Sunday, July 18, 2010 - 07:00 PM

J12 Radio Race Club

 

Round 5 of the 8^th-10 Series 12^th July 2010

 

 

 

Race Report

 

Well J12RRC had it all to do for Round 5 of the 8^th-10 series, this would be the second time J12 RRC has held a meeting for the 8^th-series; the first was the 8^th-08.

But this year we had some unexpected problems happen, the club had all its equipment taken a while ago (and I mean everything) and have been unable to run club meetings for months. On top of this the club has only 5 committee members that can help to run a meeting to which 3 were on holiday.

Glyn Morgan was contacted and the club’s situation was explained, we could not continue with Round 5 of the series unless we have help and support.

 

Well; The Race Central Team was there to support us and what fantastic help and support they were.

The track was fine having been made good for the National event a few weeks earlier.

All the equipment needed for the day was to be supplied by Glyn Morgan who also agreed to run the meeting for us, so it was full steam ahead to get everything ready.

The Club has purchased the P.A. System used for the event so is on its way to being fully functional again.

 

On the Saturday Glyn turned up with all the equipment and set about installing it all with our committee member and Track Manager Toby Tookey.

They both worked very hard and got every thing working and ready by 5pm; while I got into the spirit of thing :-} I was working on other things like the trophies for the meeting etc.

A big thank you to Toby and The Race Central Team.

 

While all this was going on we had over 25 people arriving at the Track on Saturday for  practice and setting up camping for the night.

 

Practice ran from around 12am to 5pm; this was quite useful as it cleared up most of the track dust from the racing line. Half way through the afternoon I stopped all practice and asked that the racers sweep the track.

All agreed to this and 15 minutes of sweeping the track of loose dirt made all the difference. I thank all that helped with this as it was a bit cheeky to ask.

 

I cannot thank enough for the effort put in by Race Central Team and Toby; without them we would not have had a race day, they both left the track about 5pm after a very hard day which left them both exhausted.

 

I left the track early evening after locking up, checking the campers were ok for the night including the burger van (Steve) and entrusting the locking of the gate to Greg Hill of RC Disco who are supporting the event for Race Central.

 

Ok its Sunday morning at 6.30am and I arrive on site shortly followed by Toby Tookey, we set about setting out marshal points, high visibility jackets, fire extinguishers, checking the track etc, etc.

 

 

Then I get a tap on the shoulder, it’s Steve from the Burger Van, The Burger Van’s on FIRE, caused by a gas leak.

With the fire put out (not much damage) the van had to leave site as it was not safe.

Glyn had arrived on site just before 7am to be informed about the burger van and straight away went about arranging another van.

Thankfully Glyn managed to contact Shells Kitchen, the burger van used at Frankley. Shell and Matt rushed out, got the stock they needed from there supplier and managed to get to site just before 12am to save the day, so a great thanks to Shell and Matt.

 

 

 

Glyn had arrived on site with a helper, Steve (Stez) Taylor; this helped the day a lot and allowed me to focus more on my racing as I had entered the Buggy and Truggy race, so thank you Steve.

 

It was past 8am now, Glyn was all set, Flag man would be Toby, ref would be Steve Taylor and Leigh Richardson (thanks for your help Leigh) and booking in was well on its way.

Drivers briefing was at 8.45am, Track was open with the first practice heat at 9.05am.

The Top 5 for Buggy Practice

 

 

The Top 5 for Truggy Practice

 

 

The meeting was going well, it was very hot, the Track was good and holding up well, the racing was fast and very competitive with all looking to get a good result before the last double point scoring round at Frankley, everyone was having a good day.

Results after Round 1 Heats

Buggy

 

Truggy

 

Results after Round 2 Heats

Buggy

 

 

Truggy

 

Results after Round 3 Heats

 

 

Truggy

 

Overall Top 10 Positions after 3 Rounds

 

Truggy

 

 Then half way through the day we started to have a few issues.

 

We started the day with the Burger Van Fire.

 

Then due to the heat, the P.A. System in the race control Caravan started overheating (due to it being by the window of the Caravan) this caused the system to crash in heat 3 and a re-run of heat 3 took place after the P.A. was sorted.

 

Then, we had at least 3 x runaways, with one car turning down the bottom of the straight and coming back up it (the wrong way) at full speed out of control, narrowly missing a car coming down, Thankfully no one was hurt, the safety fencing did its job, but the car was trashed sadly,

 

The main runaways were in the finals, I think due to the Heat, but who knows. I suffered from this on a few occasions at the beginning of the season; so I do no how the drivers felt, it ruin’s your day.

 

Glyn Morgan (pro) just took it in his stride and got on with it, cool. (Or rather hot he was) But unexpected things do happen at race events, you can never be sure what’s going to happen.

But, with a good team you can generally get over most problems that occur.

 

 

So with Qualifying over we went straight into the finals

 

The Top 3 from each final were as follows

 

E Final Buggy 10m

D Final Buggy 10m

 

C Final Buggy 15m

 

B Final Buggy  15m

 

A Final Buggy 20m

 

Well done to Greg Hill with the win and leading the series with one round to go.

 

B Final Truggy 15m

A Final Truggy 20m

 

On behalf of J12 RRC I would like to thank Glyn Morgan and Race Central for their support and for providing a really great series.

 

My Special thanks to my main man Toby Tookey for his endless support and the tremendous amount of work he does for the club, Toby I feel is one of the best track men around and is a tremendous asset to J12 RRC. He also takes care of the web site.

 

I would like to thank all the Racers that attended the meeting and support the series, and thanks to all that helped out on the day.

 

J12 hope all Drivers had a good days racing and well done to all the winners, we will be more than happy to see Race Central again next year 

 

Les Reeder

Chairman J12 Radio Race Club