Saturday August 6th 2016

The 7th annual oOple Invernational race kicked off on Friday August 5th 2016 at the regular venue, the fantastic all weather astro-turf track at Robin Hood Raceway in Blyth, Nottinghamshire.

oOple events co-ordinator extraordinaire Damian 'Damo' Whittle and his crew had been working behind the scenes for months to pull together not only the annual invernational race, but a full calendar of summer out-door oOple off-road events, as well as releasing dates for this years oOple indoor winter series - these guys mean business!

Friday offered race entrants a relaxed schedule of booking in and free practice, followed by some junior races which enabled the younger drivers who wouldn't usually compete in these events to have a drive around the track and get a feel for radio controlled cars.

Saturday morning was a bright and early start with glorious sunshine drawing us out of our camping apperatus far earlier than necessary. The track was open for timed practice in heat order up until Damo called drivers briefing at 09:45am. The red shirt crew congregated on the rostrum to deliver the important rules of this weekends racing - have fun!

This year saw the introduction of controlled tyres which had been debated in previous years but avoided until now. It was decided that the tyre of choice should be Schumacher minispike or ballistic buggy minispike.

Race official Damo issued the following statement:

Minipins are usually the better tyre to use at the Robinhood Raceway venue, but most drivers will carry minispikes in their pit boxes during the summer months and our on site shop stocks minispike during the summer, so to avoid needing to stock up on tyres that wouldn't be likely to be needed otherwise it was decided to use a control tyre this year.

"Me and Stu test out one of the Bouncy things - I take a fall. What would Jimmy do?" - Jimmy oOple, 2014

As is customary at the oOple Invernational, undercover pitting space is provided in a large marquee, and for the first time this year a smaller 'party tent' was erected for the evening entertainment. The rodeo bull and bouncy castle was on site throughout the afternoon and removed just before a balmy combination of alcohol and dehydration took full effect.

Qualifying rounds ran throughout the day, reaching their climax at around 6pm and a break in the schedule allowed time for hungry racers to refuel and refresh before the fun events commenced at 7pm.

Timekeeping and race control has been run by Mark 'Muzzy' Musgrove of Schumacher fame along with his sidekick Steven Pierce throughout this weekend. The guys have kept things running very smoothly in line with the schedule.

	oOple Invernational Beer Race
	The beer race took to the track first, with this years theme of superheroes seeing a good turnout of 15 drivers submitting themselves to the creative minds of events co-ordinators Damian and Alex Whittle, who this year treated us to a line up of lime-zest lager, a shot of jack daniels, and two pickled cat testicles (no real live animals were harmed in the production of the beer race). The race format was followed almost precisely by all participants - consume the drinkable and edible delights before picking up the transmitter and racing for 5 minutes. I (Mrs oOple) believe the results were fixed, as despite cutting the track at every opportunity, reigning beer champ Tom Cockerill took the win.

Qualifying results at the end of Saturday:

	2WD Buggy - Qualification After 4 Rounds- Top 10
	position name Qualifying Results 1 Craig Collinson 0 0 0 (2) 2 Michal Orlowski 2 (2) 2 0 3 Ben Jemison 3 4 (91) 3 4 James Helliwell (6) 3 3 5 5 Eugene Galley 4 (6) 4 6 6 Greg Williams 5 (18) 6 4 7 Allan O'Brien (95) 5 5 7 8 Adam Skelding (9) 8 7 8 9 Marcus Lind 7 (11) 8 10 10 John Jones (10) 10 9 9

	4WD Buggy - Qualification After 4 Rounds - Top 10
	position name Qualifying Results 1 Michal Orlowski (75) 0 0 0 2 Craig Collinson 0 2 2 (4) 3 Greg Williams 2 (4) 4 2 4 James Helliwell 3 3 (6) 5 5 Ben Jemison (10) 6 3 3 6 Allan O'Brien 4 5 8 (10) 7 Nick Gurnell 6 7 7 (14) 8 Jack Neal 8 8 5 (11) 9 Richard Coates 7 (14) 11 6 10 Steven Pierce (9) 9 9 8

	Short Course Truck - Qualification Round One - Top 12
	position name Qualifying Results 1 Adam Skelding 0 (3) 0 2 2 Lee Fraser (4) 0 2 3 3 Graham North 2 (5) 4 0 4 Damian Whittle 3 2 3 (5) 5 Justin Kirk (5) 4 5 4 6 Karlos Bradish (6) 6 6 6 7 Peter Westley (9) 8 7 7 8 Danny James 7 7 (8) 8 9 Tom Kirkham 8 (11) 9 10 10 Ben Kirkham 10 (10) 10 9 11 Colin Kirkham 11 9 12 (12) 12 Emily Thompson (12) 12 11 11

	oOple Invernational Party Time
	In keeping with oOple Invernational tradition, our very own band the Four Authors and resident DJ Kirky provided our aural pleasure throughout the evening. The onsite bar provided refreshments until late and Ironman took the dance floor by storm well into the night. Rumours were overheard that Ben Jemison plans to take oOple to the USA and is planning to run a fun race somewhere in the mighty states - details of date and location have not yet been heard.

