2006 Top End Nitro Challenge

The Top End Nitro Challenge has again been heralded as an outstanding success by all who were involved, with a host of quality drivers batting it out over the 2 nights and 14 rounds of super fast sprint races, with the likes of up coming RC Super star Rohan Martin, Aussie RC legend Ian Haley, 2006 NT Champ Duy Bui, and a full field of awesome local and interstate drivers, who all pushed hard and fast trying to take the win in this challenging, all rounds count sprint race format. The virgin race circuit used for this event proved to be fast and challenging, with lots of elevation changes, some nice jumps and technical areas, the surface held up well and got better and better over the 2 nights, with the drivers putting down a total of over 6000 laps and 1200km. Dialled in Ian Haley took the win in round 1 with venue owner and race organiser Tony Knauth a close second and Duy Bui third, Haley being pushed hard by local drivers Gary Bui, Duy Bui and fellow WA compatriot Rohan Martin, held the overall lead until round 9 when a flame out early in the race cost him the lead, with Rohan taking the round and overall lead, Haley pushed hard to come back up to 5th in the heat, setting the fastest lap time of the event with a 27.275 sec. With overall 2nd place Haley a lap down now and 3rd place Duy Bui 3 laps behind, Rohan just needed to run clean and consistent, to take out the event but this super fast young driver came back in round 11 with the FTD a blistering 11 laps in 5m13.502 sec with Haley just 1.64 secs behind and Steve Roberts also from WA in 3rd. Rohan won rounds 12 and 13 only to pipped in round 14 by Haley by just 0.91 sec with Tony Knauth in 3rd, and local legend Duy Bui taking out the final round 15 win over Haley by a mere 0.34 sec with Rohan a very close 3rd. All in all nobody could have asked for a better event, with other than a minor computer glitch at round 10 everything went smoothly and to plan, a good crowd of spectators being entertained by some top class RC Motorsport action over the 2 nights. And what an awesome fireworks display on Saturday night...

Finally we must thank our event sponsors:

OCR Raceway Pitshop
System Homes
Aussiemove International Movers
Image Offset Printers
Darwin Fibreglass
Power Save Racing

And a special thanks to all our interstate visitors, all the competitors and all the people that helped to make this event the success it was, and a special thanks to Gary Clarke for an awesome job as chief steward!!

Overall Results:

Pro Buggy:
1. Rohan Martin - 151 laps - HN X1CR Pro - OS
2. Ian Haley - 150 laps - HN X1CR Pro - GO
3. Duy Bui - 144 laps - Caster ZX1 Pro - STS

FTD:
Rohan Martin - 11 laps 5m13.502sec

RTR Buggy:
1. Shaun Rawlings - 119 laps - Sacker Pro - Infinity
2. Sean Mazlin - 118 laps - Sacker Pro - Force
3. Jamie Fava - 94 laps - X1CR RTR - Force

Junior Buggy:
1. Henry Bui - Xray XB8 - Maxpower
2. Kyle Hodges - Caster ZX1 RTR - Infinity


And now the full and final results:::::

1. Rohan Martin - 151 laps $2000.00 - $250.00 (FTD)
2. Ian Haley - 150 laps $ 500.00
3. Duy Bui - 144 laps $ 250.00
4. Gary Bui - 144 laps
5. Tam Bui - 140 laps
6. Tony Knauth - 139 laps
7. Dennis Heller - 135 laps
8. Phillip Ciccone - 133 laps
9. Steve Roberts - 132 laps
10. Marc Christianson - 132 laps
11. Shannon Thissen - 129 laps
12. Henry Bui - 127 laps
13. Neil Ingram - 121 laps
14. Shaun Rawlings - 119 laps $200.00 (1st - RTR)
15. Sean Mazlin - 118 laps $100.00 (2nd - RTR)
16. Ben Gibson - 113 laps
17. Paul Snowball - 113 laps
18. Chris Surin - 107 laps
19. Thanh Bui - 101 laps
20. Ron Bruggerman - 96 laps
21. Jamie Fava - 94 laps $ 50.00 (3rd - RTR)
22. Evan Gudge - 91 laps
23. Matt Peters - 80 laps
24. Craig Warren - 74 laps
25. Kyle Hodges - 66 laps
26. Brett Edwards - 8 laps

FTD Results

1 Rohan Martin 11 5m13.502
2 Ian Haley 11 5m14.269
3 Duy Bui 11 5m20.470
4 Tony Knauth 11 5m21.158
5 Gary Bui 11 5m22.267
6 Steve Roberts 10 4m59.344
7 Phillip Ciccone 10 5m10.155
8 Tam Bui 10 5m10.696
9 Shaun Rawlings 10 5m12.006
10 Shannon Thissen 10 5m12.278
11 Dennis Heller 10 5m12.619
12 Marc Christianson 10 5m13.468
13 Neil Ingram 10 5m22.608
14 Jamie Fava 10 5m24.513
15 Henry Bui 10 5m25.800
16 Evan Gudge 9 4m51.552
17 Matt Peters 9 4m56.607
18 Ben Gibson 9 5m00.764
19 Sean Mazlin 9 5m06.414
20 Kyle Hodges 9 5m07.906
21 Craig Warren 9 5m09.686
22 Thanh Bui 9 5m15.456
23 Paul Snowball 9 5m17.003
24 Chris Surin 9 5m18.516 3
25 Ron Bruggerman 8 5m01.353
26 Brett Edwards 5 5m19.416


Thanks again to all who were involved and Bring on 2007!!!!! and keep an eye out for more pics and videos of the event over the coming weeks.