It has been quite a long time since Eastbourne Electric Car Club have held a large event and with the completion of their asphalt TC track the perfect opportunity presented itself. The Eastbourne club has been growing in numbers over the past few years and the increased numbers have come from TC on-road racers which in turn has lead to the construction of the permanent asphalt track.

The Eastbourne membership can be incredibly happy with the end result, a perfectly smooth track with good traction and a layout which is both technical and fast. The open meeting was not actually the first race meeting the club has held this year, previous STCC have taken place with great success and full of praise from the racing community. The open meeting was run for the local members and as an open invite to all TC racers and the club were not disappointed with the strength of the field.


On the Saturday the club held a late evening race for everyone to have some fun and get to race under the flood lights. 35 people stayed on after practicing for the event and as always when the light started to leave us the cars looked faster and faster. In the 19T class Chris Kerswell running the RDX Phi powered by Peak and LRP tq'ed and won the meeting but was chased down hard by the local driver Terry Edleston who took him all the way to the wire for the win. In the Modified class Chris Grainger took the first two rounds of qualification easily and then decided it was time to go back to the hotel to help John Pape reprogram his forward and reverse brushless speed controller! In Rd three the traction was still getting better and better and this then allowed David Spashett out of retirement to support his home town club taking TQ and the overall night win with his LRP Peak Powered JRX-R.

  
 


On main race day there were 75 drivers in total and the competition in all of the classes was sure to be quite tough. In the 27T class Jay Westwood had it all his own way and set TQ with what looked like relative ease but during the second final he couldn't convert this pole position into the overall win. Dan Ghilbaldan Held his nerve in the first final to finish second some five seconds back from Jay but also drove steady and consistent to take the win in the second final and the overall win for the weekend.

In the 19t class the speed of the cars was very impressive and with the traction level just about right the lap times were very quick. With the Track record falling every round the competition for TQ was very close and great to watch. The Horizon UK team secured four places in the Final and also claiming Tq with Chris Kerswell closely followed by Chris Delves. Both Steve Lissamore and Richard Thorpe drove great with no practice on Saturday to make the final, other noticeable results were from Terry Edlestone, Stuart Colby and Timmay langdel all local drivers beating some of the national drivers !

The finals were a two tear race, the two Chris's setting the pace at the front with the larger fight for third place. Chris D made a sweet pass around the outside of Mr K in the first final to take the win but in the second Mr K kept it nice neat and tidy to take the flag to flag victory. Terry Edleston once again drove very well in the finals hanging on to car which didn't always look the best to secure 3rd place.

In the Modified event the qualifying form pretty much outlined the final result. Olly J won the first two rounds of qualification and set a TQ time neither Chris Grainger or David S could beat, but with only four seconds between these three the final was going to be a close run thing. Close yes, exciting not really. Olly j and Chris G pulled out a gap from David but there was never an opportunity for anyone to make a pass so the qualification order set the final placings for the top three. Mark wallace was consistent in both finals to take fourth with Luke burley and Darren Simpson rounding out the top six.

The whole weekend was nothing but fun and was run with no problems at all. The Eastbourne BBQ Babes kept every one well feed and watered all weekend and they had perfect weather all weekend.

A national venue for next year ???