2009/10 Summer Cup - Round 2

The day began with the forecast of hot weather which was sure to cause issues with drivers on and off track. The first race of the 2010 Season at LRRCC, and Round 2 of the Summer Cup, turned out to be a big one with the addition of the New Open Class (1/8 or smaller) and the attendance of racers from The Hunter Region and Canberra. It was definately going to be a great day of racing throughout all of the classes during the day.

With three qualifing Rounds to compelete before heading into the A, B, C Final format, there was plenty of time for drivers to put together the one quick round required to get them into the A-Main's. The man to watch in the Truggy class was KC Shore with his recent purchase of the ex-Bakla Losi 2.0T, his first run of the day saw his 14 lap run take out the fastest time of the day. With another bunch of racers in the 13 lap range and chasing hard. Buggy class was very tight with Kevin Lewis, Andrew Gillott, KC Shore and Stephen Sneddon all logging 13 lap efforts Andrew however was fastest and the A Buggy Final looked like being a cracker.

The Open Class began the day with 6 entries but the field quickly deminished as problems plaged a few of the cars. Dallas Gardner and KC Shore battled throughout the day to see who could come out on top with KC taking the honour of first Open Class win at LRRCC.

Onto the Truggy A Final with the usual damage at the start of the race, a hookup at the start with Michael Campbell and Phil Eliopoulos proved costly for both drivers as the field got away and Phil went a lap down early. As Scott Elkins, KC and Mike Clamp headed into the distance early exits for Matthew Krahe, Peter Black, Denis Leung and Michael Campbell opened up plenty of space for the leaders. Dave Watts and Matthew Tuckwell also experienced early issues but returned to the track to move up the order. Disaster struck the leaders between the 14-17 minute mark with KC and Scott retiring from the race. This push Paul Peterson to the top of the pack with Mike Clamp and a fast finishing Phil 2 laps back. Time ran out for Phil with Paul taking the win and Mike Clamp bringing home a RC8T 1-2 finish, Phil had to settle for 3rd in his MBX6T but a good example that anything can happen in Nitro racing with his effort from last to 3rd he was the big mover of the final.

The Buggy A Final got underway with a disasterous start for KC dropping from 3rd on the grid to last and out of the race 2 laps later. This saw Andrew Gillot and Kevin Lewis jump out to a lead early and slowly but surely pull away from the field. With the track condition falling as the race went on any lead was definately and advantage with drivers need to be adventurous with their lines to make up time. Scott Jones looked to be the man most capable in the conditions to chase the leaders but just as he appeared in the Top 2 a flameout saw him drop towards the rear of the field. With the race moving into the final stages Andrew was maintaining a gap to Kevin but the battle for 3rd was certainly on with Nique Morris and Carl Dawson dicing for the final 5 minutes of the race. With Andrew taking his Losi 2.0 home for the win, with Kevin Lewis 2nd in his MBX6 Carl managed to win the battle and secure a 3rd place finish.

2009 Christmas Cup

The final race meeting for 2009 has been run and won at LRRCC, there were plenty of smiling faces throughout the event and was a great celebration of Nitro RC Racing. Plenty of old faces re-imerged at the track to run and the trip down by Ian Haley was welcomed by everyone in attendance

For the First time in a few months Buggy entries were back to the majority and the action at the Top was tight with Wayne Walker, Ari Barkla Chris Lander, KC Shore, Ian Haley, Kevin Lewis and Justin Snape all pushing each other hard through the qualifing stages. Wayne's MBX6 emerged at the Top of the pack to head into the Semi-Final stages as TQ.

The Truggy class was also a tight tustle through qualifing with Craig McGowan, Corbin Styles, Scott Elkins, Robert Flanagan & Dave Watts heading the timesheets. Craig dominated the class with his solid qualifing rounds with minimal mistakes and consistant laptimes.

Santa and his helper!

1st - Kevin Lewis (MBX6), 2nd - Justin Snape (Losi 2.0), 3rd - KC Shore (Hyper9)

The Semi Final stages in Buggy almost threw up the ultimate upset with Wayne Walker JUST qualifing for the final in 12th position. In Truggy Dave Watts and Mike Clamp both missed the final with Michael Campbell storming into the final to take the 4th position after only running the Sunday rounds and Craig McGowan made the final in 12th after servo issues struck before the start of the race.

The Truggy Final hit the track after the usual action off the line the big winner was Craig McGowan who jumped to 3rd by the end of the first lap and the biggest casuality Michael Campbell who dropped to 9th. Scott Elkins was the first Truggy out of the race while leading the final after 5 laps. This handed the lead to Corbin Styles with Craig McGowan chasing hard with Robert Flanagan and Mathew Krahe now fighting it out for the final podium position as the other potential contenders for the podium falling victim to Flameouts or fuel issues. From the mid race point McGowan took the lead from Styles and went on to take the win, with Corbin home 2nd and Robert Flanagan bring his MBX5T home 3rd.

