Eden Park Raceway was the venue for the third round of the 2010 BRCA 10th off road electric series. Weather leading up was looking good and the racers were greeted on Saturday morning with blisteringly hot sun - we woke up in the tent unable to breath covered in a fine film of sweat, lovely.

Right: Stu Evans receives an impromtu public shower in order to cool down.

Paul Worsley kindly informed us that mild-mannered polite 8th scale buggy racer Jon Dell was the first ever 10th off road drivers rep - we didn't know that.

Drivers briefing was called after a couple of rounds of practice and racing got underway just after 10am.

The 2WD buggies didn't seem to be having problems with the heat - of course the real test would be the following day when the 4WD buggies hit the track - but so far so good.

Local hero and XFactory's reigning champion Ellis Stafford took the opening round - which was swiftly followed up by fellow local racer Grant Williams racing the Schumacher Cougar SV to second in round. A full four seconds further back was the Cougar SV of Tom Cockerill who was coming hot off his win at the previous round of the series.

Simon Moss made it three Cougars in succession whilst the top rear-motor car was Euros warmup / EFRA GP winner Lee Martin in a lowly 7th with the Tamiya TRF 201X.

Ben 'topless' Riley

Tom Cockerill

Grant Williams stuffed it into the barrier but still made 2nd in round - hero!

Round 1 Qualifying

Above - the EPR track is mostly astro turf with a tarmac banked corner at the end of the main straight and a lumpy & bumpy chicane formed from concrete in the middle of the tack being the main deviation. EPR is a hard track to master and some of the lumps can be hard to define from the lofty heights of the superb drivers rostrum. Grip levels in these conditions are high as you'd expect and the slightly undulating transition to the banked corner caught a few drivers out as they attempted to rail round at full speed only to greet the wall mid-air.

A new corner nicknamed the 'southport corner' had been created before the National for this year - with cobble stones laid on what used to be an astro corner. Thankfully it didn't look quite as rough as the real Southport track.

Round two saw the same three at the head of things - with Tom Cockerill again third but with an improved time. Grant Williams turned the tables on Ellis however and took the round with a new fastest time two seconds ahead of Ellis - like a battle of the local warriors.

Drivers spread out during briefing to avoid the smell of each other.

Keith Robertson is hot - and now works for RACER magazine. R.I.P. rrci.

Mike Riley expected rain - obviously the heat had made him go NUTS.

Round 2 Qualifying

Grant Williams was on proper form and secured the provisional TQ with another round win, just half a second off his previous time but now 4 seconds ahead of rival Ellis Stafford who again took 2nd in round. Lee Martin was working his way up and just missed out on Ellis' time to finish 3rd in round barely two tenths of a second off Ellis.

Richard Lowe had a nightmare run in round three - a nameless marshall stepped out with his back to the oncoming traffic and wiped Rich's front corner off - causing him to retire with seconds to go! Finishing D2 was bad for the norther dancer.

Tom Cockerill had a problem with a ball cup coming off the front of his car - he got back underway but the J-5 result wouldn't be one of his better ones. oOps.

Robin Schumacher refused to race the 'Legends' race - but later caved in to pressure and agreed to exercise his thumbs for the first time in many a year. Driving a CAT of course.

Round 3 Qualifying

Only Ellis Stafford could steal TQ from Grant and - well - didn't. He needed a faster time than Grants and his 13/305.85 just wasn't enough. As if to put the boot in Grant also improved his fastest time on the way to taking the final round.

Round 4 Qualifying

Overall Qualifying

The Leg-Ends race.
The Legend race is Dave Churches brain baby and has been run at each EPR national for the past 3 years running. Last years Legend race was won by Vicky oOple, so this year she chose to observe and give some of the other competitors a chance.

A wide range of heros and blasts from the past competed in this years event, which comprised of Tony Truman, Keith Newton, Tom Jones, Paul Moody, Steve Brooke, Richmond Rogers, Mike Cockerill, Jimmy Storey, Kevin Moore, Ross Williams, Paul Worsley, Mike Riley, Robin Schumacher, Charles Wilson, Alan Joyce and Andrew Caunt.

The track was like a battlefield, with chaos and carnage everywhere, but it was Kevin Moore and Robin Schumacher who came out tops. Dancers.

2WD A final Leg 1.

Clean start to the race with Grant pulling away from pole position with 2nd place Ellis Stafford close behind.
Ellis piled on the pressure, looking for a fast way through or willing fellow southerner and Schumacher hero Grant to make an error.
Tom Cockerill was chasing hard in 3rd place and had pulled a small gap away from 4th place Lee Martin, followed by Danny McGee, Nathan Ralls, Matt Benfield.
Two minutes into the race and Ellis was still pushing hard, and coming around the bottom corner towards the tabletop jump Ellis tried to pull a sneaky undertaking move, but this proved unsuccessful and the pair maintained their start order.
Ellis clipped a couple of corners coming through the centre section of the track, which allowed Grant a moment of breathing space, and saw Tom Cockerill coming down hard on Ellis' rear.

