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This weekend was the opening round of the 2012 BRCA Off-Road National series at Stotfold. With the high entries this year it is looking to be the most competitive national series for a while, proving what a good job the BRCA team do for the UK Nationals. The Schumacher team was out in full force at the event, with the new SV2 and SX3 cars. In 2wd the team put in a great performance, putting 3 cars in the A final, and proving competitive and consistent throughout the day, with Simon Moss’s Round 2 win showing the pace of the car. The finals were full of close racing, with drivers separated by very little for the majority of the 3 legs. At the end of it all Simon Moss secured a podium finish in 2nd, after winning the third leg, with Tom Cockerill 4th and Grant Williams coming home in 7th. 4wd was similar story, with the team being very quick throughout the day, proving the pace of the SX3. Tom Cockerill took the opening round of the day, and continued to show good pace throughout the day. The weather was the talking point throughout the day, with several small showers coming and going, along with hail at times. However, the track would quickly dry, making the drivers adjust to all conditions throughout the day. The battle for TQ spot would come down to the last lap, of the last heat of the last round, with Tom losing out by less than half a second, to line up 2nd on the grid. Tom was joined in the A final by Lloyd Storey and Simon Moss in 3rd & 7th. Tom Cockerill capitalised on a first lap error by the pole man Lee Martin, to lead the final from the first corner to the finish, closely followed and put under pressure by Lloyd Storey for the entire race, giving Schumacher a 1-2 finish in the leg. The second and third legs saw Tom finish second, giving him an overall position of 2nd, Lloyd backed up his good first leg result with a 4th in leg 3 to claim the final podium position in 3rd and Simon Moss held his grid position to finish 7th overall, equal on points with the 5th place man. Overall it was a very successful weekend for the team, taking 3 of the 6 available podium positions. The series now moves on to round 2 at RobinHood Raceway in 3 weeks, where the team will be looking to put in another solid performance. The team are trying a new wider track on their cars for the first time - to give more stability. Schumacher's new employee Trish Neal brought a stack of parts he's created for the team to widen both front and rear ends of the SV2. The rear end is widened with just a new front suspension hanger - which when used in conjunction with the 5 degree toe-in rear hanger gives a wider track with 'less' toe-in.
The front end - whilst not pretty - has been modified by cutting and shutting two suspension arms to create one longer (by about 3mm) arm. The Arms are screwed together, glues and finally zip-tied to ensure they won't fall apart during the racing and judging by the teams early efforts they're more than up to the job!
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