Bury Regional race report

[BMRCC]

Well what a scorcher at this years first NW regional. The sunshine certainly helped make for a lovely day out for all of us. ������������

The track was a test for all comers, with a mixture of fast sweeping corners, to the more challenging chicane through the mogul section. Big thanks to Mike Bradbury for the design. ��

Big thank you as always to Eddie Holt, who with the help of his fellow regional club reps, did a sterling job with refereeing the days races. ��

Not to forget the scrutineering team of Mark and Scott Broadbent, along with help from Bob McFarlane and Matthew Hinks. Thank you all for your continued support. ��

The meeting of course would not go ahead without the most important person. The race controller our own, club secretary Neil Burdess showed us all how to get through the 11 heats and finals without fuss. Making for a slick and enjoyable event. ����

Onto the racing. I would like to put on record that the marshalling was easily the best I've witnessed. With the 2 minutes set between heats, drivers stayed put throughout the day and were relieved without fuss. ��

The decision to place the juniors together in a qualifying heat was a real success. The driving standards were excellent and it was clear they enjoyed the camaraderie both on the track and the fields in between racing. ��
I want to thank Tom Pattison who, having only entered late on Saturday night was placed into junior heat but didn't complain. His making the C final showed both his skill to negotiate slower drivers, but also showed how good the youngsters were. ��

It wasn't just Tom who progressed higher up the ladder, with excellent results for Jason Harris and Ethan Bradbury, who qualified for mid grid F and E finals respectively, with both drivers going on to finish higher than the started. ����

Tommy Hodgkinson showed his increasing ability to win the D final, from 6th on the grid. Matthew Hinks managed to out qualify Tommy, with an excellent 6th place grid position in the C final. Two future A finalist without doubt. Well done to you both. ����

A junior much closer to regular A finals, is Hayden Lewis-Calf, who having qualified 10th in the B final, finishing in a fantastic 6th place. ��
It won't take long for Hayden to be joining our ever present A final junior, Josh Holdsworth, who qualified in a lofty 3 place, ahead of some of the regions top senior drivers. Despite dropping down to 7th after early mistakes in the final, Josh patiently drove his way back to finish a respectable 4th place. It's easy to forget sometimes Josh is still only 12! ��

The quality driving on display was not just restricted to the juniors.

Scott Broadbent calmly drove his Team C without fault to win the 2wd C final from pole. The battle for 2nd was much closer with Paul Westwell, John Inglesfield and Steven Ball all finishing within 2secs of each other. ��������

The 2wd B final was just as competitive, Reece Costello taking the win from pole, but the battle for 2nd was agin were the action was. Nick Caro had dropped down to 8th from 2nd after an early incident in the race, but valiantly fought his way back up through the field. With just a lap to go, Nick was pushing hard and was able to smartly move past Damian Whittle and into 3rd place. Seeing an opportunity to catch 2nd placed Tony Parr, Nick pushed even harder and that led to a mistake landing Nick on his roof and a lost place, with Damian Whittle sneaking back through to take 3rd. ��������

The 2wd A final saw a single mistake cost Mark Smith the win. Starting from pole, Mark made a rare error on the 8th lap to allow Chris Evison to move past. Mark stayed close to Chris' wing but Chris calmly drove home the win, with just over a second gap. With Gavin Crolla taking an excellent 3rd from his 6th placed grid position. ������

4wd was equally dramatic, with just 2 secs separating the top three drivers in the C final, who despite all three in the top grid positions, non finished as they started. Steve Iddon came though to take the win from 2nd, with Tim Brown 2nd. Bryn Tindall unlucky to finish close behind having started on pole. ������

The 4wd B final was also close. Neil Burdess taking the win, whilst behind him the battle between Martin Mills and Ian Kirkpatrick would go right to the last corner. Ian had led the final briefly but a mistake dropped him down the order. Ian battled hard and quickly regained 3rd place and closed in on Martin Mills, who was calmly driving his way to 2nd. Ian was not for letting that happen with an overtake move at the start of the last lap, it was Martin's turn to fight back. Ian took a wide line into the very last turn, Martin saw his chance and took the tighter line undertaking Ian to cross the line 0.11 ahead. ������

Mark Smith was able to make up for his disappointment in 2wd to comfortably bring home the 4wd A final from pole. With Joel Maher taking 2nd place with clear space behind him.
This time the entertainment was for 3rd place, with Stephen Lawson capitalising on mistakes from Gavin Crolla to pinch 3rd with less than 0.4seconds to spare. Gavin had pushed hard on his last lap and had gained half a second on Stephen but just couldn't get past before the line. ��������

A great days racing.

Well done to all drivers ��

Darren
Chairman BMRCC



Warmest regards

Darren Wales