Nathan Waters Wins 4WD ME Regional At Eastrax

Eastrax hosted the the 2nd round of the Mid East Regional championships in a very windy Lincolnshire on 30th May. The Eastrax venue is a 100% astro turf track with a challenging layout of jumps and well placed track undulations.

The track had been heavily swept and hoovered by the Holbeach/Eastrax massive to remove the pesky sand which seems to reside in the astro-turf. This led to the track being even more grippy than normal, making getting a clean run super difficult.

The team had a few set-up alterations to try after Hupo’s recent visit to the UK, Adam started off with the set-up he found best after testing with Hupo at RHR, this was running a soft front diff compared to the rear. Nathan and Paul Fox decided to stick to their trusty Eastrax set-ups and would try the soft set-up during the day.

Qualifying

Nathan simply TQ’d all 4 rounds of qualifying dominating each round with a fine display of driving, he was challenged in each round but no-one was able to match his outright pace and consistency over 5 minutes. Nathan tried the softer diff set-ups later in the day, but was unsure as to its advantages on the track.

Adam started slowly, getting used to the Eastrax venue and also the new set-up on the car. The softer front diff didn’t seem to suit this style of track 100%. Whilst it was good at getting into the corners, it felt a little vague accelerating out of the hairpins over the bumpy sections. As the day progressed Adam moved to a more ‘normal’ Astroturf set-up.

Paul simply had a nightmare, with no luck in round 1 or 2 as the ‘48dp’ sand claimed one run and a DNF in round 2 left him looking for runs from both his last two runs.

After Qualifying the top ten was dominated by Team Durango DEX410’s with Nick Gurnell and Andy Wesson putting in impressive drives with their DEX410’s:

• 1    Nathan Waters     DEX410
• 2    Adam Mackman
• 3    Adam Skelding    DEX410
• 4    Ian Mellish
• 5    Nick Gurnell     DEX410
• 6    Paul Fox     DEX410
• 7    Richard Drury
• 8    Daniel Austin
• 9    Andy Wesson     DEX410
• 10  Paul Wragg

Final

The finals were delayed a while a few rain showers passed, by the time the A main was ready to roll the track was bathed in sunshine. Nathan got away cleanly from pole followed by Adam Mackman, Adam Skelding dropped right to the back after a ‘bad start’. Paul, Nick and Andy made good progress on the other hand up towards the sharp end of the pack. Nathan was kept honest for a good portion of the race by Adam Mackman and only late on in the race was he able to breath easily. Adam S made his way from the back of the field up to 4th by the 3 minute marker. Paul Fox was running in 3rd at this point and ‘thought Adam was out of the race’ running quite some distance back, but 1minute 30 of ‘angry’ driving soon had Adam on Paul’s G/box with 3 laps to go. Paul held off Adam’s challenge a clean pass was going to be hard to pull off.

With no team orders (and no shortage of fuel) it was going to be a straight fight. Going into the final lap, Adam tried a line over the left hand box jump at the end of the straight which allowed him to jump to the apex of the next left hander, a risky move but it came off with Adam landing and blocking Paul’s car into the next corner. Paul fought back for the rest of the lap but the pass stuck with Adam finishing 3rd ahead of Paul.  Andy Wesson and Nick Gurnell rounded out the top 6, with Nick being disappointed at letting his good start seemingly go to waste.

Another good day at the races for the DEX410 with 50% of the A using the Team Durango chassis.

Andy, Adam, Nathan, Nick and Paul with their DEX410’s

Nathan currently leads the series with two perfect scores. Set-ups can be found here: http://www.team-durango.com/in-the-pits.php?partNo=TD102001&country=gb&dir=EastTrax_GB

 

Source: Team Durango