The first round of the xray off-road challenge took place on the 27th march at slough (near Windsor) were the 2003 european championships took place.
First note,well done and thankyou to all the race organisers who have done a fantastic job on the track and facilities for this event.
track (click to enlarge)
There were a total of 72 drivers entered for this event,bearing in mind the majority of national drivers were attending another race meeting,with the exception of Ryan Donovan who is Xrays Team Driver in the UK for 2005.
Ryan Donovans XB8 (click to enlarge)
1st round of qualifying and Ryan Donovan seemed to have difficulty passing the rest of the field,leading him to have a 55 second lap from having consistent 40 â“ 41 second laps,which qualified him 4th in that round.
2nd round of qualifying and Ryan Donovan set TQ with a time 6 seconds faster than second place.
Ryan Donovan and his father (mechanic) (click to enlarge)
3rd round of qualifying and Ryan Donovan again set TQ 3 seconds faster than second place,this had now secured him with TQ overall for the finals.
Unfortunately we had only one xray in the main final,with Paul Smith being the next highest qualifier with an xray qualifying 15th ,which placed him 5th on the grid in the B final,unfortunately due to a marshalling error in the final,Paul Smiths engine stopped whilst being turned over and at that point he were in a position to move up into the main final.
Start of the A final (click to enlarge)
To the main final of the day and with Ryan Donovan on pole position and the only xray in the final all eyes were on Ryan,from the very start Ryan led the final away increasing his lead to second place corner by corner,when on lap 3 Ryan approached the jump at the far side of the track no faster than usual and had an awkward landing which caused him to retire from the race.
Final results of the first round of the xray off-road challenge:
(click to enlarge)
1. Matt Perry
2. Lee Taylor
3. John Skidmore
4. Sam Taylor
5. Neil Catley
6. Rachel Merry
7. Adam Skelding
8. Wayne Parker
9. Allan Bridgeman
10.Chris Rowcliffe
11.Clayton Collins 12.Ryan Donovan XRAY XB8 - TQ
13.Greg Catley
14.Alex Mortimer
Setup of Ryan Donovan is available for download here.
