2008 Events

Novarossi Cup - SCORC
Mooloolah - QLD - 25th-27th July, 2008

The Novarossi Cup was recently held at the SCORC track at Mooloolah in QLD on July 25th. As our trip started off on the wrong foot and we missed our booked flight due to a Sydney traffic accident on the M5 at 6:30am, which then led to a further accident where a truck took out the 2 ambulances on their way to the original accident. Traffic was brought to a complete standstill and the only alternate route was blocked & detoured back via the M5. Our usual 30 minute trip to the airport took almost 2 hours, and unfortunately we only had 10-15 minutes before our flight left and JetStar would make no concessions to allow us on-board.

Due to a rainy week, practice day was canned, and everyone kept their eyes on the weather forecast for the weekend.
Bill & Jodie Ross warmly invited & welcomed us into their home for the weekend, along with Jason Dykhoff and his father Dave, . A great big "Thank You!" to the Ross's and especially to Dan & Cody for making themselves comfy on the sofas for a couple of nights...
Saturday morning we were all well aware of the hard work of the SCORC members and also their wives/families. At 6:30am Bill & Karl were already out & about picking up tables & chairs etc for us interstate driver's, of which their was a reasonable showing.
The weather reports thankfully read true and Saturday was a beautiful sunny QLD day with not a single cloud in sight, which enabled the track to dry out more than enough for racing by midday.

With the rocket round program in place, they managed to squeeze in 4 complete rounds for both the Buggy's & Truggy's. Some people questioned the addition of a 5th round for Sunday morning, but if they hadn't made that concession, most people would have been whining about engine tuning issues because of the previous night's racing in the cold air. Every round saw the TQ for Truggy swap between Ian Haley & Dave Burgess, while it was apparent that Jason Dykhoff had the TQ in the bag, noone was ruling out Kyle McBride or Zac Ryan as having the ability to take it away from him.

After the end of the rocket rounds, Signature RC's Steve Toon was sitting in 4th position overall, with a silly fall costing him a 13 lap count in his last qualifier which could have bumped him up into 3rd spot. In his semi he was starting on the grid in 2nd position, directly behind Ian Haley, and they both had a fantastic start. Steve stuck with Ian, and held 2nd position for the duration. Steve's driving was smooth & fast with few hiccoughs. At the half way mark, Ian was only 1 lap up and Steve was several laps up on 3rd position and just as we started to relax I heard something not quite right with his Truggy, and it became apparent when he suddenly had no power what so ever...

For the first time in a very long time his diff had blown, and we had lent our spare to a fellow racer who had been having un-ending trouble with his own diffs. Knowing there was nothing to be done, Steve kept moving around the track, albeit slowly, hoping not to lose too many laps... After 2 laps like this and with 5 minutes to go, it was pointless... There wasn't even enough power to drive up the slope of the "Big" jump... Having to concede, it enabled the other drivers to catch up his laps and bump him down into 7th position, which forfeited his position in the main. We were not too disheartened as we still brought home a Trophy for our concourse paint job, which our tutorial takes you through step by step from the beginning of this very shell.

The Truggy main started as a heated battle of driving skills & strategies between Ian Haley, Dave Burgess & Mark Stringer. With Dave & Mark fighting for the 2nd place, hoping to slip in front of Ian should the opportunity arise. At different times they both had dilemmas with traffic which enabled Ian to increase his lead. Unfortunately a broken arm saw Dave Burgess off the track after only 27 laps, leaving the podium to Ian Haley in 1st and Mark Stringer in 2nd, and a very happy Bill Ross in 3rd.
It was fantastic to see Bill accepting his first serious RC Trophy. After all of his efforts in preparing & organising this event & also the recent QLD State Titles, late nights with noisy house guests, pitting & helping his son Dan with his Buggy, let alone any help he offered to everyone else around him, he was obviously well prepped and it was certainly a well deserved win...

The Buggy Main was one of the best races I have seen this year. With Jason Dykhoff taking the TQ and position 1 off the grid, young Kyle McBride in position 2 followed by Zac Ryan in position 3. Once they were off it was split seconds before Jason & Kyle were entangled in a mess of wheels & wings of 6 buggy's. Leaving a clear path for Zac. It didn't take too long for Kyle & Jason to gain back some ground and catch up with him. Kyle held 2nd spot for a number of laps before Jason was able to get around him. Jason held 2nd position for the entire race - pushing for first... Traffic caused strife & held him up at times, but Jason consistently managed to re-close the gap.

With 3 1/2 minutes to go, Zac was still in front, having broken a record 41.746 second lap, Jason hot on his heels and keeping up the pressure until the unfortunate event of an untimely break caused him to limp it home. With Zac Ryan in an impressive first place of 61 laps, followed by Jason Dykhoff on 59, and young Kyle McBride also on 59, a mere 9 seconds behind Jason, had Jason not been determined to bring it limping over the finish line, he would have handed his 2nd place to Kyle and still managed to stand on the podium in 3rd ...



Congratulations to Zac! Not many drivers could have held up to the amount of pressure he would have been experiencing through out every second of that race...

Please see the Novarossi Galleries for a selection of photo's we took of this event. If you are hoping to catch more pics of a particular vehicle, please contact us...






FEMCA 2008 - Sydney Australia