The Buggy Final began with a shocker from Justin Snape as he started well behind the pack with alot of ground to make up. KC Shore shot to the lead with Chris Lander, Kevin Lewis and Wayne Walker right on KC's tale in what looked set to be an epic battle to the flag. Unfortunately defending Champion Chris Lander was out of the race after 10 laps, on the same lap disaster struck Wayne Walker as a flameout saw him tumble down the order to 8th. This left what looked like a 2 car battle for the win with KC and Kevin dicing for the lead. This however was short lived with KC also having a flameout issue and being manually returned to the pit area.

The race was not set to be a walk in the park for Kevin though with Wayne Walker fighting back to 2nd and closing fast and just behind him a recovering Justin Snape was also chasing hard. Just as the 2 Mugen drivers were about to go head to head Walkers MBX6 flamed again and after restarting was stortly retiring from the race. Kevin pushed on and took the win from Justin Snape and KC Shore who recovered well for 3rd.

1st - Craig McGowan (MBX6T), 2nd - Corbin Styles (HB D8T), 3rd - Robert Flanagan (MBX5T)

2009/10 Summer Cup

After returning to a fortnightly race meeting there were a few extra drivers on had to contest the first round of the 2009/10 Summer Cup. Once again the Truggies dominated the field and it could have been worse with a few drivers that have been running Truggy returning to the Buggy class.

The Buggy qualifing was looking like a battle between Stephen Snedden and Theo Assa with Kevin Lewis having issues each time the Mugen MBX6 hit the track. He managed to pull it together in the final round to produce the only 11 lap run of the day in either class.

The Truggy class was wide open with 8 of the 14 car field on 10 lap pace. Dave Watts return to the LRRCC is gaining momentum with him topping the timesheets with a 10 lap 8:00:558, half a second from an 11 lap run!!!

With a small number of Buggies on hand it was always going to be difficult to fuel cars and marshall so a novel plan was put into place. There would be 1 man in the pit area that would lift a car onto the railing when it came into the pit, it was then upto the driver to come off the stand and fuel there own car before returning to the action. With the Truggy field first it was a scramble to get the numbers to start the cars on the grid. It did happen as Michael Campbell's MBX6T was thrown onto the track as the buzzer sounded from the start of the race. It was a frantic first lap with Paul Peterson snatching the lead and Michael Campbell coming from 12th on the grid to 5th at the end of the first lap.

The first man out of the race was Robert Flanagan in his MBX5T with what looked like a motor issue when he closing in on the lead of the race. Next to drop was Corey Smith with a flameout but he did return to the track losing a lap in the process, Michael Campbell faired worse a few laps later with 2 laps dropped with his flameout but he also returned to the track. The battle for the win was tight at the top with Dave Watts, Paul Peterson and Phil Eliopoulos all on the same lap and battling it out. Phil flamed out with 2 laps to run and handed Peter Black (Losi) a 3rd place finish, Dave Watts to the win in his MBX6T with Paul Peterson bring home his RC8T 2nd.

The Buggy Final began with Kevin Lewis getting the holeshot, Theo Assa quickly into 2nd and Stephen Snedden into 3rd place. As the race went on Kevin developed a 1 lap lead over Theo with a further lap back to Stephen. The closest battle on the track was between Colin Nicholls and Terry McGowan as they battled it out for 4th and 5th. It seemed that Kevin would cruise to victory but on what would have been his final lap he ran out of fuel with less than half the track to complete. He refueled and headed back onto the circuit but held on for the win due to his 1 lap lead. So Kevin Lewis grabbed the win in his MBX6 with Theo Assa 2nd (OCM) and Stephen Sneddon 3rd (Kyosho).

2009 RC Pit Hobbies Cup

LRRCC hosted the first ever RC Pit Hobbies Cup with Buggy, Truggy and SC10's scheduled to race the event. Timing system issues meant that the run time for the qualifing rounds were reduced to 8 minutes but this format seemed to be taken well by the drivers in attendance. While the turnout was a little smaller than hoped it was a FUNTASTIC atmosphere at the track.

Once again the dominate class at this event was the 1/8 Truggy class which seems to be quickly becoming the Premier Class at LRRCC!! The Truggy field was jam packed with class but once again Jomari Cura dominated the Truggy field in his Mugen Seiki MBX6T as the field had no answer for his pace and consistancy. It was a disappointing weekend for Anthony Dipizio in what was to be his final event as he takes a break from the sport.

