Well what a fantastic event

Thank you to everyone who came down and made this event the success it was. It was great to see so many people having a fantastic time doing some night racing.

We will definitely do it again

So I'd like to thank the sponsors once again:

Coast 2 Coast R/C
OZ RC
Mild to Wild RC
Beta Tyres
Trackside RC
RC Race Supplies
Proline Australia
BRL Electrical Services
and Colour Chiefs Printing

Please show these guys some support and let them know you appreciate their contribution.

I'd like to thank everyone that put in the effort to make the track look as good as it did, both before and during the event. The track came up fantastically and made for some exciting racing.

Also thanks to Mark, Amanda and Louisa for running the canteen and providing us with some very yummy food.

And of course I would like to thank everyone who participated in the event. These things can't go ahead without racers, you guys are what makes the club a club and I appreciate every one of you for coming along and being a part of it.
We did have some technical glitches at times and I want to thank those that it affected for being so understanding with me and taking it in your stride. I hope that everyone enjoyed themselves regardless.
Apart from that I think the event went very well and I hope to hold much more night racing in the future

So now on to the racing

We ended up with 5 heats from the four classes - Outlaw, Truggy, Nitro Buggy A and B and Electric buggy.

Friday night saw us with two qualifying rounds kicking the night off with the Outlaw class, followed by truggy, electric buggy, buggy B and Buggy A.
The quality of the track showed with fastest laps in the mid 30's right from the start, and some good quality racing. It didn't take very long for people to get used to the new jumps.
At the end of racing that night it was looking like the Aaron Stringer show with Aaron holding first in both Buggy and Truggy; Shane Freiberg held second in both Buggy and Truggy; and Zac Ryan in third for Buggy, with Ian Haley 3rd in Truggy.
Electric buggy saw Kristian Lohse, Bruce Airey and Mike McPherson in first, second and third respectively.
Outlaw had Andrew Tsuji, Graham Hall and Angelina Hsu in first, second and third respectively.

Saturday began with qualifier 3 in the afternoon. With the track looking just as good as the previous day (and starting to get a bit of a groove happening) we saw some more fantastic racing, and with 3 rounds of qualifying we ran into the early night.
Top 3 qualifiers in each class were:
Outlaw - 1 Andrew Tsuji, 2 Graham Hall and 3 Angelina Hsu
Truggy - 1 Aaron Stringer, 2 Shane Freiberg and 3 Ian Haley
Electric Buggy - 1 Kristian Lohse, 2 Bruce Airey and 3 Mike McPherson
Nitro Buggy B - 1 Rob Mills, 2 Russell Grenenger and 3 James Williamson
Nitro Buggy A - 1 Aaron Stringer, 2 Shane Freiberg and 3 Kristian Lohse

Outlaws ran 2 x 7 minutes finals with the worst result of the two to be dropped. After a top effort from all drivers, we ended with Andrew Tsuji 1st, Jackson Beale 2nd and Angelina Hsu 3rd.


Up next was Truggy with a 30 minute final. After getting past Aaron at the start Shane held first position for over 10 minutes (14 laps) until an unfortunate roll-over saw Aaron take the lead. Ian Haley in 3rd, Robin Silvers in 4th while Dane Ryan and Mick Robinson battled it out for 5th and 6th, swapping back and forth.
Aaron held first for the rest of the race with Shane making an awesome effort to close the gap. Unfortunately a lost wheel dropped him back to last place, putting Ian into 2nd, Robin into 3rd and Dane and Mick swapping 4th and 5th.
With his wheel back on Shane worked his way back to try and reclaim a podium finish, but didn't have the time to get there. Still a great drive finishing only 1 lap down from 3rd, with his second last lap being his fastest for the race at 35.009.
Aaron stormed to the finish in 1st place (with a fastest lap of 34.491) a full 3 laps ahead of 2nd place Ian Haley, with Robin Silvers rounding out the podium in third.
Unfortunately we didn't get a photo of the truggy winners.

Up next was the electric buggy part 1. A massive bingle at the start saw Kristian Lohse out of the first race before completing a lap, with Lee Grace taking the lead. Soon it was Mike McPherson in front with Bruce Airey taking second and Lee on 3rd and that's the way it stayed.
Race 2 had a much cleaner start and race. After dropping the worst of the two finals, the results were Mike McPherson 1st, Bruce Airey 2nd and Kristian Lohse 3rd.


Buggy B saw James Williamson go to first position after the first lap with pole Rob Mills dropping to second, and Matt Baker on 3rd. It stayed that way until problems for all 3 put new to off road Russell Grenenger in the lead with Mills in 2nd and Paul Dutton 3rd. With Mills dropping out Williamson took back 3rd and then worked back to second for the end of the 20 minute race. This put Grenenger, Williams and Dutton in the top 3 and bump-up to the A main.
Last but not least we had the nitro Buggy A main. Aaron Stringer had pole position and stayed there for the race, with Shane Freiberg taking second and Jesse Grace on 3rd. Soon Zac Ryan took third and after an early retirement for Freiberg, Ryan moved into 2nd place with Kristian Lohse taking 3rd. The top 3 stayed that way for the rest of the race.


Overall a great event. It was fantastic to see the newbies getting involved and especially to see them with their first trophies for R/C. Watch these guys, they are the future of our sport
It's always great to watch some quality racing and this event was no exception. Thanks to everyone for putting in some good clean racing and keeping it sportsman like.
I look forward to making this event a regular occurrence.

Anyway that's it from me for now.
Catch you all next fortnight, and for those of you entered in the Rocky Cup, good luck and stay safe on the trip up and back.

Cheers
Dave