Oswestry National 2012

Round 4 of the UK BRCA 1:10 Electric Off-Road Championship saw the teams converge on the small town of Oswestry on the North Welsh borders for the only Grass-track event of the series.

The Oswestry round is a long-established favourite on the National calendar and is well worth the long journey up from the Horizon UK offices in Essex. The organising club are armed with helpers who work tirelessly before, during and after the event to prepare a neutral temporary track that cannot be practiced on beforehand on a sloping part of the field next to their permanent Astroturf club venue. The result is a uniquely warming atmosphere with terrific close racing and the unpredictability that a natural grass track surface can present in terms of set up, tyre choice and variability as racers try to stay on top of their car set ups as the track evolves throughout qualifying and the finals. Throw the uncertainty of the UK weather into the mix and "Osfest" never fails to disappoint, rewarding the bravest of drivers and challenging their set up skills on the day to the very limit.

Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Rain…
With the UK weather being anything but seasonal and with the meeting running at the same time as the Tennis at Wimbledon, it was perhaps inevitable that rain would play some part in the events over the weekend and so it proved to be, with Saturday's 2WD event becoming a qualifying lottery for most of the competitors due to the constant showers and downpours that blighted every round of qualifying. Inevitably there were winners and losers. Horizon's Chris Evison was very unlucky with his runs with the weather effectively ruining any chance he had of a good result whilst Andy Carter turned to 'old-skool' technology and used the rear-motor TLR22 to good effect in the challenging muddy and slippery conditions for his best result of the year to date. Despite the variable weather conditions and the changeable track pace, it was the TLR22 mid-car of Darren Bloomfield that took pole position for the A-Final courtesy of 2 fastest round results ahead of Lee Martin and Ellis Stafford. In the first leg, a small bobble from Darren left him nose in on a hose whilst leading and try as he might, he was unable to recover the lost ground whilst a close three-way race at the front ended up finishing in Ellis's favour ahead of Lee Martin and Neil Cragg. With the pressure mounting for leg 2, Darren led for most of the race despite intense pressure from Lee but with less than a minute to go, Darren failed to hold a defensive line down the main straight and allowed Lee to slither up the inside and into the turn to take the win. The TLR team worked hard making some subtle changes to Darren's car for leg 3 and again, Darren made the most of pole position to take up the early lead and began to pull a slight gap to Lee in 2nd until a slight bobble enabled the Tamiya man to close right up on his gearbox. A slight slide from Darren was all that Lee needed to take the lead at around two-thirds race distance leaving Darren with the close attentions of reigning 2WD National Champion Neil Cragg. These two continued to battle supremely until a mistake from Darren enabled Neil to go through and up into 2nd place and demoting himself into 3rd.

Sunday's 4WD was run on the same track layout but this time, it was run in the opposite direction. The track had taking quite a beating from the weather and the racers on the Saturday but the Oswestry club had been hard at work on the Saturday evening rolling the track – a back-breaking task that went unnoticed by many of the racers but one that ultimately paid off for everyone during the Sunday when the track held up all day to provide some close and exciting racing throughout the day – thank you guys!

The weather was kinder on Sunday with far fewer showers but the previous day's rain had taken some toll on the track. In the opening rounds, there was hardly any single tyre that stood out as working ahead of the others and all of the talk in the pits was on tyre choice as the track struggled to dry out in the earlier part of the day.

Neil Cragg topped the early round leader board just edging Lee Martin and TLR's Darren Bloomfield with X-Factory's Ellis Stafford taking 4th spot with only 4 drivers on 12 lap pace. By round 2 however, the conditions were changing and it was Darren who topped the standings almost half a lap faster than his previous time. Round 3 saw another improvement but it was Lee Martin who topped the charts this time round and so, going into the fourth and final round of qualifying, TQ was still up for grabs by any one of the three previous round winners. In the end, Neil would take the round and TQ position ahead of Lee. Darren's chances of the overall TQ ended prematurely when he had to retire his ageing but timeless XX4 with a broken transmission.

TLR / Horizon UK's Stu Wood endured a horrible day's qualifying that left the affable and hugely respected Northern-based racer only completing one qualifying run all day. Despite this bad luck, Stu demonstrated total professionalism and was able to remain philosophical about the day, never allowing his frustration to show through. Despite his poor overall position, Stu's demeanour and support for his team and teammates demonstrated just why he is such a respected racer and an integral part of the Horizon UK 1/10 Off-Road team – well done Stu! Sandwiching the two TLR extremes were teammates Chris Delves and Andy Carter who had been virtually inseparable throughout the weekend, both qualifying in the E Final again after some close, on track qualifying action throughout the day.
In the first leg of the A final, Darren suffered another early retirement, still plagued with the same transmission issue that had blighted his last round of qualifying. Capitalising on his retirement, Ellis Stafford eventually ran out winner after some incredibly close racing between him and Neil Cragg.

