Round One of the 2009 Winter Cup certainly lived up to its name by producing some of the coldest conditions of the season, of course this would mean lower engine temp's and the ability to lean on motors a little more than usual. The cooler weather kept a few racers away as did the fact that the RC Pro event is almost here with a few drivers taking a chance to refresh themselves.

Racing was underway just after 9am with the Buggy's taking to the track, there was no direct path to the Main Final today for the TQ which would mean everyone would have an even chance of making the Main with anything taking place throughout the afternoon.

The Buggy class was very competitive with several drivers completing 13 lap runs, Andrew Gillott managed to sneek in a 14 lap run that saw him jump straight to the Top of the Buggy competitors with Scott Jones and Joe Porfida taking out the other top spots.

The Truggy class saw several drivers stepping up in pace and consistency to ensure that the Top Truggy guys will be looking over their shoulder as the season draws on. Two more MBX6T's hit the track with both Drivers John Lewis & Michael Campbell (John Lewis Racing) commenting that there was a massive difference between the 5 & 6T.

One of the big impacts on the day however was Mike Clamp in his RC8T, after his first run at an LRRCC club day he has quickly found his way to the Top of the timesheets and holding pace with Top Truggy drivers at the club. The fastest man on the track in qualifying was Chris Lander in his RC8T as he prepares for the RC Pro. Next back was Mike Clamp then Randy Fransz.

Into the final's action for the day Semi B of Truggy was quite open with every driver a chance of making the Main final. Callam Palmer, who had been fast all day in his MBX5T had early problems that saw him fall out of contention. When Randy Fransz had issues it blew this final wide open and saw his son AJ (at his first race meeting) secure a direct path to the final.

Semi A saw T1 have the usual chaos in the Truggy finals with all of the MBX6T's in the field finding themselves at the back of the pack early with Scott Elkins, Robert Flanagan and Mike Clamp making there way to the front. Corey Smith was the first big casualty going out with receiver issues, next down was John Lewis after a few issues saw him storm off the drivers stand.

At the midway point of the race the rain started to fall leaving the rest of the Truggy field to tip toe around the circuit with conditions deteriorating as each second ticked by. All of the drivers slowed the pace to ensure they would be on track until the end of the race. Scott Elkin's (race leader) put on a show of drifting while disaster struck for Mike Clamp's engine mounts coming loose and moving the clutch bell away from his sper gear and out of the running. This saw Rolf Hasse and Michael Campbell secure the automatic bump up's to the Main.

The weather however put an end to racing for the day with enough rain falling to make marshalling very dangerous. With the Buggy's unable to run their Semi Final's the results for Round One were taken from the end of the qualifing rounds with drivers who were not going to contest the final's being moved to the rear of the fields. This saw Andrew Gillott and Mike Clamp (RC8T) take top spot in Buggy and Truggy respectively.

Truggy Semi A Aftermath......

2009 NSW State Titles - Video 1

2009 NSW State Titles - Video 2

2009 NSW State Titles - Review

LRRCC would like to congratulate 2009 NSW State Title Double Champion Wayne Walker on winning both the 1/8 Buggy and 1/8 Truggy classes at the event.

Qualifying

Qualifying for the event was split across 3 days with 4 of the 6 rounds counting towards the final placing's for qualifying and determining the Final's each competitor was placed into. In the Buggy class there was no real surprises with the all of the Top drivers progressing straight to the Semi Final Stage. Wayne Walker was the class of the field taking out the Top Qualifying position with his Mugen Seiki MBX6.

The Truggy class had quite a few competitors securing Top 16 positions in their first major event, Wayne Walker however was debuting the Mugen Seiki MBX6T and dominated the field laying down laps that were quicker than he was making in the Buggy class.

2009 NSW State Titles - Truggy Main Field

Semi Final's - Truggy

The Truggy Semi Finals saw plenty of action at the start of each race with cars from the back of the pack coming through the carnage and taking early advantage. In Semi B Scott Jones had the perfect start in his Losi as Jomari Cura went from 2nd on the grid to 6th and KC Shore from 3rd to 7th. That didn't last long with both drivers storming back through the field, Scott Jones took the win by 8 seconds from Jomari with KC Shore in 3rd. Stephen Snedden and Nicolas Carroll were the drivers confirmed in the Amain with Top 5 finishes, Robert Flanagan and Michael Campbell, 6th and 7th both hoped that drivers in Semi A would be slower to secure a place in the Main.

