With a new format and allocation of the meeting to the country area Manning Valley was the chosen Track for the 2016 States in NSW. Having raced there only once many years ago it was going to be interesting to see what the organizers had come up with for the meeting.
Weather was very warm during practice and the track did not hold any moisture, with only 2 rounds of practice and the track breaking up badly it was looking like a trying weekend ahead...
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Buggy:
Frustrated with the track during qualifying i was happy to be sitting 3rd overall. Car and driver getting better each round, taking the win in the last round finally gave some confidence. Making some overnight changes we went into the Practice round with good setup and a good nights sleep.
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Buggy Final:
Some late starters at the buzzer allowed me to take 1st position from the get go!! pulling a 15 second lead within the first 5 mins. happy with the gap cruise mode started kicking in, but this allowed Craig Lautghton (TLR) to catch. Couple of mistakes and the race was on!! 25 mins to go and we traded places at every pit stop. Pressure was on but i was still confident and calm, 2 mins to the end and i lost the lead, 1 min left and a block pass on a corner jump was needed to take back the lead!!! last lap nose to tail and a drag race to the line!!!! I win by 1/2 a second!! Good clean racing all round!!
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Buggy Results
1. Ari Bakla - XRAY XB8
2. Craig Laughtin
3. Jarred King
4. Dallas Gardiner
5. Cale Wilson
6. Simon Roberts 7. Brendhan Wade - XRAY XB8
8. Alex Richardson
9. Wade Lazich
10. Kevin Lewis
11. Darren Pryor
12. Shane Frieberg
Truggy:
Brendham Wade (XT9) set the pace all weekend. Ari Bakla (XT9) close behind in second. It was ALLLL brendan in the final, Ari suffered a flame out in the first pit stop with a low idle allowing Brendhan a nice buffer. The veteran and all round nice guy kept a clean line and drove flawlessly all the way to the finish line!!
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Truggy Results
1. Brendhan Wade - XRAY XT9
2. Ian Haley
3. Wade Lazich
4. Brad Stafford
5. Mark Andrew
6. Scott Richardson
7. Corey Chivas
8. Mick Matic 9. Ari Bakla - XRAY XT9
10. Darren Pryor
11. Chris Omega
