Thursday January 3rd 2013

Our journey to Langenfeld started just before midnight (Wednesday night) when we set off from Huddersfield, heading for our 7.50am flight out of Stansted. Technical problems at the Germanwings check-in desk meant we had to queue for two and a half hours with no information from the flight operator. It was only when we finally checked in at around the time the flight was due to depart that we were told 'there were delays due to technical problems'. Eventually we were finally ready for take-off and the friendly on-board attendant treated us to a complimentary glass of tap water.

Our flight was well timed with that of professional RCdomination team driver David Poulter, who kindly squeezed us along with our reporting gear into his compact sporty hire car to deliver us safely from airport to supermarket to McDonalds to hotel.

The core of the jumps, ready for installation

2am - Still a couple of hours to go.

Friday January 4th 2013 - Practice

Following a late night setting up, the organising team arrived early to open the doors to drivers at 8am. When we arrived just after 8 the pits were quickly populating with drivers and queues were forming at race control to book in, in preparation for practice in round order from 9am.

After one round of 2wd practice the track construction department made some amendments to the huge cross-over-jump to aid consistency for the drivers. A warning was issued that drivers would be spanked really hard if they were seen landing the cross-over on the table-top.

Shortly before 11am Scotty and Uwe took to the track to make announcements to the drivers about the days schedule, race format, and to insist that drivers must marshal immediately after their race to avoid any penalties.

"the track is really cool" - Bottom.

"This track is ******g hard" - unknown driver.

The race sponsors were thanked and applauded; media partners RedRC and race report specialists Jimmy and Vicky oOple were thanked for attending. Drivers were informed that qualifying results will be based on the best two scores from four rounds. Qualifying order was to be seeded from the third practice round, in which the fastest three consequetive laps would be used to determine the quickest drivers. Some other rules were laid down before drivers took to the track once more to continue their practice sessions.

Three rounds of 2wd buggy and shortcourse trucks ran before a short break in proceedings to rejuice and seed the qualifying heats. Local hero Jorn Neumann set the best three consequetive laps in 2wd buggy, followed by Lee Martin and Tom Cockerill.

Right: Naoto Matsukura doesn't know what a Zombie is - You're food now mate!

The 2WD short course class is the only 'controlled' class in the EOS series - a fact I'd not really taken much notice of the class previously due to the poor attendance of trucks at previous events compared to the buggy classes. This race however there were three heats of the 2WD trucks and I was getting my first taste of 2WD SC action this weekend thanks to the fantastic friendly TeamC Germany - who'd sorted me out a full ride with their 2WD SC and were even kind enough to look after the car totally during the event.

The 2WD SC's get a hand-out SpeedPassion 13.5 motor and stock ESC so everything is 'fair'. The 2WD trucks had to work hard to keep up speed and not lose momentum, to be quick. Clearing some of the jumps that were easy in the modified motor classes was impossible with the 13.5 motors, but it was still entertaining racing.

Just before 3pm 2wd qualifying kicked off with the SC's and followed by the buggies. .

FACT: Jimmy from oOple has more UK national short course wins than all the other drivers here combined.

Fastest three consequetive laps after 3 rounds of practice - 2wd Buggy.

	2WD Buggy Practice - fastest 3 consequetive laps
	position name result 1 Jörn Neumann 3/1:06.180 2 Lee Martin 3/1:07.495 3 Tom Cockerill 3/1:07.730 4 Darren Bloomfield 3/1:07.815 5 Otto Ausfelt 3/1:07.940 6 Bjorn Prumper 3/1:07.948 7 Dustin Evans 3/1:57.707 8 Hupo Hönigl 3/1:57.946 9 Oliver Scholz 3/1:58.378 10 Naoto Matsukura 3/1:59.318

Ronald Volker with the new Yokomo mid-motor 2wd	Dustin Evans

	2WD Short Course Practice - fastest 3 consequetive laps
	position name result 1 Gerd Strenge 3/1:19.515 2 Eberhard Beck 3/1:20.275 3 Michael Rybiski 3/1:20.877 4 Tom Bujara 3/1:21.553 5 Sascha Baumann 3/1:22.613 6 Rene Levetzow 3/1:23.270 7 Mirko Morgenstern 3/1:26.099 8 Guido Kraft 3/1:27.083 9 Karsten Bruche 3/1:29.785 10 Jimmy oOple (this is like a win!) 3/1:30.046

Qualifying - 2wd round 1.

2wd qualifying round 1 was complete by 5.30pm, making way for the day to start again - with 3 rounds of 4wd practice to get in before we could get our evening McDonalds treat. There would be no 4WD qualifying round however and the 8:30-ish finish was a welcome 'early night' for everyone - given the rumours of a 10pm finish earlier in the day.

