The 11th Annual KO GP hosted by WLRC has finished for another year. The weather forecast predicted the odd shower for both the practice day on Saturday and the finals on Monday. Qualifying should be held in the dry giving everyone a fair chance to make the best final they can.
The final entry for this year was 189 drivers meaning a full 20 heats again. This was two less drivers than last year making this years event probably the second largest RC Touring Car ever in the UK. With the twenty heats the meeting ran on schedule to the proposed timetable.
You can see the rules used for this years event. We also once again had our guest commentator on the mike.
Visit the photo gallery (now contains many pictures) to see some pictures of the event as they become available.
Saturday was practice day with open practice followed by three rounds of controlled practice grouped by class. The track started damp but contrary to the weather forecast the day remained dry with a reasonable amount of sunshine.
103 drivers recorded a practice time with a least another twenty drivers out there running without a transponder. So over 60% of the entered drivers ran in practice. At the the end of the controlled practice it was Olly Jefferies, Mark Gililand and Andy Moore at the top of the tree with Andy putting in the fastest single lap at 15.22. In 19 turn Jason Butterfield headed the field followed by David Kinman and Elliott Harper and in 27 turn it was last year's winner Jon Winter from Rob West and Rob Baxter.
Other drivers had a rougher day. Sam Smith ran his brand new brushless system delivered that morning and blew it up big time complete with copious amounts of 'pink' smoke. The problem was compounded by the fact that Sam solders his cells into the car. Quick thinking by Nathan Parker with a pair of wire cutters sorted that problem although the wires unsoldered themselves shortly thereafter. Another smoker was Chris Kerswell with a not untypical 19 turn motor failure. Plenty of smoke but no real damage just a burnt out armature. Special mention must also go to David Saul who completed more practice laps than anyone else doing 129 closely followed by the 125 of Rob West and 122 of Jason Butterfield.
Two track records went at this years event. In Stock Robert Miller improved on his own FTD in round 1 then further improved whilst holding off a fast charging Ricky Copsey in round 4. Meanwhile in Modified Adam Rogers set a track record in the cooling temperatures of the very last heat of the day. The new tack records can be seen on the WLRC clubs track records page found under the Racing menu on the left. The track used was of course the Full GP track.
The Stock track record went by 3.5 seconds with Ricky Copsey also well under the old track record. The other driver looking quick in Stock is Rob West. In his final qualifying run he was also on for a very quick time until an unfortunate coming together whilst lapping lost him vital time. The bottom of the top ten was all very close with one second covering 9th to 13th.
19 turn was the only class not to threaten their track record. A number of drivers look quick and the overall result could be between any of the top five qualifiers. Mark Stiles was the pace setter for the first two rounds eventually losing his FTD by 0.04 seconds, the missing of an apex. Mark's original ambition was to make the 'A' so almost taking pole exceeded his expectations but perhaps he should have pushed harder and taken FTD.
Modified saw Adam Rogers being the driver to beat all day and looks to be favourite for the win even though he is heading the two recent World Champions in Dave Spashett and Andy Moore. Also showing well are Olly Jefferies and up and coming local driver James Howarth. Adam's track record run saw him shave 1 second of the record.
The best of this year's foreigners was our regular traveller from Malta, Josh Anastasi. He qualified 16th in modified despite suffering from small interference niggles all day. The best of the strong Norweigan contingent was Christer Antonsen who qualified 25th in 19 turn. Hopefully the Norweigans will make the KO GP an annual visit as the Maltese do.
Heat Results for Round 1
FTD Round 1
Heat Results for Round 2
FTD Round 2
Heat Results for Round 3
FTD Round 3
Heat Results for Round 4
FTD Round 4
All heat results including individual lap times.
Finals listings are now available. The finals will be run in 'letter' rather than class order i.e. all the 'H' finals then all 'G' finals etc. Read the listing to see what we mean.
