Birel dominate at Rotax S1 PFI

There was much anticipation at acr running up to round 1 of the 2010 Rotax S1 at PFI at the weekend. It was a return to the catagory for the acrbirel team after an abcence of 4 years. By the end of the weekend acr and Birel were definately back on the map in Rotax.

acrbirel fielded 6 senior max drivers. Reigning S1 Senior champion Michael Simpson, 2009 Junior Champion Edward Brand, Tom Thompson, Chris Thomas , Michael Taylor and in 177 Steve Cobb.

In Rotax 177 Steve Cobb was on excellent form qualifying on pole and winning the first heat, 2nd in the second heat saw him start the final from pole. Two close starts saw Cobb demoted both times and both times he recovered to 2nd place. Cobb however was satisfied on his performance on his return to the S1 series and looks like a firm favourite for later in the season.

In Senior Max qualifying was a mixed bag, Simpson and Taylor were caught on slicks in the rain whilst Thomas qualified 7th and Brand 5th and Thompson 24th . In the heats Brand took a victory and a 3rd. Simpson started 21st in each heat, in heat 1 he was in second before touching a kerb and breaking his chain and in the second heat coming through to win !

Thomas was unlucky to be in the repacharge due to be collected someone elses accident damaging his kart which halted his meeting. For Final 1 it was Brand on pole postion, Taylor was on grid 10 and Simpson was back on 25th, Thompson started 24th. Brand led away and built up a good lead driving very maturely, Simpson had an awesome drive from 25th to 2nd to follow Brand home in a Birel 1 2.

In Final 2 both Birels were pushed wide in turn 1 with Simpson slipping down to 7th and Brand to 4th. Brand recovered well and re took the lead and started to build a cushion. Simpson picked off the places and began to close on Brand before a clinical move into turn 3 saw him take the lead. The Birel duo then worked together and eased away from 3rd place man Dan Holland (Gillard). Simpson kept it covered and led Brand across the line for another historic Birel 1 2 with both acrbirel drivers now heading the overall Championship !

" What a race !, its very difficult to achieve a result like that !" commented team boss Andy Cox " Michael and Edward have both driven fantastically all weekend, more importantly they, along with our other drivers have all worked well as a team and have delivered a superb result for us. I'm glad they took a win a piece and I'm sure that they will have further battles together for wins later on in the season ! I would like to thank our drivers, Birel for making such a great kart, our engine suppliers Steve Ogden and Nigel Horner of HRS engines and all our mechanics. I would also like to give a special thankyou to Simpson Senior who's has really worked hard for acr in the last few weeks."