Craig Collinson wins NE Regional at Batley

Report by Craig Collinson

 

Last weekend Batley Buggy Club hosted the 3rd round of the North East Outdoor Regional series. The weather in the UK has been terrible of late, with severe rain effecting most places. The week leading up to the meeting was no different and it looked as though it was going to be another wet meeting!

Practice
On the day of the meeting to our surprise the rain had stopped and even a little sunshine was beginning to appear. The track at Batley is multisurface with a combination of grass, astro and concrete. In the morning the track was still wet for practice and people were trying all sorts of tyres to see which worked best, in case the track didnt dry out, or it started to rain again. I went out in practice with my DEX210 and knew straight away that i was in for a good day, as my car was dialled!

 
Qualifying
By the time qualifying started the track had just about dried out which made choosing the right tyres less of an issue. After not been able to capitalise on my TQ spot at a previous round in the series, i was determined to take the TQ spot and go for the win! My car was even more dialled in qualifying than it was in practice, and i was able to take all four rounds of qualifying to put my DEX210 pole in the A-Main. Steve Lawson was 2nd and James Mcfadyen took the 3rd spot.
 
Final
In the final I got off to a really good start and held onto 1st position going into the first corner. I was then able to get into my groove and try to settle myself into the race. Steve Lawson was in 2nd pushing hard and trying to apply the pressure. After a few minutes i was able to settle down and just drove the track instead of worrying about what was going on behind. This proved to the right thing to do as i started to edge away from the chasing pack. I had an error free race with my DEX210 in the final and crossed the line to take a comfortable win, nearly quarter of a lap ahead of 2nd place Steve Lawson. Arslan Butt had a good race and moved up from his qualifying position of 4th to take 3rd place in the final.

 

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