BRCA Round2 – Halifax

June 30, 2009 · Posted in Touring Cars · by ed

Well, in a typical Lazy styley, I’ve left it a bit before putting this up….I’ll also keep it a bit shorter this time!

Anyway, second weekend of July was time for round two of the TC nationas up at Halifax.

For those who don’t know, Halifax is, well…. LARGE! It’s predominantly a gas track, and was recently resurfaced, so the grip is pretty mega, thanks to a combination of the new tarmac, and the foam/oil residue on the surface (although if it’s damp… well, I’ll come back to this). To say it makes pro-stocks seem a little slow is an understatement

To go well, you need two things… Power (preferably lots), and corner speed..

So onto the action…

In pro-stock qualifying, a bit of rain played havoc in the first round, with the track going from dry-damp and greasy-dry in the space of five minutes in heat 7! Unfortuantly for thoose racers, neither slicks or wets worked… the previously mentioned surface combo litterally had no grip… they could have been on drift tyres for all the good it did.

Thankfully, the track stayed dry for the rest of the weekend, and in the end Jonny Bowden was TQ, taking two rounds, and finishing second in another. Lee Price was second on the grid from Byron Humprhries, the Schumacher drivers now all running the Mi4′s, and looking quick to boot.

Modified was all about the usual suspects, with Chris Grainger taking three rounds to end up TQ with a round to spare. Elliot Harper and Andy Moore were showing the potential of the 6.5t/LiPo combintations to line up 2nd and 3rd. Interestingly, the A final was split 50:50 in runners using LiPo vs 5cell… seemingly nothing in it, despite the weight difference (1500g vs 1425g).

In the Finals, Jonny Bowden showed a clean pair of heals to everyone, taking all three legs. Lee Price held station behind, taking three 2nds. Luke Thompson had an excellent first two legs, taking third in each from sixth on the grid, and ending up third as a result.

The top three in modified made a clean break in each final, managing to pull out a large gap on the chasing pack each time. Chris took the first and third legs to take the Mi4′s first modified national win, with Andy ending up second, and Elliot third.

As for Gossip?

Well, there were a few Photon’s in the pits, Stew Noble managing to get his into the modified B… although Luke Hobson had huge interference issues on the sat, traced to the aerial mount causing the

Motors and speedo’s were a hot topic in Pro-Stock. The final was pretty evenly split, with 5 Novaks, 4 Nosram/LRP’s, and just one GM. Speedo’s was more interesting, with a few old TC specs thrown into the mix against the now de-rigure SPX style. One GM was evident, along with two SXX’s… so maybe the speedo wars are nto as clear cut as we’d like to think

As previously mentioned, 50% of the modified boys took the opportunity to run LiPo, the main reason being that whilst slightly slower, they could be as fast all the way through the run, without a risk of dumping… motor temp now being the killer, plenty of big fans in evidence.

As for your authour… to say I’ve had better weekends was a bit of a understatement. Never really clicked with the track (put that down to a lack of practise), and ended up resorting to my old folly of making too many changes. Made the D (AGAIN, will I ever crack the top 30 at a national?), and eneded up 36th in the o/a, so could have been worse (given I finished 31st at WL, and that was a better weekend). Still the car/speedo/motor/cells combo was working fine… just the muppet behind the sticks at the end of the day.

Roll on Cotswolds (and most deffiently after a good practise this past weekend at the BTCC )