Over this coming winter DRT ( Dartford race track ) is holding the CML Proline Badlands Challange. Its a controled tyre event using only the badlands tyres. The track is a soft dirt track with varios jump sections & banked corners, but due to the soil ruts & digs out very easily, qualifying would be run on FTD style so getting a run in would be difficult.
On arrival their was a good turn out of both truggys & buggys, having never raced here before the local racers would have a destinct advantage, I managed to get a 10 minute practice which proved very usefull if only to get used to the vey bumpy track. The car felt very well balanced requiring only a small adjustment to help on the bumps.
The heat i was in would mean getting a quick clean run in would be very difficult, this was only made more difficult as it rained hard for my first run. I opted to get a steady run in just trying to keep it on its wheels & out of trouble, my time put me second in round. For round 2 it was now dry, I pushed on & was on for TQ but with back markers problems it was not to be. For round 3 i tried some new rear end parts which rearly improved its handling on this now very bumpy track. I put in the quickest laps of the day but again with back marker problem my time did not improve so ended up 3rd overall for the main final.
For the final the track was really blown out which would make it a very hard to be consistent. With my pace in the heats I felt confident that i had a good car for the final. With the 20 minute final now under way & the normal bumping & boring I found myself in the middle of the pack, I soon settled down into a steady rythem & caught the leaders by the 10 minute mark swapping the lead several times. After the last fuel stop I was in the lead maintaining a steady pace to remain consistent this was to prove the way to go as second place pushed to hard to keep up the mistakes were costly. At the end of the 20 minutes I crossed the line taking 1st place for round 1 of the CML Badlands challange.
Many thanks to my sponsors XRAY, HUDY, Mirage ( nosram & grp ), Cml ( proline & odonnel ), Amerang ( ttr & ace ) & Pirate for photo.
