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Race Report by Brennan Ralls
Sunday the 6th September saw the final round of the UK National series held at the Slough track.Fresh from the previous week at the proline event the team was in good spirits as we had a good base to work from. With an autumn feel to the air it started chilly at around 15 deg but would slowly increase to just above 20 deg later on the day. The track had been re graded so was smooth & flowing, with a surface that once the dust had cleared would blue groove.

For practice the track was dusty & very slick, Jon was out first looking comfortable, Kevin & Bren then a few heats later all having the same thoughts in we needed to work on getting more turn in. All other than that happy with the pace of the cars with Bren ending up 5th after practice.

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For Round 1 Jon laid down some great laps to finish 4th in rnd . Kevin & Bren opting for softer front roll bars both set a great pace with Kevin ending up 8th. Bren unlucky & a simple error cost him dear.

Round 2 back to heavier front roll bars feeling the gain of extra steering was not worth the loss in handling else were on the track. Bren opted for the 41t overdrive, this gave some of the extra steering he wanted. A clear run gave him a great time being only a few seconds of TQ but 14th in round showing how close it was. Kevin again a perfect run & 4th in round. Jon had several un characteristic mistakes.

Round 3 & a full blue groove track, but not what we expected as it remained slick & greasy making setups hard as the cars still pushed. For us now was to try something totally different so out came the centre actives with 5 k oil & 41 front active with 2 k oil. This totally transformed the cars giving a real increase in pace & drivability. For Bren a grip roll through the bomb hole section cost him 5 seconds & a top 10 time Jon the same, but Kev again held the colours going 2nd in round & a 4th on the grid for the main.

Many others in the team being caught out by the pace of the other teams & how close the racing was but reliability of the xrays would show through in the finals. Mark Dell would bump some 29 places through to the E. Ben Williams from the D to C & Damien Tigwell gain D to C.

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Both Bren & Jon where in the B with a real hard line up of drivers. ie several Multiple world & European champions national winners so with only 4 bumping up this would be a battle. The flag dropped & a clean start leading to just nose to tail racing, Jon was 4th & Bren 6th. By the first round of stops there had been no mistakes or position changes, but Jon & Bren the added luxury of one stop less, so we both moved up. Again it was just nose to tail racing but by the 15 minute mark the tyres where now past there best & cars would start to miss the apexes giving room for overtaking. Jon would battle to keep 3rd & a position in the A. An engine cut from the 4th place now put Bren into 4th on the last lap with 5th hot on his heels. Brens only mistake of the race if you can call it that was drifting onto the straight hitting a bump causing the car to wheelie, he had to back off just a little to get the nose down to steer which allowed the 5th place guy through which Bren could do nothing about. After pushing so hard a flame out two bends from home ended his race, but the close & good racing had meant he was happy with the days work.

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Onto the A Main & a quick diff change for Jon kept me & his pit crew busy getting him just out in time, I was then off to pit for Kevin. From the drop of the flag another clean start & John rocketed up to 6th from 13th. Kevin hung onto his 4th place & pulled away with the front three. Jon 10 minute stops helped him gain track position but toasting his tyres would cost him in the later stages so after getting up into contention of the top four dropped back & would finish 6th, a great result but knowing he had more if only. Kevin would just keep pushing on & always staying within 5 seconds of the lead car. A Flame out from another put him into 3rd along with the super fast pit crew of Steve tigwell & yours truly gained kev 2 seconds every pitstop on the lead two. Kevin would drive a faultless race to finish 3rd & enough points for a 7th overall in this tough & mammoth National series we have.

Congratulations Kevin on making every main & a job well done.

Thanks to XRAY, HUDY, RC DisCo & Neo Buggy (for the photos).

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Final results

1 Darren Bloomfield
2 Simon Willetts
3 Kevin Brunsden XRAY XB808
4 Elliott Boots
5 Neil Cragg
6 Jon Hazlewood
7 Graham Alsop
8 David Crompton
9 Sam Taylor
10 Richard Cree
11 Craig Drescher
12 David Spashett
13 Lee Martin
14 Reece Sawyer
15 Tony Truman
16 Stewart Wilcox
17 Brennan Ralls XRAY XB808


Kevin Brunsden's Set-up sheet.

Bren Ralls' Set-up sheet.