Fastrax Summer Series 2011

The weather man had ordered rain for the whole weekend but they are never right are they? I set off as the 'roving eye in the sky' reporter for CML on the Fastrax 'summer' series with no hope of racing or a indeed a turnout. I arrived to a mass of tents and people milling about. There were fifty three racers for both classes combined which, considering two other meetings on the same day in the area had to be cancelled due to lack of numbers, was an impressive turnout. The rain however did not let up all day with fine drizzle in the morning to outright monsoon by the end of the meet. This did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of all that attended. Truggy Lap times, as expected, were slower due to the wet slippery astro turf but first to show with the Associated RC8T was Sean Bailey with a thirty second lead to number two man Steve Taylor who nicked it by two hundredths from John 'mudman' Clay in third. Round two saw heavier rain but improvement from all but Sean. Lee Grocott with another Associated taking up second on the grid from Kev Mac in third. Round three was kinda dry with just the odd spot of the wet stuff and again all improved. Sean sealed the top qualifying spot with Kev going second by three seconds from Lee. The Final was a complete monsoon but truggy drivers are made of sturn stuff and on they ploughed. Of the eight that started, only three finished. The lead swapped several times as cars dropped out with either radio issues or water logged air filters. Kev won the war of attrition with 'the mudman' John second and the unlucky Lee third. Big shout out to the marshalls who were out there for eighteen minutes and got very wet indeed. Buggy Team HoBao owned round one with star driver John Howells taking TQ, with team starlets Mitchell Booth and Ashlee Owen in second and third respectively Phil turner coming in forth Mark Redmond completing the top five. Round two saw most improve but the only significant movement was Mark who slotted into forth and Andy Friar fifth with Phil dropping to sixth. Round three had the top four remain the same but HoBao boys Mitchell and Ashlee, although still second and third, were split by just eight hundredths of a second. An excellent drive by Phil saw him move two to take his place in the top five. The C Final Adam Travill was away and lead from start to finish for the bump up. Second went to Pete Hedley just three seconds of Adam, if the final had been longer who knows. The B Final Abi Dean led this one from lap two onwards and finished a lap ahead of the field, Second eventually went to Jim Boulton after a mega tussle with Barry Tomkins and Chris Hampshire. They swapped the lead six times and finished four seconds apart after eighteen minutes. The A Main After the truggy final a vote was held but the race referee decided that it was too dangerous to marshall in such horrific conditions so it was agreed that qualifying positions were held as final positions for points on the day. Great credit to Jared and the crew for the work put in before the meeting as a group of vandals destroyed the track eight days before the event. They also worked hard to keep the race alive during what was an appalling British summer day. The fact that we raced at all is testament to the enthusiasm of the racers present and the loyalty and popularity of the series in general. Next meeting is the 14th of August and I hope to see you there with some better weather.