UPGRADE / RCiD 2008 Points Series - Round # 13

 Newman and Xray Victorious!!!

The battle for the much coveted 2008 Upgrade / RCiD Points Series is over. Going into this, the final round of the Series, the Top 3 positions were still up for grabs between Gavin Newman - Xray 808 - Axe Rossi, Gary Bui - Xray 808 - RB and Tony Knauth - Xray 808 - RB, with all three drivers on the pace over the last few events, Round #13 was always going to be something awesome and didnt disappoint and with the first of the wet season rains earlier in the week, the circuit had lost its grippy race line and had a fine layer of sand most of the way round, making for some tentative moments and setup changes trying to find some grip !! And of course the battle for the Junior and RTR / Pullstart crowns was also coming down to the wire, with the last round of the series left to decide the final outcome.

Round 1 With all the hype leading up to this round, the tension on the start line was outrageous, and with the expected agressive dash for the first corner, there was always going to be someone lose out, but it was Newman and Ingram that got away with the holeshot leaving a number of the other front runners in a pile up in turn one. With Bui and Knauth getting caught up early, the 2 had it all to do to try and chase down the leader Newman, doing well to get themselves back up to second and third respectively ahead of Skip jackson and Kyle Hodges. With the circuit being quite rough and slippery Newman was the only driver to get into the 31 second bracket over a second slower than last event.

Round 2 saw another win from Newman, but it was Knauth that got the holeshot and an early lead only to come to grief in the late stages, with a lapped car rolling in front of him a matter of metres from the finish line and with Newman on his tail, it was the Xray 808 of Gavin Newman across the line first just 1.45 seconds ahead of Knauth's RB powered 808, with Gary Bui's 808 home in third, Skip Jackson HN X1CR and Nathan Tampe Hyper 8.5 filling the top five, Tam Bui, Marc Christianson, Neil Ingram, Kyle Hodges and Tom Jones rounding out the Top Ten. Knauth taking 0.4 secs out of Newmans 31.856 quickest lap to run a 31.405.

Round 3 again Newman gets a briliant holeshot with a 47.22 sec, Kyle Hodges right on him with 48.60 sec, the 2 drivers battling hard for 14 laps with Nathan Tampe chasing very close behind, finishing in that order with Hodges 16.50 secs behind Newman with Tampe 2.18 seconds behind Hodges, Gary Bui fourth, Skip Jackson fifth. Knauth having woeful race, getting caught up early again and then after pushing very hard to come back, getting up with the leaders only to run out of fuel on the second last lap, dashing any hope of taking the outright Series win.

Round 4 finally saw Knauth get it together, getting a good clean start with a super quick holeshot at 46.66 sec, with Gary Bui a couple of seconds behind at 48.75 secs, but what a race this was, with Bui and Knauth racing hard out the front, Newman pushed hard to get up with them at about the halfway mark, it was on then, with the lead swapping between the 3 nearly every corner, until Bui made a couple of small mistakes in the closing stages to let the other 2 get a very small gap, then with Newman turning in a little early for the last run under the bridge, clipping the corner to let Knauth take the win just 1.18 secs ahead Bui in third 2.41 behind, and just 20.83 secs seperating the Top 6 drivers.

Round 5 the final round for the night again saw Knauth take the win with an even quicker Holeshot pulling a 45.498 second first lap, again with Hodges right on his tail, the 2 battling hard early on with Hodges taking the lead for a number of laps, only to make some mistakes under pressure getting caught badly under the bridge. letting Knauth get away to put a comfortable gap on the field to finish 12.36 secs ahead of Gary Bui and Nathan Tampe another 8 seconds down in third, Kyle Hodges coming back to retain fourth Newman having trouble with traffic finishing in fifth, Tam Bui, Neil Ingram, Skip Jackson, Daniel White, Shaun Rawlings rounding out the Top Ten.

Well with the close of the 2008 Series what a fantastic season of racing it has been with some awesome battles going on throughout the Series, with the level of competition, skill and respect shown by all the competitors this season we can only imagine what it will be like in 2009.

And from all of us here at OCR, Im sure it goes without saying but we all would like to say a big thank you to all the competitors, marshalls, volunteers, all the people behind the scenes, to our regular viewers, our News Partners across the world, our wonderful sponsors that get behind OCR and our local media, we say

THANK YOU!!!!!

And of course we need to say a big thank you and show of appreciations to our Series sponsors

Upgrade / RCiD

OCR Pitshop

Eagle Boys Pizza

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Final results for Round # 13

Congratulations to:

Pro Buggy

1. Gavin Newman - Xray 808 - Axe Rossi - Werks - 10 Points

2. Gary Bui - Xray 808 - RB - Proline - 15 Points

3. Tony Knauth - Xray 808 - RB - Proline - 23 Points

RTR / Pullstart Buggy

1. Shaun Rawlings

2. Rory O'Connor

3. Samantha Coffee

Junior Buggy

1. Tom Jones

2. Jesse Newman

3. Henry Bui

Check out the Picture Galleries of Nitro Buggy Action from OCR Raceway