The UK ’s first indoor shopping centre race kicked off at the fantastic Union Square venue in Aberdeen , Scotland on 17^th and 18^th of April.

This event was a first for the BRCA and Dan Rowland’s and his team had worked tirelessly to bring the event together and had some fantastic extra special treats lined up for divers.

Representing Tokyo Hobbies Optional Parts and Much-More racing was English driver Adam Howe and local Scottish drivers Gareth Hunt and Gordon Dempsey.

Friday:

After making a seven and half hour drive and 780 mile trip we checked in at the fantastic Jury’s Inn hotel where race organisers had already put bill boards up with all the sponsors and track design posted. We were also given a flyer with all the weekend’s events by the excellent hotel staff. We then proceeded to the conference room’s what was to be our pitting area, not only did we have a warm dry area to work on our cars compared to the outdoor nationals we had a projection screen in each conference room projecting each heat as it was being raced. After we dropped our gear off in the secure conference rooms we went up to our rooms and we were very impressed with our room with Air Con and a widescreen TV all at a discounted price arranged by Dan and his team. We decided to get ourselves into Aberdeen to have a look around the city and venturing into TGI Fridays before heading back to our rooms ready for an exciting days racing on the Saturday.

Saturday:

We got up early at 7am and took a look at the fantastic track that had been laid out at the entrance to the shopping complex, it looked awesome the guys had done a top job, we then went for our buffet breakfast in the very nice hotel restaurant right next to our conference room pitting area, after our breakfast we headed to the bar where we had a very informative drivers briefing on what we could expect on the day. At the briefing we all received our driver passes that got us some very nice discount at most of the retailers in the centre. Onto our practice sessions my car was already prepped for the competition I was to face throughout the race event. There was two timed practice sessions and I used this time to get my gearing right as I already had a fantastic setup that I had brought together from testing on carpet throughout the winter. I was really happy with my car after practice and put a new set of tyres on ready for the qualifiers. Much-More racing managed to get me one of their newest 50c 5200 and one of the first into the country that would hopefully give me that edge as well as some other parts to help my photon on its way.

There was some tough competition that had turned up for the weekend Andy Moore, Stefan Chodzynski, Phil Chambers, Johnny Aird, Chris Clark, Dewi Jones, Tom Jefferies and many more.

There was some big crowds watching the qualifying and it definitely added some pressure for the qualifying sessions but I soon got into my rhythm and I was one of the fastest cars on the track in my heat getting some good fast lines, my TOP photon got lots of attention and I was pushing hard so I could get up with the front runners.

As the qualifying was going on there was a strange figure in the distance IT WAS THE STIG! This was definitely a crowd pleaser and the kids watching the racing loved it, how Dan and his team had sorted getting the Stig there I do not know but that combined with top gear laps that the public could get involved with was really good as it proved to the public how much of a skill it was to race a touring car fast. The public had the chance to race a touring car and F1 cars supplied from the sponsors.

After we had pushed the Photon to its limits throughout the day we had managed 14^th overall out of 70 drivers we were happy with this result although we were keen to make the car go even faster going in to the last qualifier on Sunday.

Once the days qualifying was up we went up to our room got a quick shower and went straight down to the extra special buffet just for the days drivers, it was a fantastic meal that went down well with the rc games during the meal and the awards giving out. But still we had more to come Dan and his team had arranged a free Carpet Racers film shown to all drivers I don’t know how he managed that but it added something extra to the weekend, again top marks to Dan and his team and thanks to Cineworld.  

We then headed back to our rooms after a very exciting day.

Sunday:

I woke up Sunday morning looking forward to the racing but disappointed that it was our last day of the fantastic event. We headed to our pits and checked our Photon and its settings ready for the last qualifier, I decided to go down a pinion and go for a stiffer front spring really going for it in the last qualifier, as the buzzer went the changes worked really well and I hunted the fastest car in my heat down passed him on the inside and the car was flying, I was coming up to lap the 2^nd place driver when he collided into me as I went to pass him, although all wasn’t lost as this turned out to be my fastest run and I jumped upto 13^th overall, the collision cost me 4 seconds that turned out to be 4 places in the end, but I was still happy and I was placed as car 6 in the B final with only 8 cars in each final. A fantastic result with some very good drivers, I also managed to be the fastest TOP Photon.

It was now just about lunch time and yet more surprises Dan and his team had done it again and Pizza Hut provided a free pizza for every driver that certainly went down well. The Stig reappeared and did some fast laps again and broke his car in a race with commentator Kris Kennedy who was superb all weekend. The public also had some more sessions to their delight.

Into the finals and we were raring to go our Photon was ready as the buzzer went we overtook two cars at the start and got tagged from behind on the tight track but we managed to take 5^th in the first leg and then again 5^th in the second leg. The last final I really went for it and had a superb race with Tom Jefferies where I came out on top that put me into 3^rd, I then put the hammer down to catch Dewi Jones the welsh wizard as he is known and we switched places throughout the run in the end he just beat me the cars nearly level crossing the line beating me by 0.030seconds but it was a fantastic race, managed 3^rd in the last leg and 5^th in the B final overall. I finished the meeting 13^th overall. A good result for the Photon Team in the final big indoor race of the season.

Andy Moore driving his new Hot Bodies Prototype took the race win and drove fantastic all weekend dominating the A final he defiantly deserved the win after some awesome driving.

A massive Thankyou to the organisers who made the event fantastic that will live long in my memory.

Also thanks to all the guys at Much-More Racing for there support and getting the new lipos parts to me so quickly