Carpet Wars 2 Day World Cup 2008.

Saturday morning came at last and the GMCC drivers were all up bright and early to arrive at Chatham at 7.00am for the first day of qualifying for the CW's 2 day Championship 2008.

There were a couple of top Mod drivers missing such as Andy Moore and Chris Grainger who were away at the TITC meeting in Thailand so that gave the mod drivers a bit of breathing space.

As for 27t and 19t there were a few more drivers from as far as the Isle of White competing so qualiy would be even harder than normal for all.

The format for the 2 days would be: 1 practice run and 4 qualiy rounds on Saturday, with 1 more qualiy on Sunday then 3 leg finals, with your best 2 to count. so there was lots of racing to be done.

After practice we were all fairly happy with our set ups with only a few minor tweaks and changes to gear ratios needed. It helps at big meetings on big tracks like these to have previous knowledge of gearing etc so you can be on your best pace at the start of the meeting and not have too much to do so you can concentrate on your driving and getting the perfect lines every lap, which you have to do at this level.

After the first days qualiy I was just hanging in at 10th overall in the 19t A final which had some very good drivers in it, this left me wondering overnight if i would still be in the a final for Sunday, arghhhh.
Richard Thorpe was up against some strong opposition and was somewhere in the C Final amongst some very good drivers.
Luke was in the same situation being 10th in the a Final 27t with Nathan not far behind. Richard was next up closely follwed by Dani then Matt who had a nightmare of a day due to choosing the wrong front diff. So off home to bed for another early night and a restless one for some.

Sunday morning came all to quick and we were back at our tables by 8.15am, one good thing you don't have to take your tables and chairs home with you so less to carry back in the morning.
To our supprise there would be no practice so is was S.O.B. for all for their last qualiy.

Luke ended up unlucky 11th after managing a time which was just out of the A by less than a second and Nathan was also not far behind due to tired 27t motors.
Richard was next up with a 18.312.22 and was the next highest GMCC qualiyfier.
Matt went back to a diff in the front and what a difference (pardon the pun) it made as he improved by a lap or so and ended up on a 17 301.93.
Dani did a 17 318.32 after some very consistant lap times during qualiy.

Richard Thorpe had to settle for a C Final place after some very good driving against a very strong mod field.

I was on the boil in 10th so had to do a 23 lapper to remain in the A which would not be easy but was possible as I had been doing very quick 22 lappers and just missing out by a few hundreths all day Saturday, if I could get that all important perfect run. Well after a very close last run which was almost perfect I had to wait until the top heat had run and I had marshalled to see if I had made it, what a tense 10 mins or so. Straight after I marshalled I dashed to the printer to put the results up and to my amazement I had just scrapped in 10th place with a 23 312.41, thanks to an improved last run, so was over the moon.

Finals.

Richard, Matt and Dani were all in the F Final in 4th, 6th and 10th so we were hoping that at least one of them would get a podium finish and after 3 rounds we were not dissapointed as these were the finishing positions:

2nd Matt Mead with 4 points for two 2nd places.
7th Dani Young with 11 points for 5th and 6th places.
8th Richard Powell with 12 points for 3rd and 9th places.
Dani also managed to put in a 18 303.62 in the last leg so Dad was happy with her results as were the reat of the crew, well done Dani.

Luke and Nathan were both in the B Final in 1st and 3rd so anothe podium was more than possible but eventually it was Nathan that took the win with 2 clean runs, unfortunatley Luke had reliabilty issues and finished out side of the top 3 but did pick up a cheque for £25.00 and a trophy for top under 16 driver, well done Luke.

Richard did well from what I saw of his finals with some fast runs but I'm not to sure were he finished.

A Final 19t. Well the only way was up for me in 10th and on the dirtiest starting position on the grid (thanks Rich Thorpe for your bull impressions cleaning the carpet lol). Being happy to make the A I experimanted with different motors in the finals and found a few new gearings for them which will hopefully help at next months final round of CW's 5.
After 3 legs done and dusted I managed to move up a couple of places so was well happy with a 8th place finish, a great end result for a great weekends racing.

