On 24-26 August 2013 HNMC’s GP took place aiming to build on last year’s Pro-Line event, but with the Neo race running on the same weekend it was going to be more club driver friendly. The track was prepped as the club puts lot of effort into its track, driven by the passion of the members, club committee and the staff at Westmill Farm. It’s a thankless task but the club just gets on with in. Jim Thompson wanted to thank all that helped out to improve on one of the UK best tracks. Day one can be summed up as rain plus rain then a monsoon – very bad conditions. Sunday and day two saw some 2000 litres of water pumped off the track at 07:30 and the track was dry enough at 10:40 to start racing – thanks again to all that mucked in. Two rounds of practice and four rounds of heats on Sunday would be followed by two more rounds on Monday with a standard final format was the new schedule for the weekend. Practice went to Simon Reeves in nitro and E-buggy as Mark Gregory topped the truggy class. Seven laps was the target for all drivers in qualifying with a target lap time of between 45 and 47 second laps. Simon Reeves continued to dominate the buggy classes with Jim Thompson just pipping Darren Hayden-Ball in the truggy class, with all to battle for on the Monday. One fun event on the Sunday would be the Mechanics race plus a few ringers. The top three in this class was Brian Ward winning from Gary Clancy and Steve Johnson (driving sticks). The day ended with free BBQ.
Monday dawned rain free and the last two rounds of qualifying confirmed Simon Reeves as TQ in nitro and E-buggy with Jim Thompson TQ in truggy. The track was faster on Monday with a lot more drivers completing seven lappers and drivers in lower 45-second area.
There was a junior race for all qualifying drivers not making the A final and this saw Liam Dawney take the win from Robson White and Nick Whitehouse. Fourth was Alex Michael ahead of Ricky Pinder, Daniel Shelton, Jordan Shelton and Will Daniels. These junior racers will be the next crop of drivers following in Elliott Boots footsteps…
As part of the weekend there was a raffle for the Herts Air Ambulance where the club raised £350 on the day. Thanks to Horizon Hobby and Herts RC Models for donating prizes.

Finals
The E-buggy finals were run over three legs of 15 minutes. Simon Reeves took the first two legs and sat out leg three. Bart Banach took second overall with Michael Vaughan wrapping up third. This is the club’s fastest growing class and we are looking a getting two regular heats by next summer.
The truggy final was good final to watch with Jim Thompson and Darren Hayden-Ball both missing the start. But Darren would take the win from Mark Gregory and Kyle Hill.
The D final in nitro buggy was won by Janos Nagy from Bob Ryan, Jeremy Irving and Start Smith. Janos Nagy then went on to win the C final and the B final too. Second in the C final was Keith Harris beating Sean Berryman and Michael Vaughan, whislt in the B final Josh Johnson was second with Harry Philips third and Keith Harris fourth. The buggy A final saw Simon Reeves domination continue winning from TLR team mates Garry Brace and Ian Barnard.

Thanks to all that stuck it out turned into a great weekend. Full results are available here.  The next race is round six on 1 September and you can book in here.

Source: HNMC