Weekend Roundup 6th March
Another weekend, and another weekend out in the cold outdoors for the NEMO Racing team.
Deerdale.
With the upcoming first round of the BRCA National Series, Deerdale was host to whole raft of the National Championship competitors as they honed their set-ups and driving styles for this unique track.
NEMO Racing was out in force, with Darren Bloomfield, Ollie Currie, Jonny Skidmore, Tony Truman and Callum Niblett all on track learning and putting their astro surface skills to the test.
Round 1 of qualifying saw Darren leading comfortably until the final lap when a back marker panicked in front of him and stopped dead rather than move aside, leaving him with nowhere to go but under his rear wing and get stuck for 9 seconds. The 2nd round Darren elected to stay on the Spiral tyres while many of the others switched to the Pins on the drying track, Darren was still able to secure 3rd overall despite the pace disadvantage from the tyres. Random snow flurries were playing havoc with tyre selection and the final round saw Darren go for Pins when others went back the other way, this worked in his favour as it stayed dry enough and he had a pace advantage. Unfortunately a couple of bobbles prevented him from taking TQ leaving him 2nd overall.
Of the other guys, it was Jonny Skidmore looking the best with a very strong last round that saw him take 4th overall. Tony, Ollie and Callum were all playing themselves in and would all end up in the B final for some bump up action.
The C final saw William Skidmore drive an excellent race to bump up and get himself in the mix with his team mates in the B final. The B was a hectic race, with a snow shower coming mid race that left those out there on Pins with very little grip. It was Tony Truman and Ollie Currie who adapted best, and they drove with accuracy and patience to secure bump up places for the main.
The main final saw most guys select the Spiral tyre after the snow shower during the B, and after dropping a place early on he was quickly back to 2nd and chasing down Graham Alsop. These drivers put an amazing display of mistake free driving together for the next 15 minutes and eventually Darren caught and then put a pass on Graham for the lead. Going into the last few minutes as they closed up on a back marker to lap, he crashed in front and Darren had to take avoiding action and clipped a pipe rolling him over. Graham was back through leaving Darren with 2.5 seconds to close down, which he did with an amazing turn of pace over the next 2 laps to be back on him going onto the final lap, where he made a dive for the win which did’t come off, leaving him to finish 2nd after a great race.
Jonny Skidmore was perhaps the star of the show, after a rough few laps at the beginning he settled into 3rd and was able to just about hang on to the pace of the two leaders, only dropping a little along the way to take a great 3rd overall.
Germany
Over in Germany, new NEMO recruits Burak and Berkan Kilic were out for the time on a dirt track with their Agama A215 cars at the Sport Circle Championship West Rd.1
After some practice on Saturday, the young guys were getting used to their new cars and happy with the performance, ready for the race on Sunday.
After qualifying Burak was on the pole, with Bart Mullink 4th and Berkan 7th, all with good performance through the day.
The final saw Burak on the wrong end of collision with another driver, and have to fight from the back. This he did very well, to take a final 2nd place overall. Berkan was able to take a good 6th overall with a steady race.
All the drivers were very happy and look forward to the new season…
Ireland.
The Navan winter series Round 9 saw excellent performances from both Jason Noonan, and Greg Cunningham.
After a hard fought final, these drivers were both able to find a place on the podium with 2nd and 3rd overall respectively.