Thanks to all who helped putting cars down etc you all know who you are and thanks to the Maritime crew for another excellent 2 day meeting, the double sided tape was a stroke of genius and held up extremly well considering the amount of laps that was done.
Should be an interesting meeting next year as nearly if not all of the classes will be BL motors. Hope we will have more GMCC drivers there next year, you don't know what your missing.

Congratulation to all the new champions

Stock

1st Chris Barrett
2nd Brian Shardlow
3rd Bryan Loynes
4th Dave Ringsell
5th Steve Moore
6th Ross Thompson
7th Darren Tickner
8th Dave Shedd
9th Phil Ravenshear
10th Wayne Palmer

Super Stock

1st Mark Sadler
2nd Richard King
3rd Dan Ghibaldan
4th Chris Clark
5th Stewart Bevan
6th David Reece
7th Jay Westwood
8th Mark Young
9th Andy James
10th Keith Helmke

Modified

1st Olly Jefferies
2nd Elliott Harper
3rd Glenn Doman
4th Lee Woodhams
5th Christopher Delves
6th Chris Kerswell
7th Marc Fisher
8th Kevin Brunsden
9th Sam Smith
10th Ben Cosgrove

Well done to Sam Smith using F.T.Q. Models LRP HV Vtec 4200's

Mirage HB/Nosram/Edit/Orion team driver Olly Jefferies capped a
fantastic winter series taking victory in the Carpet Wars World Cup 2
day meeting, making it a one two for Mirage and taking top junior was
Xray/Nosram driver Elliott Harper.




A strong entry of top UK touring car drivers was joined by Germanys
Marc Fisher for the Carpet Wars World Cup, Mirage had a strong entry
including Ben Cosgrove, Kevin Brunsden and Elliott Harper for Xray plus
Stu Noble and Olly Jefferies for Hot Bodies. It was Olly that made the
best of the early qualifying rounds putting his Cyclone at the top of
the time sheets in round one and two only to loose it to Elliot Harper
in round three, it was all change in round four, the last round of
Saturdays qualifying as Kevin Brunsden took over to lead over night.




Nobody really expected a fast time to threaten Kevin on Sunday morning,
with no practise and a cold track Kevin was looking pretty safe, but
Olly had other ideas and put in a blinding Sunday morning run to steal
FTD by 0.60 of second with Kevin having to settle for second with
Elliott third.
Sam Smith was also in the A final in ninth and Ben Cosgrove left it to
very late in the meeting to sneak his Xray into the A final lining up
sixth.

In the 19 turn class it was the Xray of David Reece that was dominating and he sat on pole for the 19 turn A final.




First leg of the modified A final was a catalogue of errors which saw
the lead swap between Olly, Kevin and Elliott but it was Glen Doman
that came through with a clear run to take the first leg from Elliot
and Olly.
Olly got his driving head back on for the second final and led from
start to finish taking victory in leg two, another second from Elliot
set up a gripping last leg with three drivers in contention for the
title, Olly Elliott and Glen.
With Kevin's chances spoilt in leg two he allowed his Xray team mate
through early on in the final leg to chase Olly, both drivers drove a
prefect race but Olly was able to maintain a safe distance between
himself and a hard chasing Elliott to take victory in leg three, and
the overall title. For Ben Cosgrove, Sam Smith and Kevin Brunsden they
both had finals they would rather forget but all three had performed
well to reach the A final against such a quality entry.




Dave Reece took the win in the first leg of the 19 turn final but after
that it was a disaster as he was hit by a wayward car in leg two
finishing his race far to early, a similar incident in the final leg
ruined his day and left him very disappointed, but his pace in
qualifying was some reward for a hard weekend.

For Olly this wins gives him another title which he adds to the Carpet
Wars Championship and Rug Racers Championship modified titles this
winter.

Well done to my long time friend Glenn Doman on his 3rd place overall in the Mod A Final. Glenn does not race as much as Olly and Eliott so this was quite an acheivement.

Can you spot Matt and Rich?

Sorry for the blured picture but this is how the world looks to Nathan after a few vodi's. Nathan collecting his B Final 1st place trophy.



Luke recieving his cheque and trophy for Top under 16 driver.



A very tired me collecting my trophy for 8th in the 19t A Final.



What happened, where am I, Help...