	2wd Qualifying Round 1
	position name result 1 Jörn Neumann 14/5:12.707 2 Dustin Evans 14/5:17.570 3 Naoto Matsukura 14/5:18.321 4 Darren Bloomfield 14/5:18.629 5 Oskar Levin 14/5:21.374 6 Tom Cockerill 13:5:01.184 7 Otto Ausfelt 13/5:01.717 8 Christopher Krapp 13/5:01.759 9 Hupo Hönigl 13/5:02.433 10 Wesley Van Helmond 13/5:04.769

Jörn Neumann was in dominant form still - a whole 5 seconds ahead of Dustin in the first round, with Naoto and Bloomfield close behind in 3rd and 4th respectively. Young Dutch racing superstar - Wesley Van Helmond took 10th overall with his TLR 22.

	Vampire Racing have a new 'V2' motor in the pipeline. The new motor features a fully machined alloy can with just a small rear ring securing everything in place. The golden rotor is computer balanced for precision and all the parts look superb quality. Sven Rudig from Vampire showed us round the new motor which should be out toward the end of February 2013. There's some other exciting new secret bits from Vampire Racing waiting to be revealed, which we managed to take a quick look at - but we weren't allowed to take any photos or mention them! Suffice to say - there's a lot of money and thought gone into the development of some very special products. Mmmmmmm, nice one-piece alloy can   Sven quickly stripped down the motor for us to take a look at - this is it minus screws!

Lee Martin signs some chassis's for his young fan club.

Practice - 4wd.

After a couple of 4wd practice rounds it became evident that this class was causing some excess trauma to the track, with cars overjumping the cross-over, missing the downramp and nosediving into the tabletop upramp.

The 4wd buggy class proved to be less popular than 2wd, with 7 heats compared to the 15 heats in 2wd buggy.

This EOS round received record numbers of drivers on the preliminary booking in list - with 267 racers planning to attend in the run up to the event. By the end of play on Friday there remained some missing drivers from the result listings, however booking in hadn't finished and some latecomers were expected the following morning. The race listings demonstrate an excellent multi-nationality representation at this ever more popular event. Drivers from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Luxemburg, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, USA.

My inner soul hoped that 50% of the extra drivers turned up so they could get the chance to be a 'Zombie' in the oOple race report - but this probably isn't accurate.

	4WD Buggy Practice - fastest 3 consequetive laps
	position name result 1 Jörn Neumann 3/1:01.659 2 Naoto Matsukura 3/1:02.399 3 Hupo Hönigl 3/1:02.412 4 Darren Bloomfield 3/1:02.835 5 Martin Bayer 3/1:03.002 6 Lee Martin 3/1:03.277 7 Tom Cockerill 3/1:03.323 8 Benni Groschel 3/1:03.591 9 Oliver Speith 3/1:03.720 10 Dustin Evans 3/1:03.994

Jörn was quickest in 4WD Buggy just ahead of mutiple 12th scale World Champ Naoto Matsukura. If Naoto wasn't fibbing about this being his first time racing buggy on carpet - then he's possibly a super god of racing.

	4WD Short Course Practice - fastest 3 consequetive laps
	position name result 1 Jorn Neumann 3/1:07.414 2 Dustin Evans 3/1:09.204 3 Oskar Levin 3/1:09.617 4 Hupo Honigl 3/1:09.732 5 Bjorn Prumper 3/1:10.071 6 Kaja Novotny 3/1:13.099 7 Torben Hojfeldt 3/1:13.881 8 Nicolas Evens 3/1:15.996 9 Mikael Olsson 3/1:17.329 10 Daniel Kobbervik 3/1:19.162

Like the previous round of the EOS - the opener at Poznan, Poland - the 4WD SC class was super-close between the Team Durango and TLR guys. Oskar Levin was racing his RTR TLR truck for the first time instead of racing 4WD Buggy - hoping along with his team mate Otto Ausfelt, to keep their vintage XX4 4WD buggies nice for the Worlds later in the year.

Jörn - what can you say! He's showing to be quickest in all three classes during the first day but with an ever larger talent pool in attendance, maybe Jörn won't have everything quite his own way this time out.

When the 4WD practice was over and done with the drivers had around 30 minutes to work on their cars and exit the hall.

Day 2 - Saturday 5th January 2013 - Qualifying.
With the exception of round one of 2wd qualifying which was slipped in on practice day, all other qualifying was scheduled for Saturday - 2wd running from 8am, followed by all of 4wd qualifying from 4.15pm. Things changed however when the organisers looked at the finish time of finals day - and to keep things from running late the first round of 2WD three-leg finals would be run after 2WD qualifying and before the 4WD qualifying would start.

