After holding the nationals in November the Wellington track was chosen to be the venue for the North Islands, the track is tight with some big jumps and loads of tight hair pins. To prepare for the huge requirement of steering I narrowed up the front end of the buggy and went a little softer in the shocks.
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Through qualifying it was difficult as the grip came and went very quickly it, the idea was to keep it consistent. I was able to qualify 2nd overall in buggy and 4th in truggy, this put me nicely in to the semi finals I knew this is where the hard work began. In both buggy and truggy I managed to get through the semi finals with out too much troubly in truggy I was to start from grid 2 for the final and in the buggy semi some others had some bad luck and I managed a clean fast run and started from grid position 1.
The truggy final began first, I opted to go for AKA grid irons in supersoft which had been most consistent through out the event, I ended up finishing 2nd in truggy the truggy A main 4.5 seconds behind first. It was a great battle but luck didnâ™t go my way .
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In buggy I started from position one and had chosen the same tyres as in the truggy at the start of the race managed to maintain the lead whilst having a wheel to wheel battle with Mike S for the majority of the first 9 mins, when I came in for fuel and left the pits a few corners in I had a flame out. Luckily my pit crew were quick to get the car restarted and I got back out there and pushed untill I was in 2nd place. The car was feeling fast and I was able to push whilst still maintaining consistency. Unfortunatley there were more random flame outs throughout the final and we ended up diagnosing an intermittent glow plug.
It was a very enjoyable event thanks to XRAY for the great cars and to the Wellington club for holding the event
Final results:
Buggy
1. Mike Stratford
2. Jonathan Thompson
3. Dave Edhouse 4. Kent Perry - XRAY XB9
5. Rick Morton
6. Gavin Davidson
7. Neil White
8. Paul Fey 9. Chris Banham - XRAY XB9
10. Mark Cleland
Truggy
1. Jonathan Coluccio 2. Chris Banham - XRAY XT8
3. Mark Cleland
4. Scott Brownhill
5. Jackson Proctor
6. Paul McBreen
7. Reilly Hayward
8. Miek Stratford
9. Kent Perry
10. Dave Edhouse
