We came, we saw, we raced backwards! Thanks to all that made the journey out to Launceston R/C tonight for some Australia Day fun. The result was some great racing, a real challenge of learning a new track (backwards…it was totally different!) and a nice way to end the day.
Class wins went to Chris West (Novice), Andrew Mackenzie (Tourer), Jarrod Painting (Tenth Buggy), Scott Guyatt (Short Course A), Chris Murray (Short Course B) and Steve Madziara (8th Big Bangers).
Full results from tonight are online here, or read on for some reflections on tonight’s action.
Novice: Team West go to War
All night long it was a battle of the West boys – Chris and Andrew going at it, sharing the wins during qualifying and then engaging in a race-long duel that also included rapid newcomer Matt Bonham in the final. When the final flag dropped Chris was the one who held the #1 spot to duly take his very first finals win at Launceston R/C. Andrew was equally excited with second while Bonham did a super job all night and should be delighted to podium first time out. Michael Taylor was fourth, Kade Targett a welcome returnee in fifth, first-timer Nicolas Wade went quicker and quicker all night for 6th with Carl Taylor rounding out the field.
Tourers: Mackenzie Lights it Up!
Andrew Mackenzie was just too good all night in the tourers class, top qualifying comfortably and then running away to a huge win in the final. Second, and looking very speedy in a class that is still relatively new to him was Jade Chandler, with Peter Hutton finding his way with a new car tonight for third. Graham Viney won the battle of the Mini brigade over Ian Scott and Matthew Chandler, with Brad Mitchell back for another run, and Gene Newell making a first (if shortened by some car issues) appearance in the class.
Tenth Buggy: 4wd Dominance
Jarrod Painting continues to show improvement in leaps and bounds, and has his 4wd Kyosho Lazer working beautifully. He made the most of a grip and handling advantage to dominate qualifying, and then get over a lost shock retaining nut to recover and win the final ahead of Tom West. Tom’s T4 stadium truck is looking very racy in this class and Tom was quick all night, with Jade and Matthew Chandler battling over 2wd bragging rights and finishing in that order.
Short Course: Young Guns Step Up!
The best stories from tonight’s short course action were not written at the very front of the Calvin James moved into open competition after ‘graduating’ from Novice, and all three looked fast and comfortable in the open class. It’s a measure of how well the novice system is working at Launceston R/C that the guys who move on into the open classes are usually instantly competitive. These three, together with Chris Murray are excellent examples of that. Calvin did a brilliant job first time out in the main game to take an A final starting spot, and then put together a solid 10 minute A final to finish 6th for the night.
Elsewhere Adam Beresford returned after a long absence to be right back on the pace, and Alexander Wade did a fantastic job to put his truck into the A final. It was a night full of great promise for the young guns.
Up front in the A final Scott Guyatt had a little edge over Andrew Green, with Andrew Mackenzie getting home in front of Chris Madziara and Richard Green. Then it was James, Tom West, Derek and Adam Beresford and Alexander Wade (those last two both spending quality time in the pits during the A final). Chris Murray was disappointed to miss the A but made amends with a comfortable B final win in a very rapid time ahead of a race-long duel between Mark Jones and Sam Leeder. Gene Newell, Ian Scott, James Atkinson and Philip Ferguson rounded out the field.
8th Big Bangers: A Small Affair
The biggest cars were the smallest class tonight, three starters turning into two finishers when Jarrod Painting stripped a gear in his DBX. Steve Madziara pushed his Kyosho hard all night in what would double as a warm-up for the upcoming Tasmanian Championships to take the win over Troy Taylor.
Drive of the Night?
For drive of the night tonight I can’t go past Calvin James. Calvin was fast, consistent and did a brilliant job first time out in the main Short Course field. Making the final was quite an effort, staying clean for 6th overall topped it. Congrats Calvin, job well done.
The End
We finish the night with a question before us. How did you like the reverse direction racing? There are a couple of track tweaks required if we were to run it again, but we’re very interested in your feedback. Did you like it? Should we run it again?
We’re now just two weeks away from our next race meeting (the first of our Autumn 2012 Championship Season) so stay tuned for all the news, get those cars ready and we’ll see you February 9th. Good luck to Alex John, Sam Wells and Paddy Hume who are over in Melbourne this weekend racing at the Keilor Stock Shootout.
And if you’re looking for Tassie R/C action, there’s an offroad race meeting on at Latrobe (8th offroad Nitro plus 8th and 10th electric classes) and on-road (tourers and minis) on the all new track at Goodwood in Hobart. Both take place on Sunday.
Launceston R/C Racers 
totally different running backwards!!!!!!!! great fun!!!
so, how does everyone feel about it been backwards???
we would change a lot of the jumps and set-up to suit the opposite direction of course, but we want you thoughts.
slap ’em up, and we’ll go from there!
if you like it the other way, that’s cool, just let us know!!! it’s only a “thought” to run the other way.
I had a bad start to the night blew up my motor combo and the Slash trying to fix a problem and Thanks to Macca for lending his spare Motor & Esc combo for the night and did well until a loose wheel-nut in the Final!
I thought the backwards layout was sweet maybe a couple more jumps and where the jumps are at the back as u come down the corner tabletop thing (if we run backwards) need to swap the up and down ramps around (just my thoughts anyways
Cheers chris
yeah, ran out of time to modify the step up before the meet, but if we where to run backwards again, we would rectify the ramps on it
Sounds good cheif
It was different,didnt really have much trouble with the blitz but it was total different with the mini all over the place.
My thought lets race backwards for the next series but would to see the timing bridge moved to the front straight somewhere.(near the middle i suggest so you go passes the bridge and have time to slow down at end of the race.
yep, bang on Ian, i forgot to move the bridge before the meet, but we would move it to the main strait somewhere, either at the start(track backwards) or middle, there abouts.
but somewhere it wouldn’t interfere with the other side of the strait, or hamper ones view of the rest of the track.
I think at end of the Drivers Stand-Computer table-End of the Stand to give poeple a chance to stop and pick up there cars from that heat!
Ive got myself a T.A B4.1 Buggy now for something different to race with: Im still stuggling to race my Vorza so ive gone for an 10th Scale Buggy to have a go for a while then once im happy i might bring back the Vorza! L8r James
Like it clockwise!
Interesting night running in the opposite direction. I agree with what has been posted above. The jumps were better with middle one removed but the approach seemed more difficult coming from the opposite direction. It felt like the existing ramp created a drop in the run up. I also agree with Ian’s comment about the location of the bridge.
Driving anti-clockwise the tourer track didn’t seem to flow as nicely in the last couple of corners leading on to the main straight. It also felt as if there was a reduced field of view going into the first corner at the end of the main straight and I made a number of accidental mistakes there. Perhaps the drivers stand could be moved back a little to help the view of the straight and first corner.
It took some adjustment running anti-clockwise but it was a good twist and would probably do us good to run both ways. As the points seasons are now longer, perhaps we can run half the season clockwise and the other half of the season anti-clockwise.
Loved the reverse direction. Lets leave it like that for a while, with the few modifications that everyone has mentioned. Maybe we could move the the twin doubles a bit further away from the corner table top to give the slower cars and or drivers in my case a bit more time to settle their cars before the double and get a bit more speed up before the first double.
My compliments to the members whom gave up their time on Australia day to firstly change the track and secondly to everyone who ran the event and raced. It was a great night. Chris and Andrew had a ball, and haven’t stopped talking about how much fun they had. And at the end of the day that is what i believe our club is about. Good fun racing, and encouraging the sport to new, and up and coming drivers.