The 2008 GRP Dirt Challenge was held once again at the awesome track of Deerdale. The track has had a major improvement since last year and has gone to full astroturf, not dirt. The club have done a great job in retaining the character of the old track with the jumps and bumps by laying the astro on top of the old track. It is nice to drive a track with bumps with astro as the cars have enough grip to corner fast and take the bumps with ease.



The entry form was published early January and the meeting was full within 2 weeks! The demand was so popular for this race that we knew it would be a special meeting. The track was open for Saturday practice and the drivers experienced some very mixed conditions from the British weather. Rain showers, hail storms and clear weather was the order of the day although the track held up perfectly for everyone to practice.

We managed to attract some very top UK drivers Lee Martin, Simon Willets, Mike Craddock and Jamie Booth not to mention the full XRAY team. With the entry list containing so many top guys the racing was always going to be fast and furious.



We woke up to a little bit of snow (around 3 inches, 1 hour away from the track). I thought that we would have to cancel the meeting due to the weather.



I was very surprised to turn up to the track to find a clear blue sky and hardly any snow! This was a great start to the day and every body was very excited and eager to get racing. We had the drivers briefing around 8.45am and the law was laid down by Chaz. We were all set for 3 rounds of qualifying with 2 scores to count.



The track was very nicely prepared and had lots of GRP banners. The track looked very professional and well prepared. The racing got going around 9.00am with Lee Martin in the first heat. Lee was looking very comfortable on the track even so early on and it was going to be hard to beat him.

Buggy Round 1

On a damp and drying track it was first blood to Jamie Booth who took the round from Simon Willetts with Mike Craddock in third. It was then Bruce Thompson from Kevin Brunsden, Stephen Childerhouse, Richard Johnson, Brennan Ralls, Anthony Potter and Dave Grunhill rounded out the top 10.

Truggy Round 1

Brennan Ralls opened up quickly to give the XT8 round one pole position. The returning Karl Marsden got a second place followed by Sham Choudry. Steven Bond, Martin Hughes, Keith Belamy, kevin Burns, Wayne Bramley, James Murphy and Dean Coupland rounded out the top 10.

Buggy Round 2

After a transponder mishap in round 1 Lee Martin set the pace in round 2. Simon took another second place with Bruce Thompson in third. Mick Craddock got 4th followed by Greg Hill, Steve Concannon, Jamie Booth, Kevin Brunsden, Leigh Parker and Anthony Potter was tenth.

Truggy Round 2

Brennan secured overall TQ with another great run from Steven Bond in second and Wayne Bramley in third. Karl Marsden took 4th followed by Tony Drabble from Custom Built Archery, Keith Belamy, Sham Choudry, Mark Hamlin, Marcus Manwaring and Martin Hughes in 10th.

Buggy Round 3

Lee Martin managed to take the third round of qualifying with a great run, he was helped by the brief snow shower during heat 9 but he was blisteringly fast around the astro. Kevin Brunsden with the new XRAY 808 was in second with Bruce Thompson picking up another third position. Mike Craddock again got another 4th followed by Steve Concannon, Jamie Booth, John Skidmore, Stephen Childerhouse, Brennan Ralls and Simon Willetts had a bad run to get 10th.

Truggy Round 3

Lee Taylor also with the XT8 and GRP .28 Engine had a great run after some teething issues to take the round win. Brennan got a 2nd in the round with Steven Bond taking third. 4th again to Karl Marsden followed by Martin Hughes, Dean Coupland, Neil Burdess, Sham Choudry, Keith Belamy and Martin Bell got into the top 10.



After the qualification rounds it was time for the raffle. Ben Cosgrove from Mirage was on hand to present the winners their prizes. Every driver who entered the meeting had a raffle ticket given to them. The number of the winner would then be drawn out and the driver would have to then pic a ticket out of the box to see what prize they had won. There were many GRP prizes available as well as some XMODS and the top prize was a Hot Bodies Lightning Stadium Evo 2 Truggy Kit. This was won by young Michael Lee, congratulations!



The finals were up next and the top 3 from each final would bump up into the next final. During the finals we were due a big snow storm which made the C finals very interesting but it did stop fairly quickly and the A finals were run in the dry conditions again.

