Coventry Model Car Club held the re-run of the 5th round of the MAM (Midlands Astro Masters) 1/8th Series at their Baginton facility. Conditions excellent for this round it would seem that summer had arrived early in the UK with temperatures in the high teens!
The MAM series allows for Nitro and Electric 1/8th cars to compete side by side in both qualifying (5minutes) and finals (20 minutes). With fast locals and National ‘A’ finalists in attendance the meeting had a strong field of 82 drivers.
B Main: Stuart Harlow using his Tekin powered DEX408 would line 6th on the grid after some good consistent qualifying. Adam Skelding would line up in the B main after a bit of rough qualifying with his Tekin powered Dex408.
Lining up in the B main would mean uncharted territory for Adam, 20 minutes on high grip astro would there be enough juice in the tank to do a non-stopper in his Dex408? The final got off to a horrible start as a crash on the first corner dropped Adam to the back of the pack. However, this might have been a blessing in disguise as with some clear track he was able to settle into cruise mode, not pushing the car and taking unnecessary power out of the cells. Quickly he moved up the leader board and was soon into the top 5. As the pit stops came round Adam was able to make use of the non-stop strategy to head the field. In cruise mode, Adam got the call to “Tease it to the finish” to which he replied “Fuel ain’t gonna help now”. As the tone sounded, Adam was already almost a lap up and the only one on the extra lap and coasted to victory and a Bump up into the A main!
Adam Skelding would make it out for the A main joining Chris and Stuart after a battery charge. Chris got a good start and was soon upto 2nd behind Craig Drescher with Stuart 7th and Adam just behind in 8th. Adam made a couple of errors dropping him back from Stuart who was holding on to the Nitro guys who were running ‘flat out’. Stuart was steadily making his way through the field as the Nitro Guys pitted and was soon running 4th. Hardly making a mistake, Stuart was now on the tail of the top three and soon was running 3rd after Craig Drescher had mechanical issues.
During the second round of pit-stops, Stuart’s fast pace enabled him to take 2nd within touching distance of the win. Adam was now up to 4th and Chris was running again and putting some pain on his car. Soon, Stuart was in a battle for the lead which he soon took as Leon Goode succumbed to pressure. Adam was now up to 3rd and in touching distance of 2nd, with time running out Adam pushed on and within 2 laps was on the rear gearbox of 2nd. On the last lap Adam, was able to make a pass taking 2nd place and with Stuart clear up front a surprise 1,2 for the Tekin powered DEX408s! Chris was able to battle back from his early glow plug failure to take 5th.
Tekin power proving it can take you to distance! Both driver were using the Tekin Rx8 and T8 1900 Motor!
Some text and message body supplied courtesy of Team Durango.