This weekend was Rnd 4 of the HNMC Proline & Panther Wars, with a week of sub zero temperatures the dirt track was very frozen with some areas of sheet ice and snow from the previous week. With the temperature set to raise during the day to 7 or 8 deg C all we could hope is the track would stay dry and not become a mud bath. With a day of testing new parts would make plenty of alterations for feedback and team knowledge.
Round 1 and first on the track was 5 minutes of drift racing on the ice, great fun but hard to navigate through the back markers going 2nd in round.
Round 2 with the track starting to defrost I made some alterations to geometry and rear shock oil with the truggy now coming alive. The XT8 seemed dialled but a TQ run was foiled after catching the pack near the end of the run and being unable to progress through it going 3rd.
Round 3 and with the track now defrosted and becoming sticky another alteration to geometry and a different strategy on track start position gave me a better chance, with a clean run I took TQ by 10 seconds to give me overall TQ for the day.
With the track now blown out and very rough I had a clean start from the drop of the flag and would build a comfy buffer, the balance and consistency of the XT8 would prove to much for the rest of the field and after 20 minutes I built up a 4 lap lead.
Thanks to XRAY and to Piraterc for the photo.
(click to enlarge)
Final Results
1 Brennan Ralls XRAY XT8
2 Steve Johnson
3 Keith Harris
