Graham Alsop takes the 2008 Apex GP with a fantastic win after some awesome racing. Those racers lucky enough to attend the GP were presented with a perfectly groomed race track, and one of the best race meetings of 2008 in the UK.

Graham Alsop Gets Soaked

Karl Jackson about to get Soaked

Day 1

Click Track Picture for a Larger Version

Day one got off to a rather wet start, with rain overnight, and still falling rather nicely to kick the day off. A true credit to the people behind preparing the track and dedicating there time to put on a truly awesome event. The race meeting ran like clockwork from race control, a thankless task but done to an extremely high standard. Round one of timed practice got off to rather a muddy start with the cars all changing colour to a lovely shade of brown. Moving onto round one, qualifying in the wet was very entertaining as the rain was still showing no signs of letting up. But with over 140 drivers attending the 2008 Apex GP, the rain was not going to put any driver off as we were all here to race and race we did. Round 2 saw the rain starting to cease and the track slowly began to display the signs of drying. round 3 well the track started to come alive as the rain had now left us and the surface was starting to blue groove all over. Times being recorded by drivers were starting to show the potential pace of the track, with lap times tumbling through the heats. Chatting to various drivers during the day, every one was commenting on how much they were enjoying the event and the track.

Round 1 was taken by

Rallycross
Graham Alsop
Simon Willetts
Kevin Brunsden

Truggy
Karl Jackson
Simon Turner
Julio Pittelli

Round 2

Rallycross
Elliot Boots
Graham Alsop
Tommy Chung

Truggy
Simon Turner
Karl Jackson
Simon Freeman

Round 3

Rallycross
Graham Alsop
Elliot Boots
Kevin Brunsden

Truggy
Simon Turner
Karl Jackson
Julio Pittelli

Round 4

Rallycross
John Hazelwood
Graham Alsop
Kevin Brunsden

Truggy
Simon Turner
Julio Pittelli
Simon Freeman

Overall Positions

TQ for the day would be directly promoted into the A-main in both classes.

Graham Alsop took TQ for the Rallycross with his RB powered Hobao 8.5 and by doing so put himself directly into the A-main a just reward for some fantastic driving. The rest of the racers would have to do battle in the 2 semi final's to gain there places in the main.

Simon Turner took TQ in the Truggy with his Sirio powered Kyosho STRR truggy with showing great pace and as reward also moved direct into pole position for the A-main.

The rest of the racers would have to do battle in the 2 semi final's to gain there places in the main.

Day 2 / Finals

Finals day and things got off as scheduled with the lower finals hitting the track to kick things off with the guys driving very hard to catch the bump up positions in order to progress to the higher finals

Truggy A-main

The grid lined up for the A-main, with Simon Turner on pole position after taking TQ followed by Karl Jackson in 2nd Julio Pittelli in 3rd place and Simon Freeman in 4th place. Whow was to know that the race would be commanded by Karl from the start he moved out into 1st place followed by Simon Turner in 2nd and then Simon Freeman in 3rd place this running order was to be unchalleneged for the whole 30 minute A main and with that the final placings for the 2008 Apex GP were as follows:

The display of talent in the semi finals of the Rallycross was superb. These boys certainly know how to put on a show. And its also a total pleasure to watch as even the pro's make mistakes but they are so far and few between its not funny.

The A Rallycross finals got underway with a typical USA style driver presentation of the drivers then is was onto the seriouse stuff whith spectators gathering along the fence to watch the top boys battle it out for the 2008 Apex GP crown

With Graham Alsop taking TQ he was on pole for the start of the 30 min A-main leading the field for the first lap. Lap 2 saw Jon Hazelwood move into 1st place followed by Graham and David Crompton. Lap 3 saw the lead change again with the blistering pace being set by these guys a small mistake would cost valuble places. Jon rolled and required marshalling allowing Graham to pass into 1st place, David Crompton moving into 2nd followed by Simon Willetts into 3rd place.

Jon's roll cost him valuable places and dropped him down to 6th place coming over the line for lap 3. John was having none of that and was pushing very hard and moving back up the placings, which saw him move back into 3rd place coming over the line for the completion of lap 4 with Graham Alsop out in front followed by David Crompton. Graham was really laying down some very consistent laps and was out in front leading from a position he would not give up right through to the end of the race to take the win.

David Crompton was sitting in 2nd place while a real position battled out between John Hazelwood, Tommy Chung and Craig Drescher. On lap 17 Jon managed to pass David to move into 2nd place behind the race leader, Graham Alsop, and the running top 3 remained the same for the next 7 laps when David managed to take 2nd place from Jon pushing him down to 3rd place bar a 2 lap position swap on laps 34 and 35 between Jon and David the order remained the same to the finsish with Graham Alsop taking a fantastic victory, followed home by David Crompton in 2nd place and Jon hazelwood in 3rd.

Final Thoughts

A great venue lovely facilities and a faultless track what more could you want? Well perhaps 2 full days of sunshine and no rain! Hey this is the UK and rain is all par for the course!! at our race meetings unfortunately we can't control the weather! This is one race event you should book on your 2009 race calendar now. Once again a Big thank you to Remote World Model Car Club (RWMCC) and Apex Models for putting on one hell of an event.

Have a look at the galleries as i have published some really nice pictures from the event

Day 1 Photographs : LINK

Day 2 Photographs : LINK

Event full Results