Regulation order through the first corner	Grant wheelies down the straight - Ellis and Tom chase
Ellis pressed HARD

Ellis looks for the cheeky inside...	...Grant takes his nose off and keeps the lead

The top three remained very close, with Ellis continuing his battle to take the lead.
As Grant took a wide line coming over the double jumps, Ellis took the opportunity to throttle hard and make his pass, however in the excitement Ellis and Grants cars shared a physical moment, and each hit track markers on opposite sides of the straight, initially it appeared to be Grant who came out best, with Ellis riding the rough down the length of the straight, and Grant maintaining the lead.

Ellis jumped long and sketchy...	..Grant had the momentum as Ellis fought the car

Ellis was on a roll though, and the local warrior was intent on taking the leg win, he maintained close proximity with Grants rear end, piling on the pressure, and finally with less than a minute to go, Grants car flipped at the end of the straight and Ellis was through. He wasn't fully prepared for this move though, and his car came off the straight at a bad angle. Now it was Northern Schumacher hero Tom Cockerill who was into the lead. By this point however Ellis was moist with excitement and hammered down hard on the young student, settling for 2nd place for just half a lap before taking the inside line once again coming up to the tabletop jump. Ellis was back where he wanted to be, Tom Cockerill kept close and neat coming down the straight, but slipped on some loose gravel as he hit the EPR corner; Grant was back into 2nd place.
With 15 seconds left to race, the top raced at a careful distance, with TQ man Grant Williams settling for second place in this race, with high hopes for the remaining two legs.

Ellis was getting frantic - pressure, yes. PRESSURE.	Grant succumed to the pressure - rolling to third.

In the chaos, Cockerill was up to 1st but it wasn't over.	Ellis took the inside and never looked back.

A Final Leg 1

2WD A final Leg 2.

The second leg of the A final didn't start too well for Ellis, who initially hammered down on poleman Grant, but flipped out on the first corner, was was soon demoted to 10th place behind Grant, TomCock, Lee Martin, Simon Moss, Danny McGee, Nathan Ralls, and a couple of other dudes. Grant pulled a good lead on the chasing pack, and the battle appeared to be on for 2nd place with Lee Martin pulling up close to Tom Cockerills rear.

Round the first corner	Ellis went over after the first corner

Leg 1 winner Ellis was in all sorts of trouble in leg 2	Grant built a quick lead

The following few laps were relatively uneventful, with Grant owning the leg, and Tom Cockerill pulling away from Lee Martin and pushing to catch up to the local hero.
Tom was FAST, and almost on fire, when coming over the second tabletop he changed direction, in the wrong direction and nuzzled the track marker until he was marshalled to face the right way. He didn't lose his position though, and was soon chasing down the top dog Grant, who was soon sailing through the finish line to take the leg win. It was a bit of an unexciting race to report on, following the frequent exchanging of positions in leg 1. So 2 legs, 2 winners, what would the 3rd leg reveal.

Tom Cockerill quickly catches Grant up front and starts to look for a way past

Concentration from Grant as Tom Cock closes in	Tom got close but foolishly stuffed it into the side - as ace-photographer Stu Evans jumps to the rescue.

A Final Leg 2

Trishbits made the brass weights for Grants Cougar SV and has started making them available to the general public now. The weights come in two parts, one designed to sit just ahead of the motor with the other going underneath the angled steering servo.

Couple of gold bars!

2WD A final Leg 3.

Grant started on pole position again, which was a good place to be, however coming off the tabeltops he took the wrong racing line (Grant took the racing line which goes over the track marking) and Ellis Stafford who was hot on his tail was now in the lead, and Grant rejoined the racing line to put up a chase, and was receiving some rear end pressure from Tom Cockerill. Lee Martin and Simon Moss kept close too. The other cars were a bit further back so it was hard to see what they were getting up to.

Grant leads them off	Ellis put the hammer down early, sniffing victory

Grant saw ellis and went into panic mode	..which lead to an excursion into the infield as Ellis passed.

