Saturday 5th July

Frensham Dominates the Nitro Challenge!!!!!!

Hobao Factory backed driver Ashleigh Frensham continued his domination of the Nitro Challenge 08 last night, taking all that came before him, although not easily. Frensham put on an awesome display of talent in front of a very vocal crowd of spectators, for the big money prize. After half an hour of open practice Round 6 of ten got underway at 7.00pm, Marc Christianson - Losi got out in front with the holeshot followed closely by Ian Haley - Xray, Gavin Newman - Xray, Ash Frensham - Hobao and Tony Knauth - Xray, a hard fought battle ensued between the 5 drivers, but after 13 laps it was Frensham taking another win ahead of the 2 Xray's of Newman and Haley, with Christianson and Knauth fourth and fifth, the top five seperated by just over 5 seconds. Round 7 saw Tony Knauth get a big holeshot off the line with Frensham right on his tail, Knauth held a good consistent margin over the Hobao driver until making a small mistake under pressure in the final couple of corners, Frensham being close enough to take advantage took the win just 2.61 secs ahead of Knauth with Haley in third, Nathan Tampe - Hobao and Gary Bui - Xray rounding out the top five. Round 8 Saw Neil Ingram - MBX5R get the lead off the start followed by Ian Haley and Duy Bui - Xray with Ash Frensham and Knauth battling for fourth and fifth, but again the overall points leader Frensham showing his talent got through the field and into the lead ahead of Gary Bui - Xray, Gavin Newman, Tony Knauth and Duy Bui finishing off the Top 5, with Kyle Hodges - X1CR, Neil Ingram, Shaun Rawlings - Xray, Ian Haley and Nathan Tampe battling for the lower placings. Round 9 had Frensham, Ingram and Knauth, making a break for it off the start, with Hodges, Tampe and Haley, right on the lead group, a very tight race followed with Haley breaking through to take the number 3 spot behind Gary Bui with Ash Frensham taking another win, making that 9 out of 9 with only one to go. Round 10 was all Haley off the start closely followed by Frensham and Shaun Rawlings - Xray, Rawlings running a Force pullstart engine had been doing a brilliant job running in the Top Ten all event up against the big horsepower engines. But it was Frensham winning again making it a clean sweep of all the heats, with Xray Factory racer Ian Haley pushing hard to finish second ahead of Gary Bui. With all the heats completed now and the scores compiled, there was really no doubt who came out on top, with a win in every heat over the 2 nights it was Ashleigh Frensham - Hobao - Nosram taking a well deserved win in the Aussiemove International Nitro Challenge 08, with local racer Gavin Newman - Xray - RB having a brilliant event to take the number 2 spot, with Ian Haley - Xray - Werks coming back after struggling early to take a hard fought third place. The Ausfuel Junior Rising Stars class, saw young Jesse Newman - Xray - Nova Rossi, a star in the making take a big win over Tom Jones- X1CR - RB, and Henry Bui - Xray - RB. The OCM Racing Australia RTR/Pullstart Challenge Cup had Shaun Rawlings - Xray - Force, pull off a brilliant hard fought win over Brad Knauth - X1CR - STS in second and Rory O'Connor - TTR- STS with a well deserved third.

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With all the racing completed it was just down to the presentations.

Challenge Prologue 08 - Sponsored by Darwin Fibreglass

Ashleigh Frensham - $250.00

Holeshot Hero - Sponsored by OCR Pitshop

Ashleigh Frensham- $250.00

FTD - Sponsored by Top Dog Hot Dogs

Ashleigh Frensham - $250.00

Ausfuel Junior Rising Stars - Sponsored by Ausfuel

1st - Jesse Newman - $400.00

2nd - Tom Jones - $200.00

3rd - Henry Bui - $100.00

OCM Racing Australia RTR / Pullstart Challenge Cup

1st - Shaun Rawlings - OCM Factory Pro Buggy kit

2nd - Brad Knauth - $200.00

3rd - Rory O'Connor - $100.00

Aussiemove International Nitro Challenge 08 - Pro Buggy

1st - Ashleigh Frensham - $3000.00 sponsored by Aussiemove International Movers

2nd - Gavin Newman - $750.00 sponsored by System Homes

3rd - Ian Haley - $250.00 sponsored by G & J Painters

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A big congratulations to all the winnners and to all the competitors, and a huge show of gratitude and thanks to all the valued sponsors and supporters, and we would like to make a very special mention of 2 guys that warmed the hearts of many people at the presentations, firstly Shaun Rawlings winner of the OCM Pro Buggy kit graciously offered his prize to third place RTR driver Rory O'Connor, both these guys did something very special, by giving their prizes to the first and second place Junior drivers, so second place Junior driver Tom Jones was very pleased to accept another $100.00 prize and first place Junior driver Jesse Newman is now the proud owner of the OCM Pro Factory buggy kit. What can we say guys a fantastic gesture that will be long remembered, Thank you!!!!

