Adur Winter Series, round 6 / Feb 26th 2008 / United Kingdom

Chris Lillywhite's Race Report:

The last round of the championship and everything to play for, I could finish anywhere between 2nd and 4th if I had done well but it was a close call... Trevor only needed to finish 4th and I had to win the event to take 3rd from him, man it was a way tall order.

I got up at 6am, car all prep'd. Got to the track for an 8am start when the doors opened. I was getting a little nervous knowing I really had to push like crazy in qualifying - as in stock every grid position counts.

I made the decision to buy some new tyres as I was told they would give me a .5 sec a lap advantage... a plan of battle was forming... I went out for practice and the car felt dialled, I was just a little nervous.

I booked in and thought to myself, theres a whole heat of A-main racers in one single heat... Things are going to happen as no one gives an inch in stock racing, whoever has the biggest balls keeps the throttle on until the last second into the corners LOL. And it was all to play for in the closing round.

I asked the race director if I could be put in with regular B main racers, he was cool with it. You may think this was a big risk as they are slower cars and I have to avoid coming up to them at speed and get round them, but my battle plan was forming...

I wanted an easy qualifying meal into the A main, by going with slower guys it gives me a real buzz when I am lapping, and pushes me into overdrive. It was a risk I was willing to take to get onto the podium top 3. There was some pit talk when the heat listings were out LOL, it got the A main regulars scratching their head a bit. I was just already thinking ahead, sometimes r/c is about strategy and I know a good one when the gears in my head start turning LOL.

So into round 1 qualifying and I am using the brand new tyres. I probably set a good reserve time to get me in the A main if I had any problems in qualifying R2 or 3, car felt good but I got caught in the back markers a few times, yes I was starting to regret being in with the B main guys but my time was still TQ (by just 2 seconds) for round 1 so I was happy, but I knew the grip will come up so I still knew I had to keep pushing for a faster time.

Onto round 2 and I only managed a 26 5m1.962 compared to my round 1 time of 26 5m 03.298, I was starting to worry as usually you get an extra lap when the grip comes up. I was afraid I would get knocked down a fair few grid positions. You could count at least 3 times where I was held up by newcomers. Things were not looking good, an extra second is all I could knock off.

I spoke to the guys in my heat after that round. I just said "guys, if you see me coming in round 3, let me through. It will make us all quicker if we both dont crash"

A 5 second off is longer than a 2 second pull over to let me through. They all totally saw my point and there was no hard feelings by me or any others. I didnt know if it would work but I felt a clean run coming in R3.

To cap it off, I had a newbie pitting next to me and he had blown a hub to pieces. his comm was toasty, he was in a bad way and I couldnt turn my back on him, I downed tools on my own car and chucked his arm in the lathe, spun it up and got his motor back up to pace. I overlooked his work on the hub and it was all golden.

So, after rebuilding his motor, I prep'd my own car and took a big chill pill. I needed it... It worked too...

What happened in R3 can only be described as truly shocking. I could not believe what the race director said at the end of the race.... DIALLED! (Or if your name is MC Hammer, its "Hammer time" LOL) I managed a 28 lapper! I took TQ by over a WHOLE LAP, the 2nd placed guy on the grid could only respond by managing a 27 lapper, the rest of the A main field could only hook up 26 lappers all day.

My time was actually good enough to put me on the front row of the grid in MOD for the meeting!!!! The race director then announced this over the P.A and then wanted to look at my car for some reason, I can't think why LOL. Nothing illegal was found and the time was allowed. I have never been a cheater but even if I try to lie I go bright red anyway so it wouldnt work LOL.

Man, my stock motor came off smelling like it was at gas mark 10 but I punched the air in delight when I got off the rostrum. I had literally driven the wheels off my car, I simply couldn't push it any more. Less than 6/10ths of a second between my fastest and average lap, I had one slight kiss with a lapper on lap 24 so if that hadnt happened, it may have been even better.

Shall I tell you the funniest thing about this... I was using my OLD tyres that I had been using just one set for the whole championship! 2 hours of use had gone through these sorex 24 premounted and I was using unmatched IB4200 cells that have had a 6amp charge put through them for 2 years and looking a bit sorry for themselves, and my car is a whopping 80GRAM overweight LOL. The motor is a keeper, it was quick, albeit smelling a little warm!!!

So, I dominated TQ every round, and 3rd overall in personal best laptimes for the series. Sweet! my gamble of going in with the regular B main guys paid off. I fight to the very end! The moment you look back is the moment you lose.

Well, if that didnt put the cat amongst the pidgeons I dont know what did. I really put the fear into the opposition.

A main Leg 1. Nerves were really getting to me, I was really, really nervous. I just had to sweat it out until the buzzer went... On laps 2 and 9 I really fell apart, I climbed back to 2nd, but then a bad marshal on the very last lap didnt see my car, right before the loop too and I was a sitting duck. I finished 4th. I am sure it would have been a 2nd if I had not crashed on the last corner of the last lap, I was kicking myself. You can see how tight it all was.

I really thought I had blown it, but then I checked the results over after marshalling and Trevor (my main rival for the podium) also had a dire race and despite starting 4th, finished last with some kind of car problem.

I hadn't made it easy for myself in the 2nd leg.... And it got even more controversial!!!! I am not going to forget this series for a while.  Si Cleaver only had to cruise this for the win as he already won the first leg and needed a 4th to win the title.  Lap 10 I make a huge error and lost the lead, some 6 seconds off a hot lap. But I didnt give up. I set the quickest lap by 4/10ths of a second and I was reeling it in lap by lap.  By almost the end of the 5 minutes I had reeled in 1st and just had to get past him... Si handed me the win! he didnt need it and knew I would fight him for it. He just had to cruise and cross the line in 4th or above overall. If he finished last with a dnf he might not have made enough points as he had no throw aways in the fight for the title....

He backed right off the throttle and let me through to take the win by just over 2 seconds.... No team tactics here! LOL. Truly an unbelievable end to the series. You can see his laps are slower in the last few, I simply had the faster car.  He knew that, I knew it too, and we simply didn't want to end the series with a DNF for both cars and I would possibly have lost in the quest for 3rd. No one watching the race could really believe what they were seeing, it was all pretty surreal stuff.  He just told me to go past him and take the win, we didnt need to fight it out. I wasnt challenging him for the series win so he just said "take the win, its yours" but it was all so close. Trevor had already given up the fight 6 laps in with car problems and I took the 3rd place overall by a massive 4 points.

Obviously though, I had no idea Trevor was out, I was focusing hard on the race. After my poor first leg performance I still really thought I hadn't quite done it (my math isnt good lol)  So it was a painstaking wait until the photo shoot and trophy presentation to see who had done it. I was just 2 points away from second. If I had won the last round, man..... can you just imagine that. a single point from 2nd! aaaaaaargh someone shoot me to get rid of the pain LOL.

I got a trophy, a years membership to the Adur club and an RC Mushroom pit towel for my efforts!