This weekend saw the start of the 2012 BRCA national season at Cotswolds
Model Car Club. In a change to most of 2011, the entire meeting was dry (even if it wasn’t particularly warm!). The 2012 BRCA Super Touring nationals will run to the old Pro-Stock rules, meaning that only 10.5 stock spec motors are eligible, but there is no limit on speed controllers. In testing around Cotswolds this has proved to be almost identical in pace to 5 cell open modified which we ran a few years ago!
Having TQed the Schumacher BTCC warmup event recently, we had confidence that the S411 was fast and consistent around Cotswolds. This was re-iterated in practice when I topped the practice listings based on fastest 5 consecutive laps.
Qualifying was super close and I qualified 4th, being one of the few drivers to have a top 5 result in every round. Being so close it was only tiny errors on my part that meant I could not qualify higher.
The finals were even closer! Finishing 3rd and 2nd in the first two legs secured me 3rd overall. In each of these finals I was less than a second behind the winner but could not find a way to pass!
Overall the S411 was fast, consistent and stable, meaning I could drive with less mistakes when under pressure in the finals. It seems this year will be all about qualifying though, as the cars are so closely matched on speed that passing in the finals will be very tough.
