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Sunday 8th January 2006, Round 3 of the North East regional at the Teesside Radio Car club, held at the indoor track on Commerce Way in the Skippers Lane industrial area near to Middlesbrough.

The second round of the North East series at Durham was a close meeting in both 2wd and 4wd, and Teesside was likely to be as close. Many of the drivers attending this regional had attended the Aces Winternational on the same track just 3 weeks previous, and with no meetings since due to the Christmas and New year festivities, drivers arrived completely prepared. 11 full heats of drivers, 4 of which 4wd and 7 of them 2wd.

The premises for this club is used only for racing, and is large enough for an on-road circuit as well as an the off road circuit, although both of which do change quite regular. So the off-road track was already prepared as expected, and had been changed considerably since the Aces meeting, and the direction reversed. The track consists mainly of two surfaces, one of which is a grey carpet which is quite low on grip especially on worn tyres, and the other a green Astroturf which is extremely high on grip and can catch people out quite easily.

The track from the start line on the straight on the grey carpet into a 90 degree left corner on a wide area of track to allow for fast cornering into an immediate right hander 180degree’s through a chicane, then another moderate 180 left hander into a sweeping left hand 90degree high speed corner still on the grey carpet and over a high speed ramp, then up onto the table top turning 90degree and off the table top into another 90degree, over the triple jump (which can be easily cleared in one) through a 90degree right hander on the green grippy surface through a chicane – only just too tight to take straight into a right hander and a fast straight into a chicane, still on the green stuff, over a small jump landing and almost pulling wheelie (with 4wd!) into a hard brakes and hairpin, back onto the grey carpet then sweep 90degree over a slippy section then around the high speed banked corner. The banked corner can be taken very fast, dare to take it flat and the car will load-up and grip roll instantly, ¾ throttle and small steering required and blast the throttle down the straight for a top speed back over the line and transponder loop.

Open practice contained moderate traffic, and allowed drivers to learn the track although risking clashing with the traffic. Setup changes similar to used at Durham were used to control the levels of grip, but a balance was required between aggressive and safe to cope with the low grips on the grey surface balanced with the mega grip on the green surface. Cars coming off each run very dusty, gathering lots of green dust from the surface.

4wd FTQ was held by Tom Cockerill with the Worlds Edition BJ4 from early in qualifying, only being challenged by Ben Riley with his new X10 who after an unfortunate incident in Round 4 qualified in 10th position in the A final. 2nd and 3rd taken by Dan Greenwood and Chris Long, both running the Infinity powered X5 cars and had been pushing each other through each round of qualifying – followed closely by James Pritchard with his trusty XX4.

2wd FTQ was by Ben Riley, and had changed between Ben and Richard Lowe through the rounds, fast laps were also being set by Stuart Mahon but the odd grip role cost him the positions, the order finished with Richard Lowe in 2nd and Craig Colinson in 3rd followed my Stuart Mahon in 4th.

A final 2wd has a clean start, and an early gap pulled by Ben Riley with the B4 and Stuart Mahon with the BK2 leaving the first corner in 2nd position followed by the B4 of Richard Lowe. The lead held by Ben lasts the 5 minutes, who seems to back-off to cruise for the win, while Stuart pushing hard to catch Ben takes 2nd by under 3 seconds and Craig Collinson with the B4 in 3rd. Although the fastest lap was set by Stuart Mahon and 2nd fastest by Richard Lowe – so Ben proving that consistent clean laps is the way to victory.

A final 4wd also gets a clean start, James Pritchard and Chris Long clashing wheels side by side battleing for 3rd sees Chris get the upper hand over James. Tom pulls a considerable lead early in the race, while Chris with the X5 chases closely the X5 of Dan Greenwood, James staying close in 4th. A mistake by Dan on the high speed banked corner costs him 2nd position to Chris, and James begins to put pressure on Dan for 3rd position. A last lap battle results in a mid-air collision and James and Dan both damage their cars, James is forced to retire while Dan limps around the last lap to claim 3rd and Richard Isherwood 4th, Chris finishing some 13 seconds behind Tom who takes the win. Fastest laps set by Ben with the X10 who had a lot of work to do to catch the podium positions and finishes in 5th position.

The next round is on 19th February 2006 at Batley Buggy Club..