Early morning panic for Jimmy as he wonders where he left the race report.	Ah now I remember... here it is!

This is Hupo, he isn't allowed to speak to us now.	Loser! DC walks away sulking :(

These two go at it like lady and the tramp

2wd Qualifying Round 2.
Gerd Strenge looked as fast as ever in the 2WD Short Course class - his Team Durango truck was flying round but some wild crashes followed by some angry laps saw his electrics 'give up' and his car ground to a halt.

Swedish star Oskar was flying around the track at supersonic speeds but made too many errors despite trying to play it safe - managing to grip-roll his car twice on the slippery areas, still he managed to finish 9th in round which isn't too shabby. For the next qualifier Oskar had plans to go all-out into the danger zone, but would be making some setup changes beforehand.

	2wd Qualifying Round 2
	position name result 1 Jörn Neumann 14/5:05.631 2 Naoto Matsukura 14/5:10.111 3 Dustin Evans 14/5:11.810 4 Darren Bloomfield 14/5:12.058 5 Hupo Hönigl 14/5:15.409 6 Oliver Scholz 14:5:16.452 7 Oliver Speith 14/5:16.686 8 Christopher Krapp 14/5:16.772 9 Oskar Levin 14/5:18.881 10 Wesley Van Helmond 14/5:20.558

2wd Buggy Qualifying Rd3
Dustin beat the computer on his final lap in qualifying round 3, with a 21 second warrior, and initially appeared to have taken the round win. This caused controversy after the race however as results had to be checked - when it was all worked out, Dustin hadn't taken the round but finished in 2nd place, just 8/100th of a second behind Yokomo's Naoto.

Following this the computer needed adjusting to allow quicker laptimes as the drivers smacked down an ever faster pace.

	2wd Buggy Qualifying Round 3
	position name result 1 Naoto Matsukura 14/5:02.614 2 Dustin Evans 14/5:02.694 3 Oliver Scholz 14/5:04.469 4 Darren Bloomfield 14/5:05.468 5 Otto Ausfelt 14/5:07.846 6 Lee Martin 14:5:08.420 7 Christopher Krapp 14/5:09.854 8 Hupo Hönigl 14/5:11.158 9 Bjorn Prumper 14/5:13.019 10 Oliver Speith 14/5:14.090

2wd Qualifying Rd 4

The final round of 2WD qualifying saw an early error from Neumann and Naoto took up the lead quickly - more mistakes put Neumann out of the front runners. Dustin Evans took up second with Lee Martin third - an error from Dustin saw Lee Martin pass but Naoto was uncatchable. Naoto and Jörn were on the same point having taken two rounds of qualifying each, but the new fastest time in the final round from Naoto gave him the TQ and pole on the grid.

	2wd Qualifying Round 4
	position name result 1 Naoto Matsukura 14/5:00.195 2 Lee Martin 14/5:04.407 3 Hupo Hönigl 14/5:06.232 4 Christopher Krapp 14/5:07.591 5 Dustin Evans 14/5:07.726 6 Tom Cockerill 14:5:10.452 7 Otto Ausfelt 14/5:12.216 8 Bjorn Prumper 14/5:12.550 9 Benni Groschel 14/5:14.604 10 Markus Metsch 14/5:14.762

After putting in the early fastest times in rounds one and two, Jorn was demoted to second on the grid in the A final line up. Oskar Levin shared a similar fate - unable to improve on his promising early scores he missed out on making the A final by just one place - BQ warrior. So it was the brand new Yokomo 2WD in mid-motor configuration that would be on pole.

	2wd Buggy Qualifying Overall
	pos name Nat Pts rd1 rd2 rd3 rd4 1 Naoto Matsukura JP 310 14 5:018.321 (152) 14 5:10.111 (153) 14 5:02.614 (155) 14 5:00.195 (155) 2 Jörn Neumann DE 310 14 5:12.707 (155)  14 5:05.631 (155) 14 5:15.282 (144) 14 5:14.978 (144) 3 Dustin Evans US 306 14 5:17.570 (153)  14 5:11.810 (152) 14 5:02.694 (153) 14 5:07.726 (150) 4 Lee Martin GB 302 10 3:44.420 (59)  14 5:20.709 (143) 14 5:08.420 (149) 14 5:04.407 (153) 5 Hupo Hönigl AT 302 13 5:02.433 (146)  14 5:15.409 (150) 14 5:11.158 (147) 14 5:06.232 (152) 6 Darren Bloomfield GB 302 14 5:18.629 (151) 14 5:12.058 (151) 14 5:05.468 (151) 11 4:05.861 (61) 7 Oliver Scholz DE 301 13 5:05.589 (144) 14 5:16.452 (149) 14 5:04.469 (152) 13 5:00.921 (133) 8 Christopher Crapp DE 299 13 5:01.759 (147)  14 5:16.772 (147) 14 5:09.854 (148) 14 5:07.591 (151) 9 Otto Ausfelt SE 298 13 5:01.717 (148)  14 5:22.665 (141) 14 5:07.846 (150) 14 5:12.216 (148) 10 Tom Cockerill GB 298 13 5:01.184 (149)  14 5:22.332 (142) 7 2:39.025 (19) 14 5:10.452 (149) BQ Oskar Levin SE 296 14 5:21.374 (150) 14 5:18.881 (146) 14 5:18.167 (143) 13 5:00.504 (135)

