RobinHood Raceway hosted the second round of the 2011 BRCA 1/10th off road national series - the third year in a row that RHR had been given a round of the series and a testament to the hard work of the RHR crew and York Off Road Car Club (YORCC) that are the host club for the meeting.

2WD Photos	4WD Photos

Rob Fox brought his BIG TENT again for everyone to pit inside.	Ben Block

The team had put in a lot of work recently - removing the double jump in front of the rostrum and turning it into a large table top / rythm section. The whole area in front of the rostrum now has a lot more possibilities with new cut throughs and height changes.

The guys also put new drainage into some of the bomb holes and replaced a lot of astro turf to remove worn sections. The new astro caused a bit of controversy however due to the huge amount of sand that it was shedding. This had been included in the new order of astroturf, although the team were seen to be working hard to remove this with a variety of tools including vaccum cleaners, sweeping brushes, and shovels.

The YORK boys doing some pre-race sand sweeping	Dave Church found some lovely sand

The usual two rounds of practice got underway in heat order at 8am sharp and was uneventful, with drivers seen to be practicing as had been anticipated.

Drivers briefing was delivered from what seems to be one of the smartest rostrums in the national series, and followed its usual format. Paul Worsley made mention of the recently re-released Schumacher silver mini spike tyres, which some drivers have recently started using. Contact from Schumacher had informed officials that there were not sufficient tyres available to ensure all drivers had a fair chance of obtaining them prior to the national, therefore they could not currently be classed as being commercially available. Although plenty of tyres have been produced, they haven't been distributed to shops in high quantities, and early rumours suggest that ASDA have yet to show any interest. As a consequence of this apparent shortage, drivers were informed that the silver compound tyres may not be run at this event. Schumacher anticipate that access to the tyres will be much improved in time for the next national.

Paul also made a special mention of the pull-off area, instructing drivers that they must pull off in the designated area to prevent any untoward incidents on the huge jump a short distance further around the track. In addition to this Paul stated that any drivers seen to be performing dangerous stunts off the jump after they had finished their race would be instructed to GO HOME.

The procedure for inclement weather was explained as usual, but perhaps particularly pertinent at this event due to the long spell of dry and unseasonally HOT weather in the weeks running up to the national, and forecast for moisture throughout the weekend. As usual the organisers will endeavour to run as many qualifying rounds as possible to ensure drivers get the best chance at qualifying as high as possible, and that if the day has to be cut short, it would be finals that were cancelled rather than qualifying.

The first warning was issued in heat 5, to Simon Overall for flying the jump.

The rain made an early appearance during heat 6, good news for nearby crops and gardens, bad news for the racers. The rain stopped briefly before reappearing late into the final heat of round one - Tom Cockerill quickly dropped off TQ pace and had to settle for 2nd in round because of this.

	Round 1 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Neil Cragg 11/312.51 2 Tom Cockerill 11/313.58 3 Tom Yardy 11/317.91 4 Paul Bradby 11/318.37 5 James Helliwell 11/324.66 6 Danny McGee 11/324.70 7 Lee Martin 11/324.81 8 Craig Collinson 11/325.68 9 Kevin Lee 11/325.90 10 Dan Greenwood 11/326.81

The rain continued into round two, but by lunchtime the offending cloud appeared to have moved on, and a spot of sunshine was briefly experienced. The freshly moistened conditions noticably reduced times in the second round of qualifying.

Tom Cockerill kept it together this round to take TQ but was almost a lap down on his his previous time.

	Round 2 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Tom Cockerill 10/308.20 2 Paul Bradby 10/312.47 3 Danny McGee 10/314.86 4 Richard Lowe 10/315.16 5 Kevin Lee 10/315.71 6 Simon Moss 10/321.15 7 Lee Martin 10/321.88 8 Tom Yardy 10/321.94 9 Neil Cragg 10/323.00 10 Ben Jemison 10/323.10

Paul Bradby got a taste of mid-motor action for the first time with his new CML C4.1 Associated B4 converted car.

