5 Hour Enduro 

21st June 2009. Report by Tom 'Shrek' Dexter

Perths inclement winter weather had seriously threatened to postpone the inaugural RRC Enduro Race. However all 50 registered drivers arrived at Canning City Park at 8am to see encouraging patches of blue sky, which got better as the day went on, and the ground was in perfect condition. The 10 teams of 5 drivers , each team consisting of 3 Buggies & 2 Truggies, would battle it out over 5 hours to decide who would take out the title of RRC’s first spectacular Enduro race. Each driver would contest two 30 min stints to make up the five hour race. Each driver also had a handicap, calculated from their results over the last few club days. A slower driver would have laps added at the end, and the faster drivers would have laps removed; this levelled the playing field, and no results were available throughout the day, to provide a complete surprise as to the result at the end of the day.

The first stint, Buggy class, was started with a ‘free for all’; ten buggies lined up in random across the start/finish straight. All got away relatively well, with only a couple of drivers getting caught up on the notorious first corner. I was on the stand for the first stint and managed to secure the hole-shot, completing the first lap in first position; but there was a long way to go yet! A couple of guys had a few dramas with engine tune during the initial stages of the first stint, at times this made it quite difficult to concentrate on the driving. Grant Templeman (Team Ryper) took the lead on the second lap, and didn’t look back, followed in 2 laps down by Tom Dexter (Team Feared Five), and Gary Gislingham a further 3 laps down (Team Wicked Ass Jumps) in third position at the end of the first stint.

At the first changeover, from Buggy to Truggy, teams had 60 seconds to coordinate swapping drivers and marshalls, as the team pitcrew worked in noisy and busy conditions in pitlane to remove buggies from the pitlane, replacing them with the Truggies. This required good teamwork and clear communication to avoid making mistakes for the team. A warmed engine prior to the start was a must, especially due to the cool ambient conditions. The second stint was led from the word go, by Josh Pain (Team Ryper), closely followed by Brendan Flegg (Team Feared Five). The racing was awesome, with the pressure beginning to build, as the top truggy drivers battled it out on track. Third position took some time to be decided, but by lap 15, Kent Griffiths (Team Festas Racing) cemented himself in as third place runner in Stint 2. Josh ended up 4 laps up on Brendan, with Kent laps behind. Doug Thompson’s (Team Xray) motor expired and he retired on Lap 18, with Jeff Hatton (Team Discount Hobbies) having major dramas on Lap 12, ending up finishing in 9th position.

The third stint, buggies again, started without a hitch, the teams really getting into their rhythm now. The first 12 laps saw David Simms (Team Ryper) battling with Adrian Stefan (Team Xray WC Hackers) for the lead. Some great clean racing saw David come out fighting at the front, and lead until the end. He was closely followed by Adrian all the way. Also by lap 12, Brent Thomas (Team Feared Five) had fought up into 3rd position, maintaining 3rd until the end of Stint 3. Again, the top 3 finished within a handful of laps of each other. The result was going to be tight after applying the handicaps at the end. Greg Godfrey (Team Discount Hobbies) & Neil Vroomans (Team WAJ) fought continuously for 4th & 5th the whole race, with some very clean driving shown by both drivers.

The fourth stint, truggies, saw Adrian Riggs (Team Feared Five) lead for the first 8 laps, closely followed by Wayne Cowie (Team Thunder). Third position was being fought between Mark Giardini (Team WAJ) and Darren Gandy (Team HTFU). On the ninth lap Adrian rolled over and handed the lead to Darren, which he held until the end. Adrian and Wayne continued to race, swapping 2nd and 3rd positions for the remainder of Stint 4; Adrian ending up just 7 secs in front of Wayne. All the top 3 finished within a lap of each other; the closest stint yet.

Stint Five, was the warm-up for the highly anticipated final Stint 10. It was to be fiercely contested, with the top 6 drivers finishing within 4 laps of each other. Jonathan Lane (Team Xray) ran away with the lead for the first 13 laps, closely followed by Stephen Roberts (Team Feared Five), until disaster struck; a mechanical failure. Rick Penlington (Team Hobao) held onto 3rd position for the first 8 laps of the race, closely followed by Sean Bavington (Team WAJ). Sean and Rick then proceeded to fight over 3rd, until Jason Brisset (Team Ryper) came up from behind and took 4th, leaving Rick to finish 5th. Stephen led the whole way, until lap 35, when John Barr (Team HTFU) stuck his nose in front, just for a lap; he had been beavering away just behind Stephen. Stephen and John showed some awesome skills, with John applying the pressure until the very end of Stint 5; Stephen finished with just an 18 second lead. On lap 39, just two laps after the second battery change, the only Brushless competitor, Rob Ralston (Team Thunder), had a motor failure, with a chunk of magnet coming off the rotor.

