TM2 at MERCC E of E Region Round 5

[Smartalec]

Sunday 7th July and a bright and early start for round 5 of the East of England Regional Championships. This round was to be held at Braxted by the Mid Essex Radio Car Club (MERCC), a predominantly grass circuit with a small amount of astro thrown in for good measure. I was fortunate enough to have visited MERCC once before earlier in the year for the first round of their summer series so I had a good idea of the track surface and also first hand experience of how friendly and welcoming the club is.

The weather forecast was to be very warm and sunny and for once the weather man was worth his wages as he was spot on. Practice was due to start very early as the 11 heat schedule with 3 legged finals for both 2wd and 4wd was going to be tough to get through at a sensible time but the race controller knows his stuff at MERCC and was well on the ball and we were off to a perfect start and well on schedule.

I was off first in round one and made sure of a good start and began to circulate the large grass track, my old mate Danny 'Essex Gypsy' Conway making a complete hash of his start and ending up hitting the race control cabin (I didn't laugh honest ) so I thought i'd got this one in the bag. At about 3 minutes I could see that Jonathan Brown had caught right up and was clearly enjoying this run and was only about a second behind so I had to be careful as he could easily go ahead on the stagger if I got it a bit wrong. Now Jonathan managed, somehow, to barrel role down the main straight at least twice during this run and land perfectly on his wheels so I suggest he does the lottery this week as he might be in with a shout . At 4 minutes I caught up to the back of the Gypsy who was clearly having problems and with no sign of the ref calling me through (cheers Colin ) I asked Danny to let me through. Now Danny obviously thought that I wasn't lapping him and decided to do the Gypsy Jig and do a bit of blocking but after a bit of persuading I finally got past and clear, this unfortunately gave Jonathan the chance he needed to catch right up and he ended up 2 seconds ahead at the finish to go number 1 in round with me 2nd. After the round Danny discovered his disastrous start had caused a bent rear shock shaft which obviously didn't help the cars handling throughout the run. This apparently causes the car to swerve around violently in front of the lead car in a random manner

Round 2 and I go off behind Jonathan who is clearly enjoying his best qualifying to date in the championship and it looks like i'm not making any headway into catching him until he (thankfully) made an error and I get through. No errors from me and I finish a couple of tenths up on the Gypsy, who started at the back and sneaked up like a snake covered in shock oil.

Round 3 and I still go off second behind Jonathan as his first round time was still fastest as that was when the grip was at its premium. Another good start for Jonathan and i'm away in second and holding the same gap for around 4 laps then as Jonathan makes a small error I close the gap only to make an almost identical error myself so the gap stays the same. Coming off the ski ramp I manage to get sideways and as I put the power down too hard I slide wide and hit the track marking and i'm over and need marshalling. In my quest to catch the leader I make another error in the same place and i'm down in neverland (i'll never catch up) so that's another round to Mr Brown.

Round 4 and still off second and I know that it's going to be impossible to get the TQ spot as Jonathan has 2 rounds to his credit and even if I win this one that will make us even on round scores but he will take TQ because of his fastest time (round one). With Jonathan making an early error I cruised around to win this one and, as expected, he takes the TQ with me second on the grid and Danny third for the 3 legged finals.

No changes were needed in the set up for the TM2 all day so a quick check over and it's all ready for final number one.

A good start was needed as the track was extremely bumpy around the sweeper at the end of the straight so I didn't want to make any silly mistakes and get caught out early on. A good start was what I got and I chased Jonathan around for the whole of the race but never really made any dent on his lead as he drove a faultless race to win comfortably with me in second and the Gypsy in third.

A final leg 2 and I put a new pair of Schumacher yellow minispikes on the rear to try and get the jump on Jonathan as I know if he gets away it's all over. A really good start and i'm right on the back of him this time and a couple of laps in he makes an error and i'm through. Now I have no idea what happened behind me as I was concentrating on winning this leg but I know that Jonathan pulled out and that James Crockart took second place with Danny coming in third again so I now have a sniff of the win with a 1st and 2nd place in the two finals so far.

A final leg 3 and another good start and we stay in order for a lap until Jonathan gets it sideways a bit coming out of the corner and I squeeze the TM2 through the gap and begin to pull away. I seem to be pulling clear really quickly so i'm imagining he has a problem and an error free run from me sees me come home first to give me the overall win. Danny bringing his TM2 home in second place in this leg secures him second overall in the meeting.

So another excellent day for the Team C TM2 on a track that was VERY bumpy and had very little traction.

Thank you very much to the MERCC crew for a very well run meeting