As Ellis pulled off, the battle was on for 2nd place, as Tom Cockerill sniffed closely at Grants back door. Tom's a very polite young Northern Fellow, and wasn't going to greasy pig wrestle his way past his Southern team mate, so instead he waited for an error, which soon came in the form of a kerb/corner clip in the chicanes, and Tom nuzzled straight through, followed by Simon Moss. Tom slammed it into the fencing at the end of the straight, so Mossy and Grant were through. Grant was applying pressure to Mossys rear though, and attempted a pass coming off the EPR corner, this was unsuccessful however so the pair continued to race closely as they entered their final lap, with Tom Cockerill remaining nearby. Another attempt by Grant coming up to the finish line, he nearly made it past but Mossy throttled down, and as the two cars were side by side their wheels touched and Mossy flipped. Grant politely waited whilst Mossy was marshalled, but kept ahead of his fellow team mate and finished the race in 2nd place. This caused an investigation of the results and Grant received a penal-ty.

Tom Cockerill fought for 2nd and the battle allowed Ellis to move further ahead.

Side-by-side - cock looks to sneak past	Grant went nuts to defent his line - even doing tricks.

Trix are for rabbits - Grant lost it and Tom was through.	Tom stuffed it into the wall - Si Moss took over from this pair of battle wearly warriors.

A Final Leg 3

Overall A final Results.

Ellis Staffords winning XFactory X6 dancer

Ellis shows us how he learnt to drive

Top three - Grant Williams 2nd - Ellis Stafford 1st - Tom Cockerill 3rd

T-Spec - Grant was well pleased with TQ

Grants TQ Equipment in full view with his cool prizes

Sunday 6th June saw the start of the 4WD event and overnight rain had thankfully mostly dried up by the time the cars got on the track. The temperatures were a little cooler with the overcast skies early in the morning but the sun was slowly starting to poke through the clouds.

Round one of qualifying started bang on time at 10:05am - Jonthan Palmer suffered the wrath of race control by failing to turn up to marshall the first heat and lost his fastest time before he'd even put in a run! oops.

Matt Benfield was looking quick - the local knowlege clearly giving him a slight edge. He reeled in Tom Cockerill and Danny McGee right at the end of his run to take provisional TQ by 0.4 of a second over McGee. Grant Williams had a stunner in heat 11 but lost his focus by his own admission and lost a little time but still went fastest with one heat to go.

Simon Moss was on a flyer from the start in the final heat of round one from 5th he managed to keep control and take the round - 5 seconds quicker than Grant Williams time. Lee Martin languished down in 5th or 6th early in heat 12 but picked up the pace to go second in round a couple of seconds off Simons time.

	Craig Collinson leads Keith Robertson and Phil Sleigh
Grant Williams 'lost the track' toward the end of his run and slowed down a little

Lee Martin	Round one winner, Simon Moss

Round 1 Qualifying

Light rain came down mid-way through the second round of qualifying but didn't really effect things much and with the warmth already baked into the track it dried quickly anyway. Grant Williams was top of the pile just ahead of Ellis Stafford who was now driving the Predator X11 instead of the XFactory prototype he'd done well with at Talywain National.

Round 2 Qualifying

Lee Martin had been sniffing around the top spots in earlier rounds but finally got things together in a rain-affected round three but didn't quite have the juice to take a new fastest time. Grant was less than half a second back to claim second in round and was looking mighty fast.

Round 3 Qualifying

Grant Willaims threw down in round four with a new fastest time with a cooling track - taking his second TQ in so many days with his Nosram powered Schumacher SX2. Tom Cockerill backed it up and made it a Schumacher 1-2 in round.

Round 4 Qualifying

Legends Race.

The legends race was held again in between qualifying and finals, however was on a short time restriction today due to other business happening at the same time, and the competing drivers were depleted today, with some heros from yesterdays race not chosing to compete, such as oOples very own Jimmy, and BRCA non-god Paul Worsley.

Tom Jones, Mike Cockerill, Steve Brooke, Fabien Simioni, Charles Wilson, Bill Bray, Darren Bloomfield, Ian Diboll and Paul Moody raced a variety of vehicles around the track, but it was Frenchy Fabien who took the win with Nathan Ralls car.

4wd Top F5 - Elliott Boots, F4 - Neil Round (again!), F3 - Nick Caro, F2 - Adam Skelding, Under 13 - Jack Neal.

Grant had a slipping rear diff in leg 1 but managed to hold off

Grant heard a noise from the car during warmup for leg 2 and the race was delayed so he could tighten the newly re-build diff that had caused problems in leg one. It turned out that the problem wasn't the differenatial in leg 2 however and one of the bearings on the layshaft had collapsed causing the spur gear to move and start to chip away teeth.

Overall Qualifying

4WD A final Leg 1.

grant was winning it on the start line, pulled off to a good start, lee martin slipped on some ice at the end of the straight, sending his car slightly off line and almost ruining EVERYONES start, but fortunately he got a grip and swiftly moved on, having lost no places in the kerfuffle. Grant had a bit of breathing space however, and was up at the front showing everyone how the locals get it done.

