Rug Racers 2015-2016 Round 5 Race Report

The final round of the series beckons those that were fortunate enough to get a pass out for the day. With some championships still to be decided others were still down to settling the remaining places, but we all know why they are here for the now famous or rather infamous lollipop throwing ceremony at the end of the day.

So the racing, and has been the custom this year up 1st was the GT12 heat 1 the generation heat, featuring the youngsters & the not so young, but this one looked different, as racing alongside the kids was their parents this one featured Alan (Snip) & Shane Chipolina, James & Jake Vincent, Michael (Marmite) & Holly Cook, Graham, Martin & Ethan Southall (That’s Grandad, Dad & Son) & the ever so small Preston Eldridge with his Dad Graham perched just below him handing out the advice. How was racing? Well honestly who knows they were having so much fun it didn’t really matter. This is why we do this and our future stars of racing, more on that later.

Heat 2 was a fierce affair with the Peter White making the most of it with the Bradley Dilworth & Michael Vale for company, not to detract from the young Darcie Smith keeping them all very honest & Daniel Robins. Heat 3 and the now business end of GT12, Tim Hancock was showing his intentions as champion elect with 3 of 4 rounds banked ahead of Scott Morton with Owen Smith & Leyton Foster sharing 3rds about.

17.5B Heat 4 was Gareth Coates getting through his workload for all 4 rounds, equally so for Ben Pedersen in Heat 5 with Paul Isaacs making position 2 his own, Heat 6 was the Wes Roper show and easily up to the A final with Rob Brighton & Andy Lees pushing hard as well, Heat 7 with Jimmy starting at number 3 he would soon be making number 1 his own with all 4 legs and a blistering pace Michael Redshaw looking on from behind.

WGT Heat 8 or rather the Owen Smith show, as the 1st driver to blast into 28 laps and decimate all behind him, Martin Southall & Remo “MoodyFools” Casadei looking on from afar.

Open Mod Heat 9 Dale Blur & Dani Young lit the way for others to follow with Andrew Walters just behind, Heat 10 and the business end, we have been fortunate to have some of the best TC drivers in the country (and the best) showing us all how to drive a really fast car really well none more so of course than the current UK touring car champion Elliott Harper who may be fast on track but also showed his quickness on the scrutineering table as well, he will know what I mean after he went at the ride height checker with a Vernier after someone passed comment to him that it was marginal, he proved it wasn’t. Then of course we come onto another of the young stars Harley Eldridge who made 2nd her own, Brian Eldridge did nab 2nd in round 3 but Harley still went 1 better to take 1st.

So Finals. GT12 C Final, One of the youngest drivers Shane Chipolina took the win in Leg 1 with Jake Vincent taking the win in Leg 2 & the oldest driver Graham Southall (sorry Dad) taking 3rd for an Overall: Shane Chipolina, Jake Vincent & Graham Southall. GT12 B Final, James Vincent from pole took leg 1 with Michael Vale taking leg 2, Excellence mention for Darcie Smith (9) who took a 3rd & 4th place narrowly missing out on the top 3, overall: Michael Vale, James Vincent, Bradley Dilworth. GT12 A Final, Tim Hancock took the win in the 1st leg with Scott Morton taking the 2nd with a lights to flag victory. Overall: Scott Morton, Tim Hancock, Leyton Foster.

3rd Leyton Foster, 1st Scott Morton, 2nd Tim Hancock

17.5 Blinky C Final, Paul Isaacs taking the 1st leg with a win from Pole ahead of Owen Carter who went on to win the 2nd Leg, Overall: Owen Carter, Paul Isaacs, Daryll Roberts, B Final Dominic Baker took the 1st leg with Mark Trinder taking the 2nd Overall: Dominic Baker, Nick Upton, Mark Trinder. A Final. A clean getaway saw Jimmy Maddison take a stroll to the 1st leg win with Ricky Copsey & Mason Weston fighting over 2nd which Ricky just edged, Leg 2 saw a restart after a 1st corner pile up Ricky Copsey led them home to victory ahead of Mason & Malc Hall with the Champion down in 4th after uncharacteristic errors. Overall: Ricky Copsey, Jimmy Maddison & Mason Weston.

