Kyle McBride crowned Keilor Invitational champ

0 Jan. 12, 2016, 4:22 p.m.

By Aaron Waldron
LiveRC.com

Race report from Ray Munday:

McBride wins Keilor Invitational

The 2016 Australian racing season kicked off in a big way with the 2016 Keilor Gforce Invitational held at the Keilor track in Melbourne, Australia. Running a Reedy Race style format of head-head racing with 2wd and 4wd buggies, this years event saw a huge surge in entries with racers from all around Australia and close to 180 buggies running over the weekend on a new clay track constructed for the event. The Invitational classes were run over 5 heats of 2wd and 5 heats of 4wd, and open classes were offered with the victor getting an invite to the 2017 Invite class. Unique to this event, classes are run for both modified and 17,5T buggies.

Modified Invite Class:

Australia's most successful International racer Kyle McBride headlined the modified field with his AE / Reedy buggies and was the hot favourite to win, but he was pushed very hard by multi-time national champs Ari Bakla (Xray) and Josh Pain (Sworkz / TLR). After the 2wd day Kyle and Ari were tied but Kyle managed to break free in 4wd to take the overall win by 1 point from Ari with Josh only 1 point further back. The racing between these three was spectacular with the crowd loving it! 4th place overall was 2013/2014 winner Ray Munday (AE / Reedy) and 5th new AE signing Cameron Zammit.

17,5T Invite Class:

This was all about 16yo sensation Josh Mason from Sydney. He took 7 out of 10 race wins to dominate this class with his AE buggies. In 2nd place was stock stalwart Scott Giles (TLR) and Adrian Spinazzola (TLR) a popular 3rd.

Videos of all Invitational races have been uploaded to the Keilor Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/KeiloroffroadRCclub/

Open Modified Classes:

With 2017 Invite class positions up for grabs, the competition was intense in these classes with a single 10 minute final to determine the winner. Nice guy Andrew Adamic TQ'd both 2wd and 4wd, winning the 2wd final with Mildura's Jai Davis taking out the 4wd final.

Open 17.5T Classes:

Brady Anthes travelled from Tasmania for his first interstate race and it will be a race he wont forget taking the win in 2wd 17,5 and finishing 2nd in 2wd modified! In the 4wd class 12yo Mitchell Isergin TQ'd with his brand new B44.3 buggy, but in the final Gary Carvajal was too good earning himself a place in the 2017 event.

Junior 17,5T:

This class is run for under 16s with 2wd 17,5T buggies. 10 juniors lined up for the event, most under 12. Dustin Densley from Mildura took pole but in the final it was local Brodi Jaensch who took the win from Densley, with 7yo Cooper Richardson an impressive 3rd after a great drive! The winner of this class receives a pit mat signed by racers from the Reedy race in OCRC in 2 weeks time thanks to Team Associated!

The 2016 Keilor GForce Invitational was a huge success and preparation is already underway for an even better 2017 event. Special thanks to Leigh Cheeseman who ran the event faultlessly, John Watkins for his time on the mic, the club members who helped build the track through a scorching summer, and to all of the racers who came from far and wide! And of course to the event sponsors GForce electronics, Ryper Hobbies, Traction RC and RCRS.