1/8 Truggy - 1st Jomari Cura (Mugen MBX6T), 2nd Stephen Snedden (Mugen MBX6T), 3rd Scott Elkins (Hong Nor)

1/8 Buggy - 1st KC Shore (Hyper 9), 2nd Justin Snape (Losi 2.0), Dennis Holland (Losi 2.0)

The Buggy Class was also a one man show at the lead with KC Shore (Hyper9) showing why ProLine, Novarossi and Nitro-X Fuels have recently added him to their driver line ups. The biggest improver within the Buggy ranks would have to have been Dennis Holland who since upgrading to a LOSI 2.0 has found himself rocketing up the Buggy field

Possibly the most entertaining class of the weekend had to be the 1/10th Scale Short Course Electric guys with plenty of wheel to wheel action with bashing and barging part of the way to drive. Ruben Vezeo, Scott Elkins and David Ryan were at the head of the pack all weekend. Some great driving from John Lewis saw him up with the leaders for much of the event in his RTR SC10. We hope to see this class back at LRRCC soon!!

1/10 Short Course - 1st Ruben Vezeo, 2nd Scott Elkins (Associated SC10), 3rd David Ryan

2009 Darren Lewis Memorial Enduro

The Annual Darren Lewis Memorial Enduro took place at LRRCC this weekend. The race is held by the Lewis Family in memory of Darren Lewis who tragically passed away at 22 from Sleep Apnia, he simply went to sleep one night and never woke up.

The day was overcast and with showers predicted for the event it would be an even greater test of the teams and mean an ever changing track and more of a challenge for drivers. Throughout the Warm-up period several of the teams had issues with Blown Engines and malfunctioning carbies among the issues teams had to repair before a wheel was turned in anger.

The start was delayed until after 10am, the field got underway (after a false start) with the only Buggy Team Nismo Racing in the pits repairing the car early putting them behind the eight ball and plaguing them for the remainder of the event. This saw the four Truggy Teams with the advantage. Team Mugenrossi quickly took the lead with the Three Amigos, Team Harden and Darren Lewis Racing (DLR) taking a cautious approach.

Team Nismo Racing - Buggy Class

Team Harden - Last Place overall but hung in all day

As Dave Watts in the Mugenrossi Truggy looked to establish a lead Robert Flanagan began to do what he is known for, consistency, he quickly found himself in 2nd position closing quickly on the lead. Team Harden began to have Radio/Battery issues that would follow them through the 4 hours. Approximately 20 minutes in DLR were into the lead and putting a nice gap on Mugenrossi, a quick conference between Jomari Cura and Craig McGowan saw Mugenrossi opt for a driver change once Flanagan had put them 1 lap down and McGowan looking to close the gap.

At the 1 hour mark DLR made their first driver change with Robert Flanagan coming in with a lap lead and John Lewis jumping onto the track looking to hold station for DLR. Suddenly the Mugenrossi car was in the pits with a clutch issue with DLR the only team so far to not have an issue on track. That was until the 1 and a half hour mark when a clutch bell blew on the track as clutch bearings were being replaced on the 2nd car the team were using.

This saw DLR have a dramatic fall down the leader board, turning a race winning lead into a massive hole with not much chance of digging themselves out. As the rain fell and with Kevin Lewis now behind the wheel Servo Saver issues arose so back into the pits. Team Mugenrossi now looked like they would definitely be the team to lead it to the flag with a big lead over the Three Amigos and DLR.

The motor however had other idea's with the Novarossi giving up and requiring an engine swap, this saw the Three Amigos into the lead with the now MugenOS team getting back on track 2nd and DLR 3rd. With the race moving into the final hour and a half Mugenrossi had their gun driver's on track for the final stages with Jomari Cura and KC Shore dragging the car from several laps down to overtake the Three Amigos and establish a race winning lead.

Mugenrossi took the win, with the Three Amigos 2nd, DLR 3rd, Team Nismo 4th and Team Harden bringing up the rear. It was certainly a great event with a good test of Car, Driver and Teamwork to have the overall win. The teams that attended the event certainly had a great time and learnt some important lessons for the next Enduro to ensure they have a great result.

Enduro Podium - 1st Mugenrossi, 2nd Three Amigos, 3rd Darren Lewis Racing

Team Members

Mugenrossi - Team Captain/Dave Watts, Craig McGowan, Jomari Cura & KC Shore

Three Amigos - Team Captain/Stephen Snedden, Peter Black & James Davey

Darren Lewis Racing - Team Captain/John Lewis, Michael Campbell, Kevin Lewis & Robert Flanagan

Nismo Racing - Team Captain/Lindsay Frost, Denis Holland, Jordan Blanchard & Jasmin Snedden

Team Harden - Team Captain/Jim Savoldi, Stuart Short, Tony Kass & Dane Tomaszewski