Jon Howells Does It Again at Round 4 of the NirtoXcross Winter Series

After finishing off December 2015 at Swindon with a TQ and Win we would be starting off January 2016 at Shrewsbury's big grass track. With the recent weather not being the best some racers would choose to stay at home but team CML/AE took a gamble and made their way to the track hoping that they would be running.

On arrival we were greeted with a couple of options for parking due to the run of recent bad weather we have had, we could park on hard standing farm paddock or attempt to get track side across 50m of mud.  First challenge accepted - getting the van across the mud and with team mate Lloyd Pitt getting his 4x4 stuck already it was not going to be quite as easy as we thought, but we got there and it was onto the more serious challenge that was getting the pit area setup and some racing.

The track looked amazing; it was pretty dry and had no water standing on it at all so we set up the team Proline gazebo on some fresh grass and got to work checking the setup of the Team Associated RC8B3’s, Jon would choose Hobao Angles and would take the ride height up 1mm to 27mm front and 28mm on the rear.

With the drivers briefing done round one would get underway. The car was performing great and had a lovely balance so it looked like we would be off to a good start. Just one silly mistake on a pipe would cost Jon TQ in round one and put him in second just two seconds off the TQ spot.

Round two was underway and the track was starting to cut up so Jon raised his car up again by 1mm all round to cope with the extra weight, again the car was great and Jon would go on to take TQ in round two with team mates Lloyd Pitt and Mark Westwood talking the second and third spots.

Round three and the track was now starting to look like a full dirt track and the team were having to decide on Proline dirt tyres or stick with the Hobao Angles. The team decided to stick on Hobao Angles and they were great, giving good drive. This would turn out to be a close round with Milan just taking pipping Jon to take TQ of round three.

After cleaning the cars down again Jon decided to make a ride height change ready for the start of Round four and settled on 30mm rear and 28mm front as a test for the final as with a long run time the car was going to come off heavy. Round four would again be a close battle between Jon and Milan, with Milan taking the round TQ by just 1.8 seconds and securing the overall TQ spot. On a positive note Jon said his car felt as good at the start of the heat and set for the longer final.

It was decided that the Main would be reduced to fifteen minutes due to track conditions. The buzzer sounded and everyone got away, Jon and Milan started pulling clear of the chasing field straight away and after the first fuel stop at seven and a half minuets there was less than a second between them. This battle would continue all the way to the end of the race and pushing hard they lapped all of field up to third place, with just four corners to go Milan left just enough room for Jon to squeeze the past, this was all that was needed and Jon’s Byron powered Team Associated RC8B3 blasted past taking the win by just under two seconds.

Jon’s CML/AE team mates Lloyd Pitt and Mark Westwood also pushed hard in the main with Lloyd going on to take a very well deserved third place and Mark battled hard to finish in sixth place.

Another great result for team CML/AE and the Team Associated RC8B3’s