Over the Bank Holiday weekend drivers from across the country and Europe made the trip to the WLRC circuit for the thirteenth running of the KO Grand Prix. Four classes were run over the three day event, each class having a high quality field ensuring exciting and close racing throughout the meeting.
Chris Grainger, Ben Cosgrove, Elliott Harper and Olly Jefferies topped the bill in modified, but James Howarth was always going to be a dark horse going into this event due to his natural speed backed up by a home track advantage. Nathan Parker, David Saul, Ashley Wiffen and last years third place man Steve Lissamore were all competing for the top honors in Pro Stock. Dave Ringsell was the favorite going into the weekend in the 13.5 class but young Jamie Guy was definitely one to watch.

Changes for the thirteenth running of the KO GP saw the round by round qualifying format being adopted for this meeting. Two out of the five rounds would count towards the final score with the fewer number of points putting competitors higher up the qualifying order. The control tyre for the meeting was the Sorex 32 that had been used throughout the BRCA national series, but with a limit being placed upon the number of sets that could be used throughout the weekend. That saw some drivers gambling and saving tyres for the finals in order to have an advantage if they made it into the top 10!

Colin Theobald unfortunately was unable to make the meeting but Kris Kennedy stepped in with some brilliant commentary on Monday keeping everyone up to date with what was happening on the track as well as providing amusing comment from time to time that took the serious edge off of the competition. As always there was a bumper raffle that saw the traditional KO clock as well as top prizes like the KO Universe 2.4 Spread Spectrum and KO Servos up for grabs.

Qualifying
Sunday morning saw a very different set of conditions to Saturday. Having rained overnight the racers were presented with a damp, wet track, and a consistent drizzle throughout the morning ensured that the track didn’t dry up until after the second round of qualifying. In Modified Mark Stiles made the most of the damp conditions in the second round of qualifying taking TQ. As the track dried out the grip levels were significantly lower than that of Saturday and that caused some people to struggle, but those with more balance cars prevailed in the third and fourth rounds of qualifying.
By the end of the first day the finals were more or less set, with Rishi Sabharwal taking pole position in the 27 turn class with two wins in the third and fourth round. Dave Ringsel too had wins in the third and fourth round and looked to be on course for a pole position in the 13.5 class. Ashley Wiffen topped the leader boarded in 10.5, but with only one round TQ could still be beaten by the likes of Paul Pinkney and Matt Pocknell. In modified it was the BRCA 2008 National champion Chris Grainger who was on pole position with two TQ’s in the first and third round, with no one looking like they could interrupt his dominance in this class.

The final round on Monday morning saw no practice, so any overnight set up changes were a gamble. The weather was looking better, but still overcast and the threat of rain was in the minds of the racers as the round commenced. The weather broke though and to everyone’s relief some sunshine started to fall on the track.
This was the final round for racers to get a decent score and move up in the rankings. In the 27turn class Clive Boner made the most of the dry weather and moved into second position overall from an overnight fourth behind Rishi who claimed the pole position spot for his own. In the 13.5 class Dave Ringsell continued his dominance by taking TQ in the final round of qualifying securing his pole spot on the grid for the final followed by Jamie Guy and Paul Sanders. Ashely Wiffen took TQ in the final round of 10.5 giving him two TQ’s and thus pole position for the final. Paul Pinkney claimed second despite a bad final round and Matt Pocknell finished in third. In modified the top ten remained essentially unchanged with Chris Grainger on pole spot from Ben Cosgrove in second and Olly Jefferies in third. James Howarth put in a blistering time in the morning to take TQ for round five and move him into fourth from fifteenth demoting Glenn Doman to pole man in the B.

Concourse
Every year the concourse competition allows the racers to show off their more artistic side. Between the last round of qualifying and the first leg of finals, the judging for concourse took place, with a lot of impressive shells to choose from. The title went to some awesome paint jobs from Keith Ross and Lee Camble.

Finals
The finals were run in reverse alphabetic order building up to the A finals. In the 27 Turn Stock Class Rishi didn’t get off to the start he had hoped for, finishing a lowly tenth in the first leg of the finals, but this didn’t deter him and he fought back to take the second and third leg win with a commanding lead from start to finish in both finals. Clive Bonner did his level best to take the win from Rishi but couldn’t keep with him and in the end had to settle for second. Peter Hammock found some pace in the finals and pushed himself up into the final podium position with a consistent drive in all three finals, finishing third in each. The person on the move in the final though was Jamie Donovan who climbed his way up to finish fifth from tenth on the grid.

In the 13.5 Stock class Dave Ringsell took the win, but wasn’t as dominant as he was in qualifying. A few small errors which cost him big on track leaving him a lot of work to do to catching up, which he did though, much to his credit. Jamie Guy took up second place with top Junior in this class Paul Sanders taking the last podium place, wrapping up the top three. The top five positions remain as they had qualified, with just sixth to tenth looking different to qualifying. James Brewer had the biggest jump from eight on the grid to finish sixth overall.

10.5 saw Ashley Wiffen take the first leg win and looking on course to take the overall win, but in the second leg Nathan Parker came from sixth on the grid to claim the win in a close race between him and Matt Pocknell who led for the majority of the time. The Final leg saw Ashley make a small mistake in the infield which ended his chances of a win and again Nathan Parker stormed through the pack to take the leg three win and with that the overall win of this class. David Saul took home the third place trophy with two second places in the first and final leg, with Matt Pocknell just missing out on the podium despite finishing top 3 in all finals. Rob West climbed his way up from ninth on the grid to finish sixth and tie on points with Ricky Copsey who finished fifth.

In Modified the story was Chris Grainger taking another 2008 win. Continuing the form that has made him this year’s national champion he secured first place by wining the first and second leg. Ben Cosgrove took up second place on the podium after a disaster of a start in the first leg which put him out of the race due to a mechanical failure. Not deterred though Ben made good in the last two legs to take second and first, the latter won in a close fought battle between him and Chris. James Howarth took the final podium spot with three very consistent drives in which he showed great pace and a level head in what was a very fast and furious class. Last years TQ man and overall winner Olly Jeffereies suffered with a mechanical problem in the second leg which dashed his hopes of a podium position whilst fellow team mate Stewart Noble was to lose out the most, dropping from sixth on the grid to tenth.