The Bury Metro North East regional is one of the larger North East events – spread over the full weekend with 4WD Saturday and 2WD Sunday, many people camp over and help create a fun and friendly atmosphere.  With the next round of the UK National series to be held at this track in a few weeks it’s also a good opportunity to get some practice in, especially considering the latest additions to the track.
Some of the features weren’t in use but the large double at the far left corner of the track is now more like a tabletop and is certainly a lot easier to drive.  The take off for this particular jump is a little inconsistent from side to side, one side keeping the car low and the other high – should make for some interesting racing.
The other new feature in use was the small triple jump. This has vastly improved in the last few weeks since it was first installed, with the jumps now having smoother profiles.  Most people were jumping this one at a time or single-double.  Doing the single-double did need a little more ’grunt’ than many people had, though the jumps did seem to be quite forgiving of mistakes.

Poor weather greeted the racers early on with some small showers – the sun came out for round one and  it was Craig Collinson driving the XX4 that took the round ahead of Richard Lowes JConcepts BJworlds.

Round two saw the weather turn for the worst and this really started to have an effect on the qualifying.  Graham North was the lucky one in this round; running in heat 5 Graham had a great run and got a fast 12 lapper – 12/301.  The next two heats, 6&7, were affected by rain and the times dropped significantly, leaving Graham to take the round with ease.
More of the same in round three as the rain came down just in time for the top drivers in heat 7 – again leaving Graham North with a very fast time, though this time having to settle for second in the round behind Damian Whittle who also ran with Graham before the rain.

The final round of qualifying again started with decent weather, but this time the rain came earlier at around heat 5, with some hail for good measure.  Craig Collinson put in a great run on the soaked track to  take the round, with Richard Lowe three seconds further back and Tom Cockerill (XX4) just 1 second further back to take third in round.
The non-regional heat for non-point scorers from other regions was last to run and only I turned out to race as by this point the rain was coming down – I guess I was the only one mad enough.

With the Qualifying over the track wasn’t in good shape – with heavy rain and standing water on the track.  Half an hour break was called to decide what to do – a decision was made to cancel the finals and go from qualifying. Of course not long after this, the sun came out and the track began to dry a little – until the rain came again, then sun, rain etc.

With two round wins it was Craig Collinson who won the meeting driving for Helger / Mtroniks. Graham North driving the Predator X10 with some new X11 parts ended up second with his first and second in round.  Damian Whittle piloting his X5 took third place with a first and third in round – another beneficiary of the crazy unpredictable weather.

The non-regional side of things was won by Matt Dodd with three round wins, Jimmy Storey second (that’s me!) with a second and first (I was the only one mad enough to race in that last round, good for me) – and Phil Sleigh rounding off the top three in third with two second in round finishes.