Sunday the 1st of May saw the opening Round of the 4wd electric series take place at the DMCC’s home track in Lucan. The organiser couldn’t have asked for a better day with the Sun out all day leading to a dry fast track for everyone to race on.
New to the 2011 season is a clubman class for 4wd with competitors running stock 10.5T motors and 0 boost on ESC’s. This combination proved some close racing within the class from qualifying right through to the Finals.
In the Club class it was a tight affair in qualifying with a number of drivers swapping the lead and pole position for the Final throughout the heats. In the end it was Ivan Thompson who narrowly took pole for the finals after completing two of the qualifying runs with the fastest time closely followed by Ian Hunter.
During the clubman Finals leg 1 it was again as in qualifying a close race with next to nothing between first and second place drivers. As in qualifying both Ian and Ivan showed very similar race pace and throughout the 5mins both drivers swapped 1st place until a big mistake in the fourth min when Ian who was leading flipped and gave Ivan back 1st and enough of a gap that he was to maintain till the end to take victory in the Leg.
During Leg 2 again the duo of Ian and Ivan raced ahead during the early stages of the race with both drivers staying within a second or two of each other throughout much of the race. A clean run was required to gain any kind of gap. Just after the halfway stage a flip on a track marker left Ian on his roof and gave Ivan the advantage he needed. With over a min to go it still required a steady hand by Ivan to take the win and a clean sweep for the day and that’s just what we got from Ivan.

4WD Clubman Podium

2nd Ian Hunter ( Durango),1st Ivan Thompson(Associated ), 3rd Eoin Keating (Associated)

In the Modified section expectations where high with a number of the drivers back for 2011 season looking to make there mark and take victory for Round 1.
With Blue sky above and a dry track everything was set for quick qualify times.
It was Derek McCloskey who was out  to prove just that, providing the best lap and fastest qualifying times of the day to take pole for the Finals. The other drivers where fighting it out  for 2nd with a hard fought battle between Mick Bolger / Tony Kavanagh  and Micheal O’Leary trading times through the qualifying rounds. At the completion of qualifying it was Mick who won out in the end to take 2nd place over Tony who qualified third.
Heading into the first Leg of the A final it was Derek who needed a win to take the opening Round of the National series, a task easier said then done but this time its exactly what he did. Straight from the start of the Final he took a commanding lead putting in a number of quick laps in to stretch out a gap from the rest of the pack which he maintained through to the end of the race with a solid drive. The other drivers where left fighting it out for 2nd place. It was Mick who claimed 2nd over Tony only a few seconds back.
With the win now sealed for the day Derek opted out of Leg 2, this gave the others a opportunity to gain points and increase their overall for the day and for the series. From the start of the race we where not disappointed with Mick and Tony stealing the show in the final Leg with an outstanding drive. Both drivers where nose to tail for much of the race. The breakthrough for Kavanagh came half way into the race when an error at the end of the straight by Mick opened the door for Tony to snatch the lead. Tony lead for much of the rest of the race, fighting of the challenger Mick who was getting ever closer and trying move after move to regain 1st place . With 30sec left it looked as though Tony had the win in the bag but a mistake left the door open and Mick grab the lead which he held on to and gave him the win in Leg 2.

4WD Modified

2nd Tony Kavanagh              1st Derek McCloskey               3rd Mick Bolger

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