Great sunny weekend kicking off the North East regionals.
Car is packed, with all of the important stuff (footy, cool box full of beer):
I arrived to find the Bury track looking immaculate, and ready for 2wd:
Pack arrived in the morning ready to do the dishes.....
Driver's briefing followed, with a note from Kash that we need to get timely entries in for the End Of Season finals (the real EOS), to avoid a higher entry fee for late entries.... take heed.
.... and then the race meeting was underway with blazing sun and clear skies:
2wd - Paul Crompton dominated, with the next group of cars chasing hard, but not getting near.
Problems with the loop left a few drivers frustrated with inaccurate qualifying times, despite the efforts of the race control team.
So .... qualifying happened, with some of the more experienced racers deep in conversation and taking everything very seriously, whilst in the background, the Tinkler / Liddle tent was very much a more relaxed affair:
Tony Tinkler was on a mission, with a good 6 in round score in an early qualifier, looking to put him in his 1st A final. But some missed times due to the loop problem, looked like they had scuppered his A final attempt. After some calculating however, it transpired that Tony wouldn't have gotten that 5 in round score required to make the A, and so line up 2nd in the B final.
Someone else looking to make their first regional A final was Schumacher driver Tyler Liddle. With consistent, fast qualifying runs, including a run where he was only 3 seconds off Crompton's time, Ty lined up 6th in the A final.
Finals happened, with highlights being:
An emotional win for Barry Swallow in the F final, with great NEAM vocal support, winning the final by 1/100th of a second... transponder positioning matters people:
A great race between Matt and Duncan in the E final for 2nd place, following a dominant Gordon Irvine:
D final:
Barry and Scott look less than impressed leaving the rostrum:
... then the C final ... look at the anticipation in this line up. Pack fancies the win. Adam's knows he should be higher up but for lap counting issues, Sebok and DR know they can win it in the first corner, Stew Baldridge because paint fumes ....
... but Ellis Crossley bossed it, with a time that would've seen him well up the A final:
Still, Kash was happy with a solid 4th from the TLR driver:
B final ... Tony Tinkler put in an excellent run to win the B final, with a time that would've seen him 5th in the A:
while A finalists Coates and Clarke look on, both opting for different visual aid strategies in the sunny weather . Cap v Shades.
A final:
I lined up 3rd.
It was expected we'd all be fighting for 2nd place behind Crompton. But the final was full of mistakes, and I stayed in touch a little longer than expected, with Harry, Rich and Paul making mistakes. I was running a comfortable 2nd at one point, and thats when my crash happened.
But coming through the field, making the passes, was Tyler Liddle, who came through to take 2nd place, justified with great lap times. Outstanding stuff in his first regional A final, well done Ty.
... and the Green, for an impressive 3rd place position on the podium.
2wd final videos:
The entertainment on the track was finished ... however there was plenty more off track entertainment left in the day ... including....
Snee putting his tent up ..... it started like this:
... and by the time he was finished, the track looked like this:
We also had a friendly game of footy, with Barry Swallow showing use how it was done .... and Stew Baldridge making sure I left the pitch with a bloody nose.
Sunday ... 4wd:
Entry for 4wd was much better than 2wd. This was unexpected, and a change to trends seen in recent years. In the 90s and early 2000s, 4wd was always the main class, and I only bought a 2wd to give me something to do on the Saturday of a weekend racing. Recently 2wd has become the more popular class, (more simple to maintain, higher traction tracks). However a number of new 4wd chassis have recently been released (Tekno, Schumacher L1), maybe this influenced the numbers??
The racing was dominated by James Chappell to lead the way to TQ and the win for Tekno:
The loop again caused problems, despite attempts to fix it with solder and wire glue:
... still, atleast Cooky was comfortable in the pits:
Results:
Derek Burton struggled in the G Final, with Ja winning and Cooky gettign on the podium:
Mal winning the F from Jason:
NEAM massive owning the E final, including Gaz from 10th to 3rd.
Tony Tinkler was stopped by fire, while JW managed 2nd with a loaner car:
Clarky getting the Schumacher win over Kyosho in the C final (quick drivers in there, a few regional winners from the past).
Again, bloody quick drivers, with regional winners in the B (Phil, Ste
And Tekno Schumacher Tekno Schumacher in the A final.
Well done James, your car looked really good, and despite David's efforts, always looke dlike you had the pace on the day. Though I was wishing you to crash near where myself and Ethan were marshalling, just for the opportunity to put the car down backwards.
Well done for a 2nd A final appearance Ty.
4wd videos:
All finals are on youtube thanks to this hero:
Great weekend, roll on RHR.
Bury have since invested in a new decoder, and so future problems at the venue should be avoided.
Thanks to my sponsors:
http://www.racing-cars.com/
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