Sunday 1st May 2005 welcomed 100+ drivers to the home of YORKSHIRE RADIO CONTROL MODEL CAR RACING CLUB, at Halifax.  Both the Saturday practice day and the race day on Sunday gave us a taste of the great British spring weather, with rain arriving by the bucket load.  Many southern drivers left very early Saturday morning, travelling in convoy north to Halifax.  Some, however, had set off even earlier in the morning only to experience more of that delicious precipitation that Northern England is so famous for.

Halifax is a large, fast track with several sweeping bends, as well as a slower infield section near the rostrum.  Due to the nature of the weather, both our ex-Rubber drivers and hardcore Foam racers had plenty of challenges to tackle as the track dried out during the day.  The very long straight at Halifax meant all racers were looking to extract the most out of their cars for maximum speed.  The new MEGA engines were much in evidence; their distinctive note could be heard all weekend, as they screamed down the straight. Saturday was the usual mix of socialising and setting the car up.  Perhaps it was the weather, but many drivers could be seen chatting (I know! Does it really happen?), grabbing a coffee at the excellent pit cafe, and catching up with the regulars who turn out for every round in the championship.  Rubber regular Jon Withington was on hand to assist the club as pit-lane steward; Jon stayed all day ensuring that the pitmen were able to work without having to negotiate a crowded pit-lane.
	In readiness for hosting of the 1/10th 200mm IC Euros (also the 235, and 1/8th over-40's), Halifax has updated its pit-lane and toilet facilities.  The pit-lane work was on going, but the toilets were complete, and it must be said they were very clean and shiny and were quite a contrast to some of the dingier WC's in evidence elsewhere at some tracks around the country. As the afternoon drew on, the track started to dry and out came the brave souls willing to risk it all as a drifting contest ensued.  Little did we know that this would turn out to be a good idea, as on Sunday we had a repeat of the weather on Saturday with plenty of rain early on drying into the late afternoon.  When finally the track was fully dry, many racers stayed on till last light, tweaking their set-ups and trying those all-important one-way axles to get the most from their cars.
Many drivers adjourned to the local hotels and B&Bs, as well as making use of the camping facilities available on site at the club...

The rain clouds, having taken a rest on Saturday night, were well and truly back and out to play come early Sunday morning, and drivers arrived on Sunday to find the track as they had found it when they arrived on Saturday - underwater.  Thankfully, by the time the racer's briefing was taking place, the rain had stopped and the keen members of the Halifax club had taken to the track with brushes and squeegees and the puddles were gone, leaving a very wet track to start qualifying on.

Sunday progressed much as Saturday had done, with the weather playing a major role in people's fortunes over the course of qualifying.  Tyre choice in these conditions was the all-important factor; Mark Green in particular looked nailed to the track in comparison to the rest of the field, who were skating round the track behind him.  Wets were replaced by Intermediate tyres as the track dried, and then by soft foams as the sun came out towards the end of qualifying. 

The top 10 qualifying positions for 200mm Touring after three rounds of qualifying looked like this:

The 235mm Open Class Qualifying was as follows:

The full Qualifying results can be seen here.

So to the Finals!  The track was rapidly drying and we had a dry track ready for lower finals. The finals results were:

200mm Touring G Final

200mm Touring F Final

200mm Touring E Final

200mm Touring D Final

200mm Touring C Final

200mm Touring B Final

235mm Open B Final

200mm Touring A Final

235mm Open A Final

So Mark Green won the day in 200mm Touring after a very close race with Steve Brown, and young Jason Fox lapped the field in 235 Open from 6th on the grid.  Well done to all the trophy winners..

Full results of all the finals can be seen here.

That's all from Halifax!  Hope to see you all at Brooklands!

Report by Joe Keaveney, edited and prepared for the web by Malcolm with help from Front Page.