	2wd Short Course Qualifying Overall
	pos name Nat rd1 rd2 rd3 rd4 pts 1  Rybski Michael DE 12 5:23.154 (153)  12 5:23.452 (155)  12 5:13.357 (155)  12 5:10.887 (155)  310 2  Bujara Tom DE 12 5:22.700 (155)  11 5:01.377 (152)  11 5:15.433 (144)  12 5:10.925 (153)  308 3  Kraft Guido DE 11 5:06.157 (152)  12 5:26.922 (153)  11 5:12.835 (148)  12 5:16.918 (152)  305 4  Schilling Marc LU - (-)  11 5:09.020 (150)  12 5:19.944 (153)  12 5:25.899 (148)  303 5  Vinge Tommy DK 11 5:14.271 (150)  11 5:11.848 (149)  12 5:23.365 (152)  11 5:08.150 (147)  302 6  Beck Eberhard DE 11 5:13.005 (151)  11 5:06.217 (151)  11 5:08.748 (150)  12 5:21.040 (151)  302 7  Morgenstern Mirko DE 11 5:21.674 (148)  11 5:19.656 (146)  11 5:03.437 (151)  12 5:21.904 (149)  300 8  Pfeiffer Christopher AT 11 5:22.181 (147)  11 5:14.133 (148)  11 5:12.668 (149)  11 5:15.861 (143)  297 9  Levetzow Rene AT 11 5:18.835 (149)  11 5:19.007 (147)  11 5:22.365 (141)  11 5:17.637 (141)  296 10  Strenge Gerd DE 8 3:36.329 (136)  7 3:21.861 (133)  11 5:18.705 (143)  12 5:21.273 (150)  293

2wd Finals - First round
2wd short course kicked off the finals at 3.15pm with four drivers in the race. Jimmy of oOple.com qualified 4th in 2wd short course B final and gained places initially after some drivers were involved in first lap chaos, but after a few small errors his race came to an end after crashing into an upturned truck on the straight at full speed - detaching his bodyshell, permenantly.

"In England when you crash on the straight, you scream out 'CAR ON THE STRAIGHT' - in Europe it seems you keep quiet and watch as your car is smashed to ****" - Jimmy Storey, on the first 2WD SC B-final leg.

2wd A Final Leg 1

The first leg of the 2WD A final would be lead away by pole-sitter Naoto Matsukura with Neumann and Dustin Evans running 2nd and third as per their start order.

Jörn pushed hard to keep with Naoto but a mistake early on allowed Dustin past to take up the chase on Naoto.

Naoto leads the pack through the small bumps	Dustin's TLR 22 was on top form before his crash

Dustin looked quick but also made a mistake - coming through under the cross over he rolled and ended up losing valuable seconds. Jörn put in the fastest lap of the race and was clearly on a mission but Naoto had built up such a lead already that no one could touch him and he took the opening leg.

Jörn drove his hardest to catch Naoto	Naoto was slightly pleased to win the opening leg!

	2wd A Final Round 1
	position name result 1 Naoto Matsukura 15/5:15.081 2 Jörn Neumann 15/5:16.182 3 Oliver Scholz 15/5:21.234 4 Lee Martin 14/5:00.962 5 Dustin Evans 14/5:03.572 6 Hupo Hönigl 14:5:05.380 7 Christopher Krapp 14/5:09.178 8 Otto Ausfelt 14/5:09.460 9 Darren Bloomfield 14/5:11.142 10 Tom Cockerill 10/3:39.386

4WD Qualifying
At 5.15pm when round one of the 2wd finals were coming to an end, the flagging drivers still had an full compliment of 4wd qualifying rounds to get in - all four, making this a very long day for those who arrived at 7am. It's a little like starting a new race meeting after racing all day. All the same, everyone propped each other up and we saw it as a good opportunity to organise some japery in the pits.

