Craig Laughton wins the 2013 Australian National Truggy Title

  

The 3-day event kicked off with 2 rounds of practice and one round of qualifying on Thursday with all in attendance fighting the 95 klm per hour winds which made the setting up of their cars for the new track layout a very hard task, many spent most of their time trying to keep their pit marquee's from blowing away in the high winds, some were not so lucky that's for sure with the wind winning the battle on day one, many marquee's where heading to the rubbish tip by the time the weather had its way with everyone, the rain came and with it racing was stopped 2 heats into the 2nd round practice.

 
Day two, Friday kicked off with much better weather conditions and the sun out and shining, the completion of Thursday's scheduled saw the completion of the practice rounds followed by 5 rounds of qualifying heats which saw the cream of the Australian crop of truggy drivers rise to the top of the lists in near perfect conditions with the track providing a nice clean wide blue groove and fantastic grip conditions for some very fast racing, with local Mugen Seiki driver Matt Griffin taking the TQ postion with some great driving, closely followed by Kyosho driver Kyle McBride, Craig Laughton, Aaron stringer and Glenn Breugem rounded out the top 5 drivers.

Day three saw the change in race schedule with the host club playing time catch up after Thursday's rain issues and deciding to cancel the 6th round of heats forcing the finals positions to be calculated on the 4 best heats from 5 rounds rather than the scheduled 4 best heats from 6 rounds of qualifying heats,  as always in this case it favoured some and hurt some racers chances of having that last run and a chance to improve their position for the bump up finals,  with the lower bump up finals under way racers started working there way through to the semi final's.
 
Semi final A : hosting some great drivers but it was West Australian Craig Laughton with 47 laps that laid down the hurt on the field of drivers with a clear 3 lap win from fellow West Australian driver David Sims on 44 laps, followed by a close battle for third spot on 43 laps between Jason Dyckhoff, Nick Norris and Paul Goodie, local Mugen Seiki driver Matt Griffin after taking out the TQ spot was retired by a throttle servo issue 18 laps into the race and with it the chances of a local boy winning the title.
 
Semi final B : Queenslander Kyosho's Kyle McBride ran away with the win finishing a lap clear up on 47 laps with fellow Queenslander Aaron Stringer 2nd on 46 laps and Andrew Foord also on 46 laps, a lap further back was A.C.T's Shane Kelly followed by a lap further back by Simon Page to round out the top 10 finishers for the semi final rounds, the wait for the fastest times to be posted to decide the last 5 bump up positions for the finals was under way.
 
A main Final : Things got away to a fast and furious start with the first corner madness that we have all grown to hate and love playing a part in some changes in position but once the dust had settled it was Craig Laughton and Aaron Stringer battling it out in front of the field closely followed by Jason Dyckhoff and Kyle McBride, with Aaron Stringer having a tumble allowing Craig to pull away from Jason Dychoff to nice little gap, what was to follow was Kyle McBride working his way through to 2nd place before the 1st pit stops only 7 seconds behind Craig.

Craig Laughton managed to lead the race from start to finish with Kyle McBride having a flame out on lap 47 of the race and after being run in from the back of the track by a marshal to his pit crew that re started the engine and got Kyle back out into 2nd place which he held solid until the end of the race, 3rd place on the other hand was up for grabs for a few drivers during the hour long main finally going to Andrew Foord with a great solid drive under pressure, Aaron Stringer and Jason Dyckhoff rounded out the top 5 for the event.

The Melbourne Off Road Radio Car Club put on a fantastic event with nice fast new layout and blue grooved surface that was enjoyed by all that attended!
 

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