Early weather forecast indicate overnight rain but another warm dry day. Overnight rain has fallen in the grounds of my luxurious B&B from where this early morning report comes.
All the finals results are now posted. The overall champions for 2006 are:
Modified - Adam Rogers (Schumacher)
19 turn - Chris Kerswell (Corally)
Stock - Robert Miller (Schumacher)
The day was a mix of sunshine and showers. The track changed between wet, dry, damp or drying for each of the finals.
Most drivers got at least on dry final.
Each leg of the A finals for each class ran at the end of each round of finals. For the first legs the track was wet after a rain shower had arrived just 10 minutes earlier.
In Stock Robbie Miller made a clean start to lead on the first lap. A robust start by some drivers saw a few incidents. This left Remo Casadei in second place from 6th on the gird. Remo traded lap times with Robbie for a few laps but a mistake on lap five let Robbie get clear and cruise to an easy win by 8 seconds. Meanwhile the driver on the move was Rob Baxter he steadily progressed through the field picking up a place a lap for the first few laps then consolidating his position to finish third. An early casualty in the first race was Ricky Copsey, from second on the grid, who only managed one lap before pulling over with car problems.
In 19 turn it was Mark Stiles from second on the grid who made the best start as pole man Chris Kerswell had an ill handling car in the conditions. Mark managed to hold the lead for the entire race holding off the pressures of Stewart Noble by driving clean and smooth. Stewart had the quickest car on the track but could not find a way past Mark and in trying to do so caught a couple of kerbs which dropped him back only to see him catch Mark again. In third came Nathan Parker after Matt Digby had held the position earlier in the race only to be consumed by the chasing pack.
The conditions seemed to be made for Dave Spashett in the modified first leg. He made the best start and drove a perfect race to win from the front. Unfortunately he got little attention as a titanic battle went on for second place. Adam Rogers had Olly Jefferies and Andy Moore right behind him in a three car train. Adam, whilst not being the fastest of the three, was leaving no room to allow himself to be overtaken. Behind him Olly and Andy kept changing places as one then the other tried to pass Adam and in doing so would leave room for the other driver to get through. All the manoeuvring also allowed Andy Childs to join the back of the queue in the battle for second place. On the last lap Olly threw caution to the wind and on the last corner managed to pull alongside Adam. In the sprint to the line the cars crossed only inches apart. The computer could not separate them but the referees gave the second place to Adam. This was a remarkable finish to the best final of the first legs.
Stock A Final Leg 1 with race graph
19 Turn A Final Leg 1 with race graph
Modified A Final Leg 1 with race graph
Final Results for all finals for Leg 1
The second legs of the A finals got their best weather. A dry track but with low grip due to the recent rain.
The Stock final had Robbie Miller crowned as champion. Robbie once again lead from start to finish. This run was even more dominant than his first run with him finishing 10 seconds ahead of the field. The only driver who could lap at Robbie's pace was Ricky Copsey but some bad opening laps left him too far behind to make any impact. It was left to Rob West to take second from Jon Winter and Rob Baxter.
In 19 turn Chris Kerswell found his car much more to his liking and held the lead from the start but had Mark Stiles on his bumper. Mark started to push but on lap three fell foul of this infamous "Douglass D" which launched his car at the Armco barrier detaching a good proportion of the rear end. This prompted Mark Fuller into second with Chris Delves in third. Mark Fuller had come up from 8th on the grid but it was his turn to clip a kerb and that started his fall back down the field to eventually finish 6th. So Chris Delves took up the challenge of chasing down Chris Kerswell. Chris Delves with nothing to lose pushed very hard and closed the gap. It looked like he would be in a position to battle for the race win. The question was would he try and pass Chris K as they are team mates. In the end the question became academic as Chris D made a small mistake costing him vital time and left him in second. Behind them Matt Digby had had another strong run to finish third.
