HB and HPI BRCA Winter National TC Champions The weekend of 22/23 January 2011 saw the first ever WinterNats Race of Champions meeting held at the amazing venue of Ardent Raceway, next door to Donington Park full-size racing circuit. This meeting was run to Pro Stock rules, which means that all drivers had to use a BRCA homologated 10.5 motor but the speed control rules are open. This makes the class somewhat of a speedo war by trying to achieve the best possible feel and speed for the tight demanding circuit whilst also demanding the highest possible corner speeds you can achieve.
The track surface at Ardent is all carpet with white track markings. The straight was 30 metres long and the width was 16m, making this one of the biggest indoor permanent carpet tracks in the UK if not the biggest. A very technical layout was there to meet the drivers, bringing in laptimes around the 14 second mark for most drivers. Saturday morning was all about making the top 32 positions in 3 rounds of FTD pre qualifying. The top 32 would then enter the Race of Champions class, while the remaining 70 drivers would be in the hunt for the Clubmans Winter National Title. At the end of pre qualifying team HB/HPI had Andy Moore, Jonny Bowden, Russell Williams, Ben Cosgrove, Ayrton Anderson, Chris Clark, Ian Plimmer and Tom Watts all in the top 32. That's 33% of the top 32!! The unlucky drivers not to make the top 32 from the HB team were John Dawson and Merv Wignell who both had the speed but were unable to make their runs count. They would prove this by locking out the Clubmans A Final front row after 5 rounds of round by round qualifying!! This race was the official debut of the new HPI Flux Pro Competition ESC which was being used by Andy Moore, Jonny Bowden and Ben Cosgrove for the first time at national level in 10.5 Pro Stock. The unit is still in prototype version but was good enough already for the team to put their confidence in the HPI R&D team. Production units should be around before the season gets underway in April/May and will compliment the new range of HPI Flux Pro Competition motors (which were not eligible to be used at the time of the meeting but meet full BRCA/EFRA requirements) The Race of Champions proved to be very exciting with an absolute master class of driving form Andy Moore. He owned the meeting taking 7 leg wins out of 8 races and setting the fastest times every round. Olly Jefferies was the only driver to match Andy on wins but lost out on fastest time, Andy ran 2 finals faster than Olly's fastest effort. A big turning point on the meeting was the head to head race between Andy and Olly in Round 4 where Andy won from the back of the grid, seemingly shaking Olly's confidence a little. Jonny Bowden the 2010 Pro Stock National Champion proved how competitive the Pro Stock class really is by taking a very respectable 3rd position overall - beating the current modified BRCA 2010 National Champion Chris Grainger in 4th! It was a mixed bag for the rest of the team in the top 32, with some promising runs coming to halt with various reasons for retirement. Ben Cosgrove had 2 DNF's and was on for a solid top 10 result until a small mistake when fighting for position made it 3 DNF's from 8 races. When it was 6 to count you need to finish every final to have a chance. As mentioned earlier John Dawson took TQ in the Clubmans class and converted it to a win in the first leg of the A. Merv Wignell lined up in second but unfortunately had a few isssues in all the finals which dropped him out of podium contention. John had a couple of scruffy finals which meant he had to settle for third overall. John is the owner of Ardent Raceway and a very valuable addition to the HB team, his personality is very friendly and fun loving which makes him a top all round bloke. Ardent Raceway is simply a stunning facility, and team HB showed the rest of the field they mean some business heading into the 2011 BRCA National Championships! Andy Moore will look to build on this and re-capture the modified crown whilst Jonny Bowden will be looking to add to his brace of Pro Stock titles form 2009 and 2010. The addition of the HPI Flux Pro Competition electronics and the TCX will be very tough to beat especially after taking a national title even in prototype form. HB have a very strong team for the national campaign with the ultra fast Ayrton Anderson and Mr consistent Chris Clarke supporting Jonny Bowden in Pro Stock. There's also the very experienced Russ Williams and Tom Watts backing up Andy Moore in modified. There is also the Clubmans class covered by Zak Finaly, current 13.5 BTCC Champion from 2010 to name but a few. Look out for them in the HB Gazebo! HPI provided some awesome raffle prizes topped off with the Blitz ESE Short Course truck which was won by a very lucky driver.
