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For
the last national of the outdoor series all three
classes descended on the Cotswold Model car club,
one of the biggest and fastest circuits of the
national series. With both modified and 19 turn
Championships both wrapped up by Chris Grainger
(Yokomo) and Chris Kerswell (Corally) respectively,
the fight was on for the second places.
In 19 turn the battle was between Corally driver
Christopher Delves and Jonathan Dronfield of Schumacher.
Going into this round Christopher was leading out
of the two, but with Jonathan having not completed
all the counting rounds second place remained very
much available to them both.
The fight for second in the modified Championship
was between teammates Olly Jefferies and Andy Moore.
Olly having the slight home track advantage this
weekend made him favourite to take the second place.
Andy Childs and Glenn Doman were both in the top
10 for modified and were looking to improve upon
eighth and seventh place respectively at this final
national of the year.
Happy Birthday to Andy Childs,
who celebrated his 30th on the Saturday at Cotswold.
As can be seen in the picture, he didn’t
miss out just because he was at the track! He
had a special cake bought for him by his girlfriend
and presents that kept him amused for all of
five minutes! The team had drinks and laughs
on the Saturday evening in order to celebrate
Andy’s Birthday, which was a brilliant
way to end a hard day’s racing. |
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Qualifying
The first round of qualifying was held on Saturday
afternoon with practice in the morning.
Despite it being the middle of the day
the track was cool, the windy conditions
making sure that any sun that beamed on
the track never managed to heat it up.
The first round of 19 turn was TQ’d
by Christopher Delves, two seconds in front
of fellow teammate Chris Kerswell. Despite
both Chris’s cars looking loose they
managed to keep them on track and out front
and had pulled a significant lead on third
place Jonathan Dronfield, putting themselves
5 seconds up and comfortably in the lead
at this early stage of the meeting. Steve
Lissamore had a reasonable first run placing
him in the top 5, but there was more to
come from Steve as his car at this point
just wasn’t as quick as his fellow
team-mates. Richard Thorpe had started
his first qualifier well but small mistakes
cost him big during the run dropping him
down the qualifying list.
The second round was even faster than the first,
with Christopher Delves breaking through to
put in a seventeenth lap and really showing
pace at this final meeting of the season. Steve
Lissamore found some pace too and set a time
that placed him second on the grid, just a
little over one and a half seconds in front
of fellow teammate Chris Kerswell. Corally
then one, two and three at this stage in qualifying.
The final round of qualifying took place on
Sunday morning and with the track being potentially
faster it really was down to who could keep
their nerve! As the drivers set off it was
obvious that some were going faster but to
start with the top four kept together. As the
race progressed though they started to spread
out, with Christopher Delves keeping out front
and looking as if he was going to put in a
seventeen lapper again. A small mistake through
the chicane going onto the straight dropped
him back though and at the end of the five
minutes he only managed sixteen. Jonathan Dronfield
managed to improve his time but despite this
improvement ended up fifth on the grid as junior,
Charles Godwin, put his Mi3 fourth on the grid
behind the Corally trio of Delves, Lissamore
and Kerswell.
Modified proved to be a
race of duration. With the long flowing
corners and even longer straights of the
Cotswold track the modified cars were hitting
terminal velocity more often than usual.
The first round saw some incredibly fast
lap times with Olly Jefferies taking the
FTD spot which he managed to keep, at least
overnight. Andy Childs and Glenn Doman
were both in the final after the first
round, but there were still a few names
missing from the usual top ten. Andy Moore
had a bad first run but then went on to
set a blistering pace in the second round,
only to dump at the 4.30 mark! Olly had
set a new track record making it through
to the nineteenth lap, showing the incredibly
fast pace of his car!
The last round on Sunday morning saw Andy
put himself on pole, just a second in front
of Olly and thus taking the new FTD. A
clean run in which he managed to last the
full 5 minutes. Olly lined up second on
the grid for the finals, followed by 2007
Champion Chris Grainger. Glenn Doman managed
to hold onto tenth and remained in the
final, but even though Andy Childs had
improved in the last qualifier it wouldn’t
be enough to make the A and thus took the
BQ (eleventh) spot. |
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19 Turn Finals
The first leg of the 19 turn A final was dominated
from start to finish by Christopher Delves from
his TQ spot. The real fight was further down
the field – just a little - for second
and third places. Steve Lissamore had made a
good start and managed to pull out a lead on
the pack after an accident involving Chris Kerswell,
but at the half way stage Steve’s motor
started to go off. Jonathan Dronfield going strong
at this point now started reel Steve in. Slowly
lap-by-lap Jonathan caught Steve, and it looked
like he would find away past but the 5 minute
buzzer proved to be the saviour of an ever slowing
Lissamore car. Even though Steve came under immense
pressure (which he was used to after his race
with Delves the week before at the KO) he managed
to keep his cool and bring his Corally home to
second and one of his best finishes of the season.
