After nearly 2 years of poor weather it looks like we're actually going to get a summer this year, the last two rounds of the Winter series were blessed with nice days but yesterday topped even those. Baking hot all day with bright sunshine and a light breeze, enough to keep you cool but not severe enough to upset even a 1/10th buggy when airborne, perfect!
In the 1/10th class it was business as usual for Team Losi,fighting it out between the Ten Ts of Stumpy and Mark D and the Short Course trucks of Adrian and Mark R over three qualifying rounds. In heat one it was Stumpy who crossed the line first, followed by Adrian less than 1/100 of a second later, that's how close the racing is at SCRCCC! In heat two the order was reversed with Adrian not only setting 1/10th FTD of 37.946 but also winning by 5 seconds over Stumpy with Mark R taking third less than 2 seconds ahead of fourth place man Mark D. In heat three the Fordingbridge man firmly stamped his authority on the smallest class by completing 8 laps nearly 29 seconds ahead of his nearest challenger with Mark R bagging another third place to put himself on the second row of the grid for the final. Purcy P also put in a strong showing with the FTX Vantage buggy posting a 6 lapper in heat one.
1/8th group one was basically a four-way struggle involving the usual suspects, in heat one Alex (HPI Vorza) took the win followed by Nick S (Durango DEX408), the only two cars to complete 9 laps followed by Ian R in third and Mark D fourth, both driving Losi 8Te 2.0s. Heat 2 saw Ian back to his usual self, winning by nearly 3 seconds over 2nd place man Alex with Mark D also improving to finish third. SCRCCC regular Simon F also featured strongly in this heat, debuting an immaculately-prepared Ferrari red Tamiya TRF801X nitro buggy and taking a well-deserved fourth place, posting faster lap times than with the Team Nick S D8 at the first attempt. This car is a thing of beauty and it looks like we haven't seen the last of it! Heat three saw Alex back on top with Mark D second after leading for a few laps, Ian R third and Nick S fourth and in heat four Nick showed Mark he's not going to go away (unless of course Mark decides to no longer give him a lift to the track) by taking second and putting Mark in third place. Simon again showed the potential of the TRF801X by crossing the line less than 3 seconds behind fourth place man Ian and posting the fastest overall race time for a nitro on the day with an impressive 8 lap/5.08.992.
Group 2 had a surprise in store in the form of club treasurer and former champion Dave R who debuted his Losi 8e 2.0 EU in fine style, setting a new lap record of 32.738 and winning heat one having not even gone out in practice! Second place man Nick C with a virtually identical car gave him a hard time for a few laps but ultimately couldn't compete with the money man's aggression on the ragged edge, although he and third placed Adrian (Losi 8B 2.0 RTR) had a good battle. The top three were the same in heat two but were joined by Marty T (Losi 8B 2.0 RTR), putting in a strong showing to finish fourth less than seven seconds behind Adrian. In heat three Dave continued his dominance as did Nick and Adrian, and race controller Stu (Associated RC8Te) fought back from losing a drive pin in round two to take his second fourth place of the day. Heat four saw the best get better with Dave R breaking his own lap record and posting FTD with a 32.724 whilst Stu made the most of other half Hayley's assistance in race control to get a well-earned second place with Adrian again taking third. Group two was also notable for some other drivers including newcomer Matt B (HPI Trophy 3.5) who drove very well posting a seven lapper in heat 3, and Jordan who looked to be getting the best out of the HPI Trophy Truggy 4.6 over the jumps and earning a couple of fourth places.
In the 1/10th final Adrian again showed he's the man to beat posting the only 8 lapper, followed by Mark D second and Mark R third. These two looked to be having a good battle and Stumpy wasn't far behind coming home fourth with a solid seven laps.
The 1/8th B Final saw Stumpy (Tekno HotBodies D8Te) on pole, joined by Adrian on the front row. It looked to be a frenetic affair as is often the case because all competitors know that if they win, it puts them in the A. Eventually Adrian took the win, followed just under a second later by Nick C whose hay fever had been causing him problems all day. Stu finished third and Stumpy came home fourth, missing an eight lapper by less than 2/10 of a second. Marty T was next across the line in fifth place followed by his lodger Charlie (Losi 8B 2.0 RTR), (an excellent drive from him considering his current condition with a broken scaphoid) and Jordan posted another consistent seven lapper to cross the line less than 1.5 seconds later coming home seventh.
The A Final was hotly anticipated due to Dave R's newfound form with the buggy. Could his mastery of chaos get the better of Alex's consistency, or would one of the Crewkerne duo or Ian R beat the pair of them? As it happened a first lap pile-up after the table top made a bit of a mess, pole man and eventual winner Alex was the only driver to emerge unscathed and had a lonely race to the finish line, although Dave again showed the order could be changing by posting the fastest lap of the race and finishing second, meaning these two are equal on 100 points each after the first round. Another consistent 9 lapper from Ian R saw him finish the day in third place, closely followed by Nick S in fourth. Dean (HotBodies D812) and Simon F had a great battle with their evenly-matched nitro buggies to come home fifth and sixth respectively, crossing the line just over a second apart and Adrian wasn't far behind in seventh followed by Mark D who finished the day in eighth position.
Once again an excellent, well-run meeting at SCRCCC, thanks to all who made it possible. Due to the Winter season overrunning we will now be racing every Sunday through July on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th (I didn't know this until yesterday
) and obviously the track will also be open on Wednesday evenings, so look forward to seeing you soon!
01-07-2013
Race Report R1 Summer Series 30th June 2013
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