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.

3.5cc – Richard Sewell arrived armed with a brand new Ikarus 2.3 along with a #dptuned O.S. engine. There was no doubt his boat was quick, but the happiest people will be the polystyrene manufacturers whose profits will soar from all the replacement buoy material that will needed after several incidents. Here’s one of the more spectacular efforts: [Click to enlarge]

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7.5cc – Dave Pillmans Pegasus Evo is the boat to beat this year in Martin Fields’ absence. If only Dave could have kept it upright he surely would have retained and extended his championship lead. However, he now trails Andrew Aykroyd by a single point after Andrew grabbed 3rd spot on the day and top spot in the championship. Andrew beat Dave by 9 seconds with an engine he borrowed from him for the 2nd round! Oh the irony! Dave Clay won the class with MPBA Chairman Mick Fields taking 2nd place. Dave Clay and Mick now sit 3rd and 4th in the 7.5cc championship.

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15cc – With 9 boats including a newbie in one heat (Brentwood is not the biggest of lakes) this promised a drama-filled race. As it turned out, the racers were well aware of this and for the most part kept their cool to produce some great racing. Championship leader James Taylor had some trouble in testing on the Saturday when he managed to strip a metal gear in his T7. Some hasty repairs and switch to a nylon gear and James was ready to race. Mark Wraight had repaired his new Seljak boat and needed to get things right before the Haarlem International. Things were not looking that great for Mark in the first round but he found the magic bullet during the lunch break and dominated round 2 for an emphatic first win with his new boat after Phill Fields elected to sit out round 2 having completed his setup for the upcoming International.

Here’s what Mark had to say about his half-time transformation : Click Here

Marks win lifted him to 4th place in the championship albeit 23 points adrift of leader Phill Fields who took 2nd on the day, and rather embarrassingly 5 points behind twin brother Gary Wraight although we doubt it will stay that way for long. Mike Holliday took 3rd place, 4 laps in front of Gary.

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27cc – Another 9 boat race that produced the best racing of the day. An epic battle between James Taylor and Steve Baxter. Steve’s 27 boat is really quick and James narrowly lost out by 8 seconds after going down a prop size for round 2 to improve stability. Unfortunately the effect of this was to prevent the boat from lifting and achieving its top potential speed. Congratulations to Steve though, James is usually unbeatable in the 27cc class and was very optimistic before the race. 1st, 2nd and 3rd (Terry Holmes) were all within 1 lap.
Here’s what James had to say before the race (Additional commentary by Rok Folkson!) : Click Here

James’ 2nd place puts him top of the 27cc championship, 12 points clear of Mick Pain who had a radio issue and an unfortunate coming together with the rescue boat. See FSR Photos on Facebook

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Podiums

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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3.5cc – 2017 champion Mark Wraight

In the 3.5cc class, 2017 iMBRA European Champion Zack Humphries is untouchable, but the NDC is not his priority – He has eyes on bigger prizes at international level. 2017 3.5 NDC winner Mark Wraight is both fast and reliable, but he is also in the world championships team which may open the door for others if he doesn’t attend all the races. Alongside Mark, we would consider Dave Hole, Geoff Parmenter and Andrew Aykroyd in with a shout and we haven’t yet seen the best of Ian Folksons Ikarus. We’d probably make Dave the favourite but Andrew can win it if he goes to most of the meetings. Battle for the King of Speed will probably be fought out between Dave Marles and Dave Pillman, but we suspect neither of them will do enough events to win the title and those last few km/h of speed usually come at the expense of occasional reliability issues. Keith Burgess also has great speed but has been thwarted by reliability in recent seasons.

