[CMOTD]

Tel (savage) came over today to lend a hand with the final two stages. He drove the Class A Ninco cars while I did the Class D scratch-builds.

Class A Ninco  - these could not cope with any of the remaining obstacles so they were removed and the only thing they had to worry about was the suspension bridge. Some of the cars coped much better with this as the results show but the top 5 competitors were very closely matched with just 1 lap separating them. In fact there was a dead heat for 1st place between James' Pajero and Paul's Montero.

Full results:    

Class D Scratch - as with the Ninco cars all obstacles removed but these cars caused the only running problems I had all weekend. Every single one went faulty in one way or another.

Pip's Fiesta completed the first run at a fairly slow pace and struggled to get up the bridge then died two laps into the second. The lights worked but the motor wouldn't turn. Nothing obviously wrong but it recovered after a short rest and managed the third at similar pace.

Mike's Pajero popped its motor out of the mounts on the first run. We repaired that but then it would move a few feet and refuse to run any further. We took it apart but could find nothing wrong with the wiring. At this point I suspected we might have a track fault but a test run with a previously run Ninco car proved the track to be fine. I gave it one final go after Tel had left and it spluttered into life for 18 slow laps then died completely. I think the motor may have given up the ghost.

Kevin's pick up truck compounded its drop arm problems by pulling the ferrules out of the braids every time it did a wheely! By driving fairly sedately we managed to avoid this and it was the only car in the class to complete all three runs.

And so to Bernie's Panda car - quite how a two wheel drive police car with the front wheels waving in the air qualifies as a raid vehicle is beyond me but I didn't write the rules. What is even more amazing is the performance of the thing! The first run was nothing to write home about and it died during the second and failed to finish. After a short rest it was rejuvenated and shot round the track like a scalded cat. The bridge was taken at virtually full throttle and it clocked up an astonishing 28.9 laps to win by a huge margin. It was also the only car to complete a clear round with no deslots all weekend.

Full results:    

In conclusion - I have never been involved in a proxy event before and really didn't know what to expect. Suffice to say I found it very enjoyable and would happily host a round of one in the future. I had forgotten how much fun my SCX off road stuff was, I bought a complete set plus extras when the system came out but have lacked the space to play with it much so it was a real treat to get it set up again. My thanks to Graham for organising things and encouraging me to take part. Also thanks to all the entrants for entrusting me with their creations.