EMMA UK ROUND 7

ULTIMATE SOUND COMPETITION AT USC

The penultimate round of this year’s competition attracted another strong turn-out, with 35 competitors slogging it out to gain those all important league points in the hope of qualifying for the Euro Finals to be held in Austria in October.
Day one saw yet another first for EMMA competition with a dead heat for second spot in the ultra competitive Experienced Unlimited class. Ian Edgar’s infamous van took the spoils with relative newcomer, Sam Crosby and stalwart competitor Paul Sleigh inseparable in second place while the completely fresh build from Kevin Hall took third spot from literally nowhere!
Most pleasing were the efforts of newbie entry level competitors Joe James and Nigel Hill and another competitive showing in Experienced 3-channel which saw Natalie Bouzan taking top spot with her outstanding Seat Leon.
Advanced classes held on a much drier Sunday proved just as competitive with improvement form Natalie’s husband Ben who managed second spot to Steve Hanson’s unstoppable Team Pioneer Skoda Fabia.
A rare scoring anomaly saw Jeremy Owen announced incorrectly as winner of Advanced 5-channel which was quickly re announced as belonging to Andy Blanch. Jeremy and Andy both showed great sportsmanship and forgave the error without complaint.
Carlo Corbin topped an increasingly competitive Advanced Unlimited class with Jas Suman’s rapidly improving Audi taking second ahead of Anthony Smyth. Joanne Yates pitched up to compete against Peter Taylor in Master 5-channel with a half completed install to fire a warning shot across his bow.
Huge excitement in Master 7-channel saw Nigel Skingley take first spot by just a single point moving him to within 2 points of Lee Frost in the league. Mark Turner walked Expert Unlimited again with an impressively high if unchallenged score.
The noisy boys were equally well matched with just 0.6 of a point separating Mick Coles Astra Van and eventual winner, Doobie Dunn’s L&J prepared Corsa in Experienced up to 8 Woofers. Ian Pinder took the Unlimited category with no challenge laid down.
Sponsors JVC and, of course, Four were both present with the last public appearance of Project Thruster for one and an impressive dealer participation stand for the other. Axis Distribution were also on hand, proactively supporting and encouraging CDT equipped competitors.
We move to Silverstone next for the UK finals and league positions suggest a lot of sleepless nights await competitors vying for Euro places.
Come and support the last round of the season and experience just how far the format has come this year.

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