|
(click to enlarge) |
|
| Season Report by Peter Phillips |
|
This yearâ™s RCCAoI Irish National Touring Car Championship would be a four race meeting event. Round 1 would take place on an indoor carpet track in Bangor early in the year. Rounds 2 and 3 would take place at St Anneâ™s Park, Dublin and round 4 would take place at the Ballymoney Race Track. This would give drivers a varied challenge with different surfaces, different control tyres and additives. The format for each meeting would be 3 rounds of qualifying and 3-leg finals.
Irish Electric Touring Car Rd 1 Results
The first round of the Irish Nationals took place at Bangor Grammar School. Round 1 was hosted by the UMCC (Ulster Model Car Club) indoors on carpet.
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
The first final saw a thrilling battle between Alan Bickerstaff, who set T.Q., and 3rd position on the grid Stephen Hill. Alan made a mistake at the beginning of the first leg, which allowed Stephen through to the lead. Alan tried hard to get back the position but was not able as Stephen soaked up all the pressure to hold on for the win by just 3 tenths of a second.
The second and third legs of the final saw Alan back to his usual faultless driving and he managed to win both legs with ease.
A Final Results:
1. Alan Bickerstaff
2. Stephen Hill
3. Graham Kenny
4. Scott Kenny
5. Andrew Rennick
6. Peter Phillips XRAY T3 2012
7. Andrew Smith
8. Clive Connolly XRAY T3 2012
I was pleased with this result as I had only made a return to the world of R/C a few months earlier, after a 5 year sabbatical. An error on the last lap of the last final dropped me down the order.
Irish Electric Touring Car Rd 2 Results
The second round was hosted by the ORCA club in St Anne's Park in Dublin on the 20th May. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
| From the beginning it looked like myself and Graham Kenny were going to be battling it out for top spot. But some impressive driving from the locals showed that track knowledge was going to be a factor, which put Austin Elliot and Jacek Zadrozny up into first and third on the grid respectively. I was pleased to place my Xray T3â™12 second considering I had not raced at this track for around 10 years, and Jacekâ™s Xray T3â™12 was an excellent 3rd place. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
The starting grid for the final was:
1. Austin Elliot
2. Peter Phillips XRAY T3 2012
3. Jacek Zadrozny XRAY T3 2012
4. Graham Kenny
5. Colin Whelan
6. Gary Jess
7. Jim Lee
8. Robert Reid
Pole man Austin made a clean getaway in the first leg of the finals and managed to maintain the lead to the end. But this was not the case for the rest of the field and several incidents further back made for a very mixed look to the results.
The second leg proved to be a less eventful race with Peter showing that he hadn't given up the fight and taking the win by almost 10 seconds. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
| So with one win a piece it was all to play for between Austin and Peter. Austin held the lead for the first few laps but couldn't hold off Peter for long, and on the fifth lap came the breakthrough. The race remained tight but with a damaged tire Austin was not able to get close enough to try for another pass. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
| Overall Results: |
|
1. Peter Phillips XRAY T3 2012
2. Austin Elliot
3. Graham Kenny
4. Colin Whelan
5. Jacek Zadrozny XRAY T3 2012
6. Jim Lee
7. Robert Reid
8. Gary Jess
Irish Electric Touring Car Rd 3 Results
The third round was again hosted by the ORCA club in St Anne's Park in Dublin. This time the grass of the infield had been cut and the track looked very fresh. The weather played havoc throughout the day with several heavy downpours and there were substantial delays while the organisers let the track dry out. In the end we finished the meeting quite late, hence no podium photos. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
| Overall Final Results: |
|
1. Keith Dempsey
2. Peter Phillips XRAY T3 2012
3. Austin Elliot
4. Colin Whelan
5. Jim Lee
6. Robert Boylan
7. Jacek Zadrozny XRAY T3 2012
8. Mark Gilliland
Irish Electric Touring Car Rd 4 Results
Round 4 of the RCCAoI Irish Nationals took place at Ballymoney Race Track, beside the Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre, named after the late motorcycle road racing legend. The track has multiple layout possibilities and the chosen layout is a really challenging layout with a mixture of fast corners, tight corners, and quick direction changes that really reward commitment but punishes you if you run off line.
I had high hopes for this round considering the performance of the T3â™12 at rounds 2 and 3 in Dublin, but I had been struggling to improve by setup at this circuit at previous club rounds with little dry weather in recent weeks, I knew it wouldnâ™t be easy. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
| The weather was dull and overcast but dry apart from too light showers during practice this would be the first dry race meeting weekend for several weeks locally and many were looking forward to the day, as the Ride control tyre seems to be fastest when the track temperature remains relatively low. If the sun comes out and raises the track temperature, the lap times drop off dramatically. Another feature of this track is no tyre additives are allowed unlike previous rounds. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
| Qualifying |
|
Qualifying was a fairly tight affair with 2nd to 6th places covered by less than 6 seconds after three rounds of qualifying. And indeed the track record from 2008 was finally broken, by Mark Gilliland who took pole and managed 25 laps.
A good pace was set by the front runners and my car was circulating the track superbly, following a few adjustments to front roll centre and shock absorbers I was getting good corner speed. In the 3rd qualifying round I set the 2nd fastest time of qualifying round. |
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
| Qualifying Results: |
|
1. Mark Gilliland
2. Peter Phillips XRAY T3 2012
3. Graham Kenny
4. Scott Kenny
5. Andrew Smith
6. Ryan Campbell
7. Colin Whelan
8. Jacek Zadrozny XRAY T3 2012
During the break for the finals, I fitted an additional cooling fan for the motor and altered my gearing motor timing and ESC settings as temps ran a bit high in qualifying. This seemed to help through all three legs.
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
| Overall Final Results: |
|
1. Mark Gilliland
2. Peter Phillips XRAY T3 2012
3. Graham Kenny
4. Scott Kenny
5. Andrew Smith
6. Ryan Campbell
7. Colin Whelan
8. Jacek Zadrozny XRAY T3 2012b
|
|
(click to enlarge) |
|
|
|
| Finishing second gave me a four point lead in the championship and therefore the Irish national title. Bearing in mind I have not raced since 2007, this result is all the more impressive for a comeback season. I can put a good bit of this down to the performance and quality of the Xray T3â™12. And I would just like to thank my Family and also Greg Hill from RC Disco, Xray Distributor, for their support this season. |
|
