The final round of the Midlands Astro Masters was held at Kidderminster clubs permanent outdoor off road facility.  The track is an undulating Astroturf track with some small dirt areas, and is a regular National venue.  The Astro Master series is a series of winter races split between Coventry and Kidderminster clubs – and draws some top level competitors as one of the premiere race series during the winter period.

This final round was a month later than originally planned, the original date being cancelled due to snow.  Snow was thankfully nowhere to be seen, and the racers were instead treated to some rare sunshine early in the day.

The 4WD main - Tom Yardy lined up pole in 4WD, driving his TTech X10 – and looked very quick indeed.   Tom got off to a great start, pulling a small gap – but then rolled on the second lap, dropping back several places. Richard Barton, driving Craig Dreschers JConcepts BJ4we, took up the lead and didn’t look back.  Tom battled hard and clearly looked the fastest around the technical and unforgiving Kidderminster layout, eventually working back to third.  So it was Barton, chased hard by Matt Dodd up front, with Yardy rapidly closing on the pair. Tom made a move on Matt, taking second – Matt dropped back a little and with only a couple of laps to go Tom set about reeling in Barton. It wasm’t to be however and a lap from the end Yardy rolled again and couldn’t make up the gap  in time – leaving mr.smooth Richard Barton to take the win for his sponsors CML by 1.5 seconds from tom, and with Matt Dodd 5 seconds further back.

The 2WD main was poled by Phil Sleigh, driving the Losi XXXCR.  Phil, Lee Martin and Tony Truman (the latter pair both driving the AE B4) pulled a small gap on the field.   Lee and Tony battled hard whilst Phil kept pulling away.  A small  mistake by Phil brought the three close again – Lee lost his cool after getting into second place, leaving Truman the only one who could challenge Phils dominance. Truman got his act together after a mistake by Phil, and took the lead. Phil close the gap and put pressure on Tony for the last couple of laps.  Tony went wide on a corner and phil seized the mistake – regaining the lead.  Phil took the win by approximately 0.2 of a second.

Some interesting cars in attendance today - mainly those from the Atomic Carbon stable. The S4, 4WD buggy was seemingly everywhere, with around 5 at the meeting. For such a rare car that's not even officially released yet - it's quite a lot!
Atomic Carbon also had a couple of examples of their latest S2, 2WD buggy prototype at the meeting. This is a mid motor car using some b4 parts and plenty of custom made carbon (as you'd expect), along with some home-brew prototype bits.

This being the final event in the series, trophies for the top placed drivers were handed out at the end of racing – Phil Sleigh ended the series 2WD champion, and Craig Harris, driving the Atomic Carbon S4 took the overall 4WD honours.

I ran vickys 2WD - after de-rusting and pumping the mud out of the shocks. Qualifying 3rd in the D final wasn't exactly the dream I had imagined, but it could have been worse. The final went poorly and I finished next to last (and he broke it!) oh dear.. Still, I got some photos so please enjoy.