Round 1 of the World Famous UKTruggyPro 2010 Championship kicked off at the fantastic facility of Herts Nitro Model Club. With an outstanding effort from the HNMC Club Members in putting together a fantastic challenge for UKTruggyPro Challengers a splendid weekend of racing was in order. Sadly the weather made it possible only to run on Day 2 as a heavy deluge of rain fell on Saturday night. Again with some fantastic effort from both HNMC members and UKTruggyPro Challengers the track was looking great for racing towards the end of the first day. A decision was made by UKTruggyPro to run an extended single day race format.
Racing kicked off early with some drizzle and despite a damp track the lap times were impressive, some sections of the track still had some dampness but with some further track work by the third heat the track was really starting to grip in. Tight pin tyres such as AKA City Blocks and LRP Kamakazi's where the order of choice for alot of the runners. Clubman Challengers, Geaves, Hayden-Ball and Jim Thompson got the first batch of 7 lap runs, but Sam Taylor came close to an eight lap run but missed out by a couple of seconds. The second round of qualifying was very similiar and again a fantastic effort by Sam Taylor had him take Provisional TQ in the first two rounds of qualifying. By the third round of qualifying the track had really started to dry out, racers changed tyres with wider patterns as to avoid grip roll, AKA I-Beam and Grid Irons and LRP Harikiri along side Proline Crimefighters and Bowties. TQ was to be a battle between Stewart Wilcox, Sam Taylor, SMD's Joe Joyce and Bruce Thompson with Sam Taylor setting the best time in all 4 qualifying sessions. Kyosho's Matt Lewis was also close in this battle but technical problems prevented him setting a second good time. This placed Matt into the D final which he confortable won by 2 laps. Matt then bumped all the way to the UKTruggyPro Round 1 Grand Final winning the C and B finals with Hayden-Ball, Stephen Baker and Sean Gibson claiming the last three promotion spots.
Wilcox
Joyce
With a slightly bumpy start the A final got underway. Sam Taylor and Stewart Wilcox both running Mugen fought for the lead for the opening laps but a technical issue prevented Stewart from continuing the battle. Second place was taken by Matt Lewis who drove from 11th on the grid. Third place was taken by Bruce Thompson with the HotBodies D8T who chased Matt throughout the race. In the meantime Sam Taylor had given himself a clear gap between the the rest of the field. Clayton Collins and Joe Joyce also figured in the top 5 during the start of the race but both suffered a combination of techical issues and mistakes to let the leaders run clear.
Grand Final Rostrum
Matt (2), Sam (Winner) & Bruce (3)
Sam's Winning Mugen
Matt Lewis - Second Place Kyosho
Bruce's HB D8T
Clubman Jim Thompson had a shakey start but with some consistent driving took fourth place in the race snatching the fourth from Pete Stevens in the last lap! Jim thus took first place in the Models in Motion Clubman Challenge with Darren Hayden-Ball (withi his Losi 8T) taking second place and John Geaves with his Mugen MBX6T taking Third.
Darren (2), Jim (Winner), John (3)
Jim's clubman winning Losi
Geaves third place Mugen.
A fantastic atmosphere of racing and comradeship was evident throughout the race weekend with drivers helping each other with tyre choices and setups.
Full race day results are available from
http://results.uktruggypro.com/UKTruggyPro would like to thank HNMC for putting on such a fantastic event in very difficult circumstances notably:
Jim Thompson
John Geaves
Gary Clancy
Stephen Johnson
Chris Hampson
Mark Gregory
amongst others did a fantastic job throughout the weekend making UKTruggyPro feel very welcome - and we are pleased to announce that Round 1 of UKTruggyPro 2011 will be held at HNMC during the May Day Bank Holiday weekend next year.
Round 2 of UKTruggyPro will take place at the UK's best AstroTurf track Deerdale on the 6th of June . For information please visit
www.uktruggypro.comUKTruggyPro - Demand the Best.
