The third round of the 2012 BRCA 10th off road national series was at Eden Park Raceway in the big dirty city of London.

Weather in the preceeding days had been fantastic but things weren't quite as nice for the race weekend - with rain during the night making the track slick. Once the rain stopped though it turned out to be a really nice sunny day, only we couldn't see the sunshine and blue skies due to the low-lying smog hovering delicately above the city.

The drivers briefing got underway after a couple of rounds of controlled practice and Paul Worsley was back and on form - laying down some smack as he addressed the issues of the previous round of the championship, where the head referee walked out for a short time due to hassle from some naughty boys.

Paul announced that things needed to change and suggested experienced racers volunteer themselves to do a short stint of reffing during the day to ease the burden on the head referee - who currently has to stand there on his own all day long. Thankfully a few people jumped at the chance to help out and things were sorted Damo, Nathan Ralls, Tony Vodka, and John Dell. Grant Williams and Stu Evans narrowly missed out on the opportinuty to help ref as they expressed their interest just moments too late, but will surely be shortlisted for their assistance at the next event.

Racing got underway on time as usual - and with Paul Worsley back in charge, things were sure to stay that way.

Above, the racers look on as Paul Worsley lays down the law.

Round 1 Qualifying.
Local hero Ellis Stafford took the opening round with his XFactory X6sq buggy - and was the only driver to make it through for 14 laps. Ellis made an error in the tricky bomb-hole section but was lucky to continue on his wheels - other drivers weren't quite so lucky as this area saw a lot of accidents.

Some problems around the loop section of the track resulted in urgent changes being made to the layout at the end of round one. Many cars had repeatedly missed the loop due to the angle of approach, meaning extra work for the BRCA crew as times had to be calculated and altered.

	2WD Qualifying Round One - Top 10
	position name result 1 Ellis Stafford 14 322.81 2 Lee Martin 13 300.89 3 Danny McGee 13 303.04 4 Grant Williams 13 304.20 5 Kevin Lee 13 307.45 6 Simon Moss 13 307.59 7 Neil Cragg 13 307.63 8 Nathan Waters 13 307.80 9 Richard Lowe 13 307.81 10 Lloyd Storey 13 308.50

Round two saw Lee Martin put in a new fastest time to take the round with his Vega Tamiya 201. Four drivers narrowly missed out on the extra lap, all on 301 times.

Stealthy marshall Sleigh casually places a rivals car on its lid.	Sexy two tone wheels from JConcepts.

	2WD Qualifying Round Two - Top 10
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 14 321.82 2 Darren Bloomfield 13 301.09 3 Neil Cragg 13 301.18 4 Ellis Stafford 13 301.31 5 Paul Bradby 13 301.49 6 Tom Cockerill 13 302.91 7 Lloyd Storey 13 305.38 8 Nathan Ralls 13 305.60 9 Richard Lowe 13 307.96 10 Craig Collinson 13 309.17

Three drivers made it through for the 14th lap in round three with Lee Martin again on top. The round order was the same as the previous round with Bloomfield and Cragg running 2nd and 3rd.

	2WD Qualifying Round Three - Top 10
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 14 316.68 2 Darren Bloomfield 14 321.44 3 Neil Cragg 14 322.64 4 Paul Bradby 13 301.85 5 Richard Lowe 13 302.74 6 Kevin Lee 13 303.15 7 Craig Collinson 13 303.29 8 Grant Williams 13 303.88 9 Nathan Ralls 13 306.03 10 Phil Sleigh 13 306.44

Lee Martin sealed up the TQ with another round win ahead of Bloomfield, who just missed out on the extra lap. Danny McGee with the C4.1 took third in round racing for RCDomination.

	2WD Qualifying Round Four - Top 10
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 14 320.95 2 Darren Bloomfield 13 300.13 3 Danny McGee 13 301.32 4 Neil Cragg 13 302.01 5 Richard Lowe 13 303.12 6 Grant Williams 13 303.38 7 Simon Moss 13 304.18 8 Nathan Waters 13 304.45 9 Tom Cockerill 13 305.37 10 Craig Collinson 13 305.38

After qualifying, the annual LEG-ENDS race was held - any person not racing at the event qualifies to race, but especially if they are a Hero. Robin Schumacher debuted at this years event, but he was outshone by young stars Logan Stafford and his friend.