As the evening progressed I took the opportunity to walk around the pits to get a picture of what energy levels were like..

pit-table naptime	Passing time watching motor spray

DC and Otto were loving every minute though

4WD Qualifying Rd 1.

The first round of 4WD qualifying saw Jörn and Nayoto both on a blistering pace and both made it through for the only 15-lap runs of the round, with Hupo coming in third a couple of seconds off making it through for the extra lap.

	4wd Buggy Qualifying Round 1
	position name result 1 Jörn Neumann 15/5:18.240 2 Naoto Matsukura 15/5:20.720 3 Hupo Hönigl 14/5:01.908 4 Lee Martin 14/5:04.511 5 Dustin Evans 14/5:07.326 6 Martin Bayer 14:5:07.592 7 Markus Metsch 14/5:09.391 8 Benni Groschel 14/5:10.660 9 Oliver Speith 14/5:12.506 10 Jiki Mara 14/5:14.429

I took some photos of the 4WD SC class - and heat one can only be described as ****ing MADNESS. These guys were running far too much power for their skill and it showed with hundreds of crashes in just 5 minutes and these things were going BIG. I was actually too scared to really capture the madness and as soon as it was over I left the track never to return to this particular heat!

Thankfully the top heat of 4WD SC was every so slightly more refined - but the crashes were still pretty special. This class really does have some close racing which is great to watch.

Jörn took this round a whopping 6 seconds ahead of Dustin Evans.

	4wd Short Course Qualifying Round 1
	position name result 1 Jörn Neumann 14/5:17.639 2 Dustin Evans 14/5:23.465 3 Bjorn Prumper 13/5:04.624 4 Oskar Levin 13/5:09.005 5 Hupo Hönigl 13/5:16.677 6 Kaja Novotny 13/5:22.121 7 Torben Hojfeldt 12/5:04.082 8 David Bender 12/5:19.802 9 Mirko Morgenstern 12/5:22.567 10 Daniel Kobbevik 12/5:24.173

4wd Qualifying Rd 2

Jörn Neumann once again showed he's the man to beat in 4WD - his trusty small-bore equipped DEX410 was on top form as usual. Dustin, Naoto and Hupo all finished within less than 1/4 of a second - but 7 seconds behind Jörn. New Team Durango signing Michal Orlowski was 7th in round - and he could barely see over the rostrum! Martin Bayer put in another consistent run to go 5th in round with the new Xray XB4 buggy - completely standard.

	4wd Buggy Qualifying Round 2
	position name result 1 Jörn Neumann 15/5:07.723 2 Dustin Evans 15/5:14.040 3 Naoto Matsukura 15/5:14.113 4 Hupo Hönigl 15/5:14.275 5 Martin Bayer 15/5:20.793 6 Lee Martin 15:5:23.457 7 Michal Orlowski 14/5:03.279 8 Darren Bloomfield 14/5:04.288 9 Oliver Scholz 14/5:11.070 10 Oliver Speith 14/5:12.185

Jörn - again!

	4wd Short Course Qualifying Round 2
	position name result 1 Jörn Neumann 14/5:15.447 2 Dustin Evans 13/5:00.341 3 Bjorn Prumper 13/5:07.561 4 Oskar Levin 13/5:09.181 5 Hupo Hönigl 13/5:12.082 6 Kaja Novotny 13/5:17.311 7 Torben Hojfeldt 12/5:03.124 8 David Bender 12/5:11.045 9 Gerd Strenge 12/5:13.961 10 Nicolas Evens 12/5:15.983

Some prototype CAT suspension arms were spotted lurking in the pits.	DC admires the local sporting ladies

4wd Qualifying Rd 3

Jörn Neumann confirmed his 4WD TQ with another impressive victory in the third round and despite what anyone else could do - it seemed that Jörn was just cleaner and smoother.

	4wd Buggy Qualifying Round 3
	position name result 1 Jörn Neumann 15/5:09.651 2 Hupo Hönigl 15/5:16.329 3 Naoto Matsukura 15/5:17.819 4 Darren Bloomfield 15/5:18.553 5 Oliver Speith 15/5:19.637 6 Tom Cockerill 14:5:03.166 7 Martin Bayer 14/5:03.904 8 Jiki Mara 14/5:04.015 9 Oliver Scholz 14/5:05.467 10 Michal Orlowski 14/5:07.603

4wd Qualifying Rd 4

The final round of 4WD buggy qualifying was the last chance for Naoto to show what he could do and he went off like a rocket from the start. Jörn had a small bobble but instead of trying to keep in front he allowed Naoto to pass and tucked in behind to follow Naoto and see how he could compare with the Japanese Yokomo driver - getting a measure for the finals in case he had to battle with the the multiple world champion.

