Decal Designs

Sunday morning we were up bright and early with a light drizzle falling the conditions for today's racing would be a challenge to all the drivers.

Simon Tooly put his plane in the air and managed to capture a nice overhead picture of the track.

Schedule for today's racing

After 1 final round of qualification it was time to get the finals underway up first was the 30 min A final Truggies. With some light rain falling it was going to be very interesting to get the right amount of traction on the slick astroturf surface. Simon Willetts set the early lead for the first 3 laps followed by Sam Taylor in hot pursuit. Lap 4 saw Simon and sam swapping position for the next 3 laps and then they swapped back again. Lee Bunker has settled into a solid 3rd place the leaders were setting some good pace and held onto there positions all the way through to lap 27 when unfortunately Sam experiencing some technical issues was forced to withdraw which allowed Lee to move into second place. Mean while after 13 laps of changing positions I managed to move into 4th position and held onto it until lap 27 with sam now retired moved into 3rd place. After some very sound instructions from the pit lane "keep it on its wheels" managed to hold onto 3rd place to the end. I think I still have a smile on my face a fantastic end to a great race event.

Truggy A final

1st Place Truggies Simon Willetts

A final Rallycross Report To follow

Weekend Report

From arriving on Saturday morning it was clear that this was going to be a well run event with all the hard work the team behind the scenes had done in preparation for the event. Having never visited Frankleymcc before the round of practice was to throw my mind into an array of thoughts do i like the track or not. I found that the smaller jumps were very deceptive and would cause me more headaches than the bigger jumps as they totally threw the car off balance.

Having completed the round of timed practice i popped into race control where Glyn asked my opinion of the track and if my memory serves me correctly i said " I'm not sure if I like it " Glyn replied you should be using the practice round to get used to the track. This train of though was to be short lived as once racing got underway, I found a nice rhythm of where to respect the track and where i could drive my normal style.

One thing that stood out as being a very nice additional feature was the Radio System and the WIFI full commentary was broadcast for the duration of the event and all the race information was available via wifi. This is a fantastic additional feature to any race meeting and was possible thanks to the dedication and efforts of Andy Taylor who put many hours into getting it setup.

I was also running the new GRP .28 engine and pipe in my Xray XT8 Truggy which was proving to be one of the nicest engines I have ever run so smooth through the power and some awesome top end speed. This will be a good choice for any club racer as it proved reliable the entire weekend. In addition the Xray XT8 truggy seems to impress me every time I drive it with it being solid and reliable as ever and with only a small change to its setup namely the shocks changing from the 1.4 x 4 hole pistons and 65wt oil in the front and 1.5 x 4 hole pistons and 75wt oil in the rear to all round 1.6 pistons and 60wt oil it was perfect. I owe a big "Thank You" to Brennan Ralls for his assistance in getting the car setup and being a fantastic pit man for the duration of the event

The heats seemed to flow one after another without any issues at all although this is not entirely true as behind the scenes there were little gremlins hard at work. No race event will ever be 100% perfect and its the challenge of the Team running such events to make these little gremlins go away without causing any issues to the running of the event and most importantly I don't believe a single racer noticed anything but a smooth flowing meeting. The elements played games the whole weekend but that didn't stop any of the racing action from steaming ahead. It made for even more exciting racing especially in the rallycross class as this was a control tyre event and everyone was level pegged for traction. The early qualifying rounds enjoyed a nice dry track and then in the later qualifying rounds on day one it was very interesting as the rain started to fall and the surface was immediately transformed into a traction less surface where it was more about keeping your car on the track and trying to get around with out sliding off into the piping or even worse the fence.

Day one drew to a close and it was off for some much needed rest from a extremely eventfully enjoyable 1st day. We headed off in many different directions for the evening to our respective accommodation. After we checked in had a short chill out and and a bit of a wind down we were ready to go again it was time to find dinner and few beverages we found a curry house and invaded for a lovely meal and several ice cold beers.

Sunday morning dawned and it was another early start in order to complete a final round of qualifying before moving into the finals. The day was to bring more rain first thing and the already wet surface from the previous days rain was to keep every driver on there toes from the off set. With sprits running high through out the pit area and chatting to quite a few people at the event everyone seemed to be having a great time.

It was finals time and this is where every driver lifted there game and put on a fantastic display of racing with every driver pushing the boundaries of there driving skill in the very challenging conditions. A few minor issues crept up but with the team running the event these were dealt with very efficiently and no one even noticed. The whole day seemed to step up into top gear and as the finals flew past it was onto the A Rallycross Finals.

Taking overall TQ

Darren Bloomfield.

Lets Meet The A finalists for the Panther Cup 2008 Driver.

Driver	Car	Engine	Photo
1. Darren Bloomfield	Losi 8ight	Novarossi
2. Graham Alsop	Hobao Hyper 8.5	RB
3. Simon Willetts	Losi 8ight	Sirio
4. David Crompton	Crono RS7GR	RB
5. David Spashett	Losi 8ight	Novarossi	David withdrew from the final to pit for Darren Bloomfield
6. Elliot Boots	Associated RC8	RB
7. Jon Howells	Hobao Hyper 8.5	Picco
8. Sam Taylor	Mugen MBX5R	Novarossi
9. Bruce Thompson	Losi 8ight	Novarossi
10. Karl Jackson	Kyosho 777	Sirio
11. Richard Barton	Associated RC8	RB
12. John Holmes	Hobao Hyper 8	RB
13. Brennan Ralls	Xray 808	OS
14. Antony Flynn	Losi 8ight	-

The A Main was solid skilled racing from the word go with Darren Bloomfield setting the early pace followed very closely by David Crompton when a slight error by darren allowed David past on lap 6 but Darren wasn't holding back and after sitting in second place for a mere 3 laps he once again took the lead. The battle for 3rd place which Jon Howells had maintained until lap 5 started to hot up with position changing rather rapidly between Simon Willetts and Graham Alsop. The battle for the lead was being strongly contested now and on lap 12 Darren Bloomfield regained the lead with Graham Alsop moving into second spot followed closely by the chasing pack.

I must mention that the first 10 minutes was totally awesome with a mere 13 seconds separating 1st place and last place and the sheer pace these drivers were laying down was a true credit to them all.

Darren held onto the lead through to lap 20 while David Crompton and Graham Alsop were battling it out for 2nd place. swapping position every 4 or 5 laps. A mistake from Darren on lap 21 allowed Graham through and he held the lead for the next 6 laps followed closely by Simon Willetts with darren dropping down to 3rd place and David Crompton hot on his heels.

From Lap 29 Graham was now in 1st place a position he was to hold all the way to the checkered flag and to claim a fantastic victory and the Panther Cup 2008. Simon settled into second position from lap 31 and this was to see him home in second place followed by Darren Bloomfield in 3rd.

3rd Darren Bloomfield, 1st Graham Alsop, 2nd Simon Willetts,