Published March 16, 2011 12:06
Bath A close the gap on Loughborough A at the top of the championship whilst their other rivals falter.
After the drizzle of Teeside and the bitter cold of Buckmore, a surprisingly pleasant weekend in South Wales awaited the 54 teams that would compete in rounds 5 and 6 of the BUKC 2011. The Llandow circuit requires a clever driver to get the maximum lap time with late apexes offering the fastest line but leaving drivers open to attack leading to many fantastic battles for position!
The first sprint race of the day was won by Brunel A ahead of Newcastle A, with Leeds A finishing in third place some 30 seconds behind. After a strong performance at Buckmore, the second race saw BUKC veteran David Evans from Oxford Brookes A take the win, after chasing down Bath A for much of the race, finally making the move into the lead on lap 21 which they held for the remainder of the race. The scrap for third place was settled in favour of Loughborough B after they held off Exeter A and Plymouth A, but those three were covered by only four tenths of a second.
Race three was another close encounter, with the top four finishers finishing within three seconds of one another. Warwick A won it, followed by Swansea A, Plymouth A and Sheffield A. The continuing strong performance of Bath A saw them take victory in race four, 13 seconds ahead of Birmingham A and Southampton A.
Then in the penultimate race of Round 5, local university Swansea Metropolitan A took a fantastic win and fastest lap, but it was special for a very different and awesome reason. It was the first race ever to have been won by a girl! After nearly 10 years of the BUKC, Carly Latcham became the first girl ever to have won a BUKC race proving that it's not just for boys and that more girls should get involved. Well done Carly! Awesome result.
The last race of round 5 was a cracker, with last years top two teams going head to head. Oxford Brookes A led for most of the race, but a final lap move saw Loughborough A take the win by just one tenth of a second. Coventry A finished in a lonely third place.
Bath A’s strong performance meant that they won round 5 of the BUKC ahead of Oxford Brookes A and Loughborough B, with Loughborough A finishing a very unusual and worrying 5th. Still, out of 54 teams, that's not bad!
Loughborough A started to redeem themselves going into Round 6 by taking a commanding win in the first endurance race of the afternoon, lapping everyone but second placed Swansea A. Leeds A held on to the final podium spot, just half a second ahead of Coventry A.
And it was fantastic to see both Hertfordshire A and B take a 1-2 in race 2 in the afternoon. Happily, no team orders were in play it seemed as Hertfordshire B beat their A team by twenty seconds, with Brunel A in third position. Swansea Metropolitan picked up their second win of the day in the final race, beating Loughborough B and Coventry A to the top spot.
Now, the tension didn't stop after the racing had finished either. Three teams all thought they had won that afternoon's racing. Swansea A, Coventry A and Hertfordshire A were all drawn on points but who had won? Coventry A came in 3rd because their best race result was a 3rd compared to both Swansea A and Herts A best result of 2nd. But Swansea and Herts had both also scored
a 5th place - exactly drawn on points. So it went down to the fastest lap between the two teams and it was the local boys Swansea who took the honours having set a fastest lap over 0.4s quicker than Herts. Well done Swanea!
It was an underperforming day for last year’s top three, as Loughborough, Warwick and Oxford Brookes all dropped points, meaning Bath A have closed the gap to Loughborough at the top of the Championship to just 7 points. Warwick A are in 3rd, but coming under serious pressure from both Oxford Brookes A and Coventry A.
In a few weeks we travel down to Somerset for rounds 7 and 8 of the 2011 BUKC, and the championship is still up for grabs…
Report by Jack Nicholls
