PODIUM RC ASTROTURF CHALLENGE DAY 1 RACE REPORT

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The Howler and Powney Take the Astro Turf Challenge

Frankley MCC was the venue for this new and exciting event now planned to be an annual event

a lot of work had gone into the preparation for this event at frankley and it truly showed on the faces of the drivers during the course of the weekend, Many have stated that the track is now arguably one of the best, if not the best Astro Turf Track in the country

,personally i dont care, as long as the drivers have somewhere to race, all clubs are the best

The meeting started with one round of practice followed by 7 rounds of 7 minutes qualifying with a in lap and out lap of 2 minutes giving each driver per round 11 minutes of track time Jon Howells (Hobao, RB) and Steve Bellwood (Mugen, Alpha) took control of Practice with Jon Proving that Frankley, in the right Conditions "he is the daddy", Steve had a good run in Truggies with a Massive 8 second gap between him and second place Kev Davis

Practice Results Top 5 Buggy

Place Name Car Engine 1st Jon Howells Hobao RB 2nd Joe Adams Assoc RB 3rd Jon Griffiths Assoc Reedy 4th Dennis Holding Losi GRP 5th Milan Dragojlovic Xray Werks

Practice Results Top 5 Truggy

Place Name Car Engine 1st Steve Bellwood Mugen Alpha 2nd Kev Davis Assoc Alpha 3rd Neil Sivins Losi Go 4th Steve Taylor Losi Go 5th Ian Seeley Xray RB The Order of day 1 was to run 5 rounds of qualifying with a good 10+ minutes of track time to give the drivers a good feel for the track, it took a few lap of both the Practice and the Qualifying for the drivers to settle down and relax into the new track design and the smiles on the faces showed, Many Thanx to Earthworks for moving the soil and starting the profiles and Jon Howells and the Frankley team for profiling the jump to a Fantastic "Wow Factor" Standard Round 1 saw Milan (Xray, Werks) Take round 1 and be the first to start the 11 Lap Club in Truggies Round 1 went to Josh Powney (Assoc, Rossi), Round 2 and Jon Howells Took the top spot knocking 11 seconds of the current 11 lap score of Milan and Kev Davis (Assoc, Alpha) took the command in truggies with a good 10 laps
Between Round 2 and 3 it was a walk around the pits and to get a feel for the atmosphere and a quick bite to eat, the Banter from the Podium Tent was something to be savoured with a plan for a little CRT of Mandy's to be lent to Daniel (Mad pup) to make up the low numbers in truggies ,someone had written on the Spoiler RIP, and although at the time i didn't understand what it meant i was to later Find out, Good atmosphere was felt around the pits and the sense that enjoyment was the key for the event and weekend so after a quick sausage Cob it was onto round 3
Round 3 and 4 was an identical result with Jon Howell (Hobao, RB) Taking 2 11 lap runs and Josh (Assoc, Rossi) also became part of the 11 lap club, Round 5 and the Final round of day 1 Saw Milan Come on strong with a TQ Result in round 5 and Again Josh Powney took the final Truggy TQ of the day to give him overall control for day 2
After the Days qualifying Jon Howell Hobao, RB) was strong on top for buggies with Josh Powney Taking control in Truggies (Assoc, Rossi)
Overall Top 5 after 5 Rounds
Buggy
Place Name Result 1st Jon Howells 7,1,1,1,2 2nd Milan Dragojlovic 1,8,7,2,1 3rd Mathew Lawrence 2,26,2,3,4 4th Joe Adams 3,2,6,4,3 5th Dennis Holding 6,3,3,5,9 Truggy
Place Name Result 1st Josh Powney 1,7,1,1,1 2nd Kev Davis 2,1,2,2,4 3rd Ian Seeley 5,3,3,3,2 4th Steve Bellwood 3,2,4,5,0 5th Neil Sivins 7,0,5,4,3
The Dash for Cash Stitch up!!
After the days qualifying had ended it was on to a bit of fun with the dash For Cash the entry fee was to be £5 of which £1 went to the charities and £4 went into the prize pot, Now the drivers thought it was going to be a simple race off with marshals, lap times and everything but, As Usual in fun event like this the Maddog Himself Glyn (Bad Boy) had other ideas up his sleeve, and when the drivers and pit crew had assembled ready for the event the format was given,
there was to be no marshals except for the pit crew themselves they were only allowed to turn over their drivers car but they had to run to the car from the pit lane and back again the same if it had gone on its roof again, after 3 minutes the bottom 3 with the least laps were eliminated and the same again at 6 minutes,10 minutes and 12 and a half leaving just 4 drivers to the end the Grid would be in a 4,4,4,4 Formation with the Likes of the Howler starting from the back,
First eliminations after 3 minutes were Dave Griffiths, Jack Keeney and Scott Francis to the relief of Neil who was running round like a headless chicken high on Red Bull !!!!!! next eliminations after 6 minutes were Daryl Kilgallen, Adam Travil and Ian Seeley followed at 10 minutes by James Bulivant, Lloyd Pitt and Jonathan Clark, now after 9 had been eliminated it left just 7 on the track with the final 3 to be eliminated at 12 and a Half Minutes all the pit crew were all over the track trying to keep these drivers on their wheels the problem was the drivers were laughing so much id swear they were on their roof on purpose!!!!.......Those poor pit crew
Anyway on the stroke of 12 and a half minutes the eliminations were Josh Powney, Kev Davis and Milan Dragojlovic leaving Jon Howells, Dennis Holding, Pete Watt and Matty Lawrence to fight for the last few minutes with jon in 1st and Matt in Second until a mistake on the last lap cost him big style...what a shame on such a good run so the result
Dash For Cash
Result Name Car 1st Jon Howells Hobao/RB 2nd Dennis Holding Losi,/GRP 3rd Pete Watt Serpent/Alpha 4th Mathew Lawrence Assoc/Reedy Day 2
To Be Continued.......




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