BRCA Truggy and Truck National Finals

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Truggy Nationals Round 4

Untitled Document

Date: 2007/09/30
Venue: Clanfield Off-Road Track
Title: BRCA Truggy and Truck Nationals - Round 4

With over one hundred racers, the finals of the BRCA UK Truggy Pro and Monster Truck Championship took place at Clanfield near Portsmouth in the south of Britain.

With all three championships, Monster Truck, UK Truggy Pro Clubmans' and UK Truggy Pro, undecided and incredibly close, the pressure was on and for spectators little did they know the excitement that had been laid on for them!

With sunshine forecasted it was a surprise to all that upon arrival that a fine but steady rainfall was present. This lasted through the first set of heats and was enough to really make tyre choice a serious headache for the runners. Maxx Mulchers, HoleShot, Crimefighter, Bow Ties MTR and Badlands where all seen during the first heat , Panther Meat Grinders, Boas and the new Gator and Switch tyres being stretched over Losi 8ight T wheels, drivers across the paddock were being as inventive and innovative to get that extra tenth in the heats.

Young privateer Will Hammond and his OS Vspec powered Mugen MBX5T on his UK Truggy Pro debut shocked the entrants by throwing in a fantastic 7 lap time on the first round heats, with Mugen/Ninja Team Driver Adrian Svensson only able to beat Will's time by 3 seconds! Ed Kerry, Losi/Novarossi, put the first 8 lap time of the day in. Ed didn't hold onto the best time for long when championship leader Graham Alsop Hobao/RB put in another 8 lap time with an average 42.159. However in the same heat Jon Hazlewood, Xray/OS-Recab was a second a lap faster taking TQ at the end of Heat 1. With both these drivers needing to take the TQ and the win to be certain of the championship the pressure was on.

In the second round of qualifying the fantastic young driver Elliot Boots, Kyosho/RB, stole the TQ time from Hazlewood by less than one tenth of a second! However Graham Alsop soaked up the pressure and put in an outstanding qualifier taking TQ from Elliot by over 4 seconds. Jon Hazlewood had some traffic issues at the start of the heat and just coasted round. Championship third place Jon Howell's Hobao/RB along with Tommy Chung Kyosho/Sirio where the only other drivers to get the elusive eight lapper making a total of only 6 drivers making the 8 lap grade.

Chris Boot's commented: "The track was faster in the second heat and as it started to dry out the ruts that appeared because of the rainfall are starting to make it a much harder track to drive on".

With Graham going into round 3 of the heats with TQ he was looking incredibly strong for the title, it seemed the Hobao Hyper ST was quicker in the corners but the Xray was definitely faster on the straight high speed sections, but then again Elliot's Kyosho STRR seemed fast no matter which part of the track it was on! Graham demonstrated his commitment to winning the title by putting on another outstanding qualifying position beating his own time by less than half a second. Graham Alsop took TQ and the potentially vital extra point.

With Monster Truck expert Allen Wong not able to make the finals Ben Champion, Revo/OS cruised to a well deserved 7 lap TQ. The only 7 lap in the monster trucks on the day. Phil McMahon would have to hope for a strong performance in the final if he really wanted to take the Championship back to Newcastle with him.

With an extended set of finals for all entrants the H final was won by Joe Adams and Rob Higgs in second both promoted to the G final. Martin Withey and Adrian File took 1st and 2nd respectively in the G final and both were promoted. In the F final Mark Hamlin, who had a bad qualifying session, was promoted to the E final after taking victory with a lap to spare. Adrian Moreton took the other bump up spot. Damien "The Lobster" Tutton won the E final with Losi driver Steven "Bondy" Bond taking the other promotion spot. Damien went on to win the E final with clubman contender Chris Larner also promoted to the D final. Rob Rasey, on his truggy debut, took a convincing D final win 15 seconds ahead of youngster Jamie Armstrong, who took second in a borrowed truggy! Matt Perry and Bren Ralls took the one/two in the B final to grab the last two spots into the 30 minute A final.

With the track now quite dry and rutted, most drivers had gone to Proline Holeshot's and BowTie MTR. One or two drivers were running the Panther Switch on Losi 8T rims. The larger rim giving a definite advantage on the rutted track.

The A final started and most had a clean getaway, it was clear from the first few laps that it was a three horse race between, Ellliot Boots, Jon Hazlewood and Graham Alsop. Graham and Jon really didn't need Elliot getting in the middle of them but Elliot stuck the proverbial tongue out at the two of them to lead the race on several occasions giving both championship hopefuls even more pressure. And the pressure was clearly affecting the drivers, with both Hazlewood and Alsop making schoolboy errors that meant the lead swapped several times. Coming into the last lap Jon had a 4 second lead ahead of Boots who lead from Alsop by another 4 seconds. Jon crossed the line and took a well deserved victory, Boots second and the worst result throughout the championship for Alsop coming in third place.

Tied on points and places in order to resolve the championship a 15 minute race off was required. Both drivers and great friends Jon and Graham agreed to this and showed outstanding professionalism.

The 15 minute race off was setup and started. Clanfield felt like a ghost town during a race with only 2 truggys competing. Both drivers would start at the same position with Graham winning the toss he selected the inside line. At the start the OS power of Jon's Xray blasted him into the lead in the first corner. Jon lead the race from the start but Graham really pushed setting a stunning 39 second lap and several of the fasted laps of the race. However Jon held his nerve and took the victory of the race and the UK Truggy Pro Championship.

In the monster trucks Ben Champion lead the race from start to finish. Phil, his only rival had some technical problems in the first few laps but came back to fourth place. Colin Long took third and Dave Ewan second place.

In the UK Truggy Pro Clubmans, supported by BNRC/FMCC and FTRC, Mark Dell did enough to ensure the championship with the top place at Clanfield with Damien Tutton Second and Chris Larner third.

The top 3 drivers in the UK Truggy Pro championship

1st Jon Hazlewood Xray XT8/OS Recab
2nd Graham Alsop Hyper ST Pro / RB
3rd Elliot Boots Kyosho STRR / RB

The top 3 drivers in the Monster Truck Championship

1st Ben Champion Revo/OS
2nd Phil McMahon Revo/Traxxas
3rd Danny Adams Tamiya/Tamiya

The top three drivers in the UK Truggy Pro Clubmans'

1st Marc Dell Losi/OS
2nd Sham Choudry Mugen/OS
3rd Chris Larner Xray/RB

Full results are available here

Untitled Document