Team Durango wins Proline Challenge!

0 Aug. 31, 2011, 6:27 a.m.

Main Photo: Team Durango wins Proline Challenge!

08/31/2011
By Mike Garrison
LiveRC.com

Coming to us from across the pond, Team Durango's Kevin Brunsden has won the 2011 Proline Challenge with the popular DNX408!

OFFICIAL TEAM DURANGO PRESS RELEASE:

Team Durango’s Kevin Brunsden took home the victory in last weekend’s prestigeous Proline Challenge 1/8th buggy race, held at the all-dirt Slough track. Kevin beat some of the top racers in the UK including national champion Darren Bloomfield on his way to the victory in the hour-long main – proving the strength and durability of the car on the demanding track.

Kevin reports on his experiences below:

The Proline was an event I was looking forward to after I finished second last year. The Saturday started wet so they decided to keep the track closed until midday, meaning we had a long wait until we started. Eventualy things got underway and we were showing good pace from the start, so it was nice to not have to do any tweeks for practice two in which, again, we had very good pace.

Day two, round one of qualifying, and my car was very good and only missed TQ by 1.5 seconds to go third in the round. In the second round the pace was even faster. Again I finished third in the round. I made a couple of mistakes in round three but still finished fifth in the round.

Round four and we decided to make a change to the inserts. We went slightly softer and took TQ in the round! For the fifth and final round of qualifying I changed the rear springs, going slightly harder which enabled me to put in a faster time which was good enough for second in the round. This put me second overall - so I was very happy!

Finals day and I was feeling good. The semi warm-up went well and we tried to do a ten minute run but soon found out this was not going to be possible – so we’d have to revert to a shorter run.

On to the semi-final and it all went smooth. I led from start to finish and put in the second fastest time which was good enough to put me third on the grid for the main.

The main final was up next and I was feeling good. I had a clean start but on lap three made a small error coming over the double jump and droped down to ninth. I just stayed cool and drove smooth. It quickly became apparent that I had a lot of pace over the people infront of me, so I worked my way through the field. After the 12 minute mark I was back up to third and pushing hard – trying to put a gap on the following pack.

By around the 20minute mark I was up to second after passing Craig Drescher who’d broken down. A problem with the leaders’ car at the 30 minute mark again saw me make a pass and up to first place which I held all the way to the line for win, almost a full lap up on the closest competitor.

Thanks to Neobuggy.net for the use of the photos – please visit their report on this race HERE