xrayxrayHome XRAY homeXRAY X-shopXRAY X-forumRCAmerica
supportsearchcontactguestbooksite map
newsproductsaboutusworldwide headlines

 
click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

Race report by Chris Russell
83 buggies & 50 Truggies entrants made the trip to the 2008 Queenland State Titles held at the Valley Raceway Circuit in Mooloolah Queensland from the 11th – 15th of June.

Wednesday Practice:
The track was opened for 2 x 2 hours of controlled practice between 1.30pm -3.30pm followed by another period between 5.30pm-7.30pm after dark under lights. We arrived late Wednesday afternoon & we had 1 run in the night practice to learn the new layout & get a feel for the large US style jumps.

click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

Thursday Qualifying:

The day started with 1 complete round of practice for all classes & with the racing schedual being buggies though the day & Truggies after dark under lights we could concentrate on one class at a time but it did make for a very long day at the track.

The 808 was pretty good straight away & would only need a few little tweaks to get it right, however the track seemed to change after every run & it was hard to pick what the grip level was going to be like. The track started out wet & very grippy in the morning & dry out with every run thus losing grip. I changed to bigger shock pistons keeping the same oils & springs which seemed to help. Those that had soft compound tyres, had a distinct advantage.

click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

The XT8 was good but lacked steering which I had planned to change the shock settings later. The track seemed to get wet after dark as the dew settled which bought the grip up so the only change I made to the truck was to remove the front sway bar to get the steering that I needed.

Friday qualifying:

Buggy:
Friday we completed another 2 round with Nick Drygalla in his first race as a team Xray driver & his Novarossi powered 808 put in the 3rd fastest time in the 2nd round of the day. I put in 2 solid runs after dropping to softer springs & softer compound tyres.

Truggy:
I was very happy with the truck but a couple of flame outs made the night interesting to say the least.

click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

Saturday Qualifying & Lower Finals:

Saturday would see the last round of qualifying then the start of the lower finals. The last round was to be a complete round were the truggies would run straight after the buggies. Once again good runs from both Nick & myself saw us both qualify in the top 10.

Buggy Qualifying results.

5th Nick Drygalla XRAY XB808
9th Chris Russell XRAY XB808
17th Adam Bartholomew XRAY XB808
21st Rob Taylor XRAY XB808 (first race meet with xray)
22nd Tyson Meyers XRAY XB8EC

click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

Truggy Qualifying results:

9th Chris Russell XT8
16th Paul Cornwell XT8
17th Richard Manturanec XT8

These results meant both Nick & I could rebuild our cars for the semi’s on Sunday morning while everyone else would have to go though the lower finals to bump up for tomorrow. Both Adam Bartholomew & Rob Taylor bumped up to the semi’s from the last race of the night with good controlled 1/4 final drives.

click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

Sunday:

Finals day started cold & with 10mins practice for both truggy & buggy semi’s.

Truggy
Once again the truck was good in the practice with the track still damp from the overnight dew. I got a good start in the truggy semi out to an early lead but when the track started to dry & it was obvious I had chosen the wrong tyres eventually finishing 5th & straight into the a-main.

Buggy Semi A
In buggy Semi A Nick got a good start & held 3rd all race, whilst I found myself way back in 10th after the typical first corner incident driving back to 5th giving both myself & Nick A-main spots. Rob Taylor had a good start up to 4th after the first lap, but slowly fell back though the pack & finished8th, while Adam Bartholomew never recovered from a bad start finishing 11th.

click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

Truggy Finals:

I got caught out with a lack of time whilst working on the buggy & gluing new tyres I really needed to softened the truck up as the track had dried & as soon as the warm up had started I new I should have changed the settings. I called a 10 minute delay & changed tyres plus I wound some more front toe out into the truck to try to get some more steering which worked but then there just wasn’t enough overall grip in the truck. This was purely my fault as I should have changed the set-up from running at night on a damp track to running though the day on a dry track. In the end I finished 5th in the final.

Tuggy Final Placings.

1. Zac Ryan
2. Justin Millan
3. Mick Dahl
4. John Baetman
5. Chris Russell XRAY XT8
6. Brad Smith
7. Chris Lander
8. Craig Laughton
9. Tony Nettleton
10. Adam Lynch
11. Daniel Yarrow
12. David Burgess

19. Richard Manuranec XRAY XT8
23. Paul Cornwell XRAY XT8

click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)

Buggy Finals:

Once again I had a terrible start back to 12th whilst Nick had a good start & was in 3rd by the 2nd lap. By the end of the race Nick had finished in a well deserved 6th & a good result for his first major race with the team whilst I finished 8th.

Buggy Final Placings.

1. Martin Wolhuter
2. Wayne Walker
3. Justin Millan
4. Zac Ryan
5. Craig Laughton
6. Nick Drygalla XRAY XB808
7. Logan Bruecher
8. Chris Russell XRAY XB808
9. Steve Franis
10. Mick Dahl
11. matt Griffin
12. Jason Dyckoff

16. Rob Taylor XRAY XB808
20. Adam Bartholomew XRAY XB808



I would like to thank Team Xray & Custom Model Cars (Xray Australia) for there on going support.

Chris Russell.
Team Xray Australia
XB808/XT8

click to enlarge
(click to enlarge)