2006 Top End Nitro Offroad Championships
After 2 nights of hard and fast racing the 2006 event has been heralded as a great success by all participants, firstly we need to thank Steve Hodges of Darwin Auto Electrics , and Tony Knauth of OCR Raceway Pitshop for supporting this awesome event and also a big thanks to Phillip Ciccone and Shannon Thissen for a great job on the trophies and of course congratulations to the winners and all the competitors for putting on an awesome show. The one hour Pro Buggy A Final was always going to be a hotly contested race with Top Qualifier Gary Bui, 2005 defending Champion Tony Knauth and 2006 Pointscore Series leader Duy Bui pushing hard, with the lap times equal to or below the qualifying lap times, the lead swapping between the 3 at every fuel stop until lap 90, when a crimped fuel hose on Tony's car caused dramas, letting Gary and Duy get away, it finally came down to pit stop strategies that won the race with Gary having a few small problems late in the race and having to do an extra fuel stop, gave the well deserved win to Duy Bui the 2006 Champion!!
The Bui family really came up with the goods this year, with not only the A Final results but also young 11 year old Henry Bui showing the rest of the field in the B Final a clean pair of heels coming home 5 laps ahead of his closest rivals second place Chris Surin and and fellow junior competitor third place Kyle Hodges.
This being the first time the Nitro Trucks have been included in the Top End Championships meant the number of drivers were limited, but this didnt take anything away from the drivers who really showed what these machines can do with Top Qualifier Tony Knauth pulling off a 16 lap qualifier, ahead of eventual Pro Truck Final winner Phillip Ciccone.
With the Tony's truck being a good 1.5 to 2 seconds a lap faster than Phillip's X1CRT it looked like it was going to be hard for Phillip to take the race but like with any motorsport dramas happen as did in this race with Tony succumbing to an engine failure with a broken crankshaft in his Nova Rossi R1WC on lap 18, giving Philip Ciccone a comfortable win over second place Sean Mazlin, with Tony Knauth coming in a distant third after doing and engine change, and David Rowe fourth having had all sorts of mechanical dramas.
Pro Buggy - A Final (60 minutes)
1 2 Duy Bui - Caster ZX1 Pro - RB 110 1h00m22.540 30.328 32.932
2 1 Gary Bui - Xray XB8 - Max Power 108 1h00m19.089 30.180 33.510
3 3 Tony Knauth - HN X1CR Pro - RB 101 1h00m28.645 30.800 35.927
4 6 Marc Christianson - Kyosho SP2 - OS 100 1h00m14.814 31.719 36.148
5 4 Tam Bui - Xray XB8 - RB 97 1h00m09.147 31.260 37.208
6 8 Shannon Thissen - HN X1CRPro - RB 96 1h00m27.082 32.070 37.782
7 9 Ben Gibson - Sacker Pro - OS 90 1h00m15.240 34.039 40.169
8 5 Phillip Ciccone - MBX5 Prospec - RB 86 1h00m17.960 32.090 42.069
9 7 Nathan Tampe - HN X1CR Pro - OS 56 41m15.222 31.041 44.200
10 10 Evan Gudge - Sacker Pro - Force 2 10m42.617 321.875 321.308
Pro Buggy - Top Qualifiers
1 Gary Bui 15 7m42.992 1
2 Duy Bui 15 8m01.866 1
3 Tony Knauth 15 8m13.659 2
4 Tam Bui 15 8m17.022 1
5 Phillip Ciccone 15 8m32.966 3
6 Marc Christianson 14 7m35.003 1
7 Nathan Tampe 14 8m02.884 4
8 Shannon Thissen 14 8m16.470 4
9 Ben Gibson 14 8m21.404 3
10 Evan Gudge 14 8m28.507 4
11 Kyle Hodges 13 7m42.533 1
12 Henry Bui 13 8m00.742 6
13 Anthony Jackson 13 8m02.204 6
14 Jarrod Garraway 13 8m09.444 1
15 Chris Surin 13 8m13.712 1
16 Michan Alp 13 8m25.070 2
17 Thanh Bui 12 7m39.788 5
18 Craig Garraway 12 8m09.549 3
19 Jason Jenko 11 7m54.893 2
20 Brett Edwards 11 8m18.531 5
21 Craig Warren 10 6m35.070 3
22 Mark Criss 4 2m21.430 6
Pro Buggy - B Final (30 Minutes)
1 2 Henry Bui - Xray XB8 - Max Power 50 30m24.855 32.399 36.497
2 5 Chris Surin - MBX5 - OS 45 30m08.003 35.092 40.178
3 1 Kyle Hodges - Caster ZX1 - Infinity 45 30m13.225 35.002 40.294
4 8 Craig Garraway - Sacker Pro - OS 43 29m59.728 35.639 41.854
5 12 Mark Criss - Sacker Pro - OS 42 30m35.217 33.096 43.696
6 6 Michan Alp - CEN Matrix - CEN 37 30m31.072 35.161 49.488
7 9 Jason Jenko - HN X1CR - Force 35 28m45.970 37.687 49.313
8 3 Anthony Jackson - HN X1CR Pro - RB 34 22m32.136 33.067 39.769
9 11 Craig Warren - HN X1CR Pro - OS 33 24m29.546 35.230 44.532
10 7 Thanh Bui - Caster ZX1 - Max Power 26 30m33.142 34.813 70.505
11 4 Jarrod Garraway - TTR S3 - OS 0 NO TIME 0.000
12 10 Brett Edwards - Sacker Pro - RB 0 NO TIME 0.000
13 13 Jamie Fava - HN X1CR - Force 0 NO TIME 0.000
Junior Buggy
1. Henry Bui
2. Kyle Hodges
3. Michan Alp
RTR Buggy:
1. Kyle Hodges
2. Michan Alp
3. Jason Jenko
Pro Truck - Final (30 Minutes)
1 2 Phillip Ciccone - HN X1CRT Pro - OS 53 30m07.525 31.165 34.104
2 3 Sean Mazlin - HN X1CRT Pro - RB 46 30m20.603 33.644 39.578
3 1 Tony Knauth - HN X1CRT Pro - Nova Rossi JP 27 21m21.451 31.021 47.461
4 4 David Rowe - HN X1CRT - RB 12 28m54.433 36.340 144.536
Pro Truck Qualifiers
1 Tony Knauth 16 8m26.646 4
2 Phillip Ciccone 15 8m24.841 6
3 Sean Mazlin 13 8m26.554 2
4 David Rowe 10 6m18.164
I will try and put up a few pics tommorrow guys, and also dont forget next friday is Presentation night, from 6.30 , 7.00pm onwards, I will be putting on some meat etc for the BBQ, but if you could bring something along also it would be appreciated, BYO drinks and chairs
Thanks again people and Congratulations to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!