The Midlands Super Cup - Round 2 at Ledbury

Round 2 of the ever so popular 'The Midlands Super Cup'saw us all venture to a picturesque part of the country, Ledbury. Ledbury model car club offered us a half and half astro and grass surface with many a great feature.

I got down Friday evening to being greeted by Ray and Nathan Powney, Andy Prosser and my main man Digger (Darren Smith). The layout of the track looked brilliant, I think that it was the best that ray has come up with yet. After setting up our camp we settled back to have the craic with everyone that was turning up that night. We all had a bloomin cold nights sleep with it being -1 or even colder on that hill side.

Got woken up at 9am to the sounds of 'Timmheyy' lol. What a beautiful morning that we all had woken upto. Blue skies and even the tide was in!! Well it looked like it, but it was the poly tunnels for the asparagus lol. Ray and Nathan had set the track up so that we would only run on the astro and just the bit of grass at the front of the rostrum, 40 meters of it. All I had to do was build my car as I had got it in many bits. Got on track at 3.30pm and I though 'yes I am loving this buggy (Xray XB9)' Everyone was having a good time taking the 'mick' and helping each other out with set ups and pitting duties. It wasn't long and the track was closed for end of practice session. We now had to set up all the monitors and all of race control ready for the morning. 14 of us all went out for a meal and it started off with what look liked a promising night to find that the locals would not move from the dining room to the lounge area and the staff were reluctant to upset the apple cart. So it was left to me to ask people if they would move for us. The meal was great for a few of us but Dave's table must have had the trainee chef, as their steaks where not done and the chips where cremated to say the least. Back at the track and there was a nice big fire burning away and a warm welcome to the chilly night. Carl was doing his fire walker trick and we all got a great full warming before we all went to bed.

After another cold night for some, it was time to get the day started. We had the the practice bolted onto warm ups of the first round. We had everyone coming of with happy faces, as they had been worrying that they did not know what tyres they would be needing to run on astro and grass. Mini pins where the order of the day and they worked very well on the grass. With only a few track repairs we was just about on target for finishing on time. Dinner came and there was a happy buzz around the pits. Even Graham Grice was extra happy as he had qualified just behind Skelly. I had my Wing Man Denzel take me out in round 3 to take away a B final finish for me, that left me in the top of the C final. Never mind there's always next time.

Finals on their way and the H final was fun to watch as normal, but there was a couple of names that shouldn't have been there!! Milan Drogojlovic and Josh Powney. These are local boys. Whats happening, are they trophy hunting on purpose?!! Apparently Milan had been having radio troubles and Josh, well everytime I went past, Clive was messing with engines in Josh's buggy! Josh took the win Milan took second and Callum Chand held off Tony Pocock to take third place. Well driven Callum.



The G final got on the way, Milan and Josh was off in the distance to leave Stavros Costos, Victor Guillot and Ben Doyle to battle it out for the final podium spot. Stavros held his nerve and kept Victor at bay. Well done Stavros.



The F final got on the way and yes you guessed it Milan and Josh got off on their way in the lead. Matthew Box had dibs on third place spot for the first half of the race and then Mike Gulliford took the second half to take the last podium spot by 2.6 seconds. And Gricey beat Skelly!!



The E final got on the way and yes you guessed wrong, Milan and Josh had broke down! lol. Abi Dean was mixing it with Milan and Josh for half of the race until they dropped out with their buggy problems. This left Abi, and Denz (Darren Ahern) to come in first and second respectfully and Royston Stewart and Darren Farley to battle it out for the last podium spot and that ended up going to Royston.


The D final got on the way and David Collar got a good start and took the lead until lap 8 where he had made a mistake and from then on he had got in with the pack and they wouldn't let him go. Jon Griffiths took the lead until the last 2 laps when Matthew Lawrence took the lead. Jon made a few mistakes trying to gain the lead back but decided on keeping second to get the bump up. Denz just kept driving nice and steady trying to keep out of trouble to take the third spot, he was getting use to the track now with all the bump ups.



My Final got on the way, Good start tried to get out of they way for the guys that use you for breaks but that didn't happen as lap 3 I was being raped left right and centre. So I just settled to just run around the track and enjoy myself. Matthew Lawrence took the lead off of his brother Ryan and it looked like he was there to stay, but Ryan had other ideas on that and he would hound his brother until he took the lead on lap 14 and stayed there until the end showing his brother that he can mix it with him. Little Arron Girling kept himself quiet to bring in third place.


The B final go on the way and Jonny Roberts did a cracking just to battle into the lead only to have a mishap on lap 10 letting Matthew Lawrence through, but he got it back after Matthew had made a mistake trying to push a lead out on Jonny after they both pitted together. This left Jonny with the pressure to try and keep first place, which he only just did with there being just 5 seconds between 1st and 3rd. Jonny on the top spot, then Matthew Lawrence followed by a great run by Dave Brown.



Time for the A final now and the pole position went to Jon Howells with local lad Nathan Powney taking P2 and Dave Bailey with the only 11 lapper of the day in 3rd on the grid. Everyone got off to a good start with Liam Galvin, Mitchell Booth and Matthew Lawrence got off to a great start coming over the line in that order on the first lap. Mitchell toop the top spot after the 3rd lap and it looked like the Junior was going to stay there for the rest of the race with his AE. It looks like he had his pit stop and came out in some tough traffic at lap 13 and unlucky for some kept him down the leader board. Matthew had an engine problem at lap 4 or 5 if I remember rightly. And Liam just got forced back into the midfield and stayed there.

Craig Drescher made his way back up the table from 9th to 1st and from there he drove a faultless race dominating the field and showing us all how to drive off road.

Dave Bailey followed Craig through the field to settle in 2nd place only to have it took away from him with an electrical problem that came on and of in the last few laps resulting in him coming 4th.

Jon Howells came up through the field as with the rest of them and settle into 3rd only to be given 2nd from off of Dave with his radio problems.

Nathan Powney plugged his way through the field with constant mid 30's lap times and that propelled him up into 3rd place.

Colin Jackson with the only Hong Nor in the A final, showed everyone how to come through the field from last place, but only ended up in 5th place at the end.




All results can be found here and you can go and have a look around www.t-m-s-c.co.uk to find out about the other track in the series and book yourselves into future rounds. All Rd2 winners can be seen here. Many thanks to you Drivers because without you we cannot have the best series running.

See everyone at round 3 at the new and revived Derby Track www.drcorc.co.uk on 9th-10th June.