Notts & Derby Warm Up

As with all things British, the week prior to the race saw dry and fine weather. This allowed some of the drivers to spend their time mid-week perfecting setups and finding a quick route around the astro track.  Friday and Saturday brought rain for the Eastwood area.

With trepidation, curtains were drawn back in the early hours of Sunday morning to find a cloudy sky but no rain. Race day was on.

On arrival to the track Team CML/Associated gathered together to collect their much needed Race Beanies and CML mugs.

1st round the track was still wet so a full spike tyre was used, With both classes of Buggy and Truggy represented, the day was going to be busy.

Round 1 Buggy finished with Graham Alsop topping the listing, followed by ex-European champ Darren Bloomfield, followed by CML Rex powered Associated driver of the round Dave Bailey. Young guns Robson White and Jamie Clancy finished in 8th and 11th.

In the first round of Truggy Jon Howells, Lloyd Pitt and Mr Muscles Darren Haden-Hall would pilot their Rex powered, Associated RC8T3's into 1st, 3rd and 4th.

Round 2 saw the track drying fast due to strong winds. As the latter heats approached, the decision was made by the team to run a pin style tyre. This was the correct choice and gave Dave 4th place, Robson 5th, and Jamie, who was now getting use to carpet instead of dirt, rounding out 3 cars in the top 10.

Truggy went the same way as Round 1 with Jon securing overall TQ with a round to spare.

Round 3 Brought some close racing which would mean Graham Alsop would TQ, followed by Darren Bloomfield, Jonny Skidmore, Dave 4th, Robson 7th and Jamie straight in the main in 10th.

With Overall TQ secured by Jon Howells in the previous round in Truggy, it was Dan Austin who would line up 2nd, Darren Hayden-Ball 3rd and Lloyd Pitt in 4th.

Finals

Truggy

Jon set off from Pole closely followed by Dan. Over the next few minutes of the 20 minute final the race spilt into two mini races; Jon vs Dan and Lloyd vs Darren. Jon seemed to get into the zone towards the end and managed to create a gap and bring it home for the win. The battle for 3rd and 4th would go the way of Lloyd on this occasion (Brave man, have you seen the size of Darren).

Buggy

As the Buggy main approached it was a race against the setting sun to complete the final before visibility was lost.

From the drop of the flag, and with the diminishing light, the cars looked faster than ever. Darren navigated his way around Graham on Lap 4 with Graham posting a 44 second lap compared to Darren’s 38.95s. The next three places saw an epic battle between Dave Bailey, Lewis Jones and Milan Dragojlovic. This would continue all through the race with mistakes by all three meaning the order would swap nearly every lap. After the first round of pit stops it became clear that Dave‘s Rex 7-port powered RC8B3 was running a 10min strategy along with Milan but young Lewis had opted for a 2 stop strategy.

After the 10 min mark the order was Darren, Graham, Lewis, Dave and Milan. As the race came to a conclusion a set of 4 bad laps by Dave allowed Milan to pass for 3rd.

Congratulations to Darren, Graham and Lewis for the top 3 podium spots.

A strong showing byTeam CML/Associated with 3 cars in the top 10 for both classes. A special mention goes to Robson White who seems to have really settled with his new car and to Jamie Clancy who never really felt comfortable on astro following a winter racing on dirt, but at times showed his talent and raw speed was a match for the front runners.

Well a weekend off for me (need to earn my next pass out ) Round 1 of the British Championship on the 1st and 2nd of April. Bring it on.