2019 Circuit Season Preview
It’s probably fair to say that the domestic Circuit Racing scene is less competitive than the equivalent in Multi Racing. Those racers who did not already also compete in multi would have had their eyes opened at the iMBRA World Championships in Egletons, France this year, where good domestic results were no guarantee of success against the top hydro and offshore racers from Europe and beyond. However, we do think that the first-timers enjoyed themselves in France, whatever their results and are now motivated to achieve more at the iMBRA 2019 European Championships in Poland and the iMBRA 2020 World Championships in Italy, plus the intervening iMBRA League races.
That said, we had some great successes at the 2018 Worlds – A gold for Martin Fields in 3.5cc Hydro, silver for Keith Burgess in 3.5cc Hydro, silver for Ian Folkson in 3.5cc Offshore and a bronze for Luke Burgess in the junior 3.5cc Offshore – A great achievement for Luke in his 1st season racing!
So what do we have to look forward to in the 2019 domestic Circuit season?
3.5cc Hydro – 2018 winner Keith Burgess
As section chairman, Keith will normally be at all the Circuit races, which will give him an advantage in 3.5cc Hydro against the LM Racing crew of Martin and Phill Fields plus Leon Morgan (Maybe), who are all more focused on International competitions. Both Dave Marles and Dave Pillman occasionally run 3.5cc Hydro but have yet to get to grips with 3.5cc reliability-wise. Another win for Keith then.
7.5cc Hydro – 2018 winner Derek Owen
This is the one to watch! A big field for 2019 – Derek, Chas Tedder, Armen Boldy, Steve Clements, Martin Fields and newcomers Dave Pillman and Gary Wraight. No doubt, we’ll see some ‘thrills and spills’ from Dave and Gary whilst they try to get to grips with Hydro racing, so we’ll make sure to have the camera ready to capture those priceless disintegration moments! Any one of the other 4 could take the title in 2019, but Dereks consistency (And many spare boats) may edge it again.
15cc / 27cc Hydro – 2018 winner Armen Boldy
With Richard Harris now based in the Southwest, he’s unlikely to make it to Elmbridge much, so the 2019 field will comprise of Armen, Dave Marles (With his 27cc rigger) and Phill Fields. It was pretty close between Armen and Dave last year and could have gone either way. We expect a similar outcome in 2019, with Phill probably out of the picture by not attending all the races.
3.5cc Offshore – 2018 winner Miha Folkson
There are no separate junior classes in UK Circuit, and Miha beat all the seniors last year including his World Champion dad Ian. Our Juniors in fact, took the first 3 places in this class. We expect a fightback in 2019 from Ian and MPBA Chairman Mick Fields, but we predict another junior win.
7.5cc Offshore – 2018 winner Adrian Marshall
There’s a decent sized field in 7.5cc Offshore and we expect strong challenges from Mick Buonaiuto, Dave Marles, Julian Waumsley and Chas Tedder. Mick probably has the best boat if he can drive aggressively enough.
15cc Offshore – 2018 winner Les Wall
A fairly comfortable win in 2018 for Les, but Mick Buonaiuto has the speed to win it if he turns up to all the races. Dave Marles would also be in with a shout if he enters every race, but his 15cc boat has been a bit unreliable of late. We’d go for Les again.
35cc Offshore – 2018 winner Werner Bester
Werner is super consistent, and it’s hard to see him being beaten in 2019, especially while the usual suspects Mark Wraight, Dave Marles, Mark Rice and now Dave Pillman race each other full-on and inevitably take each other out. We’re looking forward to some spectacular action shots in this class!
Sport 60 – 2018 winner Les Wall
In the fun class, Les is quick and reliable. Probably only Thomas has the speed to beat Les, so uncle Steve Clements needs to make sure Thomas’ Silak is reliable if he is going to challenge Les in 2019