4WDRC | Race Results

Race Report Images property of www.oople.com and not for download. Sunday 20th November 2005, Round 1 of the North East regional at York Radio Control Car Club at Huntingdon High School.
The first round of the North East series promised to be a competitive one, a visit the week previous (Saturday nights, booking in from 6pm) showed the club has several regular F1 club racers in Ben Riley, Tom Cockerill, Paul Bradby, Richard Lowe and Dan Greenwood and many regular club members filling 6 heats for the club meeting. There was variety of all the different 4wd cars, JC-BJ4’s, Kyosho ZX5’s, X-Factory X5’s, Losi XX4’s and XXX4’s, Tenth Technology X10’s and one Academy SB.
The Track From the start line/transponder loop there is a chicane followed by a fast left onto the straight, ending with a sweeping shallow left into a sharp left, followed by a chicane left onto the crash matts sharp banked right, over 3 ripples onto the triple jump at the foot of the rostrum, downramp of the 3rd jump followed by a hairpin right and over another large single jump landing on carpet, running to a fast left on the slippy surface followed by a sharp left into a hairpin section – right into left into a short straight into left corner of the track again, hairpin right and back over the transponder loop. The surface consisted of a mixture of felt carpets which are very grippy, and slippy sports hall floor which starts the day dusty and slippy and slowly gains grip as the dust is cleared through the day but looses grip as the temperature drops. The triple could not be cleared as the run-up not long enough after the ripples, some drivers opted to hit the first up ramp aiming the land as far as possible usually landing square but harshly on the up ramp of the 3rd jump, and some drivers opted to land on the down ramp of the second jump to carry momentum for the 3rd jump which was followed by a sharp left hairpin so no air could be taken from the 3rd jump. The fastest way for each driver seemed to be the way which proved most reliable for that driver, as a mistake is more costly than the advantage from a fast way over them, this is not a place to attempt overtaking manoeuvres!

	Qualifying Round by Round qualifying: 4wd was dominated by Tom Cockerill with the BJ4 worlds (1,2,1,1), followed by Ben Riley in 2nd with the Losi XXX4 who was capable of very fast laps. (8,1,8,3) followed by Dan G reenwood in 3rd with the X5 (32,7,2,2), Chris Long in 4th with the X5 (3,4,3,4) and Richard Isherwood in 5th with the Predator X10 (2,5,10,15).
The Final The A-final 4wd, the lead was held by Tom from the start, he had been fast all day and was able to pull a good gap from 2nd, who after the first lap crashes on the jump section was Graham North chased by Chris Long and Stuart Mahon. The race was on for 2nd, a last lap/last chance manoeuvre by Chris on Graham did not pay off leaving the door open for Stuart Mahon to take 2nd, from Graham in 3rd and Chris finishing in 4th. FTD stood from qualifying set by Tom Cockerill.

The next round is on 4th December 2005 at Durham/North East buggy club, held at the Nissan Factory.