Star drivers	Jimmy (Me - Centre) does a good job on Doughty's car

Logan concentrates on his driving as father Ellis encourages him...	...to cut the track...

The crowd go wild	Logan Stafford - first trophy, of many?

Dave Church commentated throughout the race and presented trophies to his favourite drivers at the end. I personally thought that Jimmy should have won, but to be fair he has enough trophies already. (err, no I don't!)

Lee Martin lines up for the first leg of the 2WD A-Final

2WD A Final Leg One
Lee Martin lead them away and the front runners stayed in regulation order for the first couple of laps until Ellis Stafford made an error in second place coming over the tabletop at the start of lap three. Darren Bloomfield and Neil Cragg came through for 2nd and 3rd as Ellis got his car back underway. Ellis pushed hard on Cragg's rear, looking for a way past but made mistakes and dropped back.

Lee Martin's Vega Tamiya car	Simon Moss crashed out early

Richard Lowe and Simon Moss had a coming together at the end of the main straight on lap two as Lowe looked to make a pass - Simon ended up off the track and out of the race.

Ellis chases Cragg after dropping down from 2nd.	Darren Bloomfield's TLR 22

Lee Martin was running consistent out front and looked to be easing off a little to maintain his consistency - Darren Bloomfield started to close the gap as Cragg closed up on him, but time was against them and things finished as they'd been 12 laps earlier, with Lee followed by Bloomfield and Cragg. Ellis had dropped all the way down to 8th after a few small errors whilst Paul Bradby edged his way up to 4th from 6th.

	2WD A Final Leg 1
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 14 310.73 2 Darren Bloomfield 14 313.95 3 Neil Cragg 14 314.39 4 Paul Bradby 14 320.21 5 Richard Lowe 13 303.33 6 Grant Williams 13 306.31 7 Danny McGee 13 307.29 8 Ellis Stafford 13 307.80 9 Kevin Lee 05 147.19 10 Simon Moss 01 20.94

2WD A Final Leg Two
The drivers again got off to a good start and the front few guys stayed in order. Lee Martin and Ellis Stafford broke away slightly out front and Ellis was putting everything into making a pass. Ellis went on two wheels as he pushed hard - losing momentum slightly and having to defend from Bloomfield in third.

	Ellis chases Lee Martin

Bloomfield pushes Ellis

Grant Williams went for a wall-grind down the side of the tabletop - but his courageous style was short-lived as he landed awkwardly and broke a wishbone on lap three.

Ellis made a mistake coming into the bomb hole like a madman - flipping and tumbling in front of a fast-approaching Darren Bloomfield. Bloomfield tagged the still-tumbling Ellis but kept control as he moved into second place.

Ellis goes NUTS and Bloomfield is through

Kevin Lee put in the quickest lap of the final with his Kyosho / Rudebits DB1, on the way to 7th in leg.

Lee Martin was quick and smooth and simply didn't look like he was trying awfully hard out front. With no mistakes to allow the other drivers a chance, Lee cruised to another leg win and the overall victory here at Eden Park.

	2WD A Final Leg 2
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 14 311.96 2 Darren Bloomfield 14 313.17 3 Ellis Stafford 14 316.97 4 Paul Bradby 14 319.71 5 Simon Moss 14 321.28 6 Neil Cragg 14 321.64 7 Kevin Lee 13 302.41 8 Danny McGee 13 302.56 9 Richard Lowe 13 307.72 10 Grant Williams 2 43.78

2WD A Final Leg Three.

Leg three kicked off in the usual manner with Lee Martin leading them round. Having already won, Lee was looking to complete a domination of the finals.

Unfortunaltely even with two photographers we managed to miss all the action as CHAOS ensued (Jimmy had toothache and Stu had chugged three tins of beer) - drivers appologies were going off like machinegun fire as cars tumbled and exchanged blows on the track. During the battle royale, Paul Bradby took the lead and held it to the line.