Sunday August 7th 2016

Tom Cockerill took control of the microphone shortly before 8am to advise drivers that the final round of qualifying was about to commence. Volunteer marshals were requested to cover for the absent higher heat who hadn't quite emerged from their sweaty sacs. Round 5 of qualifying was wrapped up before lunchtime to make way for 3 leg finals for every driver. Racers who were happy with their qualifying scores from Saturday, such as DJ Kirky, didn't need to wake up early on Sunday, instead turning up for the afternoon finals.

	2WD Buggy - Overall Qualifying top 10
	position name Qualifying Results 1 Craig Collinson 0 0 0 (2) (2) 2 Michal Orlowski 2 (2) 2 0 0 3 Ben Jemison 3 4 (91) 3 3 4 James Helliwell (6) 3 3 (93) 6 5 Eugene Galley 4 (6) 4 (29( 5 6 Allan O'Brien (95) (5) 5 5 4 7 Greg Williams 5 (18) 6 4 (7) 8 Adam Skelding (9) 8 7 6 (30) 9 Marcus Lind 7 (11) 8 8 8 10 John Jones (10) 10 9 7 (19)

	4WD Buggy - Overall Qualifying top 10
	position name Qualifying Results 1 Michal Orlowski (75) 0 0 0 (2) 2 Craig Collinson 0 2 2 (4) 0 3 Greg Williams 2 (4) 4 2 (72) 4 Ben Jemison (10) 6 3 3 3 5 James Helliwell 3 3 (6) (5) 4 6 Allan O'Brien 4 5 8 (10) 8 7 Richard Coates 7 (14) (11) 6 5 8 Jack Neal (8) 8 5 (11) 6 9 Nick Gurnell 6 7 7 (14) (28) 10 Marcus Lind 5 (25) (71) 9 9

	Short Course Truck - Qualification Round One - Top 12
	position name Qualifying Results 1 Adam Skelding 0 (3) 0 2 (9) 2 Graham North 2 (5) 4 0 2 3 Lee Fraser (4) 0 2 3 (3) 4 Justin Kirk (5) 4 (5) 4 0 5 Damian Whittle 3 2 3 (5) (5) 6 Karlos Bradish (6) 6 6 6 4 7 Peter Westley (9) 8 7 7 6 8 Danny James 7 7 (8) 8 7 9 Tom Kirkham 8 (11) 9 (10) 8 10 Ben Kirkham 10 (10) 10 9 (12) 11 Colin Kirkham 11 9 12 (12) (12) 12 Emily Thompson (12) (12) 11 11 10

Finals were underway shortly after 11am, with three legs of finals for each racer the oOple invernational race format maximises track time and scoring equity for each contestant.

Tom Cockerill worked like a hero on the Mic all weekend, delivering excellent commentary to the pits. He coached some younger drivers to build up their commentating skills too. Nice work Tom.

Finals Results

	2WD Buggy - A final results (3 legs)
	position name Final Results 1 Craig Collinson 1 1 12 2 Michal Orlowski 2 2 1 3 Ben Jemison 3 7 2 4 Eugene Galley 12 3 3 5 Allan O'Brien 4 4 6 6 James Helliwell 6 6 4 7 Greg Williams 5 5 5 8 Adam Skelding 7 12 8 9 Olly Vaux 8 10 7 10 Marcus Lind 9 8 10 11 John Jones 10 9 9 12 James Wilkinson 11 11 11

	4WD Buggy - A Final Results (3 legs)
	position name Final Results 1 Michal Orlowski 1 1 2 2 Craig Collinson 5 2 1 3 Ben Jemison 2 3 3 4 James Helliwell 3 5 5 5 Greg Williams 12 6 4 6 Allan O'Brien 6 4 9 7 Jack Neal 4 9 6 8 Steven Pierce 7 7 10 9 Richard Coates 11 8 7 10 Nick Gurnell 10 12 8 11 Marcus Lind 8 11 12 12 Graham North 9 10 11

	Short Course Truck - Final Results (3 legs)
	position name Qualifying Results 1 Adam Skelding 1 4 1 2 Graham North 7 1 3 3 Lee Fraser 3 2 4 4 Justin Kirk 2 3 6 5 Damian Whittle 4 8 2 6 Karlos Bradish 5 5 5 7 Peter Westley 6 6 7 8 Danny James 8 7 8 9 Tom Kirkham 9 9 9 10 Ben Kirkham 13 10 10 11 Colin Kirkham 13 13 13 12 Emily Thompson 13 13 13

David McKeown from Scotland is a committed attendee of the oOple Invernational and has kindly provided the majority of photos for this race report, Thanks Dave :)

Adam is a professional glamour model in his spare time.

For more information and photographs of this event please check out the Invernational facebook page which retired oOple Stooge Stu Evans has been updating throughout the weekend, and live video feeds have been streaming too (thanks to everyone involved in co-ordinating this).

Well done to the winners - Michal Orlowski in 4wd, Craig Collinson in 2wd and multi-time champion Adam Skelding in the short course truck.

Many thanks to everyone who has been involved behind the scenes in organising and running this edition of the oOple Invernational, for all the ongoing help and support with keeping oOple present and active, too many people to name individually.

Massive thanks go out to Damian and Alex Whittle, many people put a lot of effort into making sure the oOple Invernational and series events run smoothly, but these guys are the backbone of it all. Thank you for everything.

Kind thanks again to David McKeown who has provided most of the photography for this race report.