Alex Thurston wins the Nitro TC national at Stonehaven with KYOSHO R4

Alex Thurston wins the Nitro TC national at Stonehaven with KYOSHO R4

Having raced at  Stonehaven previous, We knew the key to winning was about having the right strategy for the final.

The track is very hard on tyres, and managing the wear rate to cope without a tyre stop was going to be difficult. The high wear rate caused by the full speed banked corner is something we learnt to manage.

Alex qualified 7th for the main after lots of work getting setup and using the qualifiers as a learning base for tire wear.

Off the start, Alex fought to get past 3 or 4 drivers but got tagged from a driver he had overtaken, as always Alex got his head into gear and drove hard for the first 5 mins and got himself into the lead. Having got there he drove smartly looking after his tyres, slowing slighly to conserve the left rear.

Alex led the race for around 20 mins of the total 30 mins.

With around 7 or 8 mins to go it started to rain and made the track very slippy. We knew Alex had a hard setting and it would be hard for him to hold onto car now.

At this point Alex was 1st ,Joe Kerry  was 2nd, and Mark Green was 3rd. Joe drove well to catch up with Alex. For the last 4 mins they both swapped places several times but Joe had to stop for fuel. Alex didn't ,the strategy paid off and Alex drove to the end in a very controlled manner deserving of his First National win.

 

Final Results:
1. Alex Thurston – KYOSHO V-ONE R4 – 99 laps
2. Joe Kerry – Serpent – 98 laps
3. Mark Green – Serpent – 98 laps
4. Andrew Hastings – 92 laps
5. Simon Wood – 88 laps
6. Chris Steele – 87 laps
7. Adam Catchpole – 84 laps
8. Dave Gerard – 84 laps
9. Matthew Cook – KYOSHO V-ONE R4 - 47 laps
10. Scott Hellawell – 10 laps

  Alex's KYOSHO R4 Setup

Front Camber   2
Rear Camber   3.5
Front toe -   1 out
Rear toe        in 3
Shocks Kyosho Standard Blues front and rear.
Shock oil front : 500 2 hole pistons
Rear oil  450 3 hole pistons
Droop front -1
Droop rear 4
Tyres Front 40s....  Rear left.... 45 Right right 40

Report by Martin Thurston.