Factory Team / Race Events

Race Report: Ben Sterling 2014 Australian Buggy Nationals

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On July 17th – 20th I raced one of the best race meets of my career. The 2014 IC Buggy and Truggy Australian Titles held at the world class track in Logan QLD! Man what a track, never in my life have I seen a track so nicely prepped and the layout so flowing, It made for a great event!

The track had some very challenging sections like a big double double section with the down ramp of the last double on a big banked corner. Made for some awesome whips, but some massive crashes also. Another awesome feature was the angled double coming onto the back straight, again very hard to get right every lap and caught a lot of people out by running too high and hitting the hay bails, there was some massive whips over this section.

Grant, Shane, Kyle and I all hired a site shed so we were out of the dust, wind and noise. Was a great idea and I will definitely do that again! Made for a lot better event! Thanks Grant for organising that.

After qualifying had completed I ended up 16th! This put me straight into the Semis and I started out of 8th. My semi race will be in my memory for ever. I had probably the best race in my career. The second lap I made a mistake and had to get marshalled, when the marshall grabbed my car he slipped and covered the exhaust stalling my car. By the time my car got back to the pits and and re-fired I was a lap and a half down. I drove unbelievably and didn’t make a mistake for the remainder of the run! I ended up coming back to 8th and qualified for the A-Main by having the fastest run outside of the two top seven placed semi drivers.

It was an hour long main and I just lapped and lapped and lapped. I had a fairly clean run, just not a fast run. I would finish in 11th overall.

I am so happy for my result. My whole goal for the weekend was to make it into the semis and if I made the Main then that was just a bonus. Well I exceeded all of my own expectations!

I would like to thank all who helped me: Savage Sam and Ron Maya for pitting for me in the finals and Shane Van Gisbergen for pitting for me in all the qualifiers and practices, you guys did awesome and I appreciated every bit of info and help you have passed on to me. Kyle and Scott McBride for the setup help and some parts, also well done Kyle for the double win! You’re on another level! Matt Griffin from RCRS, Ren at RAB Hobbies and Nico from NPRS, you guys do anything to help me and I really appreciate it! My Kyosho MP9 TKi3, Alpha Dragon 3-Port, Pro-Line Blockades, MKS servos, Gforce Pit Accessories, Avid Bearings and Byron Fuels were working awesome all weekend.

I couldn’t be where I am today without the support you have all given me!

Thanks!

Checkout my website: www.bensterlingrc.com