Chris Kerswell had a joyless race. Full of incidents
and finding himself at one point practically
last he managed to claw his way through to 6th
place by the end of the race though. Man on the
move in this final was Ian Southorn, who managed
to fight his way through to a respectable fifth.
The second final saw Christopher
get off to a clean start, as did the rest of
the field this time. A mistake by Steve Lissamore
dropped him down the pack from which he never
recovered back to the front. A couple of minutes
into the race, and fifth qualifier Dronfield
had made his way up through into second and was
catching lead man Delves. Eventually Dronfield
caught up to Delves and pressure him into going
wide, slipped throgh took the lead of the final.
Delves tried to get back past but couldn’t
and fell back to teammate Chris Kerswell after
a few laps. Kerswell got past Delves on the hairpin
in front of race control and despite his team-mates
best efforts managed to stay there. The end of
the race saw Dronfield take the win, closely
followed by Kerswell and Delves. Lissamore took
fifth in this final giving him third overall,
and Ian Southorn who managed to get up to fifth
in the last final, claimed sixth in this one,
once again driving very well in his second national
A final of the year. Dronfield and Delves were
tied on points, but the win went to the latter
as he had taken TQ, thus giving him his first
national TQ and Win at the same event!
Chris Kerswell had already taken the overall
Championship win, but with this TQ and win, Delves
took second in the championship making it a Corally
one-two. Dronfield topping up his points count
in this last round took third place behind the
two Corally drivers. Steve Lissamore finished
fifth in the series with his Corally after a
bad start to the year which seemed to pick up
for him at Stafford. Richard Thorpe has had some
brilliant results through the year and finished
eighth, meaning there was 4 Corally Phi’s
in the top ten of the championship this year,
really showing the strength of this chassis in
stock racing. |
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Modified
Finals
The modified final was a spectacular race between
Andy and Olly, who raced from the minute the final
started. The pair were nose to tail for the majority
of the race, never being anymore than a car length
apart. Glenn Doman having started at the back of
the grid made a clean start. After the third corner
made his way up to ninth and was chasing down eighth
and seventh but a mistake through the chicane dropped
him back and he ended up in eighth place in the final
with a good drive. Throughout the five minuets Olly
was constantly looking for a way past Andy, and his
opportunity arose as they came across the line for
the final lap. Andy clipped a curb and Olly was in
front!. All the hard racing the pair had done though
took its toll on both drivers battery packs. The
top three made it across the line for the final lap,
but with Andy and Olly both dumping, Chris Grainger
now took full advantage of having power and sailed
past them down the straight to take the victory on
the last lap. As the saying goes, to finish first,
first you must finish!
The second final was a similar
story as the first. From the offset Andy and
Olly fought hard and pulled away from the pack,
building up a lead of around 3 or 4 seconds.
Olly tried hard to pass Andy, but he just couldn’t
find a way past. There were a few moments in
the race that made the crowd gasp as Olly got
very close to pass Andy. Chris Grainger was secure
in second, with no one really looking like they
were going to challenge him for position. Corally
driver Glenn Doman had made a promising start
and was slowly working his way through the field,
taking advantage of those that had made mistakes
and stranded themselves on the grass. As the
race progressed, Andy and Olly continued to battle,
but once again this hard racing had taken it
toll on their batteries and as the race started
to draw to to an end they found they were going
flat. Chris Grainger once again passed the pair
of them on the straight (with a rather large
grin on his face I might add) to take the second
leg win!
With the finals over and the points sorted, Andy
Moore had beaten his team-mate Olly by a mere
2 points in the championship. Chris Grainger
had taken the championship win a few meetings
ago, much like Chris Kerswell in 19 turn. This
modified championship has been incredibly tough
this year, with a lot of top class racers participating
and in the top ten there were two Corally Phi’s;
Glenn Doman and Andy Childs made seventh and
eighth respectively again showing the strength
of the Phi.
And with that, ends the national
season for 2007. Congratulations to Chris Grainger,
Chris Kerswell and Adrian Bidewell in wining their
respective classes. |
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