RCPB at the Regional's

Another Bank holiday weekend means only one thing for the RCPB gang, More racing, and the gang were out all over the country enjoying the great British weather.

At Nene Valley on Sunday and Monday it was the Nemo sponsored NitroXCross series, and a strong team of Jon Griffiths, Steve Shakespere, Matt Box (car pictured above in the pits), Milan Dragojlovic, Ben Billing, Rich Price, Si Davies, Elliot Jones, Andy Prosser, Gary Gregory, Shaun Stenson and Alex Page were representing the team in Nitro and Chris Lovell in Electric.

Chris Lovell and his RC Concepts powered Mugen MBX7r Eco did great both days with some great qualifying. He managed 2 2^nd in rounds eventually clinching 4^th on the grid on Sunday. He drove fantastically in near perfect conditions to a stunning 2^nd place in the final. On Monday the Mugen coped well with the changeable conditions and he qualified a great 2^nd but had an incident in the warm up of the final and couldn’t continue. Another great performance by Chris who once again managed great points for the series and another podium - pictured below.

In Nitro on Sunday Simon and his RR8 and Andy and his Sworkz ended qualifying with Simon 54^th and Andy 55^th, Elliot and his Sworkz had a fine qualifying and ended up a superb 36^th overall, just ahead of RR8 driver Shaun Stenson in 32^nd. Alex was next with 27^th overall with his Kyosho MP9 and Ben and Rich also did well both having some great rounds, Ben ending up 25^th with his Nova Rossi Powered Sworkz Evo 2 LE, after some issues earlier in the day and Rich 21^st and in fine form. Gary Gregory and his Radiosistemi was just ahead of Rich in 20^th. At the top end of board on Sunday we have Jon and Steve neck and Neck on points but Jon just pipped Steve with on countback to 8^th, with Steve 9^th. Team Boss Matt Box had a fantastic day with the third fastest time of the day securing a very impressive 3^rd overall and Milan as always the top of the RCPB drivers in 2^nd on the grid!

Andy and Si were in the E final, and Andy showed his pace with his new Bullett powered Sworkz buggy gaining some places and finishing a very fine 5^th. Simon also had a decent run and ended up 9^th as the buzzer went. Alex, Shaun, Elliot and Ben were up next in the C final – dominated by Ben from start to finish, he took the lead and went on to have a lap on the entire field at the end, with Elliot also having a cracking race going from 12^th to 9^th, shortly followed by Alex in 12^th and Shaun in 15^th in a very competitive field! Ben continued his fine run with another great drive from the back of the pack, his Nova Rossi sound perfect as he took the lead again, Rich also had a good final ending up 5^th just missing the bump to the A final and Gary and his Reds powered RR8 finished 11^th. Onto the A, and 5 out of the 15 were RCPB drivers. Milan and Matt were at the head of the pack for along time, when Milan managed to get the overtake done in the pits, he later suffered a problem and dropped back, with Matt taking the lead again but he was just pipped by the eventual winner Mike Lewis, finishing a very fine 2nd (pictured below). Matts MP9 looked stunning and his Lelasi Tuned engine was awesome all day! 

Ben once again was right on pace and finished a suerb 5^th after 2 bumps, Milan ended up 8^th with Steve 11^th and a rear problem for Jon meant he finished 15^th.

Another great final and good day for the team!

Onto the Monday and the changeable weather would have its effect! Milan was once again on fire with his Ninja powered Mp9, and took TQ in every round, Matt once again had a stunning day making 5^th overall but Rich had an even better day with his Sworkz, sticking it in 9^th overall! Alex also returned to form with his MP9, securing 11^th, Gary was also on the pace and ended up 15th overall, just in front of Steve in 18^th with his Reds powered MP9, Shaun was 26^th, Elliot 28^th.Simon Davies had a much better day bringing his Radiosistemi in 39^th, Andy was 52^nd. And in Electic Chris Lovell and his Mugen were also on form again, taking a TQ in round 4 giving him 2^nd on the grid for the finals.

Andy Prosser once again had a great final, battling for a bump until the end when he just missed out in 6^th in the E final. Si Davies had an unfortunate incident and had to retire in the D, The C final had to be run after a timing error and so it was a gruelling final in the end, but Shaun Stenson made it stick as the bad weather came in, getting from 4^th to 2^nd and taking the bump to the B (pictured below).

Elliot retired and finished 12^th after an excellent day with his Nova powered Sworkz. In the B we now had Shaun, Gary and Steve all battling for the Bump. Gary had a great race, his RR8 V2 handling the now miserable conditions perfectly, he secured his bump in 2^nd by 4s. Steve and Shaun didn’t have the best luck in the rain finishing 11^th and 14^th respectively. Onto the A Nitro final, and once again 5 RCPB drivers, Rich unfortunately didn’t start, but Alex, Matt and Gary did, all now struggling with the grip levels. Gary ended up 8^th after a fine drive, Matt 9th and Alex 13^th, but the start of the team in Nitro was Milan who battled hard for 25mins, taking home a well deserved 2^nd spot! Chris unfortunately also didn’t start his final in the Electric. So the weather took its toll on the team but a very fine performance by all at the Nene.

Over at Hinkley on the grass it was theWest Mids Reginal in 1/10^th 2wd. We had Mark Fletcher and Felix De Hamel with their Schumachers, Chris Ely, Tommy Hall and Jamie Hall with their Xray Xb2s representing the team. Mark was on fire, getting in the top 5 in two rounds and ended up 4^th overall – awesome bit of driving from Mark. Felix was showing real pace again and finished a very good 19^th overall. Jamie and Tommy once again looked very impressive with their Xb2’s both having a top 5 finish in a round, they were 21^st and 24^th respectively. Team Boss Chris also put in some good times, finishing 70^th in a very tough field of over 100 drivers.

In the A final in all 3 legs “Fletch” did fantastically, holding his own with some of the top drivers in the country, he got a 7^th, 10^th and 5^th leaving him 7^th overall the heats. A great day for fletch and his Schumacher (his car pictured below on the grid of the final).

In the G final Chris drove a blinder and took the win by 0.5s after starting 10^th. Up in the C final were Jamie and Tommy Hall, Jamie the highest qualifying U13 started on pole and made it stick, having a great race to finish 2^nd with Tommy finishing a very fine 8^th. Felix had a tough B final with a good amount of top quality drivers in the mix, he drove superbly and finished a respectable 10^th  -his car pictured below in full flow.

Well done to all the guys, some great drives once again by all the Team.

At the SRS down at Herts (track pictured above) we had Rich “Kong” Mckenzie, and Ashley Evans. Ashley had a fantastic day with his Mugen MBX7r Eco, he had some stunning rounds which gave him 9th overall. Kong had a mixed day. His Mugen was on point, showing real pace, he qualified 26^th and Pole in the C final. Unfortunately some uncharacteristic problems meant he dropped back to 13^th. Unlucky Day for Kong, but some good qualifying by both drivers! Kongs car pictured below.

At another regional this time again in 1/10^th George Miller , and his 2wd Sworkz had a great day as well, he qualified in the C final and took a convincing win at the East England regional in Colchester. George showing great consistency to take a good win! (Pictured below)

So all in all a fantastic roundup for the RCPB team at the different regional’s this weekend – most will be racing again next week so stay tuned for another report soon!

All of the guys and gals in the team race and run lots of different cars and kits that are all available through the website. We are a friendly bunch so if you ever see our logo on a t-shirt, go over and say hello.

Remember EAT< SLEEP<RACE<REPEAT!!!