Final round of the 2016 Mid East Regionals

The last weekend of August saw the team visit our local track at Broxtowe MCC for the final round of the 2016 Mid East Regionals, below is a fantastic report from PBM Racing/Kyosho team driver Iain Mellish who took the 2wd championship for the first time this year. We all want to give Iain our congratulations for bringing home the title for PBM and Kyosho and look forward to building on this success through the winter season ahead.

“Keep looking up, that’s the secret of life”

Snoopy may not be regarded as one of the world’s great philosophers but the above quote can be related to in many aspects of our lives. It suggests that we should continuously look towards making improvements, no matter how small, in order to reach our goals.

Before you click onto another page thinking, ‘What on earth has this to do with model car racing’, let me attribute this quote to our hobby, how it relates to racing, and for the purpose of this report, especially in the East Midlands.

As with any sport, whether it be as a team or individually competed, there are always stand-out performers with whom who the rest of the field must catch up, and finally overcome, in order to be regarded as the best. Without this domination of a particular team or individual, desire or determination to reduce the gap to the top ‘lap by lap’ may become stale, or absent, and performances can level out at a standard much lower than could be possible with the right application.

To make this more tangible for competitors in the Mid-East Regional Championships, Snoopy’s quote and my subsequent waffle directly relates to the dominance shown by the Schumacher team for the last few years and illustrates how anyone wishing to de-throne, or even ruffle the feathers of the reigning champions, must have the respect, desire and application to do so.

It seems I have been digressing since I typed the first word so let me now introduce my report into how Team Kyosho fared in the highly competitive Mid-East region in 2016!

Since the World Championships were held in Japan last Autumn there have been a handful of new buggies introduced onto the scene and one of them was the highly anticipated release of Kyosho’s first new 2wd buggy since the release of the excellent RB6 platform in 2012.

What was particularly exciting was that, for the first time ever, the World Championships were held on a high grip surface much akin to those that we race on here in the UK. With this being the case Kyosho drivers were particularly keen to get their hands on the new high grip, shaft driven, forward motor, RZ6 conversion kit that has had clear influences from other manufacturers such as Team C’s TM2 and Dave Burtons DB2.

Such has been the dominance of Schumacher, and the sheer number of drivers of all abilities they have on their books in the East Midlands, it can be very difficult for any other teams to get a look in for honours come the end of the season, and with seven of the top ten drivers in 2wd alone last year all racing Schumacher cars, the gauntlet had certainly been thrown down once again to the chasing manufacturers, Kyosho included.

Team Kyosho have struggled for numbers in the East Midlands in recent seasons but support from PBM racing and the return of the charismatic former national winner Karl Marsden seemed to have encouraged more racers to join the brand for the 2016 season. Although one or two drivers were drawn to the team mid way through the year our driver line up was as follows:

Karl Marsden
Kole Marsden (U13)
Shaun Thompson
Freddie Thompson (U13)
Darren Wells
Kamran Wells (U13)
Charles Krontiris
Lee Romang
Lee Hewson
Rob Horne
Harvey Horne (U13)
Adrian Parkes
John Brook
John Langley
Iain Mellish

With a blend of youth, experience, knowledge, humour, and even a team gazebo, the Kyosho team had already improved on last season by sheer numbers alone, so it was unsurprising that going into the first rounds of the championship there was an air of cautious optimism spreading through the ranks.

The first rounds of the championship were held at Robin Hood Raceways excellent facility in 4wd and Grantham’s notoriously slippy A1 track in the 2wd class.

In 4wd Karl Marsden got off to a fantastic start by finishing 3rd whilst I also made the A final and finished 6th. Charles Krontiris drove a brilliant E final to finish 2nd after starting 7th on the grid and there were further strong performances from Lee Hewson and Rob Horne in making the F final. Our juniors were also getting to grips with the class and Kole Marsden and Harvey Horne got their accounts up and running in the G final. Kamran Wells, who must be one of the youngest drivers in the region also made his series debut.

As dawn broke on the 2wd calendar there were certainly some scepticism by some from the pits who believed the new RZ6 would not cope in the low grip conditions that Grantham offers. Such pessimism was not warranted however as the car, somewhat surprisingly, took strongly to the tricky conditions. I managed to qualify second and take the win in the final and was joined in the top ten by Karl who finished fourth. There were strong performances throughout the team though as Shaun Thompson made the B final, Charles the E final, and Freddie Thompson, Adrian Parkes, Lee Hewson and Darren Wells all grouped together in the F final.

