Deerdale Club Championship, Round 2
Mirage Team driver Graham Alsop took his D8 by the horns on his first full 'Official' outing at the testing Deerdale astro turf track reckoned by some to be the best 1/8th scale astro-turf track in the country.
This championship is attended by some of the top UK Rallycross drivers including XRAY driver Bruce Thompson, HoBao's Dave Bailey & John Holmes.
Qualifying was all about one thing: could anyone keep up with Graham's blistering pace from practice? The answer was soon delivered in round one, with a big, resounding ‘NO!’ Graham and the HB D8 were in perfect sync and almost 30 seconds up on second place. The D8 looked planted round the bumpy high grip track making up time on the opposition in pretty much every area. Time: 8 Laps in 332.
Only a couple of minor tweaks for round two and Graham once again dominated the round, going even faster. Graham commented on how easy the D8 was to drive near the limit, giving him confidence to push the car where others daren't. Graham really was on form in this round beating his round 1 time and setting an outright track record in that layout of 8 in 331.52
With TQ now sewn up, Graham made little change for round 3 apart from his driving, pushing right from the off, Graham was soon up on his best time, but the track was getting slower as the weather cooled down from the tropical 9?C earlier in the day to a more normal 4?C, as Graham pushed on the slippy track caught him out a couple of times, but he still made it through for an 8 lap run. No one else even got close to an 8 lap run in qualifying all day.
After checking over the car before the Final, no setup changes were made. With the track conditions deteriorating as the temperature dropped and the moisture coming up to the surface it was going to be a test of driving skills to see who could adapt better to the slippery and changeable track conditions.
From the sound of the tone Graham laid it down for the opposition to chase. Although the lap times were slower due to lack of traction the D8 never looked out of shape. Still poised over the jumps and comfortable over the bumps Graham demolished the field putting almost 2 laps on the 2nd placed HoBao driver Dave Bailey.
So with the first official meeting over with, it's business as usual for Graham and the D8, another win under the belt. Coupled with an impressive performance it's been a great start to a new partnership.
link to short video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9nP5d9grAA
Alsop's Perfect Debut with HB D8