Paul Bradby had improved in every round and finally got some recognition in round 3, taking TQ by 8 seconds over 2nd place Tom Cockerill. Tom had a crash on his opening and closing laps which cost him dearly. Neil Cragg came in third with Tom Yardy close behind in 4th - giving the CML C4.1 three cars out of four at the top end of qualifying in the round.

Steve Pierce amazed many with his stellar 10th in round with his Schumacher Cougar SV

	Round 3 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Paul Bradby 11/303.88 2 Tom Cockerill 11/311.21 3 Neil Cragg 11/312.66 4 Tom Yardy 11/313.01 5 Lee Martin 11/315.04 6 Simon Moss 11/318.69 7 Danny McGee 11/318.70 8 Craig Collinson 11/321.55 9 Kevin Lee 11/322.02 10 Steven Pierce 11/322.15

Paul Bradby took the final round of qualifying to secure overall TQ and the same 5 top finishers in round 3 stayed in the same order.

	Round 4 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Paul Bradby 11/308.28 2 Tom Cockerill 11/309.43 3 Neil Cragg 11/312.81 4 Tom Yardy 11/315.30 5 Lee Martin 11/315.69 6 Danny McGee 11/318.71 7 Grant Williams 11/321.55 8 James Helliwell 11/322.36 9 Craig Collinson 11/323.48 10 Richard Lowe 11/324.78

	Overall Qualifying top 10
	position name result 1 Paul Bradby   2 Tom Cockerill   3 Neil Cragg   4 Tom Yardy   5 Danny McGee   6 Lee Martin   7 Simon Moss   8 James Helliwell   9 Richard Lowe   10 Kevin Lee

(we can't get results any longer at BRCA events - it's not allowed - so some results like the above will be incomplete until later if we get time to revisit and update)

2WD A Final Leg 1
Paul Bradby was in first place on the grid, and maintained this position upon mobilisation. 2nd place local leg-end Tom Cockerill had Neil Cragg very hot on his tail. Landed Gentry track master James Helliwell had moved up into 5th place early in the race, and was closing in on Tom Yardy.

These lads were loving the action

Bradby could be seen pulling off ahead of battling 2nd and 3rd place Tom and Neil, a misjudged corner saw the pair come together, although the incident was uneventful and both cars rejoined the racing line but Neil throttled hard and was through into 2nd place. Two corners later though Neil landed badly from a hump and was on his roof, Tom moved back in 2nd place with significantly less pressure on his rear end, and prepared to hunt down the leader.

Neil looks for the inside on Cockerill	An error from Cragg and Cockerill was back into 2nd

Two minutes into the race the order was Bradby, Cockerill, McGee, Cragg, Yardy. The racing was close between 3rd, 4th and 5th place, and a smooth move from Yardy saw him promoted to 3rd place.
Bradby continued to hold his lead well but Tom Cockerill was moving in and with one minute left to race Bradby's lead was down to 1 second. A couple of schoolboy errors from Tom Cockerill though soon saw the gap increase, and the likelihood of any last minute positional changes less likely. A flawless final lap from Bradders saw him take the 1st leg win.

Bradby kept Tom Cockerill at bay to take leg 1

Lee Martin goes on 2 wheels chasing Yardy	Dave Church interviews the winner

	2WD A Final Leg 1
	position name result 1 Paul Bradby 11 321.59 2 Tom Cockerill 11 324.95 3 Neil Cragg 10 300.02 4 Tom Yardy 10 307.58 5 James Helliwell 10 308.53 6 Lee Martin 10 309.20 7 Kevin Lee 10 310.31 8 Danny McGee 10 311.45 9 Richard Lowe 10 319.43 10 Simon Moss 10 322.60

2WD A Final Leg 2
Straight off the grid and under-throttle from Tom Cockerill saw Cragg move straight up into 2nd place and Yardy slip through into 3rd, bad news for the previous years rhr-national winner Cockerill who’s relying on keeping a high position to be in with a chance of winning.