	2WD A Final Leg 3
	position name result 1 Paul Bradby 14 317.30 2 Ellis Stafford 13 301.50 3 Kevin Lee 13 301.72 4 Simon Moss 13 304.97 5 Richard Lowe 13 305.37 6 Grant Williams 13 307.74 7 Neil Cragg 13 309.39 8 Darren Bloomfield 13 315.86 9 Lee Martin 08 185.17 10 Danny McGee 07 170.40

My tooth hurts :(

	2WD Overall A final results
	position qual name score chassis 1 1 Lee Martin 1 1 9 (2) Tamiya / Vega 201 2 3 Darren Bloomfield 2 2 8 (4) TLR 22 3 6 Paul Bradby 4 4 1 (5) Associated / Centro C4.1 4 2 Ellis Stafford 8 3 2 (5) XFactory X6sq 5 4 Neil Cragg 3 6 7 (9) Associated / Centro C4.1 6 10 Simon Moss 10 5 4 (9) Schumacher Cougar SV2 7 9 Kevin Lee 9 7 3 (10) Kyosho / Rudebits DB1 8 8 Richard Lowe 5 9 5 (10) Associated / Centro C4.1 9 7 Grant Williams 6 10 6 (12) Schumacher Cougar SV2 10 5 Danny McGee 7 8 10 (15) Associated / Centro C4.1

Another win for the unstoppable Lee Martin and his Tamiya VEGA 201 conversion.

Sunday June 3rd 2012 - 4wd.

Interview with Dave Church (DC): Organiser of the LEGends race, official decorator for the EPR track, #1 stakeholder in Smirnoff, former BRCA PR officer, MCDC expert official BRCA gobshite, and honorary Swedish racer. 77th in round 1 of 2wd qualifying. DC, you are well known across the racing community for a variety of reasons, not least your commentating input at races in recent years. How did you first get into commentating – was it intentional or did it just happen? Basically when we were in Austria in 2006, that was the first time I met Scotty Ernst, and I thought he did a great job, he really livened the meeting up, and I thought ‘I could do that’. Back in England I just grabbed the Mic back at an EPR regional and started talking sh1t. After that I started helping Brian Harris out at nationals, and it just went from there. Do you see yourself as in the same league as Scotty Ernst, Murray Walker and John Motson? How do you think that commentating in the r/c world could be improved? I’m in the same field as them, I do think Scotty is the BEST commentator out there and I have learnt a lot from him by watching his style and technique, and combining that with my own style. I think that making more entertainment out of the meeting should be a focal point of commentating. How long have you been racing, and what are your proudest achievements to date? Probably 11 years, I have won the Veterans national championship 3 times – those are my proudest moments and I’ll be returning this year to challenge the title. I reckon Edvoka and Springer are my biggest competitors. What do you hope to achieve in the next 12 months? Racing achievements – After racing for 11 years I switched from sticks to steering wheels 7 months ago, I haven’t had much practice with them so I’d like Maritime to open up their facility for regular practice sessions so I can hopefully improve my driving. Definitely have more feel and control using the wheel. I’d like to improve my pace. I would also like to see my shop become more successful. Where are you most looking forward to racing this year, and what has been your all-time favourite event to attend? I’m hoping to go to Sweden this year for a Swedish national event but just awaiting confirmation of dates and venues. It would be difficult to choose between Finland 2011 and Japan 2007 – for the organisation of a great event in Finland and the sheer amount of off-track fun and madness in Japan. We’re racing at your home track this weekend – EPR. What is your involvement with the club here, and what was your role during the initial re-vamp of the track a few years ago, and the general upkeep of it in recent years? Painting sponsorship has been my main duty here, and general dogsbody with the track work, building things, laying stuff (eggs). Your trade is decorating and last year you launched RC-Domination for trackside spares and support – it must be hard work juggling full time work and running the shop too, how do you manage to do this? I work like a maniac! Long, long hours – there is no substitute for putting in the hours. How would you sum up the first 6 months of RC-Domination, and what is in the pipeline for further developments? It’s definitely a difficult business, modelshops full stop. The amount of stock is enormous with low profit margins. We’re fulfilling our motto of trackside support and offering support to local drivers in the south-east as we’re based down here. I have some really exciting ideas and potential joint ventures up and coming for RCdomination so watch this space for more information :) I'm very excited about some future opporunities with LiveRC so look out for me on there!

Overnight campers will verify that the weather at EPR had been excessively moist throughout the Saturday night, creating a feeling of dread that we'd awake to a track submerged in water, fortunately this was not to be. Some avoidable puddles and slippery astroturf were the worst the racers would have to contend with.

