It was also during this free time that X-Factory Daddy Chazz took the opportunity to podcast-interview me. I have to say this took me by suprise and I was concentrating on doing some photo madness, so please excuse me for the rather dull and boring interview, I would however recommend you listen to Ben Jemisons podcast with Chazz, because Ben is a nutter and it turned out more to be him interviewing Chazz.

Once 10.30 had passed racing was upon us, starting with the super stock truck class, run with 13.5turn brushless motors.

The real excitement started in heats 4 and 5 though, when two heats of slash's were bashed around the track. This class was added to the schedule two weeks before the event due to popular demand. Jimmy Babcock announced that this class isn't so serious, and brings the fun back into racing. Some oOple lads were on hand to take a few photos of the fun.

Ryan Maifield brought his new electric Associated RC8 beast to race, he was using the Castle Creations Mamba Monster speedo and motor combo and two 5000mah 7.4v Reedy lipos in series giving 5000Mah capacity at 14.8v. grrrr

Electric 8th Round 1 TQ Man Ryan Maifield	Maifields tool

Our race commentator Jimmy Babcock seemed to be a fan of this new class, commenting that they were generally faster than their nitro brothers. The Brits seemed to take to the class well with a good showing in the first round; Paul Bradby 2nd, James Helliwell 3rd and Steve peirce 4th. Tom Cockerill doesn't get a special mention because he pulled my chair out from behind me causing me to sit on the floor and bash my head. How we laughed.

For those who havent raced on clay before its a whole different style from the usual UK high grip tracks where you would be fairly aggressive, no point and squirt here its more of a constant drift (before the track dries and blue grooves up anyway) you have to be super smooth. The track surface too is ultra flat and the cars just whisp by.

Round one was pretty slippery as the surface was still damp. A clean line started to appear about half way through the round (of 32 heats!!) though, if you drifted off-line into the dirt it was like running on maltesers!

Richard Lowe TQ'd 4wd expert in Rd1. Well done Rich! Bradders was up there in 3rd, Lee Martin 4th, Tom 'The Hair' Cockerill hopped into 6th, Steve 'Vermin' Pierce had a goodn' in 8th and James (Ralph) Helliwell snook into 9th, poor lil' BJ was unlucky to clip a pipe and leave half a kilo of wishbone behind :(

The JConcepts clash is one of very few events in the USA where both nitro (gas) powered and electric cars race. The list of different classes competing is almost endless, more than I even knew existed, with variety like this it's hard to get bored. There have been over 250 entries to this event across all classes, with some drivers competing in as many as 5 classes each - that's hardcore.

LM stunt driving onto the straight

Day-dreaming Bradders drives straight past his pit-bitch

Results from round 1 of qualifying are listed below, limited to the most popular classes due to the immense range of different classes competing. Full results list can be found on www.live-rc.com.

2WD Buggy Modified.

1/8th Scale Nitro Buggy

4WD Buggy Modified.

1/8th Electric Buggy

Slash.