HyperStar Takes Ledbury Nitrux

The Nitrux race series is a well-established, club racer show series run throughout the Midlands area. East Shrewsbury, Ledbury, Stoke and Talywain all hold one or two weekend race meetings throughout the summer. The format is simple 2 separate meetings held over a weekend, 1 on Saturday and the 2nd on Sunday all at the same venue. So one bad days racing result is not the end of the weekends racing, all can be recovered on the 2nd day. Well that?s the plan anyway. Rounds 1 and 2, already completed at East Shrewsbury?s new venue grass track, just outside Telford, saw some good close racing. The weather was fantastic and the clubhouse in the evening provided some good banter and beers. Rounds 3 and 4 at Ledbury MCC saw some changeable weather on the Saturday with early showers hampering the practice session which many racers chose to skip to save on cleaning. You dirt starved Chickens! The Ledbury track is an unusual mix of low pile felt like astro turf and dirt, around 70% astro, the remainder dirt and grass. Day 1, Due to the conditions I decided to try a set of Hobao Full Angle Spike tyres. The car felt good but with not much competition running there was no measure other than it looked good and I tried to avoid crashing as much as possible. The back straight is rutted and if you got it wrong cars were easily barrel rolling, of course this never happened to me as I?m far too careful a driver. Eventually the clouds lifted, the sun came out, and the racing soon got underway. Pretty much as expected the usual suspects were performing; Nathan, Carl, Rob, Jason Fowler with his Associated RC8B and myself, piloting the Hobao HyperStar, were all quick off the mark. The undulations and mix of astro and dirt made for an interesting ride and tyre choice was difficult. It seemed my Angle Spikes were a good call as the astro was really wet and the dirt was hard so the tyres needed to dig in. The finals soon came round and the Buggy A was a 30 minute one! Nathan Powney had TQ, with Rob 2nd, Carl 3rd and myself 4th. After a first lap tussle Nathan and Carl were away but I had a cunning long stop 10 minute strategy that only required 2 stops. In the closing laps Nathan had a cut and all 3 of us were racing at close quarters. In the end Nathan Powney held his advantage and won, The results: Nathan Powney 1st, Clive Maland 2nd, Carl Dixon 3rd. Only 4 seconds separated all three cars, what a race! As for the truggys Chris Cox took the win, 2nd place went to Gary Goodall and Josh Powney finishing in 3rd. Day 2, A new day and a new meeting with same slightly worn track. I decided to keep my changes to a minimum, altering the droop and slackening off the set screws in the pivot ball assembly. Jason set a real fast run in free practice but I knew I had some changes in the car and some quicker lap times to come. Qualifying went much as day 1 and saw similar grid only Clive had the TQ, Rob was in 2nd, Carl 3rd and Jason 4th. As we got underway a tussle and some over anxious driving caused chaos and Carl and Jason were in 1st and 2nd with myself closely following. This race was a 20 minute final so only one fuel stop. Half way into the race and I found myself in front Jason had stopped for fuel and I nearly had a fuel stop advantage on the track. I refuelled and came out just in front of Jason toward the end of the race Rob and Jason has some real close racing scraps. The final day 2 results were: Clive Maland 1st, Jason Fowler 2nd, Rob Lloyd 3rd. A great weekend racing had by all, overall point standing: RB powered Hobao Hyperstar on top after four rounds, best of seven to count. Thanks to Bryn Pound for results and to Ledbury Model Car Club for holding the event. Report by Clive Maland