LRP/SMD Wins 8th10 Regional Finals

By admin On August 19, 2010 · Add Comment

LRP/SMD Wins 8th10 Regional Finals

SMDWin

The LRP/SMD Truggy drivers Stan Gill and Joe Joyce attended the finals of the popular 8th10 race Series Finals held at Frankley MCC. This series has been very well attended by drivers from all over the Midlands UK with well over 100 entries at all rounds and the final round did not disappoint with 122 booked in.

The final round was for double points only if you had already attended the previous 4 rounds, so this made things very close indeed, in both classes any number of drivers could have taken the win with a good result at FMCC.

In the Truggy class over 50 drivers entered the series and it all boiled down to the final round with LRP/SMD drivers Joe Joyce and Stan Gill in with a shot. James Bulivant from Derby Model Shop was also in attendance and also in with a chance, leading the championship table.

Qualifying got under way at 9.00am sharp after the race director decided to add a little change to the track layout! 1 round of timed Practice with 3 rounds of Qualifying and 2 rounds to count would decide the TQ. The track was smooth and the layout was simply awesome and inspiring to say the least! Fast, flowing and challenging, needing 100% concentration! After the 1st round of practice the top 5 in Truggy were:

Joe Joyce – 7/5m 10.31
Peter Wrigglesworth – 7/5m 17.20
Stan Gill – 7/5m 19.40
James Bulivant – 7/5m 21.75
Steve Bellwood – 7/5m 31.41

Round 1 of qualifying was frantic with some incredibly close racing when you look at these times, Stan Gill topping the time sheets…

Stan Gill – 7/ 5m 4.47
Chris Deacon – 7/5m 4.53
Joe Joyce – 7/ 5m 7.67
James Bulivant – 7/5m 14.88
Chris Deacon – 7/ 5m 20.17

Round 2 saw Joe hit 8 laps and this would prove crucial in the final standings.

Joe Joyce – 8/5m 43.28
James Bulivant – 7/5m 1.65
Stan Gill – 7/5m 3.39
Mark Kent – 7/5m 4.06
Les Reeder – 7/5m 7.96

The final round 3: James Bulivant had an awesome run pipping Joe by 1.02 seconds.

James Bulivant – 8/5m 40.29
Joe Joyce – 8/5m 41.32
Stan Gill – 7/5m 7.06
Pete Wrigglesworth – 7/5m 13.96
Mark Kent – 7/5m 18.77

After an EPIC TQ battle, this left Joe Joyce and James Bulivant with joint TQ points, so count back came into play and this allowed Joe to take the TQ spot!

The Final: The Nerves!

You could feel the nerves around the pits and it was obvious that several drivers had the pace to take this double point’s win! Cars Down: Go….. A good clean start from most drivers, Joe got off to a good start with Mark and James chasing hard, Stan got tagged early on leaving him last on lap 1!

The pressure was piling on lap after lap with no driver able to gain any advantage, only 3 seconds covered Joe, Mark & James in the early stages. 7 minutes in, Joe managed to pull a 4 second lead from Mark & James. Mark Kent then made a mistake over the double letting James through into 2nd chasing hard and started to catch Joe.

By this time Stan had moved up into 8th position after a bad start chasing Neil Sivins in 7th, the first pit stops came around and Joe pitted first, an excellent pit stop from his pit crew (Toni) this left no room for error leaving the pit exit with James now only 1 second behind but he needed to make his stop!

Stan Gill worked his way into 6th position after his stop and was pushing hard to catch Les Reeder in 5th place. James Bulivant came in for his 1st pit stop, this gave Joe a 9 second lead, Stan was in a battle royal with Peter Wrigglesworth, Les Reeder & Mark Kent for 3rd 4th & 5th places, positions changing every lap.

Fate plays its part…

James Bulivant was struck with a servo failure and ended his race on lap 21; Mark Kent had some technical issues and had to pull out on lap 20. This left a clear finish for Joe and a very well deserved TQ and Win and also won the overall Championship. Stan Gill drove his socks off in the final stages of the race to get himself into 2nd place with Peter Wrigglesworth in 3rd place.

A truly epic race that had to be seen to be believed! On a personal note this has been one of the best races I have been involved in and a remarkable series and a real pleasure to drive with some of these guys. A special thanks must go to my good friend & team mate Stan Gill, my pit crew â€œMy better halfâ€ also my sponsors Jamie @ SMD LTD.