This past weekend Silverstone Club hosted the biggest indoor race of the year with the British Winter open (previously known as the Indoor National).
I went down on the Friday to assist with the track build as Matt Owen had asked for my help to try and make the best indoor track that we could! I am always happy to help Matt as i know he will do whatever it takes to make the best meeting he can and I am proud to be a part of it.
Leading up to the event i had some track ideas and feature ideas that i wanted to implement. One of these was a wall of death into a drop off. Something i have not seen on a RC track yet and I wanted to take it to the next level. Matt was willing and the Silverstone team got to work cutting and fixing the pieces into place! What was finished up was awesome, the track not only had great features, it had a great appearance with many drivers commenting on how good everything looked. Full credit to all the guys helping.
Here is a picture of how it ended up:
Going into the event, I knew that 2wd was going to be tough. The front motor cars have been looking really dialed there all winter and really the standard mid motor cars have not been able to touch them. This was also the first time I was using my BMAX2 WC on Astro!
Qualifying started slow as I worked out a set up and made small changes each round, Eventually getting my car to where I found it to be competitive against the front motor (cheater) cars. I used this to great effect as i went on to TQ the final round and with it take the overall TQ of the event with the only sub 20 second lap recorded and fastest overall time.
Moving onto the finals that I knew would be tough. Getting a good start was key and I would have to try a maintain a gap. The first leg went perfectly, a clean start and some mistakes behind me meant that I could lead out and not look back taking a comfortable leg win.
Leg 2 wasn’t so easy, My tyres (of which i had used all day) were wearing out and starting to lose drive and become inconsistent. This proved key as a small mistake on the wall of death as the car over rotated dropped me down to 2nd and that is where I would stay, with Tom Cockerill taking the leg win, Setting up a showdown in Leg 3.
The showdown was short lived, Tom made a mistake early on and would eventually retire from the race, leaving me once again to cruise home for the Victory and one that i was truly proud of. Against the odds and with my new BMAX2 on its first astro appearance, it really was great!
Onto 4wd!
Fast, Intense and hot would be how I would describe it!
In round 1, while on for a good time, I cooked my motor after 3 minutes! I think it must have had a small problem as it should not have got hot that early, none the less it was changed for Round 2.
Starting from the back of the pack I slowly made my way to the front and started to to go for TQ only to suffer a couple of grip rolls that would put me back and end up 4th for the round.
I then went on to start making some changing to my car, trying some very thick Prototype roll bars and shock changes. This was starting to work well as the car became easier to drive, but still had a small amount of grip roll. I was again on for TQ in round 3 only to make another mistake while pushing hard. I knew I needed to change something for Round 4 to avoid these mistakes.
A few drivers were using Stagger ribs on the front. Normally used in 2wd, the tyre makes the car very easy to drive but some would say its ‘pussying out’ or ‘gay’… So i hate to say it, but I tried them, as I want to win more than be a pussy… 
The car was dialled. I stormed round to set the fastest run seen by some margin, but i would end up 2nd on the grid by virtue of missing the top spot in the previous rounds. Simon Moss would line up 1st after taking TQ in the first 2 rounds.
The finals: Leg 1 was a disaster and one to forget…..so I have forgotten it.
Leg 2 was good, I got going well and made a move on simon and started to drive away, taking the victory and setting up another leg 3 showdown.
Leg 3: I started well again, but having just put on a different set of tyres, I had to wait for them to scrub in a little, suffering some under-steer initially. Once this was gone i started pushing on, on Simon’s gear box. While trying to pass him I made a small error on the jump section which allowed Tom Cockerill through and gave Simon a cushion. I pushed hard to pass Tom and Eventually did, but catching Simon was going to be tough, although I tried! Setting some fast laps I was able to get close to him, but not close enough. He drove a clean race and handled the pressure well. Well done Simon.
Top 3 pics:
Well done to Silverstone on the great meeting!!!!!!!!!!
