Full Name: Ross Phillip Loram
Date of Birth: 5th July 1984
Born: Torquay, Devon, England
Current Occupation: Postie - Not sure how that happened either ;-)
Hobbies: Computers, Web Design, Online Gaming, RC Cars (obviously) Any Motorsport, Football

Education:
1995 - 2000 Torquay Community College
10 GCSE's (2 'A's, 3 'B's, 4 'C's and 1 D - I never liked French anyway ;)
2001 - 2003: South Devon College
Advanced VCE in Information Technology, 12 Units (7 'A's, 4 'B's, 1 'C')
Numerous Key Skills Qualifications

Further Info about the car:

Chassis: HB Cyclone (Andy Moore Edition)
Transmitter: KO Propo Vantage Type R
Speed Controller: MRT Pro
Cells: Team Scream 4200's
Charger: Eagle CDC Version 6

Other Equipment used:
Hudy Comm Lathe
Hudy Set-up station
Indi Motor Dyno
Various tyres from Take-off, Fast Tires, Sorex etc
Team Scream Motors

Getting started in RC (How it all began)

It was during early 1996 that I first became interested in RC cars after seeing a demonstration at a car show at the NEC in Birmingham. It was a few weeks later we read in the paper about an RC Track in Kingskerswell so we went up and had a look. It's fair to say I was instantly hooked although the high speed touring cars didn't look like a very good place to start learning about RC Cars. One of Dads friends however run a Ministock Club at curledge street school in Paignton. We went over to have a look one night and they looked great. Little 1/12th cars, but not quite your standard minis as they were fitted with 6 cells and a diff so they were fairly rapid round the tight little track. As we knew nothing about the cars at this point Dean was kind enough to build me my first car (looking at it now it seems hard to believe we thought it was a technical thing) and after a few practice runs in local car parks I made my debut one wednesday night in mid 1996.

Me, dad, and brand new toy await my first meeting in mid 1996

Despite being the most nervous I think i've ever been before an RC race I somehow managed 14 laps between crashes (thank god for reverse!) which I was assured was a good amount for a complete beginner. As the weeks went by I slowly got to grips with my newest toy and after 9 weeks it was the first 'Finals night'. It seems I had started at the beggining of a new championship and my performances during the previous nine weeks had been enough to qualify me in the 'A' Final. (Just after i'd gotten over the nerves too! ;-) Much to my amazement I finished third overall on finals night behind Deano and Mike, it's fair to say i was pretty chuffed with that as I collected the shop voucher for third place after being introduced as 'new boy upset' ;-) I raced the Mini for another 5 years, during which time there were the customary christmas meetings where everyone decorated their cars and ate too many mince pies and the Easter meetings where the racing got really dirty at times as we raced for the biggest easter egg! I seemed to win these meetings quite a bit, must be becuase all the adults were busy getting drunk! ;-) By the end of 2001 I was done with the mini racing and moved onto 1/10th Touirng cars, the next big challenge. Still - the Mini racing was great and I think it's by far the best place to start racing and the clubs still going to this day (although I think they've moved to a Village hall somewhere in Torquay now) if you want to get into the sport and have some fun at minimal costs.

A move to touring cars and Ross' obsession with pink begins! ;-)

In mid 2001 the decision was made to begin racing 1/10th scale Touring Cars. After much reading of magazines I decided on the Schumacher Axis 2. This was clearly a bad decision and after a trouble filled 6 months of racing the car was swapped for an Associated TC3. Performances improved straight away and we've had some good racing since at the Kingskerswell track as well as at Indoor venues across the South West. In 2004 we enetered the Schumacher BTCC for the first time and despite being greatly underpowered we managed an excellent 4th place in the Modified 'A' Final at Snettereton in July. The national racing was great and we ended the year at Ashby in September, a track deemed as Ross' favourite! 13th place overall in the standings was acheieved out of 53 competitors.

During the end of 2004 we moved to indoor racing at both our local club series and for the South West Series. By this time we had moved to the stock class to race against all the other local top drivers and it was a good season as I won 6 from 10 local meetings and with it the TRAK Indoor Series championship title as well as 1 win in the hotly contested South West Series on my way to 4th overall.

Some of the great racing at the very enjoyable STCC in 2005

During the summer months of 2005 we entered the Clubmans Cup and had a great season, competing in 7 of the 8 rounds, taking five podium placings in the 'B' Final as well as a great 7th in the 'A' at Milton Keynes. From regular fields of between 40 - 50 drivers and a total championship entry of over 100 we finished 10th in the drivers standings which I was very pleased with.

As in the previous year we moved straight from the end of the national season into the TRAK Indoor Series and South West Series during late 2005 / early 2006. After a terrible start to the season things improved by christmas although not enough to win the championship, the season was to end with 2nd place in the TRAK Indoor series and 3rd in the South West Series, still a good winter amongst some taleneted drivers in the south west.

3rd at the end of the South West Series 2005/06

With other pressing matters and not really enough money to have another go at the nationals I didn't race during the summer of 2006 but returned for the start of the TRAK Indoor series in October, fears that i'd have forgotten how to drive were quickly forgotten as I won the first four meetings of the season, ending the season with seven wins from eleven meetings to win back both the TRAK Club Championship and the inaugural Team Scream TRAK Challenge....all it took was for Justin to move back to america ;-)

Action from a damp Snetterton in 2007

Summer 2007 sees us (and pretty much everyone else from TRAK) entering the competitive 27T stock class of the Schumacher BTCC. With a new car (HB Cyclone Andy Moore Edition) for round 1 of the championship it was a tough start but things have been improving lately and 28th at round 1 turned into 18th at round 2 and 11th at the most recent meeting in Snetterton so we're on the right track, hopefully we can make some 'A' Finals during the rest of the 10 meeting season.