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Grainger goes 4 for 4 at BTCC

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Mike Garrison

0 Aug. 10, 2012, 8:02 a.m.

8/10/2012

By Mike Garrison

LiveRC.com

Schumacher Race Report:

www.racing-cars.com

Round 4 of this years’ championship was held at the Snetterton track, which was a regular venue at one time, but as of late not one we have been able to visit due to construction work. The weather forecast for the day was dry with rain due at about 3pm, at the drivers briefing it was decided that the format for the day would be with either 4 or 5 rounds of round by round qualifying the best 2 to count followed by 1 final.

Qualifying Round 1
Zak Finlay set the pace in round 1 almost 10 seconds ahead of Schumacher’s Mark Musgrove in second place, Damian Giddins was third fastest only half a second behind Mark, Arron Rose was fourth fastest in the round with a name from the past Scott Morton rounding out the top 5 in the 13.5 Stock class. In Super touring 10.5 it was Schumacher’s Chris Grainger back from his recent success at the World Championships who set the fastest time with a 24/309.37 the only other driver to do 24 laps was second place man James Hart third in the round was Chris Kerswell, Matt White was fourth and rounding out the top five was Stefan Chodzynski.

Qualifying Round 2
In the 13.5 Stock Class it was again Zak who set the fastest time with a time of 23/310.22 Mark was again second in the round this time much closer only 2 seconds slower in third place it was Richard Clarke, fourth in the round was Scott and rounding out the top five was Damian. In the 10.5 Super Touring it was again Chris G who set the fastest time, Elliott Harper was second, with Colin Price third, in fourth place was Chris K, and rounding out the top five in the round was again Stefan.

Qualifying Round 3
13.5 Stock Class the first two driver were as the first two round Zak first, Mark second, however in third place a new name appeared it was James Greener and in fourth another new name to the top five it was Chris Lovely and rounding out the top five was Aaron Rose. The Super Touring 10.5 class saw Elliott set the fastest time in the round with Chris K in second, Sam Clifton was third fastest, fourth was Phil Chambers with James H rounding out the top five.

Qualifying Round 4
Round 4 saw Zak Finlay in the TQ position for the fourth time in the 13.5 Stock Class, Mark Musgrove was second, Scott Morton was third, with Chris Lovely again fourth and rounding out the top five was Arron Rose. In the 10.5 Super Touring class it was Schumacher’s Colin Price who was in the top spot with team mate Matt white in second, third in the round was Elliott Harper, fourth in the round went to Chris kerswell with Phil Chambers rounding out the top five. With the weather drawing in it was decided that we would start the finals after this round.

After 4 rounds of round by round qualifying the best 2 to count, the top 10 in each class were as follows:-

Top 10 Stock 13.5
1. Zak Finlay
2. Mark Musgrove
3. Scott Morton
4. Damian Giddins
5. Chris Lovely
6. Richard Clarke
7. Arron Rose
8. James Greener
9. Sam Law
10. Richard Norris

Top 10 Super Touring 10.5
1. Chris Grainger
2. Elliott Harper
3. Colin Price
4. Chris Kerswell
5. Matthew White
6. James Hart
7. Sam Clifton
8. Phil Chambers
9. Stefan Chodzynski
10. Chris Slater

Finals
Stock 13.5 C Final top 3
1. Terry Dickinson
2. Matthew Underwood
3. Steven Powis

Stock 13.5 B Final top 3
1. Mark Richards
2. Brian Nortje
3. Nigel Shaw

Stock 13.5 A Final
This final saw another perfect drive for the pole sitter Zak Finlay to lead from start to finish he was the class of the field which he had been all day however behind him, it was a different story for second place man on the grid Mark Musgrove. Mark had a couple of bad laps getting caught up with other drivers costing him places as did Scott Morton on lap 3 losing him nearly an whole lap, something that he would not recover from. This allowed what can only be described as an epic drive by Sam Law from ninth on the starting grid to move up to second behind Zak, Damian Giddins moved up from forth to third and Chris Lovely from fifth to fourth, Mark Musgrove made his way back up to fifth position and that was how they finished.

Top 5 Stock 13.5 A final were:
1. Zak Finlay
2. Sam Law
3. Damian Giddins
4. Chris Lovely
5. Mark Musgrove

Super Touring 10.5 E Final top 3

1. Nick Austin
2. Steven Moss
3. Lloyd Chapman

Super Touring 10.5 D Final top 3
1. Matthew Chandler
2. Adam Winyard
3. Paul Hopkins

Super Touring 10.5 C Final top 3
1. Mark Buonaiuto
2. Stephen Creswell
3. James Baker

Super Touring 10.5 B Final top 3
1. Zak Smith
2. Mark Styles
3. Mark Wallace

Super Touring 10.5 A Final
The Super touring final was about to start the 2 minute count down when the heavens opened all pit men went running back for the wet cars whilst race director held the race for about 3 minutes. With all cars on the grid it was time to get going, the buzzer sounded and off everyone went ,Chris G got away well and had got a couple of seconds gap on second place Elliott Harper, James Hart moved up to third going past ,first Chris Kerswell on lap one and both Colin Price and Matt White on the second lap. Matt and Colin both retired on lap 4 and 5. Elliott had a couple of slower laps which allowed James to move into 2nd place and started to try to catch Chris G, his team mate Phil Chambers by this time was also making his way through the field and with Chris Kerswell retiring on lap 9 saw him into fourth place with Stefan Chodzynski in fifth, a couple of laps later Phil was able to get past Elliott to move into 3rd this is how it remained to the end of the final, Elliott was able to hold off Stefan to remain fourth and Stefan fifth. Chris Grainger had enough of a lead to keep James at bay and take the win from James and Phil.

Top 5 Super Touring A final was:
1. Chris Grainger
2. James Hart
3. Phil Chambers
4. Elliott Harper
5. Stefan Chodzynski

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Jon Guest for all his hard work and an excellent run meeting.

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