This last weekend was the penultimate round of the UK's national series. The venue was Remote World Model Car club or better known to most as Slough which is one of the Uk's finest dirt tracks. As usual the weather was appalling on the run up to the event as it has been for most of the series, so the practice run yet again would be muddy . As the day progressed the track dried but become bumpy, the speed of the track would come back to give some very fast & impressive racing.
Round 1 & the track still drying, none of us getting a totally clear run but all faired well & all happy with the cars balance.
Round 2 & Jon found his pace taking TQ for this round Kevin taking a top 5 place, Bruce & Bren both getting good runs. At this stage Jon was in the top 10 , Bren sat 13th. Kevin & Bruce both needed a second good result to get a better position.
Round 3 Kevin with a very late start due to a battery failure had a clear run taking TQ for the round & placing himself 2nd on the grid. Jon also hot on his heels & a good run secured 3rd on the grid. Bruce faired well & put in another good run for a B final slot. Bren altered his car to find a bit more pace but did not settle to the balance & was unable to improve on his position so remained in the B.
Mark Dell & Reece Sawyer both showed great pace but had problems during the qualifying & unable to get in clear runs so where both in the D & C final.
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To the Finals Lee Taylor bumped up several finals but his luck was to run out in the D Along with Ben Williams who was awarded a stop & go penalty sofinished his day there. Mark's luck came back bumping himself from the D into the C with Reece. Both Mark & Reece drove a great C final to bump into the B final giving us 4 808's in this one.
In the B Bruce got a clean start & capitalised this to build a comfy buffer on the pack. Both Mark & Reece got away clean into a mid pack position with Bren not fairing well after finding an early gap got tagged & had to play catch up from the back. Bruce at 3/4 distance had a technical problem so was out of the game, Brens smooth driving style meant he could do one less fuel stop & leap frogged himself into contention for the bump up. Reece had capitalized on his good start & was also in contention . It came down to the line for the mad dash across the jumps & who would get the luck, both Bren & Reece just missing the 4th spot by a couple of seconds.
The A final was now down to Jon & Kevin, disaster struck Kevin in the warm up with a few minutes to go meaning he missed the start & lost 5 or so laps & was out of contention. Jon knew he had to do an extra fuel stop over Allsop, Crompton & Drescher so with a good start was in to first & setting about making that time. By everyone's last fuel stop Jon had done enough to make up that time & worked his way back into the lead with a few minutes to go. With some fantastic overtaking moves the Race was one of the best of the year & Jon pace proved king bringing home the victory at the end of the 30
minutes.
1 Jon Hazlewood XRAY XB808
2 Graham Alsop
3 David Crompton
4 Craig Drescher
5 Elliott Boots
6 Lee Martin
7 Darren Bloomfield
8 Tommy Chung
9 John Holmes
10 Richard Barton
11 Paul Bradby
12 Richard Cree
13 Simon Willetts 14 Kevin Brunsden XRAY XB808
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Thanks to Xray, Mirage & all of the team's various sponsors for there support.
