Double win for Pain, E-Buggy victory for Mitchell at Western Australia 1/8-Scale Off-Road State Titles

Race report by Chris Mitchell

Photos by Kai Jaeger and Ian Silfo

 

Over the past weekend, the Radio Rally Club (RRC) held the 2017 AARCMCC WA 1/8 Off Road State Titles on their Grass circuit in Canning Vale, WA. The states best 1/8 off road racers all converged upon the RRC club for the weekend to battle out the 3 State Titles available in Buggy, Truggy and EP8 Buggy.

 

 

Friday started with track setup, practice from midday, finishing off with the first round of qualifying on Friday afternoon, Qualifying rounds on Saturday and the mains on Sunday. In common RRC style, the track for this event was unknown by the racers until it developed in front of their eyes, racers were met with a fast and full throttle track that proved to be tough on economy for most drivers struggling to do 7 minute pit stops.

 

 

In Buggy qualifying Josh Pain immediately stepped forwards as the man to beat, taking TQ in 4 straight rounds ahead of Steve Smith and Kyle Francis Pain wouldn't have the same qualifying luck in Truggy though as Kyle Francis won 3 of the 6 rounds to secure overall TQ from Steve Smith and Josh Pain. In EP8 Buggy Ruben Martins started his weekend off right by winning the first 2 rounds of qualifying, and then one more to score the overall TQ from Chris Mitchell and Fabio Silvi.

 

 

Sunday morning started nice and early with the first of 3 EP8 A main legs kicking off the days proceedings, in A1 Martins led out but dropped back early Mitchell led from there but fell victim to crashing on the jumps. It was Fabio Silvi who capitalised on mistakes from the others, bringing home the A1 win from Mitchell and Martins. In A2 Mitchell got to an early lead, taking Martins with him as Silvi dropped back, the lead pair sneaking over the line for an extra lap at the tone, Martins took advantage of a mistake from Mitchell to take the A2 win and force a three way tie on points going into the third leg.

 

 

In A3 Martins would lead out early as Mitchell stayed close behind in second as they built a gap to the rest of the field. Mitchell eventually found a way around Martins by the halfway mark. Mitchell didn't look back after that, leading Martins around in a clean run to secure the A3 win and set the fastest winning time, taking the overall win ahead of Martins in second and Silvi in third.

 

 

Final Results:

Chris Mitchell - HB

Ruben Martins - Mugen

Fabio Silvi - HB

 

The Truggy A Main looked to be a battle of the Tekno drivers early on, as Kyle Francis led out from Josh Pain. Pain attempted an early undercut by pitting for his first stint at just 4 minutes in gaining him some clean air and the ability to make up time to Francis out front while Francis could not judge the gap and respond. This silent battle went on for 30 minutes as Kyle managed to hold the lead while Pain edged closer and closer at each stop, pitting out of sync and dropping 10 seconds down, before Francis would pit a few minutes later and the gap would reset to just a couple of seconds. The battle heated up in the final 15 minutes as Pain started to make his move, successfully making the pass on Francis for the lead, while Steve Smith drove around alone in 3rd. With less that 5 minutes to go, Pain had built a small lead over Francis, who would then suffer a mechanical failure, ending his final run. Pain went on to win the Truggy main by 4 laps over Steve Smith in 2nd, young Harry Simms who had been 4th for the whole race, just squeaking over the line to snatch third from Kyle Francis.

 

 

Final Results:

 

In the Buggy A main, Josh Pain looked in a class of his own, as he broke away early and never looked back, entirely unchallenged all race long during the 45 minute A main. Pain drove to a 6 minute pit stop strategy, although peculiar it served him well, with no concerns of having to save fuel, Pain stomped his way around the RRC circuit, lapping almost a full second per lap faster than the rest of the field. Steve Smith drove out to second and third which is where they stayed for the remainder of the race, unable to match the pace of Pain out front, or even get close enough to race eachother. Pain would drive the remainder of the A main in a dominating fashion to take the double WA State Title ahead of Steve Smith and Dale Smulders.

 

 

Final Results:

 

Wrapping up a fantastic race weekend on Australia’s only grass RC racing club, the 2017 edition of the Western Australian State Titles proved to be another great success. Congratulations to the RRC club on hosting the event, and congratulations to all the winners.