CARPET WARS 6 RACE REPORT.

Carpet Wars, The Final Battle


All six rounds of the Carpet Wars series has been dominated by Mirage
team drivers this winter, with Hot Bodies team driver Olly Jefferies
already securing the modified title with one round to go. The final
round took place at the weekend and Mirage drivers continued to lead
the way.




With the modified title sewn up the focus of attention switched to the
runners up spot, Elliott Harper struggled at the first two rounds and
if not for those early rounds would have been higher up the order and
in contention for a top three place, never the less the Xray driver was
on excellent form after wining the last round of the Rug Racers series
the previous weekend.
The final round of the series saw another good quality entry with
national champion Chris Grainger back in the fold; Glen Doman and Lee
Woodhams were also on hand to take the challenge to the Mirage team.




Most of the top modified drivers went to the new Maritime Raceway on
Saturday for some testing, something that has become the norm prior to
moving across to the Black Lion Leisure Centre on Sunday for the Carpet
Wars round, Chris Grainger, Olly and Elliott were all putting in some
quick laps as the times improved during the Saturday shakedown.
Sunday morning and it was business as usual for Olly as the
Orion/Nosram/HB Cyclone led the field after round one, Olly improved
his time in round two and stayed top of the time sheets. Round three
and Elliott took over with a quick run as Olly started to struggle on
old tyres. The final round of qualifying saw both Hot Bodies drivers
come together and loose time, Chris Grainger got on to FTD pace but
dropped off towards the end of the run leaving Elliott top of the pile
in front of Olly, Chris Kerswell, Glen Doman and Lee Woodhams.




Sam Smith was another Mirage driver on good form and he sneaked the
last spot in the A final with his Xray. Unlucky was Ben Ingram who took
pole in the B final.

From the buzzer Olly was keen to make up for his lack of FTD and
crawled all over the back of Elliott's Nosram powered Xray in the early
laps, Elliott stayed cool despite Olly pushing the nose of the Cyclone
up the inside at every opportunity, just before the mid way point Olly
set Elliott up for a move which he could not defend, Olly got along
side, the pair did touch but Olly was through, from there he cruised to
yet another A final win.

So another title for Olly in what has been a fantastic winter series,
wins at the Rug Racers series and the two day Carpet World Cup has seen
Olly dominate winter carpet racing, Elliott too has really shone since
Christmas and if not some for early unfortunate results would have been
right up there challenging with Olly, as it was Elliott had to settle
for top junior, just outside the top three overall at Carpet Wars.




Ben Ingram is another driver that has developed since switching to
Xray, as has Brian Aldridge, Xray driver Dave Reece was another star
performer in the 19 turn class. Overall the Mirage team performed
superbly well and professionally throughout the winter and were
rewarded with some top results, well done to them all and best wishes
as they now start to focus on the BRCA nationals.