X-Factory UK Winter Series Rd1 – Report

The first round of the X-Factory UK Winter Series took place last Saturday at the new venue in Aldenham. A fast, but technical track greeted the racers and after the four rounds of qualifying it was Ellis Stafford (Schumacher) who would take the TQ in the 2WD class, followed by William Venebles (Team Associated) in 2nd, Mark Lewis (Team Associated) in 3rd, Richard Miller (Yokomo) in 4th, Joe Renton (Team Associated) in 5th and Lee Hedges (Xray) in 6th, with the remaining A final spots would be filled from the bump ups via the lower finals. In 4WD, TQ went to Darren Boyle (LC Racing) from Sam Breton (Corally) in 2nd and Oliver Szymanksi (Corally) in 3rd.

On to the finals and the 2WD B-final was an entertaining one, with the lead swapping hands many times throughout the race. After a dreadful start from pole man Gareth Cutting (Team Associated) it was Stuart Smith (Team Associated) who took advantage from P2 to take a comfortable win with Stephen Blake (Team Associated) coming from P4 to take the second and final bump to the A-main.

Next to run was the 4WD A-final, this was taken flag to flag by pole man Darren Boyle with Oli Szymanski coming through in 2nd and narrowly beating Sam Breton by less than a second.

The final race of the day was the 2WD A-final, pole man Ellis Stafford led the field away and looked comfortable out front until an error on the very last lap allowed William Venebles to sneak through and just pinch the win with Mark Lewis coming home in 3rd. The next round of the series will be held on November 16th.

Source: DMS Model Car Club [dmsresults.co.uk]