Semi A for Truggy saw Wayne Walker lead from start to finish with the rest of the Top 5 left to fight it out for the minor placings. Ian Haley looked to have his X-Ray on the pace but suffered a flameout mid race to drop through the field and a chance of missing the Main. Wayne Walker took the win by 2 laps from Chris Lander, Scott Elkins, Ian Haley and Corbin Styles. Next over the line was Dane Tomaszewski and Corey Smith, once the final results were in Robert Flanagan and Dane Tomaszewski were confirmed as the next fastest drivers and were into the Main Final.

Semi Final's - Buggy

Semi B for buggy looked to be going on Qualifing form early with the Top 6 breaking from the pack and the Top 3 of Josh Pain, Ari Bakla and Steven Drygalla only changing positions when pitting. Further down the field Theo Assa dropped from a certain Main birth when his OCM flamed on lap 10. The automatic entrants into the Main were Josh Pain, Ari Bakla, Steven Drygalla, Kyle Mc'Bride and Chris Lander with Dallas Gardiner and Scott Jones crossing their fingers.

Buggy Semi A however was a much hotter pace with the Top 5 (Wayne Walker, Nickolas Drygalla, Michael Zlotkowski, Matt Griffin And Jarred King) completing 26 laps. Unfortunately for the guys in Semi B both 6th and 7th from Semi A (Justin Snape and Jason Platt) were faster and pushed themselves into the Buggy Main.

2009 NSW State Titles - Buggy Main Field

2009 NSW State Titles (Truggy Class)- 1st - Wayne Walker (Mugen Seiki - MBX6T), 2nd - Scott Jones (Losi), 3rd - Ian Haley (X-Ray)

Main Final - Truggy

Shortly after and incident between Scott Elkins and KC Shore saw Scott tumble from 6th to out of the race with a broken Hong Nor Truggy. By this stage Wayne had used the new MBX6T to lap the entire field twice, Scott Jones had secured 2nd with his Losi.

The closest battle on the track was between Jomari Cura and Ian Haley with them swapping back an forth throughout the final stages of the race. At the end of the race Wayne Walker finished the 45 minutes with a dominating performance to take the 2009 NSW State Title for Truggy, Scott Jones bought his Losi home 2nd with Jomari Cura in 3rd and Ian Haley in 4th.

Jomari and Ian's positions were reversed after a protest was submitted and upheld over and incident in the final laps and Ian Haley was elevated to the 3rd position in his X-Ray.

Main Final - Buggy

The Main Buggy Final was choc full of Australia's best racers, early in the race little separated the field but on lap 4 the first casualty was out this Matt Griffin suffering a breakage to the Associated RC8 and out of the race. Wayne Walker, Josh Pain and Ari Bakla were in a tight battle for Top spot with Steven Drygalla not to far back and looking to close the gap. Unfortunately Josh Pain ran into engine problems and dropped through the field. As the race wore on it was clear that it would be either Wayne or Ari taking the win and the 2009 NSW State Title.

From an incident on Lap 25 Ari took the lead as Wayne set about the task of closing in on Ari's 20 second advantage. It took Wayne until lap 52 until he was all over the rear wing of Ari's Losi. The final laps of the race were some of the best seen over the 4 days with the cut and trust taking place lap after lap, in the last handful of laps there was a collision between the 2 cars causing Wayne to spin out but in a great moment of sportsmanship Ari stopped and waited for Wayne to recover before both going at it again.

Wayne Walker took the win with his Mugen by just 4 seconds from Ari Bakla's Losi, Steven Drygalla held onto the last spot on the podium with his Hyper 9 with a fast finishing Michael Zlotkowski unlucky to miss out.

2009 NSW State Titles (Buggy Class)- 1st - Wayne Walker (Mugen Seiki - MBX6), 2nd - Ari Bakla (Losi), 3rd - Steven Drygalla (Hobao - Hyper 9)