Grant assaults the straight - Lee watches	Lee closed on Grant and turned up the heat

Lee was chasing HARD though, and he was fast. Ellis was a short gap further back in 3rd place, having man-wrestled past Simon Moss at an early opportunity. Two minutes into the race and the top three cars were now driving very closely, with Lee Martin hot on the gearbox of Grant Williams, and Ellis sniffing close to Lee.
Lee was tickling Grants side pieces looking for a way through, dancing side by side onto the EPR corner, but Grant maintained his lead. Ellis made a small error, which set him back slightly from the dancing leaders, allowing them some breathing room to frolick.

Lee wipes out and takes Grant with him	Lee goes nuts and Ellis looks for a way through

With one and a half minutes left Grant was holding firmly onto his lead, and storming around the track, with Lee pushing hard to keep up to the local warrior. Both cars were super fast though, and the drivers displayed immense skill as they raced the track neatly, the cars appearing to be almost magnetised to each other, but just avoiding contact... until they took the jump together, Lee had a bad landing, incidentally on top of Grant, leaving the Schumacher hero temporarily stunned and somewhat disoriented and facing the wrong way on the track. The pair were soon on their way again however, with Grant swiftly slipping back into the lead, but Ellis was now back in the equation hot on Lees tail.
With 45 seconds left to race, anything could happen. Lee tried to pull a fast move past Grant coming through the chicanes, but it didn't work out and he ended up nosediving into a pot-hole and somersaulting out of the way, allowing room for Ellis to move into 2nd place. Further around the track and Ellis caught a track marker, flipping his car and giving some breathing space to Grant after what had so far been a very intense race. As Ellis was marshalled Lee was back up to 2nd place and throttling hard towards Grant, but he had this one in the bag, and drove a very smooth final lap to take the 1st leg win.

Tom Yardy likes to do stunts whilst racing - cool!	Grants face of concentration is pretty WILD

A Final Leg 1

4WD A final Leg 2.

cor blimey mate, better get some savlon on those chips. We think Vicky lost the race video - and when you rely on a video you get lazy and don't try to remember the race properly. Oops.

Grant didn't feel his car was pulling well by the end of leg one and a diff rebuild was the order of the day - by coincidence Tom Cockerill had done the same. Tom hadn't done something right which lead to a hasty diff-swap with Schumacher team mate Tristram Neal (Trishbits) right before leg 2. Grants car still wasn't right and the diff wasn't tight enough which caused a small delay. Drama that wasn't going to end.

Grant lead them off and a small error on lap one allowed Lee to close on his bumper - the pair raced not-to-tail for a couple of laps and it was really looking like this leg would turn into another great fight but just as the pair lined up to battle around the banked corner before the straight Grant pulled off the track for no apparent reason - it later turned out to be a worn front belt.

Lee now had the lead but Tom Cockerill was piloting his Schumacher well and fought hard to make a move on Lee - Lee held onto his slim lead until the end by which time it'd grown to a couple of seconds. Tom second and Simon Moss third just ahead of Tom Yardy in their battle for the line.

A Final Leg 2

4WD A final Leg 3.
Grant lead the top 10 around the first lap nice and smooth, Lee was up hard and fast behind him, pushing for an error or window of opportunity; He wasn't waiting for long as Grant rolled it coming over the tabletop corner and Lee was through into the lead. Tom Cockerill was keeping close in 3rd place, whilst a short gap further behind was Mossy and Ellis. Lee held a one second lead, Tom was pressuring Grant hard for his 2nd place. Coming through the EPR corner and Tomcock seized the moment, slipping through the inside line coming through the EPR corner, the pair side-by-sided down the straight, but it was Tom who won the battle and slipped through into 2nd place.
The race was really quite boring for a few laps, as Lee stormed away in first place, Tomcock and Grant pushed hard in 2nd and 3rd place respectively, but the excitement was a bit further back where the battle was on between mossy and bradders for 4th place. Whilst the camera was trained on mossy and bradders, Grant pulled a warrior move over northern team-buddy tomcock, and regained his 2nd place.

Grant hammered hard around the track, but Lee was no-where to be seen (well he was, but a long way ahead), tomCock came down hard on Granlts rear, and particularly heavy landing off the far left jump saw both cars entangled, but the finish buzzer had sounded and Lee was already on his winning lap. Tom politely waited whilst grant was marshalled and sailed through to take a very well earned 2nd place.
Mossy came through ahead of bradders, who finished in style on his lid.

A Final Leg 3

Overall A final Results.

Grant Williams, 2nd - Lee Martin, 1st - Tom Cockerill, 3rd

Lee poses with his mighty all-conquering Tamiya

Grant Williams was chuffed with 2nd in both classes after top qualifying both.