Team RC Pit Box Win at Nitro X Cross Ledbury!

Sunday 29th of January saw round 5 of the popular Nitro X Cross winter series take place at Ledbury Model Car Club. With the weather forecast not looking great we didn't really know what to expect until we pitched up trackside. With Ledbury having its own weather system we took the chance to go racing and when we arrived we found that although some overnight rain was apparent the track looked very good with no puddles, just a mildly moist racing surface!

As per the Nitro X Cross series which run to the same format at each round we would have 4 rounds of 5 minute qualifiers with your best 2 rounds counting towards your final starting position. The weather held out for the most of qualifying and after the 4 rounds were complete the RCPB team placed as follows (From 46 competitors):

Nathan Powney - HB Racing - TQ

Matt Box - Soar Seiki - P5

Chris Lovell - Soar Seiki - P11

Elliot Jones - Kyosho - P13

Gary Gregory - Kyosho - P14

Lee Curvis - Soar Seiki - P25

Andy Prosser - Soar Seiki P37

So on to the finals and first up we had Andy Prosser who was running the Soar Seiki buggy for the first time. Andy started car 4 in the D Final and came home in 8th position after the 15 minute final. Well done Andy.

Andy showing off his new ride:

In the C Final we had Lee Curvis who drove a great final from P3 on the grid. Lee took the win in fine style with his Soar Speedbull engine absolutely screaming down the long Ledbury straight!

In the B Main we had Elliot Jones lining up in 2nd place, an awesome qualifying result from Elliot. His Kyosho MP9 TKI4 looking totally dialed! Just behind would be Gary Gregory who would line up in 3rd, again driving Kyosho powered by Ielasi Tuned. Joining them would be Lee Curvis after his C final win. Things didn't quite go to plan for Gary when his clutch bell came off on the warm up lap meaning he wouldnt start the final, Bad luck Gaz. Elliot unfortunately had to pit twice as he was using an old engine due to not wanting to damage his fresh unit. This put him out of contention for the bump up eventually coming home in 8th place. Lee drove a great final and came home in 6th place so double bump this week!

Onto the 20 minute A main and by this time the rain was coming down giving us a wet greasy surface to compete on.

It was a mixed start for the team with pole man Nathan Powney dropping a few places on the first lap and then got caught up in an incident on lap 3 resulting in a 4 minute lap time put paid to any chance of a win after a dominating qualifying performance. Matt Box went from 5th on the grid to 3rd by lap 2 but Chris Lovell, the master of terrible starts stormed from 11th on the grid to 2nd place by lap 2 and continued to battle for the lead throughout the whole race. Matt who had opted for a brave 1 stop fuel strategy took the lead on lap 14 and held the top spot for the entire race leaving Chris to battle for a podium place with the TLR of Chris Leighton and S Workz man Kevin Brunsden. Kevin eventually made an audacious mid air move on the last lap meaning Chris Lovell would eventually bring his Soar Seiki 998 TD1 E Buggy home in 4th place after holding a podium position for so long.

So at the end of the 20 minute main RCPB would come home in 1st, 4th and 8th place. A great result for the team!

Matt taking the top step of the podium:

So on to driver of the day.... This is a tough one! Nathan dominated qualifying with some very fast drivers in attendance but broke it again, Matt won the event but all he really did was kept it on its wheels with no exciting battles to excite the crowd, Mr Soar UK Chris lovell was incredibly helpful throughout the day, drove the wheels off his car and finally had a good first lap but blew it on the last! OK my drive of the day goes to Elliot Jones. Elliot is just a pleasure to be around, he is so helpful in the pits and always first to help put the tents up and take them down at the end. He helped with pitting and even gave a new racer some of his old tyres. Not only that his car was immaculately prepped and looked amazing on track and drove so maturely in qualifying getting an 8th in round and just missing out on an automatic A main spot. Well done big EL!  

Thank you to the Ledbury crew for giving us a great track to race on and to Nitro X Cross for a great series and well run event.

As always our products are available on our website and trackside, if you cant find what you are looking for or just need a chat regarding set ups and advice please give us a call or grab us trackside.

Until next time.... Eat Sleep Race Repeat.