G Final Buggy

1 Craig Cambell 12 / 614.21
2 Joseph Adams 12 / 627.86
3 Paul Layhe 12 / 631.74
4 Jonathan Garrat 12 / 639.85
5 Matthew Dawson 11 / 643.50
6 Chaz Blake 11 / 648.95
7 Jonathan Skidmore 10 / 509.55
8 Kieran Dougan 10 / 547.21
9 Tom Jordan 10 / 647.57
10 Bobby Stupple 5 / 550.26
11 Sean Clarke 5 / 592.90
12 Danial Young 1 / 54.65
13 Dave Manning 1 / 58.58 58.
=14 Mark Brownsword 0 / 0.00
=14 Daniel Smith 0 / 0.00
=14 Lee Taylor 0 / 0.00

H Final Buggy

1 Craig Thompson 13 / 648.79
2 Craig Cambell 12 / 606.01
3 Luke Lee 12 / 610.83
4 Ryan Mould 12 / 612.86
5 Paul Layhe 12 / 623.31
6 Glen Pattenden 12 / 639.67
7 Charlie Ware 12 / 641.46
8 Oliver Vaulkhard 12 / 643.26
9 Paul Gosling 11 / 588.32
10 Joseph Adams 11 / 600.01
11 Lee Downing 11 / 602.09
12 Stephen Platts 10 / 522.10
13 Robin Davidson 10 / 557.28
14 Scott Tinkler 7 / 363.43
15 Tony Tinkler 0 / 0.00

D Final Truggy

1 Tom White 13 / 632.41
2 Steve Hughes 13 / 645.41
3 Daniel Castell 12 / 606.15
4 Kieran Dougan 12 / 638.64
5 Jordan Banks 11 / 608.21
6 Neil Mcrae 11 / 614.96
7 Stephen Mitchelson 11 / 629.55
8 Simon Stupple 10 / 623.12
9 Domonic Capper 9 / 631.03
10 Dan Foulds 9 / 641.49
11 Simon Cummins 7 / 369.42
12 Kevin Dougan 7 / 583.81
13 Paul Haddock 6 / 408.78

E Final Buggy

1 Steve Hawkins 13 / 618.11
2 Chris Jones 13 / 619.86
3 Luke Lee 13 / 638.27
4 David Liddle 13 / 638.33
5 Andy Wilson 13 / 638.69
6 James Powell 13 / 647.45
7 Stephen Brunsden 12 / 600.20
8 Craig Cambell 12 / 609.71
9 Curtis Marren 12 / 627.93
10 Craig Thompson 12 / 636.07
11 Trevor Mould 11 / 580.89
12 Michael Lee 7 / 342.37
13 Geoff Blackwood 7 / 442.85
14 Ben Cosgrove 6 / 298.56
15 Stewart Baldridge 6 / 447.68

D Final Buggy

1 John Skidmore 14 / 646.06
2 Oliver Vaux 13 / 615.21
3 Chris Jones 13 / 619.51
4 Tim Ramsden 13 / 634.49
5 Chris Baker 13 / 637.73
6 John Adams 13 / 639.45
7 Jon Morris 12 / 597.23
8 Andy Webb 12 / 603.95
9 Richard Boar 12 / 606.32
10 Ian Hancock 11 / 563.29
11 Luke Lee 9 / 440.85
12 Tom Moore 8 / 446.07
13 Steve Hawkins 7 / 362.60

C Final Truggy

1 Lee Taylor 14 / 641.52
2 Kevin McGuire 13 / 604.67
3 Paul Jepson 13 / 620.48
4 Justin Bowness 13 / 626.37
5 John Legg 13 / 633.53
6 Matthew Ross 13 / 641.09
7 Neil Crutchlow 12 / 601.61
8 Tom White 12 / 627.98
9 Daniel Castell 12 / 643.77
10 Graham Grice 11 / 543.78
11 Julio Pittelli 11 / 567.26
12 Andy Beaumont 2 / 116.95
13 Steve Hughes 0 / 0.00

