The third round of the 19 turn BRCA national championship would take place at the tight and undulating circuit of Southend. With Chris Kerswell currently leading the championship, could anyone stop him on getting a hatric of overall national wins? This meeting would see the likes of Mark Fuller and Ricky Copsey take part, and as local drivers look likely to give Chris a good run for his money. The Saturday practice would being mixed weather, with the track being flooded first thing after a torrential down poor that morning; but the club member worked hard to get rid of all the standing water leaving a damp track which would dry out quickly allowing those that had turned up to practice time to set their cars up and get used to the technical and demanding circuit.

The Sunday morning started out bleak, but as practice began the sun came out providing perfect conditions for race day. Local driver Mark Fuller would be the initial pace setter bettering his own FTD and setting a stunning 18 lap run which would put him top of the leader board at least until the top heat! Chris Kerswell would drive away from everyone in the top heat and be the only other driver to set an 18 lap run, bettering Marks time and taking FTD away from him. At this stage Jonathan Dronifield would be in third closely followed by Christopher Delves in fourth. The second round of qualifying would see no great shakes to the rest of the leader board, other than Ricky Copsey placing his Schumacher third overall just in front of Jonathan and Christopher, the three being separated by a little over a second! In the final round Mark would be on to better his time and potentially snatch FTD from Chris Kerswell, but in the dying moments of his run he would fall off the pace and not better his time, none the less impressive as he was on third run tyres saving himself a set for the finals. Chris Kerswell would run new rubber and once again better his own FTD to cement pole position on the grid. Christopher was improving in his final run, but not being able to get pass Jonathan stopped him from improving and would have to settle for 5th on the grid. The other man on the move was Corally driver Richard Thorpe placing him 6th on the grid with a brilliant final run. BQ man would be local driver Mark Elms, who had a bad run of luck in qualifying, but was most certainly quick enough to be in the final.

Leg 1
This leg would prove to be very messy for an A final national, with lots of incidents and goings on! Off the line Christopher Delves would slip up the inside of Jonathan Dronfield to take fourth place, whilst Mark Fuller would chase Chris Kerswell hard for the first lap. Lap three would see Ricky Copsey join in the battle for 1st, and as the three came in front of the rostrum they were three-a-breast over the jump! Ricky was on the outside and clipped a curb which sent his car into another lane, where he would wait and re-join in third (for which he received a penalty at the end of the race or not re-joining where he left the track). Mark and Chris continued to battle for first, whilst Christopher and Rick fought for third, Mark passed Chris and started to pull away from him, being on new rubber he had the slight advantage, of which he made the most of. Christopher would find away pass Ricky, but at the end of the main straight Ricky would hit him and end both of their races for 3rd! This allowed NamGun Park, who had worked his way up from 10th on the grid, into third place followed by Richard Thorpe who failed to find away pass NamGun. By the end of the 5minutes Mark would take the first leg win, with Chris in second and NamGun third.




Leg 2
The second leg would see Stuart Cann have words with the drivers (as no BRCA officials were present) about the standard of driving expected from that. With these expectations now in the drivers minds the race would be a lot cleaner and of the level expected of these drivers. Once again Chris would lead from Mark, from Ricky who was closely followed by Christopher, who once again would take fourth from Jonathan off the line. Into the third corner Ricky’s car would hold a constant lock and put him out of the race, briefly promoting Christopher to third. A small mistake from Christopher would see him fall down the order and end his chances of decent points. Meanwhile up front, Mark was again chasing Chris hard, tapping the back of his car every now and again with little consequence, but into the hairpin after the jump in front of the rostrum Mark ran into the back of Chris, but waited for Chris and let him regain first pace displaying excellent race ethics. But after 3 minutes of Mark chasing, he would get his chance as Chris went wide at the end of the straight before the chicane allowing him to slip down the inside and take the lead from which he would not relinquish. Chris chased Mark hard, but couldn’t find a way past Mark, and had to settle for second overall on this occasion ending his chances of a hatric of national overall wins. Mark Musgrove came third with an excellent drive, with Richard Thorpe once again in fourth, which would give him third overall and his first national podium position.