A decent turnout for the second Circuit race of the 2019 season – 8 boats in 7.5 Hydro promised some exciting racing. The day was dry with the sun threatening to make an appearance in the afternoon. We kicked off as usual with the hot breakfast rolls supplied by the Elmbridge crew and the free practice to iron out any last minute issues. Today we welcomed a guest from OMRA – Clive Whitbread who was competing in the 15cc and 35cc Offshore classes with his Phantom boats.

3.5cc Hydro – Just 2 boats contested this class – Keith Burgess was having problems with his 3.5cc hydro and unfortunately only finished round 1, but took the fastest lap of the day in all classes of 11.08 seconds. This left Phill Fields to take the win with a maximum 1,600 and the lead in the Drivers Championship.

3.5cc Hydro Podium – click to enlarge

7.5cc Hydro – Gary Wraight take a bow! Gary’s Boldy Design StingR was flying today and he took the win despite a DNF in round 3 where an overly aggressive move in an attempt to get the start resulted in him running up the wash of Dereks boat and flipping over. Gary lost his shaft and prop, but after some repairs with a kind loan from Derek, he was back with a maximum in round 4 to seal the win. Armen may have been regretting selling Gary the rigger after coming 2nd to Gary in the heat and 3rd overall, but he retains a slender 300 point lead over Gary in the Championship. Steve Clements took 2nd after finishing each round and getting a maximum in round 3.

7.5cc Hydro Podium – click to enlarge
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15cc Hydro – Derek took the win today with 2 maximums and 2 DNFs – Reliability plagued the 15cc Hydro class today with 2nd placed Armen only making one start and 3rd placed Tony failing to score.

15cc Hydro Podium – click to enlarge

3.5cc Offshore – Dave Clay needs to get his 3.5cc Offshore performing like his Multi boat as he was comprehensively beaten into 4th by 3 Juniors! Miha dominated this class, taking the win by 8 laps from Thomas. Brother Rok took 3rd place. Luke was quick as usual, but reliability let him down today. Dave retains his lead in the Championship as Miha, Rok and Thomas all missed round 1.

3.5cc Offshore Podium – click to enlarge

7.5cc Offshore – It’s been a while coming, but Vince finally returned to the podium with a solid 3rd place after some judicious tweaking by son James found some reliability. Julian took the win by just one lap from Mick Buonaiuto who retains his lead in the Drivers Championship by 25 points over Chas who had a lot of reliability issues today.

7.5cc Offshore Podium – click to enlarge

15cc Offshore – Mick Buonaiuto also tops the 15cc Offshore Championship with an easy win today finishing 7 laps clear of 2nd placed Clive Whitbread and 17 laps in front of Les Wall Mick tried to hide this crash under the trees, but there’s no getting away from Mr Canon.

15cc Offshore Podium – click to enlarge

35cc Offshore – James Taylor had sorted the ride on his Kraken after Round 1 and cruised to victory and the Championship lead 56 laps clear of 2nd placed Grahame Morgan. OMRA guest racer Clive Whitbread must have been pleased to get a double podium in his first MPBA event. Not such a good weekend for Mark Wraight as the bearing cage on his Tiger King melted so he couldn’t race at his normal level.

35cc Offshore Podium – click to enlarge

Sport 60 – Adrian Marshall takes the overall win and retains top spot in the table. Thomas grabbed 2nd and Les in 3rd.

Sport 60 Podium – click to enlarge

Apologies for the lateness and brevity of this report – Work commitments and all that.
An excellent turnout for the first Circuit race of the 2019 season – 9 boats in 7.5 offshore and 35 Offshore promised some exciting racing. In fact only the 3.5 Offshore looked a bit light compared to last year. A lot to get through, and this resulted in a slightly later than usual finish.
The day was thankfully dry, if a bit cold in the morning. It was great to see the new Elmbridge clubhouse up and running after the senseless arson attack of last year and we took advantage of the hot breakfast rolls supplied by the Elmbridge crew. Compliments to all involved in the clubhouse restoration – A superb job.

3.5cc Hydro – A good turnout in 3.5 hydro, with Dave Pillman looking to fill the void left by Leon Morgan taking a break from boating. Now he’s got the bug, might we see Gary Wraight with a 35 hydro in future? Keiths hydro was looking mighty fast today but in the end Phill Fields took the win and the fastest lap of the day in all classes of 10.82 seconds. Keith took 2nd and Dave Marles 3rd.