The grass track was holding up incredibly well considering the amount of rain that had fallen during the week previous and now at the halfway mark, the first drivers started Stint 6. Tom Dexter took the lead in front of Grant Templeman, and held it for 4 laps until Tom rolled over and flamed out allowing Gary Gislingham to move up to 2nd. Gary held this position until Lap 27 when he had a slow lap and Tom took it back again. Gary ended up retiring on Lap 41 whilst in 3rd position. Mike Rimmer (Team HTFU) had a great race going well in 4th place, then promoted to 3rd with Gary’s retirement on Lap 41. The distance of the race was beginning to show, now with a couple of mechanical failures leading to retirement, namely Gary & Stuart Downey (Team Thunder). Nic Poltronieri (Team Discount Hobbies), finished in 4th position, only a couple of laps behind Mike, with his GO powered CEN Matrix.

Stint 7 again was a display of awesome driving by Josh Pain’s Reedy powered RC8T, finishing in 1st place 4 laps in front of a smooth & quick Brendan Flegg driving his OS powered Losi 8T 2.0. Kent Griffiths again managed to hold on to 3rd place, only 1 lap behind Brendan this time. A very consistent drive brought a well earned  4th place finish for Lynton Baron (Team Underrated) driving his Xray XT8 09. Steve Tompsett came in 5th place for Team WAJ, and in 7th was Jeff Hatton (Team Discount Hobbies) who was clearly very disappointed with his day, things just not going right for him. Mick Coates (Team Thunder) retired just 3 minutes from the end of the race.

Stint 8, was again hotly contested, with David Simms taking the lead early with his D8, and going all the way to finish 1st on 61 laps, an awesome drive. Adrian Stefan was following in 2nd spot for 52 laps, until his engine stopped and had trouble restarting. Brent Thomas and Greg Godfrey moved into 2nd and 3rd respectively with Adrian’s retirement less than 4 minutes from the end. Race distance was again proving to be the killer with 4 retirements in this stint. Kyle Bradshaw (Team Underrated) was in 6th on his 24th lap when his GO engine expired. Could Team Thunders day get any worse? It just was not their day on track.

Stint 9, and the pressure was about to reach its peak. The final Truggy stint saw Daniel Burkin (Team Ryper) go out into the lead with his new Hot Bodies D8T. Daniel was followed closely by Wayne Cowie who was team Thunders best performing driver of the day, clearing 56 laps in both stints; Well Done Wayne. Adrian Riggs (Team Feared Five) was going well in 4th, until he popped a tie-rod and had to be repaired; he lost some 4 minutes on track, and came out to fight his way back up the board. On lap 27, Daniel broke a front suspension arm, and gave Wayne the lead on a plate. Mark Giardini with his new D8T was gifted the 2nd place until he too retired on Lap 38 for Team WAJ. Team Wicked Assed Jumps, was rapidly becoming What A Joke (WAJ)! Adrian Riggs gave it his all and worked his way back up to finish in 2nd position for Team Feared Five. A simply stunning drive by the young and up-coming Brandon Godfrey (Team Discount Hobbies) brought him in to finish in 3rd place on 50 laps, all the way up from 8th at the start. Great stuff Brandon!

Finally the time came for the final stint, and the pressure had built to its peak. All the drivers must have been feeling it, and some great racing was observed. Sean Bavington (Team WAJ) led the way with his OS powered Hyper 9 for the first 15 laps, with Jonathan Lanes Xray XB808 and Jason Brissetts Mugen in hot pursuit. Sean came in for fuel handing the lead to Jonathan, with John Barrs Hyper 9 (Team HTFU) in close 2nd. Sean came out from his fuel stop in 3rd, and fought closely for 2nd and 1st during the later laps with John Barr. Jonathan had another drama on Lap 39 losing his hard fought lead to Sean, with John in 2nd. Jonathan fought his way back into 1st position by Lap 52. The big excitement occurred on lap 37 when Stephen Roberts (Team Feared Five) RC8B broke a suspension arm, dropping him from 2nd to 7th, the team took nearly 6 mins to fix it up. He got back on track to finish in 7th position. Rick never got a look-in, after breaking a front arm on the third lap and losing too much time replacing it.

The day saw some awesome racing, with good marshalling, and some great team work going on. Everyone enjoyed it, and RRC will definitely hold another enduro again next year. So after totalling the number of Team laps, the top 3 were decided:

Team Ryper Hobbies –  566 laps
Team Feared Five –  563 laps
Team HTFU –   524 laps

But with handicaps applied, the positions changed:

Team Feared Five –  525 handicapped laps
Team HTFU –   513 laps
Team Ryper Hobbies -  480 laps

Team Discount Hobbies missed out on 3rd by 0.2 of a handicapped lap! How close!

For details see the Race Results page 

1st Place - Team Feared Five with 524.99 laps after handicap:

2nd Place - Team HTFU, with 512.79 laps:

3rd Place - Team Ryper with 480.22 laps: