news: Livvys Smile Charity Race Report - Tamworth - 4th April 2009
Apr 5, 03:53 PM by Ross McAllisterThe livvys smile charity race was held on the 4th of April in memory of Olivia Georgia Meredith at the Tamworth radio controlled model car club.
Livvys Smile Charity Race
Reported by Tom Green
The livvys smile charity race was held on the 4th of April in memory of Olivia Georgia Meredith at the Tamworth radio controlled model car club.
The Worcester team arrived to a smaller than expected track with a very large turn out, pitting was interesting but the 50 plus drivers all managed to squeeze in and after the late booking ins were sorted out racing was underway.
Team Worcester was represented by Shaun Ogden, Addam Talbot, Alex Everett, Tom Green, and a close friend of the club Jonty who also supported Worcester. Even The chairman Neil came down to lend a hand and support his drivers!
Before racing kicked off drivers were offered the chance to get a brief practice session, many drivers opted not to go out as it was mixed practice although Alex and Tom found the courage to go out and put a few laps in, both drivers were happy with the cars and felt confident for qualifying.
Qualifying
Qualifying in general was a difficult time for the team, with random mixed ability groups the team were pushing to set fast times but also dodging traffic and trying to keep it fair. The team split in two over which tires to run in qualifying with Tom and Alex using the harder Vtec 30’s with Addam and Shaun using the softer Vtec 27s.
Stock Class
By the end of qualifying Alex (Xray) and Addam (Associated) had the stock class sorted and were easily setting the pace, they pulled out a massive gap over the field and battled it out solidly for the full race duration, unfortunately there was some accidents with back markers and after some pretty unique racing moments the Xray driven by Alex emerged the winner by the smallest margin just 0.81 sec. Both drivers really had to work for the results, constantly changing race lines to dodge the slower drivers and still race each other.
Pro-Stock Class
In Pro stock both Shaun and Tom had made the A final in the middle of the grid, with Tom (Tamiya) taking 5th and Shaun (Xray) taking 7th. Both had shown brilliant pace in qualifying but had not managed to translate there super fast lap times into higher qualifying positions with unfortunate accidents in qualifying. The finals were not off to the smoothest start with many cars at the back trying to win the race on the first corner. This set the tone for the finals with many other crashes constantly switching the running order. Shaun used consistency to eventually win the final, with Tom making many driving errors taking 3rd but setting some of the fastest laps of the night along the way.
1/12th Class
Jonty an occasional visitor to the club took 3rd in 1/12th qualifying, his years of wisdom paid off as he expertly drove his Xray 1/12th car to the finish keeping his cool when his rivals cracked under the pressure.
