Yardy and Neal led Schumacher sweep of British Winter Open

0 Feb. 7, 2017, 10:40 a.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report from Schumacher:
www.racing-cars.com

The weekend of 4/5 February saw the annual British Winter Open event, a type of indoor national - this year hosted by the Maritime Raceway in Kent and run by the BRCA.

The track was extremely fast but had a nice flow to it and average laps of 18 secs for 4wd and 19 for 2wd. The surface was very short pile blue Astro which had previously been surface utilised by the Silverstone club.

2wd

The Saturday saw the 2wd class and the BRCA event debut of the new Cougar KC. Odds on favourite for the event was TLR's Ellis Stafford, former European champion and a regular at the Maritime venue. Out to stop him though were the Schumacher team led by Tom Yardy making his race debut with the KC, along with Jack Neal, Richard Barton, Charlie Ware, Mat Dodd and Steve Brown.

Qualifying was fast and furious with the tq position to be decided in the 4th and final round - on the tight indoor track, passing places were limited so pole was highly sought! Coming down to the final few laps of the final qualifier, Ellis would put his local experience to use and just edge out Tom by a second to take TQ, with Tom 2nd and Jack in 3rd. There would be 4 KC's in the top 5 as Richard and Charlie lined up 4th and 5th.

The first final produced a great head to head battle between Tom and Ellis but with a slight bobble from Ellis off the table top jump, Tom hit the front where he would stay to the end. Ellis had a late error which let Charlie in for 2nd and Ellis 3rd. Leg 2 saw a front 3 break away as Jack held on in p3 waiting to pick up any pieces which duely came - after a few laps of pressure, Ellis got his 22 up on 2 wheels but as Tom tried to sneak inside he caught the track marker and became beached allowing Jack to sneak past the pair and into the lead. Tom made it back into 2nd and chased down Jack to try and sew up the title but he couldn't find a way by and Jack held on to take it to leg 3. Tom's 2nd in leg 2 put him in prime position for the win but he would need to keep Jack behind in leg 3 to be sure!! Again a 3 car breakaway was the theme for leg 3 but after the first minute Jack made an error coming into the straight and which gave Tom the opportunity to hunt down Ellis knowing the title was his - a daring last corner move didn't pay off and Ellis took the leg win giving him 2nd overall behind Tom - the new 2wd BWOC champion! Jack came home 3rd with Charlie and Richard rounding out the top 5.

4wd

The Maritime crew made minor changes to the layout for Sunday and we were ready to go. Right from practice the K2 looked tough to beat as Jack Neal and Tom Yardy traded fastest laps.

In qualifying Jack showed he was the man to beat - despite being close on the times, jacks consistency saw him take pole with 3 round wins. Richard Barton had a storming final qualifier to leap frog Tom to go 2nd on the grid with Tom 3rd. Stage set for a great team mate battle in the final!

Leg 1 saw a clean start from Jack but at the end of lap 1 his car came to a halt with a loose pinion. Rich hit the front with Tom in hot pursuit until he crashed at the end of lap 2. Ed Kerry (xray) came through to 2nd but would also profit from a later error from Rich giving him a lead he'd hold to the end. Rich got 2nd with Tom down in 6th and Jack 10th. Leg 2 would be a little more straight forward, the front 3 gapped the field until Richard made a mistake and Tom was through to 2nd. He pushed hard for a way past Jack which really entertained the crowd but he couldn't get through and Jack held on for a deserved leg win. Tom came 2nd with both now back in contention for the title. All to play for in leg 3 but Tom's chances of the double were virtually over as he clipped the 2nd corner allowing Jack and Rich to race out front. Rich got by momentarily but immediately gave Jack the lead and as he looked like doing from early on, Jack powered home to become 4wd BWOC champion! Rich had a bobble towards the end of the leg which let a recovering Tom by for 2nd which gave him 2nd overall with Rich 3rd - a K2 podium sweep!