3.5cc Hydro Podium – click to enlarge

7.5cc Hydro – Armen narrowly took the overall win from Derek with 2 maximums in the first 2 rounds and a 3rd in round 3. Returning racer Tony Jarvis had a decent run in the first round, but didn’t capitalise on this in subsequent rounds. Chas will be disappointed with a low 25 points today as his main rivals get a head start on him in the championship. Gary Wraight was an astonishing overall 3rd with 600 points in his first ever hydro race with an Armen Boldy StingR despite missing the first 2 rounds due to radio issues.

7.5cc Hydro Podium – click to enlarge

15cc Hydro – 2016 iMBRA 15cc Hydro World Champion Phill Fields dominated the 15cc Hydro class with 3 out of 4 maximums, giving him a healthy 1,200 point early lead in the championship. All the other competitors failed to finish due to various reliability issues.

15cc Hydro Podium – click to enlarge

3.5cc Offshore – MPBA Chairman Mick Fields dominated the class with an 80 lap total, 35 laps clear of 2nd placed Dave Clay. Luke grabbed 3rd.

3.5cc Offshore Podium – click to enlarge

7.5cc Offshore – Mick Buonaiuto is a different character altogether in circuit, driving far more aggressively than he does with his multi! Mick takes the overall win from Chas and Mick Fields

7.5cc Offshore Podium – click to enlarge

15cc Offshore – Rob Daniel takes the overall win from Mick Buonaiuto and Les Wall.

15cc Offshore Podium – click to enlarge

35cc Offshore – To be honest, this was the one we were waiting for! With 9 boats competing, we were in for a wild time and generally were not disappointed! The internet was buzzing ahead of this race with the main protagonists not wasting any opportunity to have a pop at their rivals. A surprise late entry from silent assassin James Taylor must have got the rest of the field worrying given his domination in 27cc multi. James reputation is well deserved and he ended up with an incredible 2nd place by the narrowest of margins to 2018 Nationals winner Mark Wraight. Pretty remarkable given James was running a brand new untrimmed boat! Grahame Morgan also surprised everyone with the fastest overall lap with his new Kraken / Tiger King

Plenty of drama in this class with some spectacular crashes. Here’s one of the highlights – Dave Pillman and Neil Ward Clash:

35cc Offshore Podium – click to enlarge

Sport 60 – Sport 60 King Les takes the overall win from Adrian and Chas. We thought Vince had brought a shotgun when his engine in the Jaguar backfired!

Sport 60 Podium – click to enlarge

Not quite the turnout we got for the Nationals, 21 boats in total but a surprise full house in 3.5 Hydro as the racers took the opportunity for a final test before the iMBRA World Championships. Some good racing on a beautiful sunny day again at Elmbridge. No podium photos yet as I had to leave early and am waiting for someone to send them.

3.5cc Hydro – Keith Burgess took the win with Dave Pillman 2nd after a couple of disqualifications. This cements Keiths position at the top of the table with only himself and Dave having scored any points this season.

7.5cc Hydro – New Championship Leader Derek Owen took the win and leapfrogged Armen Boldy in his absence, Steve Clements and Chas Tedder took 2nd and 3rd respectively

15cc Hydro – No 15cc Hydro this week

3.5cc Offshore – Junior Luke took the win, beating MPBA Chairman Mick Fields who seemed to be well down on his usual speed. Thomas took 3rd and the Championship lead.

7.5cc Offshore – Adrian Marshall takes the win, with the same laps as Chas Tedder, but a mere 2 seconds in front! Very unusual in this class. Julian Waumsley took 3rd, with Mick Buonaiuto 4th

15cc Offshore – 1st Mick Buonaiuto, 2nd Mark Rice, 3rd Les Wall. Mick narrows the gap in the table to leader Les.

35cc Offshore – Werner Bester takes the win and the 2018 Championship as he is now 48 points clear with only 40 available in the last race. Steve Whenham takes 2nd and Mark Wraight 3rd

Sport 60 – 1st Chas Tedder, 2nd Les Wall, 3rd Thomas, 4th Adrian. Les extends his lead at the top of the table and it’s all down to the final race in September.

Not quite the turnout we got for Round 1, but we still had 20 competitors and 30 boats which made for some good racing. And the sun came out in the afternoon.

7.5cc Hydro – No 3.5 hydro this week. Championship Leader Derek Owen needed to fight off Armen Boldy, Steve Clements and Chas Tedder for the points. Armen took the overall win with a maximum 1600 points with Derek in 2nd and Steve 3rd. This puts Armen top of the table after 2 rounds, 875 points clear of Derek.