Bradby again leads them around	Bradby got out of shape and Cragg closed the gap

Bradders and Cragg pulled off from the rest of the chasing field, and although Cragg was keeping close, he wasn’t pushing for any errors, probably because he’s already won more than enough nationals.
A poor landing and a tank slapper nearly saw Bradby lose the top spot though as Cragg closed right up on the rear bumper of Bradby.

Cragg throws it in early and looks for an inside line	Cragg loses it and Bradby pulls away

Neil kept super close to Bradby, but a roll coming off the corner at the end of the straight saw Cragg require marshalling assistance and Tom Cockerill moved back into his original starting position. In his excitement though, Tom clipped a track marker and was onto his roof, Cragg moved back into 2nd place, Yardy through into 3rd, and Lee Martin sneaked through into 4th place. By now Bradders was laughing (probably) as he extended his lead to 2 seconds, but Cragg was chasing hard in his bid to return to electric glory.

Tom Cockerill took over 2nd - but not for long.	Tom Cock rolls and Cragg is back up to 2nd

Lee Martin moved past Tom Yardy into 3rd place. With 1.5 minutes left to race, the order was Bradby, Cragg, Martin, Yardy, Cockerill, McGee. Positional dancing between the two Toms in the middle of the track saw Yardy and Cockerill swapping between 4th and 5th place, but Cockerill won the dance-off and was through into 4th place.
Bradby by now had extended his lead to 3.4 seconds, with 1 minute left to race he was virtually untouchable and completed the race uneventfully, taking the 2nd leg win and with it the RHR 2011 national win.

	2WD A Final Leg 2
	position name result 1 Paul Bradby   2 Neil Cragg   3 Lee Martin   4 Tom Cockerill   5 Tom Yardy   6 Danny McGee   7 Kevin Lee   8 Simon Moss   9 James Helliwell   10 Richard Lowe

The first couple of laps were relatively uneventful, with Bradby in the lead and visably extending the gap. Tom Cockerill kept 2nd place for this race start, but Cragg was hot on his tail and a close side-by-side jump nearly saw him move up into 2nd, but Cockerill was holding on tight.

Paul Worsley lines them up for the final leg	Winner already decided there was fun on the rostrum

Bradby leads them round turn one

Neil kept close and pushed hard, but an unfortunate flip over a mini jump gave Cockerill some breathing space.
Cragg chased hard though and was soon back on Cockerills rear end, looking for any opportunity to safely make a pass.
Bradby looked to have pulled a mighty lead, but was soon chased down by the battling 2nd and  3rd place, and the trio were soon navigating the centre section of the track very closely.
Neil pushed hard and slipped through past Tom into 2nd place. With a very clean final two laps and no further positional changes, Bradby took the 3rd leg, followed by Cragg and Cockerill.

Kev Lee with his Vega Elite RB5 mid-motor beast

Cragg and Tom Cockerill fought over 2nd	No one could touch Bradby

	2WD A Final Leg 3
	position name result 1 Paul Bradby   2 Neil Cragg   3 Tom Cockerill   4 Tom Yardy   5 Kevin Lee   6 Simon Moss   7 Lee Martin   8 Danny McGee   9 Richard Lowe   10 James Helliwell

Once the racing was over, these two sand fairies were seen re-seeding the track with naughty sand stuff. We've protected their identities so they don't get in trouble.

	Overall A Final Results
	position name Chassis 1 Paul Bradby CML C4.1 2 Neil Cragg CML C4.1 3 Tom Cockerill Schumacher Cougar SV 4 Tom Yardy CML C4.1 5 Lee Martin Tamiya TRF201X 6 Kevin Lee Vega Elite RB5 Mid 7 James Helliwell ? 8 Simon Moss Schumacher Cougar SV 9 Danny McGee Schumacher Cougar SV 10 Richard Lowe Associated B4.1

4wd Sunday May 8th 2011.
After a night of heavy rainfall, drivers awoke curious as to what the day would bring. Bright and early at the track though, the overcast sky wasn't giving anything away, but mild temperatures along with a brisk breeze saw conditions on the track start to dry up throughout practice. In addition to this the dedicated track team had risen extra-early to hoover the astro and remove the 1ft of water from the bomb hole.

