What: BRCA national 4th round, When: Yesterday, Where: Shrewsbury, historical city, historical track, Who: Cragg on fire once again, Weather: A typical English summers day. RAIN

The track:
"Old Skool" as everybody likes to call it and their was a lot of huffing and puffing before we arrived regarding the track. The weather didn't help at all and once again people talked about getting it called off before we had even set-out on Saturday. This to me is ridiculous and unacceptable. People moaning and not wanting to waste time and money attending the race even when they have no idea what the weather is going to do.

This is England baby and like it or not thats the way it will always be. You sound surprised it may rain???? Thank god we were actually on grass because the race wouldn't have taken place on clay or Astro-turf in those conditions. In my opinion if you feel like it may be a poor weekend and your wasting your money then keep your comments to yourself and don't go. Don't drag everybody down with you. The guys are doing the best job they possibly can and nobody seems to appreciate that. Bitch and moan all you want but if your not prepared to put yourself forward and do something about it. Zip it......
Click Read more to enjoy the rest of Mr Drescher's delightful tale @ round 4!

We all like exciting tracks with large jumps and banked corners but one of the things that makes our championship so different is the diversity of the tracks we race on. I'm not a fan of the grass tracks or astroturf but the same people always come through and do well. The drivers that can adapt and learn quickly always shine. It does effect us for international competition compared to the Europeans but again the weather for us is the biggest problem we face. The BRCA have built in more structure to the races and the dates to allow the clay tracks to be run in summer and around the Euro's dates to give everybody attending a better chance but if it rains we are doomed, its always a 50/50 gamble with weather even in the summer in the UK.

Yes the Shrewsbury track was boring in layout and more could have been done with it to make it more interesting but it was still a tough track to drive and be fast. But you know what- it was a level playing field and this makes a big difference in my opinion to the quality of racing. It was extremely close and exciting in the end. The size of the track was perfect and even I could see the far regions of the track- this is a rare occurrence for me. As easy as everybody says the flat grass tracks are- in my opinion they always throw up some unsuspecting difficulty. Surface problems, tire choices, handling problems etc. Maybe more could be done to add some features to the track but some of the lower finals and bump up races were very close and hard fought exciting races.
Ok, so heres some cold hard truth, we don't have many (acceptable) photos from the race so
instead we have some article themed music choices by the editor!:

If the weather had been decent then this would have been a more successful meeting and people would have come away happy. The same thing happened at Tiverton. People hated the track because they didn't know it and struggled in the beginning but towards the end the racing was very close and people settled down. They liked it in the end and got on with racing. We can't always have the perfect track we just have to get on with it and get the best results we can.
I see the advantages and disadvantages of having permanent and non permanent tracks and to be honest I have no idea what the best option is. We all want it like real racing with fantastic facilities but its not real racing and like I keep saying our weather ruins our tracks. WE are fortunate to have a handful of great clay tracks and thats a rarity in the UK.

Driving: The conditions made it very hard to get the right feeling and I struggled badly throughout qualifying. I couldn't quite work out why which was very frustrating. Neil, Darren and Elliot got out of the blocks quickly and got the cars working the best and Spashett showed some style in the first round with a 5th but had issues in the next 2 qualifiers. Dave got his moneys worth in the end and spend his afternoon with some impressive bumping up. It was a shame he didn't make it all the way, it would have made a good story.
It was good to see some different faces in the final once again and the track leveler always does this. In my opinion it keeps peoples hopes alive and makes others fight harder and drive better. The championship level this year is very high and this can be frustrating for people who have stayed stationary or gone backwards so far in 2009 but its great to see it so competitive.. Its by far the most competitive class in numbers that we have in the UK and because of this its gotten more serious. Good or bad I don't know but I hope it can maintain a fun aspect still because this is one of the biggest appeals of this class.

Tyres:
It was a mixed bag from the normal clay tyre and compounds. Back to the astro and grass tyre set-up we are so familiar with in the UK. I tried some XTR Step-ups thinking they would be the right choice and although they felt good they were slower than the HoBao angle spikes that 90% of people were running. This tire just works, we tried Schumacher spirals with some success and this is what Neil TQ'd on but when the track got wetter these tires got slower and the Angle spikes showed their strength once again. A multitude of tires were used but the option tire for these conditions had to be the angle spike. Darren ran these all day- he started off slower than Neil but got faster as the conditions changed. Darren ran his angle spikes in the aggressive direction with the standard insert on a small Proline wheel. Neil switched to this configuration for the final after running Schumacher yellow spirals all day and felt they were much better for the conditions. Lee confirmed that he felt the angle spikes were better and has never liked the feel of the Spirals- he feels they are too aggressive and difficult to drive so it was conclusive. We all ran with the standard foam insert which always feels strange when we generally run a molded insert but it seems to work when its wet or greasy and the smaller wheels rounds off the profile of the tire and gives more side bite than the flatter tire we run in the dry. Crazy tuning aids but it works and is general rule of thumb these days for astro and grass.
Qualifying flip flopped between Neil and Darren and once again Darren's small mistakes stopped him snatching the (big dick award) BDA although he was slightly faster. Neil capitalized on some good qualifying early on to secure the BDA but failed to start the final qualifying round because of receiver problems. I have to say I've been really impressed with the improvement Darren Bloomfield has made over he past 6-8 months. He's smoother and more consistent and this is reflected in his results. I was particularly impressed with his drive at Tiverton when he knuckled down and got a second place from what was looking like a disastrous weekend on a tire we didn't feel was a s good.

