Durango's double win at Australian Offroad Titles

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Mike Garrison

0 April 18, 2012, 4:50 a.m.

On the week of April 4 – 8 , St Ives RC Car club held the 2012 AARCMCC Australia National Titles for electric off road. The racing was hot, the track had an excellent groove and the weather was hot and sunny.

Classes were as usual, 2wd Buggy, 4wd Buggy, Truck and Short Course this year – in both stock (17.5) and modified classes.

I was competing in 2wd Modified, 4wd Modified and Truck Modified this year. I managed to finish in the top 5 at last year’s nationals and was looking to get a podium position if not a win in a class this year.
Fast drivers attending and hot favorites for the event in modified were:

Ray Munday – Associated
Ari Bakla – Kyosho
Andrew Gillot – TLR
Mathew Primmer – Durango
Mathew Iverach – TLR
Scott Jones – Associated
Darrin Campbell – Associated

All showing some fast pace, even so Darrin ‘DC’ Campbell (Multiple On Road National Champion) showing some fast laps during practice in all three classes.

Wednesday and Thursday was practice. Friday was 2wd day, Saturday is 4wd day and Sunday is Truck day.

FRIDAY – 2WD
Racing format in Australia under the AARCMCC associated is 4 qualifiers and 3 A finals. 2 of your qualifiers count. I had a strategy to bank the first two and concentrate more on being smooth than fast and put in some consistent runs in order to secure a high up position if not TQ for the A finals. Early on I showed pace as I was setting equally fast times as Bakla, Gillot and Munday. Q1 for me was better than expected finishing 2nd overall behind Bakla.

Q2 was a super good run for me before popping a ball cup and costing me a lot of time finishing 3rd overall. Q3 and 4 was also a good run finishing 2nd behind Bakla and putting me in overall Q2 heading into the A Finals.

Strategy for the finals for me was to stick behind Bakla and apply pressure and if necessary make a move on the finishing laps. This worked very well for me as I did exactly that. Tailing Bakla the whole run I made a move on the finishing lap on the front triple sticking it up the inside to take the lead and never to look back.

A2 felt great for me before the start, knowing that I had to win but also knowing that there was even more pressure on Bakla to win or otherwise lose all opportunity to win the title. I stuck to the same routine and on the finishing laps I pulled the same passing tactic on the front triple to take A2 and the overall title of Australia Champion in 2wd Modified.

 
Above:  Jarred King – 2WD Modified Winner

SATURDAY – 4WD
4WD racing would have to be my favorite and definitely where I feel most comfortable in racing. My DEX410 V3 powered by LRP was really good through practice but when getting to Qualifying I suffered with setup and it showed in results. I managed to only finish 2 of my 4 qualifiers due to problems. I broke my front suspension arm in Q2 due to a bad crash on the double and also had a front wheel come off during Q3. I managed 5th qualifier and also 6th overall for 4wd. Qualifying I feel is very important to your overall position , Q5 made it very difficult to get a good result as I had very fast drivers in front of me.

In the 4WD stock class – Scott Giles took the overall TQ and won the opening two legs of the A final to secure the victory with his Team Durango DEX410 – an awesome result for Scott and Team Durango again.

 
Above: Scott Giles – 4WD Stock Winner

So to wrap it up I managed a 1st,6th and 2nd place (truck). I am extremely happy with my result and even happier being the new 2012 Australian 2wd Champion. I have now been racing for 10 years and this is my first national win. I am super excited for the next 12 months of racing and I could not have gotten to where I am today without the support of my family and my sponsors.

Venom Racing Australia
Team Durango
Ace Hobby Distributors – Savox Servo’s
OMP ( O’reilly Model Products ) – Spektrum and TLR 22T
UPGRADE RC
BFAST Products ( Darryn )

4wd:
Team Durango DEX410 V3
Savox Shorty servo
Spektrum DX3R Pro