Mark Penny is on his second race back now he is on the straight and narrow of married life (he says he's never been happier - when Adrienne says he can be!!). Anyway Mark was an early pace setter along side Peter Philips the now Mini Z specialist and Derek McCluskey who had made the trip to Bangor from the Republic of Ireland.
As ever Team Associated driver Alan Bickerstaff looked like he was going to be the man to beat - and that proved to be the way the day would progress, with Alan holding the top spot for each of the three legs of qualifying, and the only driver to reach 26 laps.
The new TC5 made a very strong showing on the day across the top two finals - Alan has done a great job with Johnny Dunne in bringing the TC5 drivers together - you could clearly see them working as a team, and it showed in the results.
Alan managed to win both legs of the A final, quite convincingly in the first leg, almost a lap ahead of Mark Penny in second. In the second leg of the A, Mark was out in front with about 1 minute to go when a marshal set Andrew Rennick's car back on the track right in front of Mark on the entry to the straight. The collision dislodged Mark's battery from the car, and allowed Alan through to take the victory by 2 seconds from Michael Todd -starting to come to grips with the high traction on carpet. |
Second spot after qualifying went to Mark Penney with third spot changing hands all day - first Michael Todd at his first try on the carpet, then Peter Philips and finally pinching the spot in the last round Andrew Rennick whose Corally RDX had looked quick all day.
Interestingly Michael and Andrew were the only of the A-finalist using old brushed technology. The ease of use of brushless has lead to an almost complete shift to the 10.5 versions of this new technology.
Appologies to the finalists, as I don't have the results as yet, but a few observations:
Great drive in the second leg of the D final by Matthew Kiernahan was worthy of a much better qualifying position
Great to see a couple of new faces in the finals - including Richard Quigley - better known for 1/8th off road.
Well done Lee Cutler - its a long time since I have seen a car built trackside!
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Thanks to Jim Rowley for his faultless (and often thankless!) job of running race control for the day. |
Finally, I am sure you would all like to join me in wishing Billy Bruce a happy 70th birthday on Monday 15th - Billy must be one of the most senior racers in any club in the UK, and he still gets better every week. Congratulations Billy, and as I said there is a good many seasons left in you yet!!
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