to the jump the fight for 2nd place was very close between myself,jamie booth,jon hazlewood (xray) and john holmes,with the up ramp of the jump being very slippery i got a nudge from behind which sent me sideways up the jump and falling off the other end causing me to be marshalled. |
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| Due to this i lost several places and was now in the middle of the pack in 5th position,with everyone on a similar pace it would be difficult to catch the leading pack and with 40 minutes still to go anything could happen,by lap 24 jon hazlewood (xray) had taken the lead from david crompton with jamie booth back in 2nd,david crompton now in 3rd and john holmes now in 4th,lap 61 and david crompton had taken 2nd place from jamie booth only to find that 2 laps later he suffered an engine cut from a blown glowplug,on the same lap jamie booth also dropped out from 3rd place with a lack of drive from his car,this moved john holmes into 2nd,karl jackson into 3rd and myself now in 4th with 3 laps to go,this is how the final finished with jon hazlewood maintaining his lead from lap 24 to take the win,john holmes 2nd,karl jackson 3rd and myself in 4th. |
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All the xrays performed exceptionally well over the 2 days racing that included the cars of jon hazlewood,myself,matthew perry who had salvaged a good result from a terrible day in qualifying struggling to get a clean run to finish in 8th position overall,lee taylor who managed to get in the semiâ™s but to have radio problems and mark dell also making the semiâ™s,this made it 5 xrays in the semi finals and 3 to go into the main final finishing a respectively 1st,4th and 8th,another great result for the xray/mirage team.
Final result ended like this
1 - Jon Hazlewood (XRAY XB8TQ)
2 - John Holmes
3 - Karl Jackson
4 - Ryan Donovan (XRAY XB8TQ)
5 - Brennan Ralls
6 - Dave Bailey
7 - David Crompton
8 - Matthew Perry (XRAY XB8TQ)
9 - Steve Haynes
10 - Elliott Boots
11 - Jamie Booth
12 - Graham Alsop
13 - Stephen Childerhouse
14 - Mike Cradock
Ryan Donovan |
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