British Championship 2013: Preview

[Grasser233]

British Championshp 2013 Preview

This Thursday, we shall be running one of the most prestigious championships of the year for F1 on UKDirt, The 2013 British Drivers Championship. In terms of where this ranks, the British is one of the three “Major” titles along with the World and National Points titles and the classic black and white chequered roof is one of the most coveted of them all.

The Track

This season sees a slight departure of track choice from previous seasons. The Buxton track, with its tight corners and comparatively long straights, should provide some interesting racing and the first corner of the final will probably account for some very early exits from the race!

 

 

The History

 

The British has a long history stretching right back to UKDirt’s roots in 2001. In that first year, Rebel (#77) took the title and would go on to win a further two titles at Sheffield and Ipswich making him the leading title winner with three to date. In between his 2001 and 2004 title years, we have some of the drivers who really helped define the Heat era. Jok (79) in 2002 who go on to win the National Points that year and AndyH (#148) who held both F1 and F2 titles in the same season. Towards the final years of Heat, 2007 would see Parky (#152) finally take his first and only major title.

 

2008 would see the first event using the rFactor platform, and in a manic final at Belle Vue, Aub (#152) took the first title using the rFactor mod. 2010 also saw one of the rFactor supporters in Dazza (#290) who would go on to win multiple titles in rFactor after his initial British success.

 

All of those drivers though are no longer actively racing full time in F1, and of the current driver roster, we have 3 drivers who have won double titles. Corny (#391) won both of his British titles during the heat era and would dearly love to add to his collection this season. Mike (#315) has the unique stat that he won both his titles in the same year, a feat that will never be repeated and finally we come to the current champion, DanSkin (#236) who has won the last two titles on the shale of Kings Lynn and Coventry. All three of these drivers will looking to add to their chequered roof collection and equal Rebel come Thursday.

 

The Drivers

 

So who should we be looking at as a possible title winner for Thursday?

 

Well, straight away, it’s hard to look past the current top two in the National Points. The British is one meeting that TomD (#112) has never really had much success with but he’ll be looking to put that right on Thursday. He is currently top of the points and has good tarmac form this season. DanSkin (#236) is close behind in the points and as previously mentioned is the current defending champion. Again, similar to Tom, has excellent form on tarmac and has a good record around Buxton.

 

Chevykiller (#184) recently won his first title at the Irish Championships and should be a contender if he qualifies high up the grid. Jakie Jnr (#305) also won his first title recently with the Scottish at Cowdenbeath and knows how to win these closed grid races.

 

Two drivers who have both managed to be runner up twice in both Heat and rFactor eras but never won it are MoR (#137) and Grasser (#233). Both will be determined to put that right if they attend after being so agonisingly close in previous races.

 

The winner could also come from the packed red grade. Previous winner and current UK Open champion Mike (#315), Kane (#238), Stoxjack (#249), Jake Cameron (#691), and Johno (#3) have all shown decent form at various times throughout the season. Sije (#129) has had a excellent run from yellow and blue and shouldn’t be discounted from red.

 

The top point scorers from the main grid could come from the lower grades. Dode (#151) has recently been downgraded to blue and would be expected to go well from there. Ayrton Smith (#64) was one of the early season pace setters after going initially from white. LeeK (#39) has also had an excellent run lately taking him into the top ten in points and should also fare well from blue.

 

From yellow, Spike (#221) has had good results this season although struggled at his early season grading at red. Evnos (#338) and Bagoo (#384) have also steadily improved from the lower grades.

 

At white, BigAl (Has he raced at every British Championship meeting?) could score well if he gets away and has driven well at times this season. Ricky James has had a steering wheel upgrade this season and has fared much better on tarmac. He will be happy to be racing at Buxton rather than a shale track. I also suspect we will get a blow by blow account of his meeting anyway! And finally, from an Autograss background and the only one from the influx of Grasstrack drivers to have stuck Stockcars out over the season is KrisH. Kris has improved greatly over the last couple of weeks due to a hardware upgrade and took an well overdue first win last week. Like BigAl, could score well if he gets away.

 

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So we shall see who triumphs come Thursday and knowing my luck, it’ll be someone I’ve not mentioned at all. Good luck to one and all!

Edited June 12, 2013 by Grasser233

[MoR137]

Great write-up Grasser! It brought back some memories - that 2004 british has always stuck with me as the first time I ever I got close to any sort of success (I think I only lead for one back straight of sheffield but at the time I was chuffed with that haha) and the 2010 british was the one where I thought I was finally going to win it only to get planted beautifully into a parked car by Dazza with about 4 laps to go. That's the best way to lose a championship haha

 

Looking forward to it tonight - everyone is so even this year so I think it'll be a tough one!

 

MoR

[Matty300]

Nice write up Grasser, thanks