Tom Cockerill was running the impressive new Schumacher K1 buggy - review coming soon on oOple!

Uber fast but on the edge as ever - Naoto made a small error with just over a lap to go, and Jörn was back with Naoto. The pair crossed the line with Naoto taking the round just ahead of Jörn, with Dustin third.

Naoto put in the fastest lap of the meeting so far, along with the fastest qualifying run of the day on his way to take the final round - it should be an exciting series of finals with some really fast drivers and Naoto was clearly getting faster and faster as he got used to the track conditions.

	4wd Buggy Qualifying Round 4
	position name result 1 Naoto Matsukura 15/5:07.512 2 Jörn Neumann 15/5:08.513 3 Dustin Evans 15/5:16.097 4 Hupo Honigl 15/5:19.327 5 Michal Orlowski 14/5:01.494 6 Tom Cockerill 14:5:01.505 7 Martin Bayer 14/5:02.325 8 Lee Martin 14/5:05.441 9 Christopher Krapp 14/5:05.737 10 Markus Metsch 14/5:07.046

	4wd Buggy Qualifying Overall
	pos name Nat Pts rd1 rd2 rd3 rd4 1 Jörn Neumann DE 310 15 5:18.240 (155)  15 5:07.723 (155)  15 5:09.651 (155)  15 5:08.513 (153)  2 Naoto Matsukura JP 308 15 5:20.720 (153)  15 5:14.113 (152)  15 5:17.819 (152)  15 5:07.512 (155)  3 Dustin Evans US 305 14 5:07.326 (150)  15 5:14.040 (153)  1 0:21.395 (89)  15 5:16.097 (152)  4 Hupo Hönigl AT 305 14 5:01.908 (152)  15 5:14.275 (151)  15 5:16.329 (153)  15 5:19.327 (151)  5 Lee Martin GB 300 14 5:04.511 (151)  15 5:23.457 (149)  3 1:13.452 (91)  14 5:05.441 (147)  6 Martin Bayer CZ 299 14 5:07.592 (149)  15 5:20.793 (150)  14 5:03.904 (148)  14 5:02.325 (148)  7 Darren Bloomfield GB 298 5 1:49.877 (95)  14 5:04.288 (147)  15 5:18.553 (151)  11 3:51.757 (103)  8 Michal Orlowski PL 298 13 5:03.644 (134)  14 5:03.279 (148)  14 5:07.603 (145)  14 5:01.494 (150)  9 Tom Cockerill GB 298 13 5:02.993 (135)  14 5:15.617 (142)  14 5:03.166 (149)  14 5:01.505 (149)  10 Oliver Speith DE 296 14 5:12.506 (146)  14 5:12.185 (145)  15 5:19.637 (150)  14 5:13.681 (141)  BQ Markus Metsch DE 293 14 5:09.391 (148)  14 5:17.912 (139)  14 5:13.650 (139)  14 5:07.046 (145)

