Southport held their annual GP event at their usual indoor venue, the Formy high school near Southport. There were 8 heats in total, with 5 of 2WD and the remaining three devoted to 4wd. Pitting was arranged in a seperate hall from the racing - allowing a large track to be assembled, taking up almost the entire sports hall. The track consisted of carpet, with two strips of 'tarpaulin' (plastic sheet) laid down to give a varied racing surface, and catch out the drivers!. A range of small jumps were scattered along the length of the track - the 'main event' in regards to jumps were the series of three 'humps' just in front of the drivers stand. This 'triple' section was taken as single-single-single by most drivers, myself included - but the fastest drivers were taking the first two in one, with a small jump over the third. This was by far the faster way through but needed some serious 'grunt' to get the speed required to safely clear the second hump.

A small 'wall ride' style feature was included, and this provided some entertainment when a couple of 'unnamed drivers' decided to see how high their cars could get driving up the wall - the verdict? VERY HIGH! ouch..

In the 4WD A final, Tom Cockerill driving his trusty Losi XX4 got an early lead from Pole position, pulling a small gap. Chris Long with the XFactory X-5squared and Matt Dodd with the Atomic Carbon S4 were the men chasing. Coming over the triple jump section, Tom got it wrong and seemed to slow down - eventually pulling the car off a lap later for a quick fix. A battle-royale ensued between Chris Long and Matt Dodd. Several changes of position later and Matt Dodd was leading - with Chris Long closing quickly.
The two came onto the main straight and it seemed Chris had a small power advantage as he pulled alongside - coming into the corner at the end of the straight side-by-side something had to give. Unfortunately for Chris it was his turn for bad luck and he came off worst in the tangle of wheels, dropping back a long way from Matt. Matt cruised to victory 8 seconds ahead of Chris Long, with Team oOple driver Paul Rotheram stealthing his HotBodies D4 into third 6 seconds further back - and another Team oOple driver Stuart Wood a second further back.

Matt Dodd and Chris Long go side-by-side down the straight

Overall a great day and a nice track to race on, with some good oportunities to overtake. Thanks to the Southport club for putting on a great show and well done to Matt Dodd & Tom Yardy, both from the Mid West, on their victories.

Right: Winners - Tom Yardy (2WD) & Matt Dodd (4WD)

Our laptop died so we didn't get chance to write anything during the day - otherwise we'd have had some more results, sorry.