BADMCC [UK] 1/8th Charity Event 2021

BADMCC [UK] 1/8th Charity Event 2021

The Banbridge & District Model Car Club is well known for its annual Paddy Piston GP held outside the village of Aghalee in Northern Ireland. This year as part of the generally restricted calendar of events they included a charity fund raiser with the aim of raising a large chunk of the funds required to build in wheelchair access to the drivers rostrum.

The event was well subscribed with a good turn out in all classes including 1/8th E-Buggy, 1/8th Truggy and 1/8th Nitro Buggy. The entry included a good spread of talent with drivers coming from far wide from all over the island of Ireland.

Weather dodging

Race organiser and director, Barkley Abernathy seems to have a good handle on the weather as he managed to keep us all dry even though there were two downpours moments after the last race on both race days. The first day consisting of two x 10 minute practice heats and two x 10 minute qualifiers, and the second day consisting on three x 10 minute qualifiers and finals – 2 x 12 minute finals for E-Buggy, 1 x 30 minute for Truggy, 1 x 30 minute Nitro B Final and a 45 minute final for the 1/8th Nitro Buggies.

Old habits resurrected

Its been a long time since local racing has seen 10 minute qualifying heats in a Nitro class. It definitely adds another dimension of focus when getting ready to set your time. Of course , that focus is fuel economy and drivers could be seen with flat head screwdriver in hand all day as engines were leaned out to ensure that elusive opening lap + 10 minutes + closing lap runtime. Personally, I really enjoyed this challenge and hope it makes a comeback however I could see that some of the less experienced racers were having to make a pitstop during the heats which put them at a further disadvantage – its hard to say whether you put the challenge forward and help everyone improve or don’t put it forward and keep racing “easy”.

Qualifying

In E-Buggy, Adam Stewart used his TLR to dominate winning all of the rounds he participated in – 4 from 5 with Jason Ferguson picking up the top spot in round 5. In Truggy, Tim Simpson snatched TQ after a challenge from Paul Kane – Tim’s achieving 3 TQ’s in round to Paul’s 2. In Nitro Buggy competition was a bit tighter for that top spot. Paul Myles [Kyosho] took round 1, Andrew McClean [HB] took round 2 and Adam Stewart [TLR] took rounds 3 and 4. McClean was able to come back with a dominant performance in round 5 to take overall TQ.

Finals

1/8th E-Buggy – Adam Stewart continued where he left off in qualifying with a win in each leg of the E-Buggy A Final. Jason Ferguson 2nd, Tim Simpson 3rd.

1/8th Truggy – After 30 minutes, only 0.9 seconds separated the top two drivers in the flat out Truggy class. Paul Kane just took it after 37 laps from Tim Simpson. Greg Cunningham taking the third spot.

1/8th Nitro B Final – Ben McCamberley and Jonny Stroud picked up the two bump up positions into the back of the A Final. The B Final was frantic at times with many drivers having technical issues. The highlight was a battle between Aiden Hamill [3rd], Derek McCloskey [4th] and Jimmy Chan [5th] which came down to he with the least mistakes winning.

1/8th Nitro A Final – The 45 minute final was full of drama. Andrew McLean lead a breakaway pack including Myles, Abernathy, Stewart and Whelan whilst further back accidents and comings-together were getting sorted out. 10 minutes in, McClean was maintaining his lead and was just 5 seconds ahead of now 2nd place man Colin Whelan closely followed by Adam Stewart. Abernathy & Myles no longer challenging with engine problems. At 1/3rd race distance, Whelan’s TLR had a visible performance advantage on track and he found his way past McLean to take the lead. William White [HB] had inherited 3rd due to retirement by Adam Stewart and he was just 10 seconds behind McClean. Paul Kane leading the chasing pack 35 seconds further down the road. Whelan & McClean swapped the lead of the race several times over the mid portion of the race with McClean finally making a break when Whelan had to refuel. Any further challenge for the win by Whelan was ruled out when he had a tyre come unglued which badly effected his car’s performance allowing White to close the gap and take 2nd after an ugly overtake. McClean 1st, White 2nd, Whelan 3rd.

* Note result sheet shows 1 lap missing for W.White