This years Waikato Champs were held again in Hamilton, North Island New Zealand, at their purpose built off road track in Bristol Park. Racing was to be held over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with a few practice rounds on Friday. Qualifying was scheduled for Saturday and the Finals on Sunday.
Entries for this event were 47 buggys and 33 truggys. XRAY was once again well represented with 11 buggys and 4 truggys. Most drivers were from the surrounding area, Hamilton and Auckland, I was the only entrant from the South Island to make the trip up to the North Island and therefore did not have the home track advantage.
Fridays practice got underway on a damp track, it soon began to dry and times started to drop as the day went on. At the end of the day I was quite happy with both cars and felt confident of a strong run in next dayâ™s qualifying.
Round 1 started Saturday morning, I managed to TQ Truggy round with a good clean run, I also ended up 3rd in buggy after a half decent run but made a few mistakes which cost me.
Round 2 was the same for Truggy, another TQ, however this time I had a much cleaner consistent run with XB808 2009 spec buggy and managed to TQ buggy class as well.
Round 3 I posted fastest time in Truggy again and with that secured overall TQ for Truggy class.
Qualifying, buggy was good too and ended up 4th or 5th.
Onto round 4 and with Buggy TQ still up for grabs I just set about trying to remain consistent while pushing as hard as I could, in the end I posted the fastest time for the round and with that the overall TQ for buggy class. In 3rd spot for buggy was another XRAY XB808, this of Jerry Davis.
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After qualifying had finished on Saturday afternoon the lower finals commenced. They got up until the Semi Finals then the rain started to fall. Unfortunately it rained overnight and the following day so the remaining finals got cancelled. Final positions were taken from the qualifying positions above, which Meant a 1st and 3rd for XRAY XB808 cars in Buggy and a 1st in truggy for XRAY XT8. My XT8 also set the fastest lap time of the event highlighting the excellent performance the the 2009 spec car.
Final Truggy results:
1. Tim McKay XRAY XT8
2. Phil Finlay
3. Billy Looi
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Final Buggy results:
1. Tim McKay XRAY XB808
2. Mike Stratford 3. Jerry Davis XRAY XB808
Many thanks to XRAY for the great cars, VP Pro for the great tyres, and air filters for both cars, and also to ProSportrc, and Zoom Resources.
