Hazlewood returns to Xray and wins at Clanfield

[jimmy]

This weekend saw the 1/8th rallycross national at Clanfield get off to what was to be a brilliant weekend for the xray team - with John Hazlewood having rejoined Xray mid-season after throwing the towel in on his Losi car at the previous National round.

Some words from Dave Grunill, who was there supporting new Xray driver Bruce Thompson:

Sunshine greeted us on sunday morning with shorts and t shirts and sunfactor 50 being the order of the day.

qualifying was going to be tough without making a mistake,the track was loose dirt and high grip concrete and hard baked clay corners and a double jump that needed perfection to clear it everytime.

it was the usual suspects that rose to the top..darren bloomfield taking tq with his usual attacking driving style and it paid off,graham alsop took the 2nd slot with young elliot boots showing his pace by taking 3rd in qualifying.

the top ten qualifiers for the A final were:

1 darren bloomfield-losi8
2 graham alsop-hobao
3 elliot boots-associated
4 john hazlewood-xray 808
5 dave crompton-crono
6 craig dresher-associated
7 kevin brunsden
8 neil cragg-associated
9 tommy chung
10 lee taylor
11 simon willets
12 lee martin
13 reece sawyer
14 sam taylor

darren had a few mistakes at the start and this dropped him back into the pack,an engine cut later on meant he didnt finish the race..his bad luck continues with the finals again.

elliot boots took up the lead with john hazlewood chasing him hard,a mistake by elliot let john past and john then settled down and drove away from elliot slowly building up a substantial lead.
in the latter stages sloppy started to claw in elliot and passed him to take 2nd place,some 20 seconds behind john who never looked like being troubled.

so the xray 808 takes its first national A final win,im sure theres more to come from both the driver and the car tho..watch this space.

the final A final results were:

1 john hazlewood-xray 808
2 graham alsop-hobao
3 elliot boots-associated
4 lee martin associated
5 neil cragg-associated
6 dave crompton-crono
7 kevin brunsden xray 808
8 craig dresher-associated
9 sam taylor mugen
10 tommy chung kyosho
11 simon willets losi8
12 reece sawyer losi8
13 darren bloomfield-losi8
14 lee taylor xray 808

We'll have a full review of the car that won, the Xray 808, on oOple.com soon!