	4wd Short Course Qualifying Overall
	pos name Nat Pts rd1 rd2 rd3 rd4 1 Jörn Neumann DE 310 14 5:17.639 (155)  14 5:15.447 (155)  14 5:19.689 (152)  14 5:11.852 (155)  2 Naoto MatsukuraDustin Evans US 308 14 5:23.465 (153)  13 5:00.341 (153)  14 5:16.233 (155)  13 5:03.965 (151)  3 Hupo Hönigl AT 306 13 5:16.677 (150)  13 5:12.082 (150)  14 5:18.903 (153)  14 5:22.554 (153)  4 Bjorn Prumper DE 304 13 5:04.624 (152)  13 5:07.561 (152)  13 5:02.442 (150)  13 5:00.923 (152)  5 Oscar Levin SE 302 13 5:09.005 (151)  13 5:09.181 (151)  14 5:21.183 (151)  13 5:09.628 (150)  6 Kaja Novotny CZ 298 13 5:22.121 (149)  13 5:17.311 (149)  13 5:15.123 (149)  13 5:11.632 (149)  7 Torben Hojfeldt DK 296 12 5:04.082 (148)  12 5:03.124 (148)  12 5:17.496 (145)  13 5:19.893 (148)  8 Nicolas Evens BE 294 12 5:18.465 (146)  12 5:15.983 (145)  12 5:08.843 (148)  12 5:22.340 (146)  9 Gerd Strenge DE 294 12 5:09.790 (147)  12 5:13.961 (146)  12 5:09.599 (147)  - (-)  10 David Bender DE 293 12 5:19.802 (145)  12 5:11.045 (147)  12 5:11.794 (146)  5 2:18.819 (135)  11 Daniel Kobbevik NO 291 12 5:24.173 (143)  11 5:13.769 (142)  12 5:21.513 (144)  12 5:15.103 (147)  12 Mikael Olsson SE 286 4 1:47.648 (133)  12 5:20.904 (144)  8 3:32.518 (133)  11 5:11.002 (142)  13 Muether Philipp DE 286 10 5:07.269 (138)  11 5:11.096 (143)  10 5:05.399 (137)  11 5:10.963 (143)  14 Ulrich Upmeier DE 285 11 5:28.775 (140)  11 5:26.000 (137)  11 5:22.361 (139)  11 5:05.566 (145)  15 Ludger Styra DE 285 11 5:27.653 (141)  11 5:18.667 (138)  11 5:13.832 (140)  11 5:10.057 (144)  16 Nicolas Pape DE 284 11 5:03.663 (142)  10 5:00.065 (135)  11 5:07.184 (142)  11 5:15.911 (141)  17 Carsten Reiling DE 283 10 5:17.705 (136)  11 5:18.109 (139)  12 5:24.703 (143)  11 5:22.448 (140)  18 Sebastien Surstedt DE 281 7 3:39.659 (134)  11 5:14.881 (140)  11 5:11.823 (141)  10 4:48.892 (139)  19 Mirko Morgenstern DE 280 12 5:22.567 (144)  10 4:29.205 (136)  9 4:09.387 (135)  4 1:56.367 (134)  20 Florian Funck DE 280 10 5:00.648 (139)  11 5:14.634 (141)  11 5:25.373 (138)  7 3:33.260 (136)  21 Frank Golueke DE 275 10 5:14.902 (137)  9 4:56.859 (134)  10 5:13.530 (136)  10 5:13.655 (138)  22 Jurgen Tanenfels DE 272 9 5:21.070 (135)  9 5:04.349 (133)  9 5:06.626 (134)  9 5:14.763 (137)

Somehow we made it back to the hotel some time around midnight - I was too tired to report or even sleep properly - so please forgive the delay in releasing this report as this day was pretty tiring - especially with a cold that kept me awake half the night :(

Sunday January 6th 2013 - Finals

The final day of the EOS kicked off early with the second round of 2WD finals - which would be followed up by the rest of 2WD finals and the trophy ceremony before the 4WD finals got underway. The first final left the grid at a shuddering 7.30am. After giving his loaned Team-C 2wd short course truck some serious abuse in it's first final yesterday, Jimmy was excited to be back on the track with an improvised mended truck.

A final 2wd leg 2.
Naoto led the race, pulling a good lead to begin with after Neumann made a small error. Otto worked his way up from 9th on the grid to 6th place but crashed out on lap 12.

Naoto leads them through the small humps

Naoto - Jorn - Dustin - coming round to cross the loop for the first time.

Dustin jumps past Jorn for 2nd	Jorn chases Dustin

Dustin Evans put in the fastest lap of the race with a 20.877 second lap. with a couple of laps left to race Naoto slipped off the racing line, but quickly corrected his error without much disruption. Jorn was hunting him down though and looked to be gaining distance. Jörn was the only other driver with a sub 21 second lap - 20.954 on his finishing lap as he looked to catch Naoto in the dying seconds and take the race to a third leg.

Jorn's extended DEX210

Lee Martin chases Hupo over the triple	Error from Jorn gave Naoto some breathing room

Naoto drove a super steady final lap however to take the leg win, and the overall 2wd event - first time out on carpet, with the new mid-motor that's never been tested on this type of surface, not bad.

	2wd A Final Leg 2
	position name result 1 Naoto Matsukura 15/5:19.430 2 Jörn Neumann 15/5:20.640 3 Dustin Evans 14/5:00.960 4 Lee Martin 14/5:02.273 5 Darren Bloomfield 14/5:04.825 6 Christopher Krapp 14:5:08.745 7 Tom Cockerill 14/5:13.602 8 Hupo Hönigl 14/5:15.140 9 Oliver Scholz 13/5:01.414 10 Otto Ausfelt 12/4:23.604

2WD A FINAL LEG 3
Naoto took a break for the final leg since he'd already won - so it was Jörn who led from the grid.
A clean start saw no changes in race order for the first couple of laps, then an unfortunate landing from Jorn coming over the tabletop saw Dustin take the lead as Jörn struggled to slip back onto the racing line, having to settle for 4th place behind Hupo in 3rd and Lee in 2nd.