C Final Buggy

1 Greg Williams 13 / 630.15
2 Pete Watt 13 / 635.03
3 Phil McMahon 13 / 636.96
4 Darren Ahern 13 / 644.95
5 Philip Welch 12 / 607.51
6 Tim Ramsden 12 / 618.74
7 Kevin Weaver 12 / 638.82
8 Jimmi Price 11 / 593.83
9 Oliver Vaux 11 / 611.55
10 Chris Jones 11 / 621.54
11 John Skidmore 8 / 385.89
12 Stephen Gee 6 / 305.14
=13 Roger Pearson 0 / 0.00
=13 Stan Gill 0 / 0.00

B Final Truggy

1 Lee Taylor 19 / 923.34
2 James Murphy 18 / 908.46
3 James Mulkerrin 18 / 912.16
4 Kevin Burns 18 / 933.57
5 Marcus Manwaring 18 / 941.36
6 Tony Drabble 18 / 950.16
7 Martin Bell 17 / 896.13
8 Paul Jepson 17 / 929.51
9 Carl Castell 17 / 938.94
10 Justin Bowness 15 / 820.16
11 Pete Thomas 15 / 820.29
12 Mark Hamlin 9 / 500.36
13 Kayleigh Blackwood 6 / 333.31

B Final Buggy

1 Brennan Ralls 21 / 938.11
2 Anthony Potter 20 / 900.19
3 Dave Grunhill 20 / 911.94
4 Greg Hill 20 / 924.81
5 Richard Johnson 20 / 935.72
6 Bryan Burrows 20 / 938.64
7 Lee Ward 19 / 900.51
8 Phil McMahon 19 / 912.68
9 Pete Watt 19 / 922.98
10 Greg Williams 19 / 936.30
11 Chris Hopcroft 19 / 938.35
12 Leigh Parker 10 / 483.28

A Final Truggy

The 20 minute A final was thrilling to watch with Lee Taylor having bumped up from the C Final into the A carving his way through the field. By about half distance he had took the lead and never looked back. After a bad start Brennan then had to fight his way up through the field to take second. Karl drove consistently to take a well deserved third place right on Brennans heels.

1 Lee Taylor 27 / 1222.50 XRAY XT8/GRP Engine/O'Donnell
2 Brennan Ralls 27 / 1235.01 XRAY XT8/O'Donnell
3 Karl Marsden 27 / 1238.65
4 Martin Hughes 26 / 1216.40
5 Steven Bond 26 / 1238.37
6 Neil Burdess 26 / 1244.38
7 James Mulkerrin 25 / 1211.28
8 Sham Choudry 25 / 1227.73
9 Dean Coupland 25 / 1234.29
10 Wayne Bramley 24 / 1247.68
11 Keith Belamy 20 / 1236.04
12 James Murphy 0 / 0.00



A Final Buggy

The 20 minute A final was plagued by the weather and a lot of mistakes for most drivers. Lee Martin had a flag to flag victory and was never really troubled. The snow fell half way through the final again and made it very interesting for a while leaving the closing stages to be a little bit slippery. Simon Willetts took a controlled drive to finish second. Brennan Ralls had a very good drive showing great maturity under pressure after bumping up from the B final to take 3rd. Bruce Thompson was fighting for third with Brennan and for the last 2 minutes these two had a great scrap.

1 Lee Martin 29 / 1239.96
2 Simon Willetts 28 / 1225.15
3 Brennan Ralls 28 / 1234.47 XRAY 808/O'Donnell
4 Bruce Thompson 28 / 1235.17
5 Kevin Brunsden 27 / 1205.60 XRAY 808/GRP Engine
6 Stephen Childerhouse 27 / 1228.32
7 Mike Craddock 27 / 1231.78
8 Jamie Booth 26 / 1170.91
9 Anthony Potter 26 / 1229.03
10 Dave Grunhill 25 / 1233.46
11 Steve Concannon 24 / 1215.69 XRAY XB8EC



The 2008 GRP Race was a great success and had everything. Great racing, great prizes and a great atmosphere. Mirage would like to thank Custom Built Racing and the Deerdale Club for once again hosting an amazing event. The GRP tyres worked perfectly on the track and had some really good wear rates. A big thanks to Chaz and Phil for running the meeting with their team of guys, always helpful and efficient. Thanks to all our team drivers who made the trip to support our excellent brands.



Plans are already underway to make the GRP Dirt Challenge 2009 even bigger and better! More drivers and a 2 day format should be adopted, watch this space for more details!