Simon Reeves wins 2008 Belgian GP

We received a report from Simon Reeves on the Belgium GP for 1/10th electric off road, which is always held the first weekend of July each year. Willy and Lilian who run the meeting always manage to run a relaxed fun meeting which for most is one of the best meetings of the year. This year saw more new additions to the track with a new wall of death and a new triple/double combination in the centre of the track. The 2wd event held on the Saturday was a mixture of sunshine and rain which on the MBV track proves a major challenge as the slightest of rain can make a massive difference to grip levels but we were lucky with 4wd & Truck to have sunshine all day with the odd cloud but most importantly dry all day.

Continue reading the report…

In practice the Losi XX4 felt good but you never know until you start qualifying how things are going to shape up and with the unpredictable weather I worked on a set up for both wet and dry conditions through the course of Thursday & Friday in the run up to the meeting. As soon as qualifying started I knew I had a real chance, I managed to TQ every round of qualifying and the car was working great. With the speed from my LRP brushless system & New Corally 4600 cells the car was certainly fast enough and the driver was feeling comfortable going into the A mains for a change.

The First Final started with a clean start and after 6 laps in I had built up a 2 second lead when the unfortunate happened and the rear belt gave way. This put a whole new dimension on things as I now needed to have two good finals from the last 2 legs to win the meeting, Kevin Lee drove a very clean race to take the first leg win with his Aero, which was not the best result for me as Kevin had been getting faster all day. After a quick repair job it was back out for the 2nd and 3rd legs. In the Second leg I managed to hold Kevin off to take the win by 1.5 seconds and then in the third again I managed a good clean race to win by a couple of seconds from Graig Harris so taking the 2008 4wd GP title with my Losi XX4 powered by LRP/Corally using spectrum.

The Truck Class was a close run race with Chris long and his new X-Factory X60 taking the first 2 rounds and them myself taking the last 2. The fastest time of the day was set by myself in the last round and there for securing pole position. My Truck powered by a Peak 10×1 brushed motor was enough of a match for Chris’s Lipo Powered brushless truck and the finals started cleanly which is a challenge when you consider there is not much room on the track with these bigger vehicles. I managed to pull out enough of a gap to take the first 2 A finals taking the truck title allowing me to sit out the last leg to concentrate on the 4wd.

Thanks to Simon Reeves for the report and photos.