Back to it then for the 2024 Nationa Championship. We will be visiting 7 tracks this year across the 8 rounds between now and the last round in October. MMR Raceway were the hosts for Round 1 over the weekend of 23rd and 24th March.
Saturday morning was open practice and all classes found the track challenging and difficult with drivers having to drastically change setup to suit the high grip conditions, despite the occasional rain shower and the one 10 minute downpour of large hail stones!
On to the serious bit, qualifying and finals.
4WD:
In heat 1, John Bell won all his qualifying round with some other battles going on too! Qualifying also got off to a great start in heat 2 with Tommy Chung winning all 3 qualifiers, great performance! However, it was close for second place with Leon Satchell and Dave Ashton battling it out. At the end of qualifying, Tommy Chung lined up in P1 after taking TQ, Leon Satchell in P2, and Dave Ashton in P3.
In the B final, battles were happening everywhere on track, specifically for 3rd and final bump up position. In the end, Martin Fitzpatrick finished 1st, Josey Schifano in 2nd and Simon Vowles in 3rd. In the A final, Tommy Chung got off with a flying start and led the race all the way to the end. Dave Ashton and Leon Satchell each had a relatively lonely race and was able to drive very consistently to finish P2 and P3 respectively.
P1 – Tommy Chung with his Elcon Fourtexx
P2 – Dave Ashton with his MCD RR5
P3 – Leon Satchell with his MCD RR5
2WD:
In heat 1, Mindaugas Klenauskas won every round of his qualifying with battles going on from P2 to P5 in every round. In heat 2, Oliver Whittleston won every round of his qualifying taking overall TQ with Karl Norris and Andy Blackburn not far behind at all!
The B final was great to watch with everyone battling their hardest to get in the top 3. Unfortunately, Matthew Chapman and Kayleigh Knight did not finish due to car problems. Mark Higgins was able to take P1, Kevan Churchill in P2, and Neil Clark in P3 after an extremely close battle with Harry Middleton. Both these drivers are new to 2WD and were flying all weekend!! The A final was also a great race to watch with Oliver Whittleston taking the win with his new Elcon Traxx 2.0. Karl Norris drove very well to take P2, and Craig Chilvers in P3. Unfortunately, Kevin Churchill did not start because his car was too damaged to continue after the B final and Andy Blackburn got taken out on the first lap, so he did not finish either.
P1 – Oliver Whittleston with his Elcon Traxx 2.0
P2 – Karl Norris with his his Elcon Traxx 2.0
P3 – Craig Chilvers with his Elcon Traxx 2.0
Short Course:
Short Course had another great turnout of drivers with 31 drivers booked in! Qualifying was great for the lower heats with many battles going on. In the higher heats, people were battling for the Main A Final. At the end of qualifying Gary Meggison, Gaz Wilding and Martin Corbett lined up 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the D final with Neil Sivins, Ross Bruce and Paul Crosby taking the top 3 spots in the C final. The B final would start with David Attiwell on P1 closely followed by Steve Jones and Jack Keatley in P2 and P3 respectively. Ian Oddie was on form during the 3 rounds and took TQ and P1 in the A final, with Tayler Letchford in P2 and closely followed by Dave Parish in P3. It was clear, that the finals were going to be very close and exciting to watch.
And indeed, they were, with Jake Faulkner, Christopher Holliday and Gaz Wilding bumping up from the D to the C Final. The C final was full of battles, especially between the top three with each of the drivers driving hard to try and improve their starting position for the B Final. In the end, Ross Bruce, Andy Spence and Neil Sivins were able to bump up to the B Final. The B final wasn’t one to miss either, David Attiwell was able to finish P1 from a pole position start with Paul Scrase and Ross Bruce behind him. On to the Main A Final. This was an absolutely brilliant race to watch from the side lines. Unfortunately, breakages from Tayler Letchford, Ross Bruce and Ian Oddie meant that they weren’t able to continue and finish the race. This meant that in the end, Dave Parish was able to take P1 after lapping the whole grid, with Alfie-Jack in P2 and Patrick Vice in P3.
P1 – Dave Parish with his Losi 5T
P2 – Alfie-Jack with his Losi 5T
P3 – Patrick Vice with his MCD W5
Special mention to Jake Humphries who was unable to participate in practice and despite this also being his very first LSOR national, just missed out on a bump up from the D final.
Round 2 of the LSOR National Championship will be held at North West Large Scale on the 27th and 28th April 2024. Booking in is open for this and all future rounds of the 2024 season on the BRCA Events Website
We look forward to seeing you all trackside!