After some more frantic repair action in the TLR / Horizon pits, Darren's XX4 looked rejuvenated in leg 2 as he, Neil and Lee treated the watching racers to a master class in controlled aggression and close-fought open-wheel racing. With the track surface almost devoid of grip and consistency in paces and beginning to rut up at the end of the main straight, the on-looking crowd were wowed by the abilities of all three drivers as they simultaneously defended, attacked and tried to outwit each other and force an error from the others. In the end, Neil crossed the line 0.4 seconds ahead of Darren with Lee a further 0.59 seconds back and to huge applause from the crowds and marshals. After the excitement of leg 2, the drivers had to regain their composure for the final leg and again, it was led away by Neil Cragg making the most of his pole position. Darren and Lee battled for 2nd position until a mistake from the TLR man dropped him out of contention allowing the leg 1 winner, Ellis Stafford up into 3rd position. Despite some close racing and a couple of unforced errors keeping the leading three in close proximity, it finished Neil, Lee and then Ellis with Neil taking the overall win from Ellis who won out over Lee courtesy of his leg win in the first leg. Darren dropped to fourth place overall but continued to demonstrate just why the XX4 is still a force to be reckoned with some 16 years after its invention.

Horizon Hobby UK would like to congratulate Lee Martin and Neil Cragg on their victories during the weekend and to thank the BRCA officials and the host club for hosting another superb event. Special thanks also goes out to Stu Wood for supplying the BIG tent for the Horizon UK team to pit in and to Steve Lissamore for braving the elements to snap the pictures and support the Horizon / TLR team during a very trying weekend especially weather-wise.
Roll on round 5 of the series where the competitors are almost 100% assured of dry weather courtesy of an inaugural National for the Silverstone Club at their Moulton based indoor venue.

Spektrum in Control at Belgian GP

Horizon Hobby UK Spektrum driver Grant Williams travelled to Kampenhout for the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend and came back fully laden with silverware. Damp and challenging conditions saw Grant pilot his Schumacher 2WD car to the podium for a 3rd place finish on the Saturday but his DX3R-Pro equipped 4WD CAT completely dominated proceedings during Sunday’s 4WD event taking Top Qualifier to line up on pole for the A final before going on to take 2 out of the 3 leg wins to bring home the winner’s trophy.  Spektrum team-mate Kevin Lee was the only other driver to get close to Grant, taking qualifying down to the line with both drivers achieving a perfect score but he was unable to usurp Grant and had to settle for second place overall.

Both drivers used Spektrum DX3R Pro transmitters with SR3520 micro DSM2 receivers and Spektrum S6040 and S6070 servos in their cars.

Congratulations to both Grant and Kev.

Chesterfield Shootout series

Run by one of the most experienced clubs in the country the Chesterfield Shoot-out series is designed to give anyone with a pan car the opportunity to race on a full sized carpet track during the summer months. The event is run and tailored to provide a fun and stress free day with as much racing as time allows. A superb opportunity for anyone of any standard to come along and enjoy a great days racing and to gain experience from some seasoned racers. With the club also holding a club meeting on the Saturday night starting at 630pm a few people even made the trip up and stayed over night to get even more racing during the weekend.

Round one of the season was very well attended with a mixture of world GT, GT12 and 1/12 racers. Great to see some new faces to the hobby travelling quite a distance and some old faces enjoying a well prepared race track and friendly atmosphere. A laid back racing format with some open practice in the morning followed by five rounds of qualifying and one final for everyone was nearly an RC overdose for many of us.

In qualification James Carvell ruled the top spot of the GT12 class securing a comfortable TQ spot and the well deserved box of chocolates for winning the A final. Vince Formosa handled the pressure very well to hold on to second with a welcomed return to Caz James in third after fighting through some niggling set-up issues from her mechanic during qualification.

The hotly contested World GT class saw a very tight bunch of drivers competing for the overall TQ and win. Less than 9seconds separated the majority of the field in the main final making for a thrilling race. Mark Simpson came out as king of the World securing TQ and the win but a special note must go to Tyrone Birch who only just made the final but then drove an excellent final to finish second.

Three classes were running for the 1/12 category, 10.5 Blinky, 17.5 Blinky and Open modified,all well supported and some great rivalries and battles are sure to develop over the course of the season. The hotly contested blinky classes produced some very close racing with the Mr 1/12 BRCA chairman taking the 21.5 win, Matt Dunning converted his second place qualification position into a dominant win in the 10.5 class and David Spashett soaked up the challenges from Chris Kerswell and Luke Burley to hold on to win the open class. Overall some very good clean hard racing in all classes, with boxes of Chocolates for the winners it rounded off a superb event.

The next round of the championship is on Sunday the 5th of August so if you have ever considered entering a slightly larger club event then look no further. Friendly atmosphere with great help and advice supported by an incredibly well stocked model shop Action Model Centre. More information and booking in can be found on the CARS website

Chesterfield Auto Racing Society - www.carsrcracing.co.uk

See you all in a few weeks

Thanks to David for the report.

Woody Wins 2WD NW Regional Series

Sunday 22/7/12 was the last round of the North West BRCA 1/10th Off Road Championship at Barrow-in-furness.

The day was warm and dry and the track was a flat grass track with a few kicker jumps and fingers on corners.
It was a big track with some hard corners to see as some had adverse camber and some very far away.

Stu Wood started off very strong and TQ'd every round with Chris Everson in 2nd(both TLR driver's).
Stu went on to win this round convincingly with then putting him the winner of the Championship.

Chris finishes 2nd over all and John Kirkman(also a TLR 22) coming in 3rd.

I thank Horizon for all there support over the last few weeks and I hope we have turned a corner for the future.

For more images click here.

Thanks to Stu for the report and Congratulations on his victory.