7.5cc – 2017 champion Mick Szebeko

The 7.5 should be interesting this season as we have another top racer in Andrew Aykroyd joining the class. Gary Wraight will be looking to return to the podium with his 8 Ball after extensive modifications. Gary will be determined to make 2018 a success after scuppering his chances of the 2017 title by attempting major changes mid-season only for it to backfire spectacularly. Everyone is looking forward to the first glimpse of 2014 World Champion Martin Fields new self-designed 7.5. Martin will be hoping the new boat is as good or better than his superb Pegasus Evo that he sold after the GB International win. Martin will no doubt putting most effort into the internationals so he’s not really a UK title contender. In no particular order, we would say that Mick Szebeko, Gary Wraight and Andrew Aykroyd are the front runners. Julian and Ross Waumsley are also strong in 7.5 and Julian’s average of 26 points per race would have been enough to take the title last year had he competed in every event. Ross may be looking for some wins to make up for the disappointment of missing the eliminators having contracted a serious infection in 2017 which almost cost him his leg.Dave Pillmans new Pegasus Evo may give everyone a fright (Video), but will he do enough races?

15cc – 2017 champion Terry Holmes

The best 15cc boat in the UK is Phill Fields Tornado T7, but like other top racers he will be considering potential damage in a world championship year so Mark Wraight will be looking to put right the disappointment of missing out on an 8th title in 2017. Facebook users will have seen the progress of his all-new Seljak design 15cc boat. We will shortly bring you a build masterclass of this boat. However, we hear he may have to contend with James Taylor who is rumoured to be returning to the 15cc class with a new Tornado T7. James is arguably (With Zack) the best driver in the UK, so Mark will have his hands full if James gets his boat built. James/Mark 2017 champion Terry Holmes will also be a strong contender as he only had one DNF all season last year on his way to the title. 2015/2016 champion Sam Lincoln would normally be considered one of the favourites, but is almost certainly focused on the world championships. We would also back Mikey Hillstead if he can keep the consistency he showed in the latter part of 2017.

27cc – 2017 champion James Taylor

27cc is a straight fight between Ian Folkson and James Taylor in our eyes. Or CMB vs Tiger King! James average 35 points per race in last years championship was simply phenomenal and if he carries that form into 2018 he will be unstoppable. The other contenders would be Steve Baxter and Mick Pain who is ultra reliable, but not on the pace of Ian, James and Steve. All 4 are qualified for the world championships, so this may let in Terry Holmes.

Coming to the business end of the season with 3 to go, it’s still wide open in all classes except 3.5 where Mark Wraight has now established a big lead equivalent to a whole race win.

3.5cc – It’s clear that the fight for the title is being taken seriously as a few of the racers went testing on Saturday before the race. The intense rivalry between Mr #boughtnotbuilt Mark Wraight and Andrew Aykroyd continued to produce the goods with only 1 lap separating them at the end. Dave Hole completed the podium in 3rd. It now looks like the 3.5 title is Mark’s to lose. (No pressure Mark!)

Click on a boat for fullsize image:

7.5cc – Peterborough member Mick Szebeko took the win with his Pegasus Evo, putting him 11 points clear at the top of the table. Julian Waumsley took 2nd and climbs to 2nd spot in the table after a disappointed Gary Wraight was just edged out to 3rd having struck bottom left buoy whilst leading with only a minute or so to go! Gary is showing good consistency with his #boughtnotbuilt 8 Ball and is determined to fight for the title until the last race.

15cc – Terry Holmes extended his lead at the top of the 15cc table with the win. Returning after a year off, Mikey Hillstead grabbed 2nd, and Mike Holiday took 3rd. Mark Wraight (4th) is keen to point out that as only 8 of the 9 races count towards the title, he is actually only 14 points behind Terry and is still gunning for the title!

27cc – James Taylor took the win with the highest laps of the day (73), making it 3 in a row and is in great form in this World Championship eliminator year. Another good performance from Terry Holmes, taking 2nd spot means he stays overall top in the table. He will have a tough fight holding off James who is in devastating form. Mick Pain returned after a 2 race absence to take 3rd place.

Our thanks go to the Elmbridge Club for hosting this event and to the many people involved in its running. The racing program alternating between a ‘M’ course and an ‘Oval’ meant the course had to be re-deployed twice over the 2-day event.