Drivers briefing was delivered in its usual manner; Paul Worlsey struggled initially to gather a substantial crowd, and informed drivers that they weren't coming quick enough. This isn't a laughing matter, as it is an issue that affects around 1 in 3 men. It may also be an indicator of underlying health issues, so if you think you have a problem, seek advice from your GP.

Once a moderate percentage of drivers had gathered to listen, the briefing was performed following a similar format to yesterdays, with nothing new or exciting to mention.Sunshine was probing through the clouds intermittently in time for the start of qualifying at 10:05am.

New recruits	Lee Martin was running some Kyosho yellow springs on the back of his TRF511 ;)

Botty sniffing is common practice within the 1/10th offroad crowd	New shell for Amish, lovingly designed and created by 'Big air' (but not today) Belsten.

The boys advise Bradders how to dominate in 4wd

	Round 1 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 12/318.33 2 Paul Bradby 12/320.83 3 Craig Collinson 12/321.63 4 Ellis Stafford 12/321.92 5 Tom Cockerill 12/322.99 6 Ben Jemison 12/323.68 7 Tom Yardy 12/324.46 8 Simon Moss 12/325.47 9 Danny McGee 12/325.71 10 Lloyd Storey 11/302.31

As rumoured, reigning 4wd national champion pulled out the tricks today to take round 1, just ahead of previous days winner Paul Bradby.

At the end of the round, results were under investigation due to a timing issue triggered by Bradby rolling over the loop and missing his starting lap. Some high tech mathematics and intricate timing techniques soon resolved the issue and his rightful score was allocated.

Tom Cockerill has a new shell to test at the Worlds warmup race in a couple of weeks time so we took it out to meet some funny looking dogs to get their opinion.

Puggy poses with his new friend

A kiss goodbye

Tom Cockerill was back for round two, taking fastest time just ahead of Lee Martin in 2nd place and Bradders in 3rd place. Local warrior Richard Coates took 10th in round, anyone would think he'd built the track or something - oh, he did.

	Round 2 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Tom Cockerill 12/318.68 2 Lee Martin 12/319.22 3 Paul Bradby 12/320.58 4 Craig Collinson 12/323.20 5 Kevin Lee 12/325.95 6 Ellis Stafford 11/301.13 7 Simon Moss 11/301.20 8 Nathan Waters 11/303.04 9 Paul 'TD' Robinson 11/303.31 10 Richard Coates 11/303.44

Stu Evans - Team Durango C-Team driver

Phil Booth from Schumacher

After an unfortunate start to qualifying with 116th in round, and a slightly improved 11th in round, James Helliwell finally broke through into top ten times in round 3. Lee Martin took the round although this was with his third best time of the day - the track conditions constantly changing as they were.

Also worthy of a mention is Graham Norths stellar time in round 3, 11 laps in 304.78, putting him 11th in round just a fraction of a second behind Kev Lee. Anyone would think he'd designed the track, Oh, He did.

	Round 3 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 12/322.93 2 Tom Cockerill 12/324.50 3 Simon Moss 12/325.11 4 Tom Yardy 12/326.92 5 Nathan Waters 12/327.23 6 Ben Jemison 12/327.48 7 Craig Collinson 11/300.22 8 James Helliwell 11/301.38 9 Ellis Stafford 11/301.80 10 Kevin Lee 11/304.48

	Custom Blitz
	One of the most well known UK professional bodyshell painters - CustomBlitz - has stepped up his game for 2011 and now paints on location at all the races he'll be attending. With his new sign-written van, Blitz has a space to paint up shells and bring all his painting gear including generator, compressor, paints and even a drying booth with an electric heater. One of Blitz's airbrushes Blitz mid-paint Blitz uses mostly Createx / Faskolor - but also some Jon Miller paints. Blitz has a little compressor Blitz doing some masking .....Some Jon Miller juice, erm, liquid mask. Graham told us he'd be attending all the nationals (he's racing after all) but also the European Championships and World Championships this year. Check out www.customblitz.co.uk for some examples of the great ones work.

