Our first Championship Series is run and won, with the completion last Thursday night of our Winter 2010 Championship Series.  Run over six race meetings spaced out through six months, the series saw drivers competing across five classes for the honour of going down in the record books as the first Championship winners in the continuing story of Launceston R/C.  Read on for all the details of our first Club Championship Series results.

Novice

Our Novice class saw 6 club members take to the track with a mixture of 1/10th scale offroad buggies and trucks.  Paul Tenteye took three Round wins and was consistently fast to secure our first Championship, closely followed by John Silczak & Ben Wilson – both locked together on 106 points after the whole series!

1. Paul Tenteye, 115 points
2. John Silczak & Ben Wilson, 106 points
3. tied
4. Sam Leeder, 55 points
5. Steve Willis, 18 points
6. Ryan Hughes, 16 points

With a number of our novice pilots gaining in experience and ready to move into the open 10th class, and a bunch of new drivers gathering, we can expect some new names and faces emerging in this class in the months ahead.

10th Buggy

Steve Madziara was completely dominant throughout the series, taking six out of six possible wins in the 10th Buggy class.  In what was a small but diverse class, Steve Willis made the move from Novice and finished a sound second, with Andrew Barrett’s Losi Sprintcar in third.

1. Steve Madziara, 125 points
2. Steve Willis, 82 points
3. Andrew Barrett, 60 points
4. Richard Green, 44 points
5. Andrew Green, 17 points

As mentioned above, there’s every chance of some fresh entrants moving from Novice into Tenth for our next Series – a move that will definitely spice up the competition in Tenth Buggy.

Touring Cars

The mixture of touring cars and mini’s is proving entertaining in our Tourer class.  We’ve seen some real speed, and a growing level of competitiveness as drivers upgrade chassis’ over the last few events.  Graham Viney has been consistently quick to take three of six rounds, with Rodney Houghton and Sam Wells also picking up race wins.  Consistency paid dividends for the mighty mini of Andrew Barrett – no less than five second place finishes securing second overall, with James Atkinson likewise picking up points consistently throughout the series to finish on the podium.

1. Graham Viney, 115 points
2. Andrew Barrett, 110 points
3. James Atkinson, 91 points
4. Peter Hutton, 73 points
5. Sam Wells, 72 points
6. Rodney Houghton, 25 points
7. John Scott, 20 points
8. Richard Green, 17 points

8th Scale – “Big Bangers”

Without question the most spectacular class has been the 8th scale open class.  Mostly made up of 8th EP buggies (with the odd truggy and monster truck thrown in), this has been the preserve of massive horsepower and a heap of fun. And the competition has been intense too – three different drivers taking race wins, and the championship going down to the wire.  Rodney Houghton was the man who stood tallest, scooping the Championship in his Losi buggy with three wins on the trot, and a handful of points ahead of the Team Associated duo of Paddy Hume and Dave Holloway.  Look out for new race winners in this class in the weeks ahead, with Darren Walters, Josh Fogarty and Steve Madziara getting faster and faster.

1. Rodney Houghton, 119 points
2. Paddy Hume, 111 points
3. Dave Holloway, 99 points
4. Josh Fogarty, 95 points
5. Steve Madziara, 80 points
6. Ben Wilson, 74 points
7. Steve Willis, 72 points
8. John Silczak, 70 points
9. Darren Walters, 67 points
10. Ian Scott, 64 points
11. Graham Viney, 53 points
12. Aaron Peck, 17 points
13. Alex Dadson, 14 points
14. Taylor Barwick, 12 points
15. Sam Leeder, 11 points

Short Course Trucks

Short Course is definitely our biggest, and arguably our most competitive class, with fields of up to 20 trucks each week.  There have been too many great performances to list, but in particular we want to point out the great form of Alex Dadson, Peter Hutton, Chris Madziara and Sam Leeder – these four guys making plenty of A finals and improving rapidly.  Up front it’s been a battle between Rodney Houghton and Scott Guyatt for the wins, with the duo taking three each.  Rocket’s consistency has been awesome – never outside the top two and taking a deserved win.  Right on his heels throughout the season, and definitely closing in on his first win has been Andrew Green (Greenie!) with Dave Holloway the first of the Team Associated runners and a consistent front runner for a fine third.

1. Rodney Houghton, 119 points
2. Andrew Green, 106 points
3. Dave Holloway, 83 points
4. Alex Dadson, 79 points
5. Scott Guyatt, 75 points
6. Peter Hutton & Josh Fogarty, 70 points
7. tied
8. Sam Leeder, 69 points
9. Chris Madziara, 62 points
10. Sam Wells & Chris Brickwood, 55 points
11. tied
12. James Atkinson, 52 points
13. Ian Scott, 39 points
14. Taylor Barwick, 26 points
15. Aaron Peck, 23 points
16. Steve Madziara 20 points
17. John Scott, 15 points
18. Ryan Hughes, 13 points

It’s been a very fine Championship series, our first, and packed with some excellent racing.  We’ll have a presentation of trophies as soon as they arrive (a few weeks away yet).

At this stage the next Championship points series will kick off in the New Year, with current plans being to run three points series each year (Summer, Winter, Spring).

Racing action won’t slow down in the meantime…stay close to your PC for some great news about the latest additions to the track at Rutherglen….and make sure you’re there next week on October 14th when next we do battle.