However the BRCA organisers were on the ball as usual, and an early drivers briefing was announced a full hour ahead of the usual schedule. To make way for this, the second round of practice was cancelled.

The main reason for this was the horrific weather forecast for late in the afternoon, with an early start there was much more chance of getting the maximum amount of qualifying rounds possible. In the instance of cancelled finals qualifying results can be used to determine the overall results, hopefully using 4 rounds.

After the premature drivers briefing, the rain settled down to a tone of 'that wet rain' rather than actually raining. Qualifying round 1 started an hour ahead of schedule, so by the time we (Jimmy!) actually woke up the day was already well underway.

Darren Bloomfield looked set to take round one with a time that, coming into the last heat of round one, no one had been able to touch. Yesterday's winner Lee Martin managed the challenge and improve his early pace - taking the round by just two 1/100th's of a second ahead of Bloomfield.

Schumacher silver-compound tyres are the hot ticket for today - with most drivers using them.

This is my 'arty' photo for the year.

Damian Whittle's DEX410 dribbles a little juice as it laps in round one.

4wd Qualifying Round 1

The previous days winner of the 2WD side of things - Lee Martin - was off to a good start in the opening round of 4WD qualifying with his Tamiya TRF511 - very narrowly beating out Darren Bloomfield by just two hundredths of a second.

It was wet.

4WD Qualifying Round One - Top 10

Elliott Boots managed to get into the 4WD event here at EPR with his Kyosho Lazer ZX5 FS2. Elliott was trying the cab forward shell for more steering and so wasn't running his usual colours. (Above right)

Nick Caro from JEspares decided to stop on the main straight - which was a silly thing to do. Spring? who?

4wd Qualifying round 2.

The second round of qualifying saw Neil Cragg at the top this time - just ahead of the 'new' XFactory X7 6.2 prototype of Ellis Stafford. Ellis didn't get much track time with the new car prior to this weekend but was happy with some of the improvements over the old car. The motor is about 1-inch further back and the drivetrain is now much more free-running than previous iterations of the prototype. Sadly there's still no photos allowed of the insides.

Still Wet...

4WD Qualifying Round Two - Top 10

4wd Qualifying Round 3.

With the second round of qualifying sucessfully completed this was now officially an event! So, in the case of any rounds or finals being dropped or cancelled, the results from two rounds could conclude the days racing.

Stu Evans says the target for medium-ability drivers like himself (!) is to get 12 laps to match the big-dogs.

Lee Martin was obviously enjoying the conditions as he took another round win to back up his round one score - and took the first 13 lap run of the day. Cragg put his B44.1 into second this time and McGee rounded out the top three driving the RCDomination Tamiya511.

4WD Qualifying Round Three - Top 10

This pit table was a work of art

Moores Ideal Products team drivers were out in full force and celebrating the success of their 83rd year in R/C racing.

4wd Qualifying Round 4.

Danny McGee took the fourth and final round with the second quickest time of the day just ahead of Cragg who improved slightly on his previous time for another second place finish.

4WD Qualifying Round Four - Top 10

A final Leg 1.

Lee Martin lead them round for the first few laps with Cragg close behind. Cragg made a mistake coming over the small tabletop before the big-table and dropped down to 5th as Bloomfield came through for second.

Cragg throws it in early - driftoooo!	McGee gets hung up

There were a few 'encounters' between cars as they struggled to keep control in the slippery conditions...

Kapow!	oof!

Oi!	wallop!

Lee Martin took a pretty comfortable victory and looked to perform a repeat of the 2WD event.

4WD A Final Leg 1

A final leg 2

Things were getting wetter and slippier as the rain continued to form small lakes on the infield. Lee Martin lead them away and after a few corners Cragg running in second went wide as they came to cross the loop and Danny McGee kept tight and gained the position.

McGee sneaks up the inside of Cragg	Close slippery battles

Cragg was a little out of composure and a rapidly approaching Ellis Stafford tagged him from behind at the next corner before they dropped down into the bomb hole. Cars were sliding sideways and spinning round as the pack sorted themselves out. Cragg was quick to get back underway and kept third as he chased down McGee for second.

Cragg got out of shape and cut the track - he waited and lost two positions in the process, dropping to 5th now as Paul Bradby took up third behind McGee. Lee Martin was smooth and fast out front.

