BMC Racing: EMRA Rd4 - Wet! Dry! Wet! Dry!

The fourth round of the EMRA Championship took place at the weekend. And what a tricky day it was. One minute it was warm and sunny, the next it was raining cats and dogs!

So, what happened? Well, qualifying was wet, and Leon had the added complication of having both the Formula 400's and 600 Superstocks sharing the same qualifying session. So he rode his 600 in the main session and went out on his 400 with the Formula 600's. Not ideal conditions, but true to form, Leon stepped up to the mark and put in a blistering time to stick himself second on the grid. And as expected, Mike was right with him in third. Yet another BMC front row double. The rest of us in the team peppered the grid lower down the field. Gordon and Freddy were on row three, James (a new member) was on row four, and I was happy to head up row five.

The first race was a tyre choice nightmare. It had stopped raining and a delay in proceedings saw the track dry out by the time they called us up. A last minute choice of dry tyres was the way we went, which turned out to be bang on. Although time pressure prevented me being able change my front in time. Leon was, as usual, at the very sharp end of the pack and bringing home another terrific second place. Mike wasn't too far behind finishing just outside the podium in fourth place. Some more useful points in the bag. Freddy was back to his old best, with some great lap times in the 1:01's, and finished an excellent seventh place. Gordon claimed the final points place in tenth place. James had issues with his steering damper and pulled in on the sighting lap. I decided to save my wet front and pulled in midway through the race.

Here is the first lap of race one where we see Leon and Mike leading in to Edwinas, a familiar sight these days:

Race two was a different story altogether. A downpour after race one, followed by some sunny intervals, saw the track drying again. But was it going to stay dry? We seemed to think it was, so we changed over to dry tyres only to find the heavens open just as we were about to leave the awning. A frantic change of boots, thanks to the race being delayed, saw us all on track in the rain on the correct tyres. We all know that both Mike and Leon love these wet conditions, and they proved it! They both took off from the start and left the field for dead, with Mike leading the race until the very last lap when Leon took an opportunity to overtake at the hairpin. The gap between them over the line was 0.045 seconds. Awesome! I saw them coming round to lap me on the penultimate lap so made sure I got out of their way when they came through. It was a treat to watch them fly past me in such tricky conditions. James had a great race too, finishing an excellent seventh place. Gordon took some points in ninth place, and Freddy was just outside the points in eleventh. I was out enjoying myself and found myself a couple of places behind Freddy in thirteenth place.

Leon now leads the championship by 29 points, and now only needs to take two more points than Richard Saunders (in second place) next time they're out and the title is his. Mike closed the gap to Richard and has brilliantly consolidated his third place. Well done to both of them, yet another fantastic day for the BMC Racing team.

Here's a mini montage of the start of race two, and Leon and Mike bringing home the BMC one two:

Leon was also out in the 600 Superstocks again. Yet again they put the 400's and 600's right next to each other, making life extremely hard on Leon. He had to rely on Rod and the gang to have his Honda ready for a quick changeover, not to mention the fatigue that he must have been feeling. But he went well, bringing home a third and a fourth place. He really has made the move up a class seem effortless. Well done mate!