Some of the 160 cars at the 2005 Ultimate Open (click to enlarge)
Last weekend the Taranaki R/C car club hosted the 2005 Ultimate Open, a race event for almost all types of R/C on road cars. The 160 entrants included:- Pro 12, electric mini, sealed can 540 1/10 touring, 27T stock touring, modified 1/10 touring, formula 1, 1/10 Nitro tourer & 1/8 gas.
Some of the Xray drivers at the Ultimate Open (click to enlarge)
The Ultimate Open features as one of the major race events on the New Zealand calendar because it incorporates almost all of the on road style of R/C cars over a two-day event. Fortunately the weather was very kind enabling the organisers to complete the meeting on time despite 20 heats of racing per round.
John Van Beers (click to enlarge)
Xray cars were very popular in the electric touring class with 16 drivers running EVO2â™s or T1FKâ™s. Many owning two Xray cars so they could compete in multiple classes. The Taranaki track has a coarse and therefore abrasive surface (my 1/8 gas car tyres lost 1mm diameter in each 5 minute qualifying heat!). It is quite technical with a variety of slow & high speed corners along with numerous concrete edges. Despite the hard edges, Xray cars proved very strong with very few breakages reported.
Nathan Toia (click to enlarge)
From the very first round local driver, John Van Beers set the pace in both sealed can touring and 27T pro-stock with his Xrayâ™s. By finals day, John had not only top qualified in both classes but won most of the finals races to win both 540 sealed can & pro-stock classes.
Hamilton driver, Nathan Toia was running great race in touring modified but unfortunately hit a marshal mid track putting him out of contention for the modified class.
Bev Winter - Xray New Zealand (click to enlarge)
Scott Brownhill was busy running two Xrays in sealed can stock & Pro Stock as was Mal Southgate running in the same classes. Mal had an impressive collection of Xray spares & options with him, almost enough to build a 3rd car. Bev Winter from Christchurch travelled 12 hours in car & ferry to compete at this event & assist with parts supply though few were needed. She battled with 19 other drivers in Pro Stock class & finished 9th, good result for out of town driver still recovering from the long journey to get to the event.
Results of Stock A
1st John Van Beers XRAY
2nd Ivan Ho
3rd Stephen Li 4th Leon Dravitzki XRAY
5th Murray Hodges XRAY
6th Michael Jones 7th Scott Brownhill XRAY
8th David Waldmeyer
9th Greg Mawson
10th Robert Maskell
Results of Modified A
1st Darren Johnston
2nd Aaron Young 3rd Nathan Toia XRAY
4th Karl Meyer 5th Shane Parsons XRAY
6th Damon Slavich 7th Liam Heffernan XRAY
8th Gilbert Ko
9th Stephen Li
10th Ivan Ho
Results of Pro Stock A
1st John Van Beers XRAY
2nd Ivan Ho 3rd Timothy Warner XRAY
4th Scott Brownhill XRAY
5th Trevor Waldmeyer 6th Murray Hodges XRAY
7th Tommy Tong
8th Ryan Cook 9th Bev Winter XRAY
10th Mal Southgate XRAY
