Sunday 13th April saw one of the first outdoor meetings of the season take place at the infamous Stafford circuit, with the event being Round 1 of the 2008 TORC series. Mirage had a strong team presence at the event, with Olly Jefferies and Stew Noble representing Hot Bodies, and Ali Graham and Luke Hobson representing Xray. Phil Chambers also made an appearance on Saturday to do some testing.



Despite a poor weather forecast for the Sunday, a large turnout was rewarded with fine weather, and the predicted heavy rain was nowhere to be seen. By the time the qualifying heats had started, the track was dry and ready for racing. In Round 1 of qualifying Luke Hobson started off proceedings with a TQ in the highly competitive Pro Stock class, some 4 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. In Modified, Olly Jefferies laid down a near faultless TQ run, his Hot Bodies Cyclone looking very much sorted on the low traction Stafford track.

In Round 2, Luke once again dominated in Pro Stock, this time 3 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor. In Modified, Olly stormed round the track with another outstanding run. Stew and Ali put in steady runs to finish the round in 3rd and 5th places, respectively, although Stew's time was affected after greeting the curb on the entrance to the straight and testing out the in-flight capabilities of his Cyclone.



In Round 3, Pro Stock was fast becoming the Luke Hobson show after he stormed his XRAY T2'008 to another TQ run, his FTD being 3 seconds ahead of 2nd place, and therefore lining up pole on the grid for the 2 'A' finals. If Luke was laying down his authority in the Pro Stock class, then Olly was doing likewise in Modified. Another faultless run saw him clinch another TQ and line up on pole for the 2 'A' finals, 3 seconds ahead of the 2nd place qualifier. Ali had a much faster run this time giving him 4th position on the grid, with Stew not finishing his 3rd run, demoting him back to 6th on the grid.



Unfortunately, Leg 1 of the 'A' Finals did not go too well for the Mirage TQ drivers. Luke was dominating the Pro Stock main but found himself greeting a curb a little too hard and landing his car wheels-up. After his car was recovered he regained his composure and managed to scrape 4th place. In the Modified A-main, Olly's car was far from perfect on the opening lap, seeing him drop back to 3rd place, with Ali and Stew close behind in 4th and 5th. What followed next was a titanic scrap between Olly and Chris Ashton, with Chris doing a great job at making his car as wide as possible whilst Olly also had Ali and Stew breathing down his neck. However, it was not enough to stop Olly who managed to pull off a great manoeuvre to snatch 2nd place coming onto the straight. Ali tried to find a way past Chris in the dying seconds but there wasn't enough time. Overall the race finished with Olly in 2nd, Ali in 4th and Stew in 5th.



Leg 2 saw the Mirage TQ drivers back on form. In Pro Stock, Luke led from buzzer to buzzer, never challenged. Unfortunately, due to his first leg result, he could only manage 2nd place overall after the points from the 2 legs had been tallied. In Modified, Olly led another buzzer to buzzer race, also never challenged. Behind, Ali and Stew were in 3rd and 4th place catching the 2nd place driver, when all of a sudden Ali's car switched itself off going down the straight, thankfully coming to a halt before burrowing itself into the fence and also managing to keep out of the way of the oncoming cars. This left Stew in 3rd place to take up the challenge, but unfortunately he ran out of time. Once the 2 scores had been tallied, Olly was the clear winner, with Stew following in 4th and Ali a disappointed 7th after a poor 2nd leg.

All in all a successful return to tarmac meeting for the Mirage team and a promising start with the first BRCA National on the horizon.

Thanks to Luke Pepper for the pictures.