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| Race report by Ronald Maya |
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The Victorian State titles for Truggy and MT were held from the 13th to the 16th of September at Castlemaine, country Victoria, Australia.
The Castlemaine track is a medium sized clay track with a tight layout. There are a few jumps including a couple of doubles and triples close to corners to keep us on our toes.
The entry for Truggy was not the biggest but what we lacked in quantity we made up in quality.
I rocked up on Friday for the controlled practice and 2 qualifiers. After the two heats of practice the fast guys were John Bateman (Kyosho), Brad Gale (Mugen), an unknown from WA, John Grupillo (Mugen), and me. |
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To make it interesting, Mother Nature took part in qualifying. In the first round of heats, the 3rd heat had rain making the clay surface very sticky. I managed to be fastest in that round. In the 2nd round of heats, the heat 1 boys, including myself got hit by the rain but I still managed to be fastest overall. Quite a few drivers didnâ™t run the round as the track was pretty heavy.
Fridays racing over and it was to be a long night cleaning the mud off my Truggy.
Saturday morning arrived and the Sun was out for the last four rounds of qualifying. The track stayed pretty consistent but was slowly blue grooving. I managed to finish top of the qualifying list for rounds 3 and 4 giving me TQ for Truggy Class. In round 5, John Grupillo did a blinder and pulled out the first 20 lapper in qualifying. I still managed to hold onto 2nd overall for that round. I put on Pro-Line Hole Shots for the last qualifier and the Xray was on rails. I was battling with John Grupillo too much, and made a couple of stupid mistakes, and missed out on a 20 lapper by 3.5s but topped the qualifying list in the final round. It was Time to go back to the motel and prepare the Truggy for the Finals. |
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Sunday was going to be âśmake or breakâť. In the first Semi Final John Bateman came out on top with 36 laps in 20 minutes, followed by Steve Toon with 35 laps, and Nick Bowen in 3rd with 34 laps. Brad Gale was fast but was put out by electrical problems. Now it was my Semi Final. I kept it clean off the start, and got away, to manage a 37 lapper, followed by John Grupillo with 36 laps and in 3rd was Victor Hubanic, with 35 laps.
Now it was time for the 45 minute Final to decide who was to be 2007 Victorian Champion in Truggy. The start off the grid was fairly clean but I made a mistake on the triples and got cleaned up. I had lost my two front body clips, so until my first pit stop. I had to take it easy as the body was coming off. To add to my woes, I had Hole Shots on, but the track was slowly breaking up and I couldnâ™t get maximum drive through the loose surface. John Grupillo got through the mess and didnâ™t take long to get a lap advantage on the whole field. I was still in the front pack battling with John Bateman, Victor Hubanic and Steve Toon. After my first pit stop, with front body clips attached, I pushed once again. About the half way mark, John Grupillo ran out of fuel putting him on the same lap as myself, but was still in contention. John ran out of fuel again giving me the advantage. I kept it together for the rest of the Final and won the Victorian Truggy State Title.
Bad luck to John Grupillo but he was still fast enough to finish in 2nd place, one lap behind me with 81 laps, and John Bateman struggled home in 3rd, on bald tyres, with 79 laps.
Final results:
1st Ron Maya XRAY XT8 (TQ)
2nd John Grupillo
3rd John Bateman
4th Nick Bowen
5th Jono Gloster
6th Dorian DiVincenzo
7th Steve Toon
8th Frank Fantini
9th Brock Snowdon
10th Victor Hubanic |
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I would like to thank the Castlemaine Club for all there efforts to hold the event and Massive Mods for sponsoring the event. I would like to give a big thanks to my Dad for coming down on Sunday and pitting for me. Last but not least I would like to thank my sponsors, XRAY, Hunter Valley RC, and Nitro-X fuel.
Ronald Maya
Team XRAY Australia |
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