| Race Report By Ryan Donovan |
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| The Sixth round of the xray off-road challenge took place on the 14th of August at East Shrewsbury buggy racing club. First note,well done and thankyou to all race organisers who had done a fantastic job on running the meeting. |
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There were a total of 68 drivers booked in for this event and once again an excellent turnout for this very potential series.
The weather forecast wasnâ™t looking too good,but thankfully once again the weather man was wrong and was to be a bright and dry day,which made some fast and close racing throughout the day.
The track was 100% grass with 1 small jump and a banked corner leading on to the straight,with the rostrum being so small and a tight and technical track it made it quite difficult to judge the furthest part of the track and this later proved to be the place were time were lost or gained. |
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| As the series is coming to an end,the clubman championship is very close indeed,with a number of drivers still in for a shout for the title,these include Tom Reynolds-Xray who is currently in 1st position,Lee Taylor in 2nd place,Wayne Parker in 3rd place and John Howells in 4th place,this was definitely the battle to watch. Qualifying was to be based on TQ (fastest time) and was to be 1 round of practise and 3 rounds of qualifying. |
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Practise was underway and first initial thought was âślots of gripâť so i decided to go out on worn tyres for my practise run and all seemed well,still had lots of grip but just took the edge off which in turn allowed me to push the car that little harder.
Round 1 of qualifying and it was myself to set TQ in this round with second place Matthew Perry 3 seconds behind and Lee Taylor a further 5 seconds behind Matthew in third place. |
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Round 2 of qualifying and it was myself to set TQ again with a time 4 seconds faster than the first round,this was mainly due to the grip being less and therefore able to push the car that little harder,second place was again Matthew Perry 9 seconds behind and third place was Adrian Svensson a further 5 seconds behind Matthew.
Round 3 of qualifying and it was Tom Reynolds to set TQ in this round with a time 10 seconds slower than that of mine set in round 2,second place was myself 9 seconds behind due to a collision with a number of cars and a couple of mistakes and third place was Wayne Parker a further 1 second behind. |
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With the rostrum being so small it was decided to have 8 qualify straight to the main instead of 10 and 2 bump up from the lower finals to make a 10 car final instead of the normal 12 cars.
Qualifying Positions After All 3 Rounds:
1 Ryan Donovan XRAY XB8
2 Matthew Perry
3 Tom Reynolds XRAY XB8
4 Lee Taylor
5 Adrian Svensson
6 Brian Burrows
7 Wayne Parker
8 Jim Davies |
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From the B-Final we saw Jonathon Murphy and John Howells finish 1st and 2nd to bump up to the main final of the day,now making it a 10 car final.
To the start of the A-Final and first to complete the lap was myself a yard or 2 infront,but at the start of lap 2 at the end of the straight (last place you wanted it) i got radio interference which led my car to the catch fencing,luckily the marshall never stopped the car and off i went,but to find iâ™d lost several positions,every lap after that i suffered exactly the same thing and the positions i was making up through the rest of the track,i was losing again at the end of the straight,it was now approximately 6 laps in and the chap stood next to me had a problem which caused him to leave the race,after this not 1 glitch of radio interference which in turn allowed me to pull back lead within the next few laps and maintain it to the end.
A-Final Finishing Positions:
1 Ryan Donovan XRAY XB8
2 Lee Taylor
3 Tom Reynolds XRAY XB8
4 Wayne Parker
5 Jonathon Murphy
6 Brian Burrows
7 Matthew Perry
8 Adrian Svensson
9 John Howells
10 Jim Davies |
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