Ben Williams & new Mirage driver gave his XRAY 808 it's first competetive run at the Welsh Motor show event last weekend, With a TQ & win so pleasing himself with the drive & the crowd with his show.
60+ drivers were invited to attend the inaugral Welsh Motor Show were COBRA had been asked to put on a competetive 'demo'. The track was fairly smooth, level grass with a couple of wooden jumps and table tops to add some more interest. Laptimes were in the region of 17-18 secs so the track was quite small but still offered its challanges.
The format was a for a 5 min practice followed by 4 x 10 min qualifiers on the Saturday followed by a further 5 min practice & 4 x 10 min qualifiers and bump-up Finals on the Sunday. An ideal format to get some set-up work done.
Saturday broke to good sunshine and Ben was on the pace straight away Setting TQ in Round 1, improving it in Round 2, and finally setting what would prove to be an unbeatable 33 laps in 10m 01.6 in Round 4. Nearly 2 laps clear of 2nd.
(click to enlarge)
Heavy overnight rain carried on as drizzle until morning before the sun made an appearance leaving the track greasy. As this was the 'Public' Day we opted to take more of a 'Demo' approach as it was unlikely Ben's TQ would be challenged. We fitted some well worn Crimes for Round 6 and Ben went out and gave a 'display' of 'Drifting' for the increasing number of spectators, the car never going in a straight line even down the straight. Don't know who enjoyed it most - the crowd or Ben Rounds 7 & 8 it was back to more serious stuff and looking for that 'ideal' set-up but the track was still so
greasy it was impossible to improve TQ but he did nail another 2 x 32 lappers.
The 20 min A started with a cut on the grid and hence the need to start from the pitlane - with 12 cars on a small track it was to prove a challenge to work his way back through the field. Pitting was kept busy as trying to service 6 other drivers who for various reasons had no pitcrew kept us on our toes.
By the first round of pitstops at 7m 30s Ben had got back into the top 3 and by the second round at the 15m mark he was back to second after that he pulled away a gap and ended winning by just short of lap.
All in all a successful weekend both for Ben and his co-sponsor Manselton Models of Swansea whose drivers filled the 3 podium places.
1st Ben Williams XRAY XB808
2nd Rob Beddington 3rd Steve Guppy XRAY XB808
