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Having had a recent and unexpectedly dry round at the Halifax track in Yorkshire recently, drivers made their way to the excellent Cotswolds model car club facility at the Kemble air field track in Cirencester last weekend for round 6 of the BRCA 1/10th IC championship.
Numbers were slightly down, due to this fixture clashing with other series nationals elsewhere somewhat. However racers of the 200mm touring and 220mm GT class, made progress in setting their cars up on the Saturday for an expected wet Sunday race day.
The usual XRAY racers such as Peter Spratley, Simon Wood, Mark Owen, Mathew Williams and series recent returnee Ady Garlick (with his XRAY new t-shirt) made good use of the Saturday practice to set their XRAY NT1, 2015s to this technical and enjoyable layout. Series regular Jon Withington was absent from this meeting, choosing to be a full time mechanic for his sons first 1/10th electric national elsewhere.
Sunday, and race day made qualification a difficult procedure and as predicted became a wet affair later on. Most drivers switched from car set up to attempting to solve water ingress issues to their electronics, chassis and engine intakes in the hope to be able to run a challenging 30 minute final. One particular driver, Mark Owen showed once again his good understanding of how to do this and how to drive in these conditions.
Finals due in the afternoon, and with three XRAY NT1's made it in the main A-final, we were hoping for good results. At around 2.pm, the 200mm A final was under way, whilst drivers settled into the race and became more confident in the grip levels one car quickly made progress into the lead. The well-equipped XRAY NT1 of Mark Owens looked dialled and quickly stretched out a confident pace. Marks combination of tyre choice, car set up and wet weather preparation made this outfit hard to challenge.
With his usual steady but quick driving, Mark, started 6th and showed the rest of the field how to do it and brought his ultra-reliable XRAY NT1 home in first place, 11 laps ahead of the second place driver over this 30 minute final. Once again well done Mark, a faultless drive from this rain specialist (same again at round 7, Mendip!?).
Well done again Mark Owen and the rest of the XRAY team, see you all at the GP next month.
Final positions
1. Mark Owen - XRAY NT1
2. Kai Grainger
3. Joe Kerry
4. Matt Dambrine
5. Matt Cook
6. Pete Spratley - XRAY NT1
7. Kev Nash
8. Matt Williams - XRAT NT1
9. Alex Thuston
10.John Zottle
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