Sunny skies greeted the racers for the 1st round of the 2008 1/8th Tyro National series down at the Tiverton race track for what would turn out to be an incredible 1st race of the new season.



The track which is an all astro circuit was wet and greasy and as the drivers brief was called the thought of tyre choice would play a big part in the qualifying sessions
All manor of tyre combinations were tried with generally limited success and no clear 'winning combination' to be seemingly found, made for a tight qualifying session ahead...

In Qualifying Rd1 Greg Hill set a good pace with a clear run with his GRP engine powered XRAY XB8EC and Conespike tyres laying down one of few 8 lap runs taking TQ. The round by round format gave Greg a great start to the day.
Into Rd 2 and 3 Greg wasn't quiet able to top the tables and settled for 2nd overall in qualifying behind Jess Saunders 1st, and Jimmy Davies 3rd all ending up on fast 8 lap runs.
There was also a strange bonus for taking pole, because the pole man got to choose were he wanted to stand on the rostrum, not having to stand in the area represented by his car number.



The Finals

With the meeting being run with 4 drivers bumping up to the next final competition was going to be just as fierce for the top.

XRAY Team Driver Chris Deacon after an inconsistent Qualifying had something to prove after starting in the E final. After an early battle with Eric Wilcock, Chris took third in to go through to the D final.

The A Final was set for a 30 minute run as time was on our side due to the slick organisation of the host club, and Glyn in race control doing his usual excellent commentary and organisation behind the lap timing equipment!!
From the start Jess and Jimmy pulled a decent lead as Greg got a 1st corner tap dropping him off the early lead... But with most of the race still to run it was time to dig in and regain lost composure and start setting some consistently fast laps and get back in the race!! Jess and Jimmy were racing so close that inevitably a few collisions and backmarkers allowed Greg and Marc Knight right into the race on about 20 minutes and with a minimum of 1 more fuel stop, all was still to race for.



After the last fuel stops were completed it was Jess from Jimmy from Marc and Greg in 4th, and with a short break from the commentary we were concentrating on the last 5 minutes as the top 4 squashed the gaps down to less than 5 seconds covering them all after nearly 30 minutes racing, it was getting very tense and nobody wanted to give anything away, when unbelievably Jimmy ran out of fuel with less than 30 seconds to go handing points and positions to Greg and Marc in the chasing pack. Incredibly within that same last lap, first Marc then Jess also ran out of fuel with Greg seemingly cruising through for the win, passing the stricken cars out on the track. With Greg just having to drive round the last corner of the track to take a clear win, Greg ALSO ran out of fuel - can you believe all 4 top finishing drivers ran out of fuel on the last lap, dramatically effecting the results which when read out made for some surprised results. A quick reference to the BRCA rules eventually confirmed that the results were correct but very interesting all the same. What a great race for the spectators, and what a start to the series!!!



1st - Greg Hill XRAY / GRP Engines / GRP Conespike Tyres
2nd - Jimmy Davis
3rd - Jess Saunders

So after a superb event at Tiverton we now turn our attentions to round 2 at Grantham on the 8th June, hopefully it will be as good as this meet was. This series is shaping up to be absolutely superb.

All that remains for the team to do is to say a big thank you to all at Tiverton for all the hard work and an even bigger thank you to our race director Glyn Morgan who ran the day superbly well. Our very own Murray Walker adding his usual excitement to the day by commentating on the finals!