Ma and my A Final finishing Top Racing Scythe, what a car.

no Mark what a DRIVER ! lol

WORLD CUP 2008 The
Carpet Wars World Cup has come a long way since its early days, known
back then as the Vega Cup the meeting is now well established as the
biggest indoor meeting in the UK and this years meeting proved to be a
real classic.



Based at the same venue as the six round Carpet Wars
Championship the World Cup meeting attracts some of the top UK touring
car teams and drivers, a strong
Corrally presence was bolstered by Germany’s Marc Fischer, Glen Doman,
Andy Childs, Chris Delves and Chris Kerswell were also there hoping to
flood the A final with the Corrally brand.

Another strong team
was the Mirage X-Ray representation, Ben Cosgrove, Kevin Brunsden,
Elliot Harper, Brian Aldridge, and Sam Smith had all driven well
through the winter months and they looked on good form coming into this
meeting.

Hot Bodies may not have had the numbers but they did
have Olly Jefferies, Olly had dominated winter racing so far with
championship wins at the Rug Racer series and Carpet Wars Championship,
Olly would be backed up by Stu Noble and Andrew Carter in modified with
Cameron McDonald in 19 turn.

Serpent, a team not usually
associated with electric touring cars had a large team with both Jay
and Glen Westwood and Mark Sadler. Lee Woodhams and Adrian Bidewell
were flying the flag for CML Yokomo.

Both 19 turn and 27 stock
are catered for at the World Cup meeting and if it this was to go with
the form book then Bryan Loynes would be the man to beat in 27 stock.
With Carpet Wars Championship leader Stuart Rand missing the 19 turn
class was up for grabs, local man Dave Reece just edging ahead as the
pre event favourite with his X-Ray in this class.

The track at
the Black Lion Leisure Centre is always big, one of the main
attractions of this meeting, the introduction of double sided tape
under the carpet was a new innovation for this year and well received
by the drivers, the carpet did come up twice but generally the drivers
were happier with this method which avoids tape cutting across corners
and compromising the racing line.

Following controlled practise
and a quiet word from race director Ian Knight qualifying got underway
on Saturday morning. Four rounds of qualify on Saturday and one do or
die round on Sunday morning was the format for qualifying, followed by
three leg finals.

First person to post an FTD in round one was
Chris Barrett, the Isle of Wight driver a second and half up on Brian
Shardlow and Phil Ravenshear.

Mark Sadler was the early pace
setter in the 19 turn super stock class, Mark led by a comfortable five
and half seconds from Dan Ghibaldan and Stewart Bevan.

In
modified it was no real surprise to see Olly setting the pace and he
led by five and half seconds at the end of round one from Elliott
Harper and Glen Doman. Olly improved his time in round two leading from
the front as the top three moved into the 25 lap zone, but it was
close, Kevin Brunsden was second 0.02 seconds behind Olly and posting
his intensions, Glen Doman was now third nearly four seconds behind
Kevin.

In 27 turn stock Brian Shardlow took over at the top from
Chris Barrett and Horizon team driver Dave Ringsell. Round three saw
the advantage sway back towards Chris Barrett, he now led from Brian
and Dave.

The super stock class was hoting up Mark Sadler still
led but now it was Richard King moving up into contention; Andy James
and Jay Westwood close behind. Elliott Harper took over at the top of
the modified class after a superb run with his X-ray, Glen moved up to
second with Olly third and Kevin fourth but less than seven tenths of a
second covering the top four.

The last round of the day and the
round that most felt would count for FTQ, coming into the hall for the
last round on Sunday morning most drivers felt the cold track would not
yield a quick time, so the last round on Saturday would be crucial.

In
modified it was another close run thing, but this time it was Kevin
Brunsden wearing the biggest smile as the drivers came down off the
rostrum, Olly was a tenth behind Kevin and Elliott half a second behind
Olly.

Chris Barrett moved to the top of the 27 turn leader board
from Brian and Dave, big mover of this round was Bryan Loynes who moved
up to fourth. Chris Clarke moved into second in 19 turn but it was Mark
Sadler that remained top of the pile with his round 3 time, Richard
King jumped up to third in the last round of Saturday qualifying.

So
for most it was back to the hotel for the evening, for some it was a
chance to rebuild their cars, for others it was a chance to eat drink
and socialise with other racers, discuss the racing and chew over all
the excuses on why you are not on pole in your class.