2nd Jimmy Maddison, 1st Ricky Copsey, 3rd Mason Weston

WGT A Final Leg 1 & 2, at 12 years old Owen Smith was the star of the show leaving all in his wake, he took both legs comfortably, while setting the fastest lap of the day of anyone 10.340s Tom Hampson got within 3 secs but that was not enough. Overall: Owen Smith, Tom Hampson & Martin Southall

2nd Tom Hampson, 1st Owen Smith, 3rd Martin Southall

Open Mod B Final, Mark Young took leg 1 with Andrew Walters taking leg 2, no mention of Dani Young though? Ah that’s because she also out qualified her Dad and was in the A final Overall: Andrew Walters, Mark Young, Rhys Foster. A Final, Elliott Harper took Leg 1 with a track record 29 laps 2 secs faster than when it was last used at Round 2 the only time his car went above 11secs was the 1st & last lap Ashley Wiffen 2nd Andrew Carter 3rd, Leg 2 Elliott flirted with 2nd & 3rd place a few times before recovering to take the win ahead of Brian Eldridge & Ashley Wiffen giving an overall of Elliott Harper, Ashley Wiffen & Brian Eldridge.

2nd Ashley Wiffen, 1st Elliot Harper, 3rd Brian Eldridge

So with the racing concluded everyone headed over to the presentation ceremony or lolly parade to dish out the pots to the series winners.

As is customary now the lollies were aerially dispensed to all the racers and crowd with a gentle finesse, a good few seem to get launched back at the distributor with a little more vigour, by a little I mean with the force of a paintball. So the pots were distributed to the series top 3s as follows.

GT12 1st Tim Hancock, 2nd Ben Vincent, 3rd Scott Morton 

WGT 1st Tom Hampson, 2nd Owen Smith, 3rd Martin Southall 

17.5B 1st Jimmy Maddison, 2nd Matthew Worton, 3rd Malc Hall 

Mod 1st Elliott Harper, 2nd Harley Eldridge, 3rd Ashley Wiffen

The top U13 Junior prize went to the superbly talented Owen Smith who also finished 5th overall in GT12 & continues to get better every week.

The most improved driver was awarded to Darcie Smith for despite being only 9 has shown many a driver how it is done and so often with a smile, another one to watch for the future.

And finally the highest award that we can give out the Jonathan Fletcher Courtesy Cup, was awarded to Harley Eldridge like a lot of young drivers has continued to grow & shine in her discipline as one of the fastest drivers about with the element of humour that she kept beating her Dad as well.

For us this year has seen a transformation of a series that has traditionally been about fun & more importantly than that youth. The series started with Rug Racers Reloaded this gave us a chance to show what we had done for this year but more than that the Martin Laxton cup. Martin was there from the start & was passionate about bringing youngsters into the sport and giving us a future at HRCC & Rug Racers with racers like Harley, Owen, Darcie, Shane, Holly, Ethan, Jake, Preston, Stan, Frazier, Jak the future is bright and once again we thank you and hope you would have been proud.

As always a massive, huge, enormous thanks and a hug for all of our sponsors this year, you have helped make this series what it was without your support we cannot put it all together & of course the team that makes this happen the Rug Racers team with new faces on board this year it has been

the most successful to date and we look forward to improving next year. Finally a big thanks to all the racers that have supported us this year over 150 of you without you all we have nothing.

We look forward to seeing you all again next year.

All the photos of winners collecting their trophies and more can be found on our facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rugracers/

Active Scale Models - http://www.activescalemodels.co.uk/
Mardave - http://mardave.co.uk/
Schumacher - http://www.racing-cars.com/
CML Distribution - http://www.cmldistribution.co.uk/
HPI Racing - http://www.hpiracing.co.uk/
Tonisport - http://www.fast-webshop.com/tonisport
Logic RC - http://www.logicrc.com/
RC Racing UK - http://www.rcracinguk.com/
MoodyFools - http://moodyfools.com/
Muchmore Racing UK - http://www.muchmoreracing.com/
Propel RC - http://www.propelrc.co.uk/
RC Racer Mag - http://www.rcracer.com/
The RC Racer - http://www.thercracer.com/

Full results from Round 5 and final championship results can be found here: http://goo.gl/HJ6dOQ

Words - Martin Southall
Photos - Emma Conyers