The second rounds of the championship were held over two days at Broxtowe’s astroturf track with 4wd being held on the Saturday and 2wd on the Sunday. Karl, although struggling to find the sweet spot between car and track, again made the top ten whilst Shaun and Charles drove their ZX6’s to top 30 and 40 positions respectively.

Sunday saw the good form of the new RZ6 continue and after narrowly securing TQ and a final win I was joined in the top ten not only by Karl but also new comer to the team, John Brook who looked strong with his new ride. Another new comer, John Langley, made the top 40 whilst Adrian, Freddie and Lee Hewson all made the top 50.

Round three of the series saw the 4wd’s go to the aforementioned Grantham A1 track and the 2wd’s tackle the once a year challenge of driving on grass at West Bridgford. Karl continued his push in 4wd by taking a brilliant 2nd place and was supported by Shaun taking another top 20 finish. Charles and Lee rounded off a good start to the season with both finishing in the top 30. Rob Horne got his account up and running in the E final and two of our youngest drivers, Harvey and Kamran battled it out in the F final.

The 2wd event at West Bridgford always offers up a tough challenge as the track varies a lot through the day due to the grass wearing out, eventually to dust….or mud! The team coped well with another test though, and with 3 out of the top 5 cars being Kyosho’s we were really taking the fight to the Schumacher contingent. In the end I finished 2nd, Karl 5th, and John Brook 8th. The day also saw a new team member in the form of Lee Romang who made a very credible B final in his first outing with the car.

It was the 4wd’s turn to visit West Bridgford for round four in the series and once more Karl led the way in finding some great form from his ZX6 to push the Schumacher cars of Jack Neal and Greg Williams all the way in finishing 3rd overall. Myself and Lee Romang both made the B final, whilst John Langley, Darren Wells, and Charles Krontiris all made the top 40.

The following rounds of the competition were to be held over another two day event, this time at Robin Hood Raceway, with 2wd to be competed on the Saturday and 4wd on the Sunday.

As things stood I was top of the 2wd championship and with Nathan Waters not entering this round it meant that no one could better our score which meant that Kyosho would win their first Mid-East championship with a round to spare, but there were still more points up for grabs. The RZ6 was great all day and it was disappointing not to back up a TQ with a final win but after making numerous unforced errors through the race it was not meant to be. Shaun had one of his best finishes of the year to finish 12th overall and Lee Hewson also showed further improvement in making the C final.

The high grip surface of RHR always poses a tough challenge, especially for the 4wd class and it was no different here. On a challenging layout there were good performances through the team and although surely desperate for an A final, Shaun made another B final, John Langley made the C, and Charles and Lee Hewson both made the D final. This marked the end of the 4wd competition and with it a huge positive surge in results for the Kyosho team, which will only get stronger after more practice through the winter.

To end the season we made a second visit to the Nottingham based Broxtowe club. By this time the release of Kyosho’s new RB6.6 had been announced, and delivered, and many within the camp were taking this opportunity to give the car a shakedown and see what potential it had. The new car has a lot of new gearbox configurations, from a now fashionable lay-down 3 gear option to the more familiar stand up three and four gear options. There was somewhat of a split on which configuration to use on the day but further testing will give a better understanding on which each layout is capable of.

The day proved to be another closely fought affair with the Schumacher team, but this time it was Greg Williams who took TQ and then drove well to convert the pole position into a final win from myself in second. Karl, having switched cars after practice, placed the RB6.6 in a debut A-final and with plenty of time in the car to come, it was a positive first outing for the new car.

Freddie Thompson drove really well all day to make the C Final and was joined in the top 30 by Lee Romang, who was also getting to grips with the new RB6.6. John Langley, Charles and Lee Hewson all finished off a good year in making the top 40 whilst Rob and Darren placed 1st and 3rd in the E-Final. Kamran Wells completed his first outdoor season and will be one to watch in the future once he’s had a few seasons under his belt.

The final championship standings are a clear indication of how much the Mid-East Kyosho team have reduced the gap to Schumacher in the Mid-East this year, and with two drivers placing in the top ten in 4wd and four drivers placing in the top twenty in 2wd, including a championship title, it is indicative of the hard work and great team ethic shown by all the team throughout the 2016 season.

Of course, to continue the push on our biggest rivals, further hard work and testing is needed to lure more drivers to the brand, but with a host of experienced, helpful and humorous guys in the team, coupled with some fantastic cars, we can be confident that we can follow up this season with an even better one in 2017.

On that note I will finish as I started, with a quote. I couldn’t find one from anyone as famous as Snoopy to sign off with, but its still worth remembering!

Thank you for a great year everyone, here’s to many more to come.

“Excellence is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends” : )