So, with track conditions warming up once again, Lee Martin took the final round win an entire second quicker than his previous round wim - and with it took overall TQ.

	Round 4 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 12/321.93 2 Paul Bradby 12/323.75 3 Craig Collinson 12/324.03 4 Simon Moss 12/324.95 5 Tom Cockerill 12/326.08 6 Danny McGee 12/326.29 7 Ellis Stafford 12/326.61 8 Nathan Waters 11/301.00 9 Richard Coates 11/301.62 10 Kevin Lee 11/302.58

Brian Preddy	Nick 'Topless Male Model' Caro

Lee Martin on his way to overall TQ

The overall qualifying was as follows:

	Overall Qualifying top 10
	position name result 1 Lee Martin   2 Tom Cockerill   3 Paul Bradby   4 Craig Collinson   5 Simon Moss   6 Ellis Stafford   7 Tom Yardy   8 Ben Jemison   9 Nathan Waters   10 Kevin Lee

Lee Martin heads up yet another 4WD final

4WD A Final Leg 1
The leaders made a clean start away from the grid, Lee Martin leading Tom Cockerill and Paul Bradby around the track, with a short gap appearing back to 4th place Collinson followed by Moss and Stafford.

Lee leads them off	Nick 'Topless Male Model' Caro

1 corner in and Lee is already off like a bullet

By the start of the second lap Lee Martin was noticably starting to pull away, and although Tom Cockerill was pushing hard to keep up, Lee was on  fire and danced off ahead. With gaps extending between drivers at the front of the field, the serious battles were occuring further back.

Ellis muscles his way past Nathan Waters	...But Ellis was on his roof too many times in leg 1

With 2 minutes left to race Lee Martin rolled his car coming over the small jump, quick marshalling saw him stay in the lead but only just. Tom Cockerill was hot on his tail now and looked for a way past, but didn’t quite make it through, nor could he over-jump the superfast leader.

Lee made the mistake and Cockerill was all over him	Tom looks for the outside

Tom chased hard but Lee was moving ahead once again. A short gap further back was Bradders in 3rd place, followed by Moss in 4th, Collinson in 5th, Yardy in 6th, with just under 1 minute left to race.
As the drivers came round their final lap it was really a race to the line with Tom Cockerill looking for an opportunity to pass Lee on every corner, but it was Lee who crossed the finish line first to take the leg win, as Tom Cockerill tried one last move and sausage-rolled around the final corner, but with the help of some rapid marshalling he remained in 2nd place.

Tom jumped like a MANIAC for a pass	Chased to the line - Lee didn't give anything away

	4WD A Final Leg 1
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 11 304.13 2 Tom Cockerill 11 306.91 3 Paul Bradby 11 311.09 4 Simon Moss 11 313.51 5 Craig Collinson 11 314.76 6 Tom Yardy 11 319.13 7 Nathan Waters 11 321.29 8 Kevin Lee 11 323.80 9 Ben Jemison 11 324.57 10 Ellis Stafford 11 273.39

Dan Greenwood from XFactory	Trishbits rules the air

4WD A Final Leg 2
The first lap of leg 2 was really quite uneventful, the drivers at the front of the field maintained regulation order, and Lee Martin looked to be uncatchable. One minute into the race and the battle was on between Tom Cockerill and Paul Bradby for 2nd place, with Bradby pressuring Tom from the rear. Tom looked to be holding on well, but a bobble at the end of the straight saw Tom go wide into the sand and allow Bradby to move up to 2nd.

