4WDRC | Race Results

Race Report Images property of www.oople.com and not for download. Sunday 4th December 2005, Round 2 of the North East regional at the North East RC Racing club, held at the Nissan Factory sports and social centre off the A19 near Durham.
The second round of the North East series was likely to be a fast and close meeting, with insane amounts of grip provided by the carpet the club uses. The heat list showed yet another strong attendance with 10 heats, 4 of which 4wd and 6 2wd heats. A few drivers who would normally support this series had decided to race at Tiverton to practice for the 2006 national series.
The Track On arrival the track was already set out to a high standard, from the transponder loop, a chicane into a right turn onto the straight, followed by a fast sweeping right turn, into a hairpin right, sweeping left over a slippy section through a tight chicane on carpet to a left hairpin. 2 wooden ramps, into a 90degree left immediately into a hairpin right on a slippy section, and a fast right back onto carpet over a table top ramp, laning on the downslope into an immediate 90degree right, through a fast chicane to a mild hairpin left, a dogleg left and right over bumps into a sweeping right hander and back over the loop. At drivers briefing it was voted to run the meeting on FTQ rather than round by round. This seemed a wise choice as the track would remain consistent throughout the day. Open practice was extremely busy, many drivers choosing to have many practices as the carpet proved as grippy as last year and cars setups were being changed to be totally different to make the cars cope with the grip levels and to stop grip rolling. So busy that it wasn’t long until drivers were limited to 3 minute practices to reduce the growing que.
Qualifying
Round 1, 4wd Ben Riley held FTQ with 16 laps in 301 seconds, 9 seconds ahead of Richard Isherwood in 2nd and Graeme North in 3rd. Round 1, 2wd was lead by Ben Riley with a time 0.12 seconds faster than his 4wd time! Stuart Wood finished second and on 15 laps, followed by Peter Byrom in 3rd. Round 2, 4wd was a different race, Chris Long taking the lead from starting late on the stagger and being the first to break into 17laps in 318 seconds, an improvement by Graeme North and Damien Whittle puts them in 3rd and 4th with Ben now in 2nd after round 2. Round 2, 2wd saw no improvement for the top 3 positions, Peter Watt improving his time remaining in 4th and Steven Pierce leaping from 8th to 5th after round 2. Round 3, 4wd saw a new FTQ again by Chris Long improving by just 3 seconds, Ben Riley remains in 2nd with his round 1 time and Damien Whittle improving to 3rd pushing Graeme into 4th, David Snee with his revived XX4 taking 5th. Ben Riley and David Snee both setting fast laps capable of pole, but the level of grip was catching them out in trying to catch Chris. Round 3, 2wd and no improvement by Ben but remaining on FTQ position, Stuart Wood having a damn hard try at beating his FTQ but remaining in 2nd now 8 seconds slower than Ben, and Peter Byrom improving but holding 3rd, Pete Watt improving to keep 4th and Craig Collinson now improved to take 5th, many other improvements take Steven Pierce back down to 9th! Round 4, 4wd was taken again by Chris Long with the X5, a faultless run and a 10 second improvement so has now stamped his name onto pole on the grid for the A final, followed by a faster time by Graeme North upto 2nd and also on 17 laps and Damien Whittle improving and keeping to 3rd position, Ben Riley falling to 4th from his round 1 time. Round 4 in 2wd, Bens father Mike told me at the start “I told Ben nobody would beat his Round 1 time as it was faultless, not even he could do it again, and he hasn’t”. I am sure Ben could not hear from the rostrum but he was a man on a mission, a spectacular run improves on his FTQ by almost a lap and only 4 seconds slower than the 4wd FTQ! Stuart Wood also improving on his time holding on to 2nd and Peter Byrom keeping 3rd, from Peter Watt on 4th and Richard Coates now improving upto 5th.
The Finals
The A-final 4wd, the lead was held early by Chris Long from the start, and with a clean start was able to pull a small gap between him and the chasing cars. Ben Riley is able to push hard and hold on to 2nd, and the first 2 cars now racing at the limit are setting some fast laps. Ben is able to slowly catch Chris and after 4 minutes makes a pass, the finishing order is Ben Riley 1st, Chris Long 2nd. It is good to see the ZX5’s entering onto the rear of the grid for the A final for the first time.	The A-final 2wd, the lead was held by Ben Riley who was able to pull away. A scrappy start gave chance Stuart Mahon to take 2nd with his BK2 from 10th on the grid who seemed to be able to drive at the pace of Ben. Later in the race, Stuart Wood is able to catch and retake 2nd from Stuart, and a dominant run from Ben with the B4 he takes the win and is able to lap everybody.
The next round is on 8th January 2005 at Teesside Radio Car Club..