	Danny McGee

Things were starting to get spread out with Lee extending his lead out front over Danny McGee and Paul Bradby unable to stay in touch running third. Bradby made an error and spun round in the slippery conditions, losing a place falling into the lap of the chasing pack. Nobody wanted third place it seemed as Bradby, Ellis and Tom Yardy all took their turns more than once.

The assembled crowd couldn't wait........ to go home.

Ellis kept third for several laps under hard pressure from Darren Bloomfield but a small error coming off the end of the straight was enough for Bloomfield to slingshot past for the position which he held to the line for third behind Lee Martin and Danny McGee.

Lee Martin's Tamiya TRF511

4WD A Final Leg 2

After suffering with toothace all weekend and not really 'feeling it' when it came to race reporting in the rain - things paid off big time as the finals were coming to a close. The rain was getting worse as had been predicted and by the C final things were getting really rather silly.

Standing water was increasing on the track and by the time the B final came around the drivers were dropping like flies from the moist conditions. These modern brushless systems don't seem to like water too much, despite their best efforts to seal out the juices.

Skelds and Skelds	Vodka Stylee

Kevin Lee and Lloyd Storey battled (sort of) for the win in the B- dodging puddles as they lapped and causing a lot of laughter after all the other competitors either retired early or blew up their electrics.

Sploosh	The tide had come in rapidly around this cone

A final leg 3

The final leg of the A final was last up and having already won the event, Lee Martin decided to save his car, and his sanity, and not run the final leg. Some drivers were less than happy to race in these conditions and wanted to have a 'gentlemans agreement' to either cross the line and stop - or just go from the grid order. This all took far longer than it should have to sort out and with the rain now stopped the track was cleared of most of the standing water so the race could take place as normal. Some weren't happy but it made for good photos.

Lee explains why he withdrew from running the 3rd leg of the A final.	Some spare water was swept onto the track to reduce traction levels for the final leg of the A final.

A warm discussion between the rostrum dwellers and officials confirmed that the 3rd leg would have to run for any of the finals results to count.	RoundE rather enjoyed spectating the rain affected finals from his central-heated umberella.

Neil Cragg now sat at the front of the grid to lead the third leg away. Neil made an error on the very first corner and rolled his B44 in front of the pack - Danny McGee now took up the lead followed by Ellis Stafford. Danny stretched out a small lead as they came round to complete lap one - Ellis ground to a halt with his carbon fibre wondermachine letting in far too much water.

Some fools claim that if it aint dirt, it aint off road. Bollocks.

Paul Bradby was now leading a chasing pack on McGee as Tom Yardy became the second driver to suffer electrical issues and retire. Danny held on for he win.

	4WD A Final Leg 3
	position name result 1 Danny McGee 12 316.45 2 Paul Bradby 12 319.32 3 Neil Cragg 12 320.58 4 David Poulter 12 324.51 5 Tom Cockerill 11 312.34 6 Darren Bloomfield 8 226.05 7 Simon Moss 7 209.98 8 Tom Yardy 2 61.29 9 Lee Martin DNS 9 Ellis Stafford 0

Lee with both his winning cars after another weekend of domination

Lee's Tamiya in the wet	Modified steering

Gear diff in the front - they aren't strong enough for the rear so he never uses it there.

Not bad for a vintage car you can no longer buy - maybe one day Tamiya will take racing seriously! :)

	4WD Overall A final results
	position qual name score chassis 1 1 Lee Martin 1 1 10 (2) Tamiya TRF511 2 3 Danny McGee 5 2 1 (3) Tamiya TRF511 3 5 Darren Bloomfield 2 3 6 (5) Losi XX4 4 2 Neil Cragg 3 8 3 (6) Associated B44.1 5 6 Paul Bradby 10 5 2 (7) Associated B44.1 6 7 Tom Yardy 4 6 8 (10) Associated B44.1 7 4 Ellis Stafford 6 4 9 (10) XFactory X7 6.2 prototype 8 9 David Poulter 9 7 4 (11) Team Durango DEX410v3 9 10 Tom Cockerill 8 10 5 (13) Schumacher CAT SX3 10 8 Simon Moss 7 9 7 (14) Schumacher CAT SX3