Tom Cockerill off the line - with is cab forward thing	Action after the first corner

With Lee checking out - the fight for 2nd was on	Bradby looking to pass

Cockerill visits the beach	Mid-pack action - CHAOS

Cockerill kept close but a schoolboy error coming over a jump saw him require marshalling, losing a place to Craig Collinson, and gaining an Ellis Stafford hot on his rear end. Tom wasn’t going to give up the fight so soon though, and pushed hard to make a pass.

If you're going to test a secret alloy chassis - it's best not to show it to the world! (or paint it black)

Cockerill was on fire after his mistake	Collinson had to drive his DEX410 to the limit to keep in front

Ben Jem looks for an inside line on Simon Moss

Meanwhile Lee Martin had pulled a 2.8 second lead on 2nd place man Paul Bradby. Collinson, Cockerill and Stafford were all keeping close in the middle of the track, Tom tried to take the inside line but became sandwiched against the track marker, he didn’t make it through but kept hot on Collinsons gearbox. Collinson was still defending his rear half a lap later as the pair side-by-sided the small jump, and Ellis saw his opportunity to pass both cars. Tom didn’t succeed in the manoevure and desperately tried to over-jump Collinson, but this resulted in Tom mounting a Steve Pierce in the marshalling position.

Tom Cockerill tries an impossible line to over-jump Collinson. It didn't pay off this time - shows off his chassis again tho.

Three minutes into the race and Lee Martin held a good lead of 3.2 seconds, followed by Bradby in 2nd place, Ellis in 3rd, Collinson in 4th, Cockerill in 5th, Yardy in 6th, Cockerill pushed hard and moved through into 4th place with less than one minute left to race. Tom couldn’t quite catch up to Ellis in the time remaining so had to settle for 4th place in this leg, whilst Lee Martin continued his flawless run to cruise round and take the 2nd leg, and with it his second national win of the season.

	4WD A Final Leg 2
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 11 303.57 2 Paul Bradby 11 309.21 3 Ellis Stafford 11 313.67 4 Tom Cockerill 11 314.03 5 Craig Collinson 11 315.66 6 Simon Moss 11 322.36 7 Tom Yardy 11 324.85 8 Kevin Lee 10 300.54 9 Nathan Waters 05 153.74 10 Ben Jemison 04 125.79

4WD A Final Leg 2
Ellis Stafford throttled hard off the grid and moved up into 4th position on the first corner.
Top 5 coming onto the straight at the end of lap 1 - Lee Martin, Tom Cockerill, Paul Bradby, Ellis Stafford, Craig Collinson. Lee led by almost the entire length of the straight one minute into the race - obviously having already won wasn't slowing him down any.

2nd, 3rd and 4th place raced very closely. Drama for Tom Cockerill on the third lap as he became part of a track marker, losing places to 2wd winner Paul Bradby, and Ellis Stafford. A similar error from Ellis a couple of corners later saw Tom move back into 3rd and Collinson into 4th.

Tom Cockerill got hung up on a track marker.....	...Losing two places and dropping to 4th

With one minute left to race, Tom Cockerill was homing in on Bradders, and a mistake from Bradders coming through the centre section could have seen Tom move on through, but Tom flipped before he could make his move. Bradders had some breathing space but Lee Martin was miles away and Bradders had little chance of catching up with the already-winner.

	4WD A Final Leg 3
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 11 304.52 2 Paul Bradby 11 307.53 3 Tom Cockerill 11 308.85 4 Ellis Stafford 11 318.26 5 Craig Collinson 11 318.72 6 Kevin Lee 11 319.62 7 Nathan Waters 11 328.53 8 Simon Moss 10 302.02 9 Tom Yardy 10 302.63 10 Ben Jemison 10 314.95

The RHR crew have made a great track even better with the new features which require some skill and timing to go fast over and whilst the new astroturf wasn't to everyones liking - the RHR crew promised to look at what they can do in their continual quest to improve the venue.