15cc Hydro – With Championship Leader Dave Marles absent, there was a chance for Armen Boldy and Phill Fields to make up some ground (Or water?) on the leader. Armen’s 15cc Rooster was very fast but he couldn’t beat 2016 iMBRA 15cc Hydro World Champion Phill Fields today. Armen ended the day with a broken CMB 91, which according to CMB distributor Ian Folkson was a result of using the wrong oil. All the multi guys use Elkalub for their racing engines. Armen is now facing an expensive rebuild, although a small consolation is that he now tops the table, 500 points clear of Phill.

3.5cc Offshore – With Miha leading the Championship and juniors occupying 3 out of the top 5 places, we were hoping for another junior victory until MPBA Chairman Mick Fields came along to spoil their party. Micks 3.5cc boat is fast and reliable and using his experience from Multi, he takes an incredibly tight line round the buoys, which is just a bit too much for the juniors to compete with. Thomas and Miha still managed 2nd and 3rd respectively and Miha retains his Championship lead albeit by a slender margin of 56 points.

7.5cc Offshore – Julian Waumsley is on a roll with back to back wins in 3.5cc Multi at Brentwood and 7.5cc Offshore today. Adrian Marshall took 2nd, with Mick Buonaiuto 3rd. Julian tops the table with 2,194 points, 569 points clear of 2nd placed Adrian.

15cc Offshore – Mick Buonaiuto came out of the traps fighting with some impressive driving of his Delta Force / CMB combo. Despite a mishap in one heat where he managed to start his engine rotating backwards and missed the start, he did enough to secure the win. 1st Mick Buonaiuto, 2nd Les Wall. Mick jumps to 2nd in the table, 475 points behind leader Les.

35cc Offshore – Thrills and spills in this class. Mark Wraight arrived with a new Kraken/Tiger King. The first 2 heats were a bit of a disaster for Mark. With a burned-out servo and the running gear dismantling itself, he was lucky to not end up in the bank. Bearing in mind that this was an untested boat, Mark then proceeded to do 2 full runs and get himself on the podium. A great achievement for first time out. Mark also provided us with the picture of the day with this spectacular effort:

Werner wisely kept himself out of trouble to take the win and put himself top of the Championship, leapfrogging Neil Ward who failed to make the podium today. 1st Werner Bester, 2nd Jonathan Wilkins, 3rd Mark Wraight.

Sport 60 – Thomas’ Silak is quick, but he had reliability issues today and Les Wall had a comfortable victory. 1st Les Wall, Thomas took 2nd place making it a double-podium on the day. Lewis avoided taking any of the Elmbridge Turf home with him today and grabbed 3rd place. Les leads the Championship by 13 points from Thomas.

We saw a really impressive turnout at Elmbridge for round 1 of the 2018 MPBA Circuit National Drivers Championship, including 5 junior entries. This was the first race booked in with the new MPBA designed forms, making the race organisers job a lot easier and the response was very positive. We also had enough entries to run a separate 3.5cc Offshore race numbering more than the 7.5cc for the first time.

7.5cc Hydro – Derek Owen took the win with Armen Boldy 2nd and Chas Tedder 3rd. Chas had a Specsavers moment in the final heat, hitting the transponder line float at full bore! Martin Fields brought along a new 3.5cc Hydro but could not get it going right. We’re sure he’ll have it perfect at the next race.
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15cc / Gas Hydro – Dave Marles takes the win with his 27cc rigger powered by a Tiger King motor. Dave was flying, literally. In the final heat, the boat took off at the end of the pit straight and seemed to spend an eternity in the air before eventually hitting the left bank. Miraculously, there was no damage. Unfortunately we didn’t have the camera out for this as it had started raining. Armen Boldy took 2nd with his 15cc StingR hydro, setting the fastest lap of the day at 11.254 seconds. Phill Fields took 3rd.
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3.5cc Offshore – A brilliant one-two by Team Folkson, with Miha beating his World Champion dad Ian. Ably pitted by Andrew Buonaiuto, Miha nailed the starts and took the win. This duo is looking strong in the juniors for the 2018 iMBRA World Championships in August. Luke grabbed 3rd spot in his first race! Top showing from all the juniors today. The futures looking bright!
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7.5cc Offshore – A great first outing for Dave Marles’ new 7.5 Kraken 42, a scaled-down version of his 15cc/Gas boat. Mick Fields took 2nd with his tight driving and Julian Waumsley 3rd
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15cc Offshore – Les Wall takes the win. Nice to see Steve Whenham back racing again.
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35cc Offshore – Neil Ward takes the win
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Sport 60 – Adrian Marshall from Les Wall and Thomas Clements
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