Bit of a
mystery as to what Olly had for breakfast but he returned to the track
Sunday morning fired up and quick out the box, not expecting him to be
that quick with no practise Kevin started first and sportingly allowed
Olly past without delaying the Hot Bodies driver, Olly drove a near
perfect run to set FTD 0.62 seconds ahead of the chasing pack, Kevin
finished up second by virtue of his round four time from the previous
afternoon and Elliott was third. Lee Woodhams was another round five
improver and he lined up fifth behind Glen Doman. Ben Cosgrove put in
one last desperate run, the X-Ray team leader not in the A until the
final round, Ben eventually lined up sixth just in front of Marc Fisher.



In
the stock class Chris Barrett improved and stayed clear of the rest of
the stock drivers by just over three seconds, best of the rest was
Brian Shardlow and next up Dave Ringsell, the next three were very
close, Bryan Loynes, Steve Moore completing the top five.



Dave
Reece put in a storming run to take FTD in the 19 turn in round five,
also improving was Richard King and he would finish up just less than a
second behind Dave X-ray, Mark Sadler dropped to third. Timmy Langdell
was as high as second after round on e but he was the unlucky qualifier
in 11th spot.




With
qualifying done and dusted the finals got underway late Sunday morning.
First person to win an A final was Chris Barrett in 27 turn stock, this
race went to form with the top three finishing in order, the second leg
going exactly the same way, so by end of leg two Chris already had the
title in his pocket with Brian Shardlow second.

Pole man Dave
Reece took the leg one win in 19 turn by a second from Mark Sadler and
Richard King, Dan Ghibaldan did well coming home fourth from eighth on
the grid.

Not a classic is about the best way to describe leg
one of the modified A final, first Olly grip rolled, then Kevin crashed
and so did Elliott, with the top three making mistakes Glen Doman kept
it clean and swept through to take the first leg for Corrally.

Leg
two of modified and Olly led from start to finish, with Elliott
finishing second, this set up a classic final leg with Olly, Glen or
Elliott all up for the title.

The 19 turn A final leg two will
be remembered by Dave Reece for a long time, leading form the off he
hit a stationary car on the straight and destroyed his X-Ray, Richard
King went on to take the win from Dan with Mark Sadler third, all to
play for in this one with one leg to go.

Chris Barrett completed
a clean sweep of A final wins giving him the 27 turn title, a
disappointing third final for Dave Ringsell left him just outside the
top three, Brian Shardlow finished second with top stock junior Bryan
Loynes completing the podium.

B Final Winner 27 t Stock Nathan Morgan
C Final Winner 27 t Stock Jordan Howe
D Final Winner 27 t Stock Lee Carter

Mark
Sadler took the last of the 19 t A finals, Mark took victory from
Richard King and Chris Clark, so the final positions in 19 t saw
victory for Mark Sadler and a good performance from the Serpent team,
Richard King was third with Dan Ghibaldan third, some consolation for
Dave Reece was being crowned top junior in 19 turn.

B Final Winner 19 t Jonathan Holloway
C Final Winner 19 t Andy Clarke
D Final Winner 19 t Steven Fuller

Third
leg of the A final and with no real chance of challenging for the
overall win Kevin Brunsden let Elliot Harper through early on giving
his team mate the chance to chase Olly, but after a troubled first leg
Olly was back in the groove and led from start to finish keeping a
steady gap between his Hot Bodies Cyclone and the chasing X-Ray of
Elliott. These were the top two in modified with Olly and Elliott both
going one place better than they did last year, Olly crowned a
fantastic winter series with the title but Elliott can be pleased with
how he has developed through the winter, Glen Doman was third, a
professional and tidy job as usual for the Corrally driver.B Final Winner Modified Andy Childs C Final Winner Modified Gavin Clinch D Final Winner Modified Charlie Reardon
So
another successful year for the Carpet Wars World Cup, everyone
expressed their appreciation to Ian Knight and the Maritime team who
had put
on another superb event, more next year we hope, there are
no plans to move the World Cup to the new permanent venue at the
Maritime raceway, so when it comes to the world cup it appears to be a
case if aint broke don’t fix it.....well done to all the drivers and a
big thank you to Maritime Racing

Adrian - BRCA TC-Pro

CW2008-1