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| Race report by Aaron Dexter |
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On the 15th of June (Wednesday), my family and I travelled to Brisbane for the 2nd Rd of the Australian National Series. The flight was rather boring as I was so excited and couldnâ™t wait to see the track and facilities. We went to our accommodation, quick stop at the shops and then a quick stop at the track to check everything out.
My first impressions of the facilities was âśwowâť. The track was huge, drivers stand huge, everything was really big and spread out which was good as then it didnâ™t feel like you were all squished together. The track, very American style track. A lot of jumps which Iâ™m not really used to but still awesome. On the Wednesday night, I found it difficult to sleep as I was so excited now seeing the facilities and the track.
Thursday morning I found myself getting up early. We got the track around 6:45ish and setup. This was the first time Iâ™d seen my mates, Mason Cameron, Caleb Noble and Riley Searl since Tasmania. Was awesome to catch up with them and everyone else throughout the day and the weekend.
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Coming across with the brand new Xb8â™16, I found myself with no expectations as ide never ran the car before and it was a new track. At the drivers meeting, the Thursday morning, they expected rain on Sunday so made a decision to cut down to 2 rounds of practise, 4 rounds of qualifying and then finals.
Practise didnâ™t go the way I would have liked making too many mistakes and putting me down in the Group 3 for truggy and group 6 for buggy. I was determined to put the cars into the semis as I knew they had the speed and so did I.
The first qualifying round went awesome for me! Winning both my truggy and buggy heats placing me about 13th for the round. I was stocked! Exactly the confidence booster I needed going into qualifying and the finals. The rest of qualifying went well. I qualified 15th in Buggy and 14th in Truggy. Straight into the Semis. Objective complete, next objective, Double Amains.
My buggy semi went pretty well, I didnâ™t get an amazing start, but I put my head down and got into 8th, the wildcard spot. Fabio Silvi, a mate of mine was sitting in the wildcard spot too. By the end of both semis, I had gotten and extra lap and made my first ever, buggy a main at a nationals. A few tears may have been shed as I had finally achieved something Iâ™ve been trying to do for the past few years. |
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I had an amazing start to the a main getting up to 4th and holding it down for a good few minutes! Then I had a little bobble, putting me down 2 spots and then crashed which put me out of contention completely. Not completely disappointed. I know I have the pace with new car and still have a lot of testing to do. Ended up finishing 9th overall.
Truggy was the same deal, got onto the wildcard spot, this time with Mason Cameron. I was the first semi this time and was marshalling as he was trying to beat my time. By pure luck, I got through by 14seconds getting into the truggy a main too. My first double a main! Unfortunately, I didnâ™t get as good of a start as buggy and ended up finishing 11th. Still really happy with the result, at least I finished them both.
On Sunday, we travelled around Brisbane seeing some things my Mum and Dad took me to see when I was 1 year old. Mt Coo-tah and Southbound. It was all a little rainy so we went to the airport early where our flight was delayed 30ish minutes.
My XRAY vehicles have been amazing as always, I didnâ™t break one thing at all. My AKA rubber solid. My NitroX Fuel performing perfect as always. My new OS b2101 been running perfectly, still a little rich but its already got tons of power and Iâ™m really happy with it. I really couldnâ™t be where I am in my RC Racing life without all of my amazing sponsors, coming together to give me the edge over everyone else and making me one of the top 15 drivers in Australia.
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I want give a massive thank you to all my sponsors that support me, XRAY, AKA and Ryper Hobbies, NitroX, Team Nugget Racing and HEI Australia. I want to thank my dad also for the amount of work, effort and organization he put in to getting me there, flights, accommodation, building the cars at work for me, getting tyres and parts. I really couldnâ™t be where I am today without the help of my sponsors, friends and my amazing family.
I had an amazing time in Brisbane, seeing all my racing friends from across the country. To make my first Buggy A Main at a Nationals was probably the highlight of my weekend as I have been hunting it down for so long.
The 3rd Round of the Nationals In Perth, unfortunately I donâ™t think Iâ™m going because we are going to America for my mums birthday so next year it is.
Thank you all for the support once again!
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