The Badlands Challenge sponsored by CML & Proline has been run over the winter months at the Dartford Race Track. The series consisted of 5 rounds with the best 4 to count in which all drivers have to use the controlled tyre being Badlands. DRT as a club has progressed immensely over this last 4 months with a new committee & the Piraterc.com crew as a driving force has really moved forward. With hours of Track work & preparation the club now truly has a great race track. The track is fast & offers many technical & demanding section which keeps you on your toes, & when mastered gives a truly rewarding drive. Over the series several of the other uk teams have been here in force, with most meetings fully booked this has made the series & racing very competitive. As it turned out right to the last round & heat in qualifying before the title was decided.
(click to enlarge)
The finals round on the 16th of March would have a good turn out of racers, with the associated team & other national drivers also braving what was to be a wet day racing again would be tight. For me after several weeks of testing I had an opportunity to race the 808, with the car well shaken down I knew Xrays reliability would never be a problem.
Rnd 1 started 9.00 after the track had been cleared of water & dried with saw dust. As I was out in heat one conditions were hard to get a good run in as the saw dust made it hard to be consistent. With a couple of saw dust enforced errors went 3rd in round.
(click to enlarge)
Rnd 2 with a little tweak to geometry the 808's pace should through with tq.
Rnd 3 with another tweak because track was now getting muddy due to the consistent rain. Cars pace was really good, an error on my behalf through pushing on hard allowed Elliot Boots to pip my time & take overall TQ putting me 2nd on the grid for the A main.
This result at this point was sufficient to give me the overall win for the Badlands series.
For the finals Elliot had dropped out so I was on pole, I knew the 808's pace was strong & led from start to finish in the shortened final of 10 minutes duration. At the finish I had lapped the whole field up to 2nd who was also only 2 seconds from being lapped. The 808 run faultlessly & was a pleasure to drive.
For this meeting the 808 showed great pace & balance to take a victory in the uk's debut meeting. With also a series Win of three 1st places a 3rd & 4th showed of Xrays reliability & consistency.
People that are often forgotten are the Xray clubman's or privateers so congratulations to Simon Dudman 6th, Jason Dixon 7th, Ricky Burnett 14th all of which made the A main during the series & Arron Davison 18th & awarded most improved driver, well done guys.
I would like to say thanks to my sponsors Xray, Hudy, OS, Proline, Odonnel, TTR, Ace, MRT, Nosram, Edit, Grp & Piraterc .com for your support.
