20/06/2026
The R1 Wurks R1B buggy has been here on our shores for a little while now and has being enjoying great success at all levels of racing.. This past weekend was the first chance that a good number of our team drivers were able to attend a meeting together with the new buggy as they headed off to HNMC in Ware for their Summer Series 3rd round.
Joining the team at this event was a guest driver, very familiar with our team from the past and a long time promoter of many of our products in Ellis Stafford.. Ellis would be running his R1B for the first time and would be running it back to back, by alternating races with his current 2wd platform - this would be a good comparison.
Also from the team was Kevin Hunt and Michael Hobday from up near Coventry, Pete Robelou from Essex, Andy Otoo from Peterborough, Paul and Luke Upton from Northampton, our own Darren Boyle was running and young Theo John was at the meeting with us too...
The entry was large, with 10 heats all pretty full with 1 heat of 4wd and some vintage races plus the main class of 2wd buggies. As well as our team guys it was also great to see so many customers out there with their R1B's also, showing juts how popular this new buggy is becoming already.
Qualifying went well, with Ellis Stafford taking the TQ in all three rounds of qualifying and with your two best of the three to count. The two fastest runs by Ellis were both with his R1B, including the one and only 13 lap run of anybody on the day in round 3. The R1B was already showing great pace up against his proven current chassis... Joining Ellis in the A was young up and coming star Luke Upton in 5th spot, tied on points with 4th but missing out on countback. Kevin Hunt would line up 7th in the A giving us three R1B's first time out..
In the B final, Darren Boyle put it 6th on the grid, showing glimpses of some pace as the day went on and wiping away the cobwebs and he was joined by Pete Robelou, his highest qualifying position in the series so far.
The C final would see Andy Otoo line up in 7th spot for the 3 legged finals for all. In the finals Andy would see a solid 5th and 4th in the last leg move him up to finish two spots higher in 5th
The B finals saw Pete make gains in every leg with 7th, 8th and 9th place finishes. This wasnt enough to gain a position overall but he was in contention in every leg. Darren, starting 6th would take decent 2nd in the first leg and while leading the last leg made a string of unforced errors to throw the win away, but made up for it in the 3rd with a decent 4th place, which landed him 3rd overall in the B final.
Onto the A's and despite managing a 4th in leg two, Kevin had to settle for 7th were he started, Luke also had a 4th coupled with 6th in leg two to see him finish in the top half in 5th and Ellis, while continuing to alternate between his R1B and his current chassis would see him take the leg one victory with a 12 lap run in a 6.9 sec split, for leg two he switched to the R1B, once more taking the win, this time in a faster time of 12 laps in 1.9 sec also setting his fastest overall lap of the whole day with a 24.27sec, the fastest he had down all day with his other car was 24.53sec, in fact he beat the 24.53 in EVERY run he did with the R1B throughout the day, consistently showing the car had more pace. In the third leg he opted to stick with the R1B and run it once more (something he had not done all day, since he had alternated back and forth every time he went out) but he felt there was even more to come form the R1B and he was not wrong. Despite missing his single fastest lap overall, he did take the third leg win with the only 13 lap run in any of the finals by anybody and his fastest average of 25.12 in leg 2 was matched once more showing not only the absolute pace of the car but the incredible ease in which it can be driven consistently fast too...
All in all a great start for the team and the R1B. On to the next one.....
