Nitroflight challenge round 5- Adam Howe Top Photon Driver

Sunday the 14th February on valentines day saw the fifth round of the Nitroflight challenge at Stocksbridge RC club, with four classes pro stock, stock, 1/12th and GT10 it was set to be a busy day. There were 50 drivers at the meeting and in the pits were nitro BRCA champion Michael Ball racing stock and championship leader in pro stock Johnny Aird.

Adam Howe was representing TOP Photon and Much-More UK. In the championship a win for Johnny Aird would secure him the championship Adam must win to keep the challenge alive. The track layout was quite a fast track but not so technical which would allow the top drivers to get some really fast laps. At the start of the series there was just my own TOP Photon but now there were 7 Top Photons flying round the track which was good to see.

Practice:Adam was running a brand new set up for this round changing lots of settings to see if could get more mid corner speed from the car seeing if I could get close or even pass the Hot Bodies A team driver Johnny Aird in the later rounds, Adams top photon seemed to be really good through practice and was matching the time of the leader but with a new set of tyres, the track temperature was still quite cold too. All drivers practiced in there heats so practice went well with all drivers getting some good laps in.

Qualifying Pro stock:Round 1 Johnny showed his pace from the very start and TQ'd this round. Adam Howe in 2nd and Ben Putt in third a lap down on the front two. The car was good this round but my tyres still seemed struggling but was better than practice. The set up of the car was really good and I was closer to the leader than I was in previous rounds.

Round 2 Adam made a slight alteration to the camber on the rear of the car and it seemed to work well and the grip had come up, i passed the leader in this run and kept it cool to take this round of qualifying 1 second up on Johnny. This turned out to be my fastest time.

Round 3, Adam really had to turn up the heat in this run and push the car to its limits to try and stay ahead of Johnny, I tried a little too hard being in front and clipped a chicane not breaking the car but causing a pin to come loose. This was a shame as my time was on for a improvement. Johnny won this round but didn’t put it on pole as Adams time was faster in round 2.

Finals:Starting from pole the pressure was on for Adam with Johnny Aird in second as the buzzer went Johnny was all over the back of my car and made a passed me and never looked back taking the win. I was still on for the win if I could keep the car in first place in the second leg but with the tape coming up on the carpet it wasn’t to be letting Johnny through although he did make a mistake and but in avoiding him the car behind run up the back of me knocking me back to third. Johnny secured the championship taking first overall with myself in second and Ben Putt in third.

Overall-
1 2 Jonny Aird 2 [ 1 1]  0.00 (0) 0.004 0.004 100 Yes 15  Senior Hot Bodies Cyclone TC GM
2 1 Adam Howe 5 [ 2 3]  0.00 (0) 0.004 0.004 45 Yes 15  Senior Top Photon GM NOSRAM
3 3 Ben Putt 7 [ 5 2]  0.00 (0) 0.004 0.004 56 Yes 13  Junior XRAY T3 Tekin
 
In stock the overall results were
1 2 Josh Walker 3 [ 2 1]  0.00 (0) 0.004 0.004 77 Yes 15  Junior Xray T3 GM
2 3 Jonathan Walker 3 [ 1 2]  0.00 (0) 0.004 0.004 76 Yes 14  Junior Xray T3 GM
3 1 Michael Ball 6 [ 3 3]  0.00 (0) 0.004 0.004 183 Yes 15   Xray T3 GM

Had a good meeting although it is a shame that the tape coming up upset my final a little but that’s racing.  I was very happy with my car and had a superb set up that needed a little tweaking to get me up with the big hitters at the Union Square GP.

Adam Howe
Muchmore-Top Photon-Boultspeed-MB Models