The team: Once again I can't complain and was delighted with the team. 4 Cars in the final again and 4 reedy engines is brilliant. It took some small tweaks to the car to get the cars better and in this instance Mick Cragg came up with the goods that got everybody stepping in the right direction. Some of the guys like to work things out for themselves but we end up very similar usually and have a good working relationship which helps with limited practice like we have.
I set out in the wrong direction and focussed on cornering rather than traction which was a big mistake. I lowered the car and limited the droop to help the car carve a smoother corner at high speed but in doing so I lost all my traction and it was terrible over the jumps and through the dumps. I was in Neils heat so I couldn't watch his car but I marshaled for Darren and he looked very fast so I was surprised in round one when Neil was faster by a couple of seconds. Lee Martin was in the same heat and his car didn't have the agility of Darren's Losi. Although Lee could put in a good solid run it didn't look racy and in these conditions it was difficult to tell why. His mistakes told me that his car wasn't perfect because he's normally very precise. Lee worked hi way through a sticky qualifying like myself but bumped up into the A. Bradders, myself and Lee all bumped from the B to rear guard Neil in the final. If they had gone on qualifying alone our results would have looked terrible with only one car and engine in the final.
The changes that were made was mainly in the rear. Mick had gone the opposite direction to me and raised the car, increased the droop and softened up the rear end to generate more roll. 90% of the team went this way and found the car much easier and more consistent to drive which was essential on this track when qualifying was so close. To be honest most of us struggled in the beginning until we made these changes and personally speaking I went from 21 in round 1 to 32nd in round 2 ( still playing with tires and making my own adjustments) and when I made the changes Mick had recommended I managed a 5th in the final round only 4 second behind Darren' s time. I was 3rd in my heat with 2 cars in front of me less that 2 tenths quicker. Thats how close it was.....

Qualifying was all over the place for the AE boys and it was a tough weekend with the weather and wet conditions. The main thing was to get the cars drivable and then let the drivers do the work. Most of us ended up in the B final and at one stage it was all 4 AE drivers that were in bump up positions. Only 3 went through in the end but that meant 4 cars in the main which I'm delighted about. Once again it could so easily have been more and like I said perhaps less if the weather hadn't eased up.. Given the luck, if's buts and maybe's..... The final round of qualifying was encouraging for us and the improvements were very evident. The results looked better but at this stage we didn't know if the finals would be run and with the changing conditions how the cars would work if the finals were run.

Ok, if you didn't enjoy the tunes above, here are some more!:


Final: It was a lottery going into the final and with the changing conditions the track started to dry out, the track got very bumpy and was muddy in places. We had no idea if the changes we'd made would still work. My car was good in the B final and was easy enough to drive so we knew we would be close. It was anybody's race and whoever got on the right set-up would most likely win if they kept it clean. As it turned out the final was a close battle between the top seven cars. Neil had a strong mid section and pulled out a gap which Darren couldn't chase down with a slightly boggy engine he admitted later wasn't tuned right. Giving neil an advantage and a slight buffer but also with a perfect drive during the mid 10 minutes. Again Darren did a fantastic job to hold onto second and nurse it home. Elliot and myself had a battle to the finish line which was a really fun race whilst same Taylor wasn't far behind and closing the gap.
I was delighted with the team again and a big hand shake to Neil for putting in another solid run with a car that wasn't the best through qualifying but was once again awesome in the final. We all worked hard in some crappy conditions and getting the car nailed for the finals is always the main consideration in 1/8th although Neil keeps on banging out the consistent runs to take the BDA. Gaining the extra championship points will come in handy come the end of the year. Since focussing more on 1/8th I feel Neil has really stepped up his level in this class and seems more determined and focussed than ever in 1/8th.
All my team guys make my job much easier and they are a pleasure to work with. I enjoy spending time with them and when your getting the results it a very satisfying feeling to be part of that team. Thanks everybody.