Full Race Results

Round 1 - Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

Round 2 -  Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

Round 3 -  Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

Round 4 - Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

Round 5 - Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

Round 6 - Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

Round 7 - Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

Round 8 - Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

Round 9 - Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

Round 10 - Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

FTD

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Friday 4th July

Frensham is on fire !!!!!!

Hobao driver Ashleigh Frensham has been in class of his own throughout the first 5 rounds of the Nitro Challenge 08, the only driver to get close to him was Marc Christianson - Losi in round 1, finishing 12.13 seconds behind, with Gavin Newman - Xray in third. Round 2 again saw Frensham take the win, with Newman close behind in second and Duy Bui - Xray in third, Knauth who after a good run in the Prologue has been struggling with setup tonight coming home in fourth, with Nathan Tampe rounding out the top 5. Round 3 now with the circuit starting to break up in places, some of the drivers struggling to come to terms with their cars but not so for Ash Frensham again taking the number 1 spot ahead of Gavin Newman who's Xray 808 was working well, staying close to the leader but not being able to make any impression, and Ian Haley - Xray 808 finally getting hooked up and getting a clean run takes out the number 3 spot, Nathan Tampe fourth and Marc Christianson fifth. Round 4 saw a change with Gary Bui Xray getting into second behind Frensham, with Marc Christianson finishing 3.75 seconds behind Gary in third. Round 5 the last round of friday night got underway just before 11pm, now with circuit getting rougher, the lap times were slowing, which was closing up the racing considerably but again it was Ash Frensham - Hobao - Nosram out in front ahead of Haley - Xray - Werks, Newman - Xray - RB third, Gary Bui - Xray - RB fourth. Nathan Tampe - Hobao - Nosram fifth, with Duy Bui, Neil Ingram - MBX5R - Skip Jackson - X1CR, Phillip Ciccone - MBX5R and Kyle Hodges - X1CR rounding out the top ten. With a clean sweep of all the heats Ashleigh Frensham has the overall points lead going into the second night of the Challenge, he will be hard to beat to the $3000.00 first place purse but as always with motor racing anything can happen. Shaun Rawlings - Xray - Force is in the points lead for the OCM Racing Australia RTR / Pullstart Challenge Cup ahead of Andrew Hutton - Xray - STS and Rory O'Connor - Thunder Tiger - STS. Jesse Newman - Xray - Nova Rossi, holds a slim margin over Tom Jones - X1CR - RB and Henry Bui - Xray - OS for the Ausfuel Junior Rising Stars class. Ash Frensham, is leading the way with the Top Dog Hot Dogs FTD trophy with 14 laps in 8m20.807 secs, Frensham also showing the field a clean pair of heals in the OCR Pitshop Holeshot Hero with 48.36 sec first lap, 0.33 secs quicker than the holeshot set by Knauth in the Prologue on thursday.

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Prologue 08

Proudly bought to you by

The biggest Nitro Buggy prizemoney event in Australia has begun, the new virgin circuit proving to be a hit with the drivers although very slick during practice and the early heats, the surface really starting to come on later in the night. Round 1 Hobao factory driver Ashleigh Frensham - Hyper 8.5 - Nosram making a big impression setting the pace in the first of the 3 rounds of the Prologue with Marc Christianson - Losi - OS taking the number 2 spot in the round with Gavin Newman - Xray 808 - RB picking up third. Round 2 again saw Frensham take the round win and set the FTD at 14 laps 8m08.850, also setting the quickest lap at 31.996 secs which is going to be tough to beat. Tony Knauth Xray 808 - Team Orion Wasp making amends after losing a front wheel on the very fast back straight in round 1 to come back to take second place, Nathan Tampe - Hyper 8.5 - Sirio finishing just 1.09 secs behind in third. Round 3 saw Knauth finally get the Xray hooked up to get away early, putting a good gap on the field and setting the benchmark for the Holeshot Hero, setting the time at 48.69 secs, Neil Ingram MBX5R - RB the next quickest at 51.72 secs and Duy Bui with 53.03 secs. Knauth held the lead with Frensham taking bites out of the gap all race getting within 6 seconds, until the last lap where Knauth got tangled with a lapped car after the bridge to let Frensham through for the win to finish just 4.93 seconds ahead Frensham and Knauth now the only 2 drivers to lay down 14 lap races, Duy Bui - Xray 808 - OS coming home in third, Phillip Ciccone - MBX5R - OS, Nathan Tampe rounding out the top 5. The overall positions after the final round of the Prologue are

1. Ashleigh Frensham - Hyper 8.5 - Nosram

2. Marc Christianson - Losi - OS

3. Duy Bui - Xray 808 - OS

Full Race Results

Round 1 - Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

Round 2 -  Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

Round 3 -  Heat 1 - Heat 2 - Heat 3

FTD