Modified had Adam Rogers making the most of his pole position to lead from the front. Andy Moore made a World Champion style start to move from 5th to 2nd by the end of lap two. The time spent by Andy making his way to second gave Adam enough of a lead to easily defend and take the second leg. Olly Jefferies, Dave Spashett and Luke Burley raced for third with the result going Olly's way from Luke and David.
Stock A Final Leg 2 with race graph
19 Turn A Final Leg 2 with race graph
Modified A Final Leg 2 with race graph
Final Results for all finals for Leg 2
The dry track made for quicker but in someway less exciting racing in leg two. So for the third leg things were going to change as the rain had returned and the track was wet again. The rain started at the start of the stock B Final. I know as I was in it. I had my pit man standing with two cars on the start line, one on slicks and one on wets. It was spitting with 45 seconds to the start of the race then the rain grew heavier. I went for my 'wet' car which was the right choice, took my second final win and thus won the Stock B final overall. By the time the A finals came to their final leg the track was properly wet.
In Stock Robbie Miller (Schumacher Mi2EC) was already champion and with nothing to prove in the wet decide instead to bolt his horsepower into Rob Baxter's car to see if he could help Rob onto the podium. The race was between Rob Baxter, Jon Winter and Rob West for second overall. Ricky Copsey lead the final away but on lap 4 was overtaken by Jon Winter (Losi JRXS) and then on lap 6 by Rob Baxter (Yokomo BD). With the demise of Rob West's Yokomo BD this left Jon Winter and Rob Baxter to battle for the win and second overall. Rob was much quicker than Jon but insisted on binning it every other lap to allow Jon to maintain the lead. With three laps to go Rob had a clean lap, the quickest of the race, to move within sight of the lead. With two corners left he took his chance and made an amazing pass at 'Uncle Sams' to take the lead which he maintained round the last corner to give himself second overall and leave last year's champion Jon Winter in third overall.
19 turn was undecided and it became quickly clear it was going to be between Chris Kerswell (Corally RDX) and Mark Stiles (Hot Bodies Cyclone). Chris opened up a one second gap which he seemed to be able to maintain. On the last lap, urged on by the crowd, Mark Stiles found every apex and with Chris driving two foot away from each apex Mark found himself one car length behind Chris with one corner to go. Chris held a much tighter line through the last corner forcing Mark too tight. Mark caught the "Douglass D" again but this time only lost moment and the chance for the win. This left Chris victorious and the Champion with Mark second overall and Matt Digby (Schumacher Mi2EC) third in both the race and overall. Mark Holloway had his best final of the day to finish fourth having borrowed my XRay for the wet.
So we came to the last race of the weekend with Adam Rogers (Schumacher Mi2EC), Dave Spashett (Tamiya MRE) and Andy Moore (Hot Bodies Cyclone) all in with a chance of being champion. Adam made the best start and had soon established a slender lead from Dave Spashett. Andy Moore was not fairing so well and never challenged for the lead. At the front Dave Spashett made a mistake to leave Adam clear and let a flying Mark Gilliland with his XRay into second place. Adam only had to beat Dave to be crowned champion. As it was he held on for the win by the smallest of margins over Mark to take two first places and become champion. Dave Spashett came in third ahead of Russell Williams using another borrowed XRay. This one being borrowed from Leighton Bater. Dave's third was enough for second overall and Olly Jefferies (Yokomo BD) took third overall based on his results in the earlier finals.
Stock A Final Leg 3 with race graph
19 Turn A Final Leg 3 with race graph
Modified A Final Leg 3 with race graph
Final Results for all finals for Leg 3
All finals results including individual lap times.
Final Overal Positions
Another successful year at WLRC for the KO GP. Adam Rogers retained his modified crown, Robbie Miller did what he should have done the previous year and took the Stock title and Chris Kerswell was once again 19 turn champion. Finally, thanks go to Helger and KO Propo for their huge support for the meeting. The meeting continues to go from strength to strength so next year should be even better (if that is really possible).
Page last updated on the 21st December 2006.