One minute into the race Jörn took the inside line past Hupo as they drove through the chicanes, and now prepared to hammer down on Lee. Jörn moved straight past Lee during a slight wobble coming off the triple jumps. Dustins lead was 2.5 seconds but Jörn was on a mission and determined to move all the way back up the order. Another bad landing from Jörn saw Lee Martin back into 2nd place for just a few corners before Jörn found another opportunity to make a quick pass. Dustin was once again pulling away and the battle was on between Jorn in 2nd, Lee in 3rd and Hupo in 4th. Bloomfield riding the 5th spot and Christopher Krapp in 6th place were moving in close behind the battle for 2nd.

Two and a half minutes into the race Bloomfield came bolting through the pack and moved up into 3rd place.
With Dustin holding over a 2 second lead Jörn was making more errors in an attempt in his desperate push to catch Dustin. A particularly messy landing over the triples however meant it was all but over for Jörn as Bloomfield moved up into 2nd place.

More errors from Jorn in the last couple of laps saw him drop further down the order as Dustin finished the race alone as the only driver to make it through to 15 laps. A TLR 1-2 with Bloomfield in second and Lee Martin with the Tamiya/VEGA 201 in third.

	2wd A Final Leg 3
	position name result 1 Dustin Evans 15/5:17.640 2 Darren Bloomfield 14/5:01.291 3 Lee Martin 14/5:01.628 4 Christopher Krapp 14/5:02.746 5 Hupo Hönigl 14/5:04.810 6 Jörn Neumann 14:5:05.932 7 Oliver Scholz 14/5:08.352 8 Otto Ausfelt 14/5:09.297 9 Tom Cockerill 14/5:15.781 10 Naoto Matsukura DNS

Some fantastic racing and a great return to Europe for the Yokomo brand - taking a win against stiff competition with their brand new car. The Yokomo guys took the oportunity to carry Naoto around the huge pitting building as many passing locals looked on with a combination of bemused shock and horror. Eventually the guys ran out of steam and Naoto had to walk the half mile back to the track under his own power.

	2wd buggy A final overall
	name   leg 1 leg 2 leg 3 points 1  Matsukura Naoto JP 15 5:15.081 (1)  15 5:19.430 (1)  - (-)  2 2  Evans Dustin US 14 5:03.572 (5)  14 5:00.960 (3)  15 5:17.640 (1)  4 3  Neumann Jörn DE 15 5:16.682 (2)  15 5:20.640 (2)  14 5:05.932 (6)  4 4  Bloomfield Darren GB 14 5:11.142 (9)  14 5:04.825 (5)  14 5:01.291 (2)  7 5  Martin Lee GB 14 5:00.962 (4)  14 5:02.273 (4)  14 5:01.628 (3)  7 6  Scholz Oliver DE 15 5:21.234 (3)  13 5:01.414 (9)  14 5:08.352 (7)  10 7  Krapp Christopher DE 14 5:09.178 (7)  14 5:08.745 (6)  14 5:02.746 (4)  10 8  Hönigl Hupo AT 14 5:05.380 (6)  14 5:15.140 (8)  14 5:04.810 (5)  11 9  Cockerill Tom GB 10 3:39.386 (10)  14 5:13.602 (7)  14 5:15.781 (9)  16 10  Ausfelt Otto SE 14 5:09.460 (8)  12 4:23.604 (10)  14 5:09.297 (8)  16

	Lee Martin had a new product in his LMR range at the EOS - a carbon fibre shock stand which quickly disassembles for easier storage in the pit box. There's holes for small bores and big bore dampers, along with a sexy star cut into the side stands.

	2wd Short Course A Final - OVERALL Results
	name   leg 1 leg 2 leg 3 points 1  Bujara Tom DE 12 5:09.279 (2)  12 5:00.958 (1)  11 5:06.415 (8)  3 2  Rybski Michael DE 12 5:04.744 (1)  10 4:09.702 (10)  12 5:10.475 (4)  5 3  Strenge Gerd DE 12 5:10.571 (3)  12 5:05.728 (2)  12 5:08.486 (3)  5 4  Schilling Marc LU 9 4:07.178 (10)  12 5:19.736 (5)  12 5:04.324 (1)  6 5  Kraft Guido DE 12 5:21.364 (7)  12 5:15.505 (4)  12 5:05.957 (2)  6 6  Beck Eberhard DE 12 5:14.118 (4)  12 5:15.229 (3)  12 5:24.905 (5)  7 7  Vinge Tommy DK 12 5:18.521 (5)  12 5:25.401 (6)  12 5:39.550 (6)  11 8  Levetzow Rene AT 12 5:18.894 (6)  11 5:07.115 (8)  10 5:19.717 (10)  14 9  Morgenstern Mirko DE 11 5:05.745 (9)  11 5:03.674 (7)  11 5:05.518 (7)  14 10  Pfeiffer Christopher AT 11 5:02.236 (8)  11 5:09.752 (9)  11 5:11.893 (9)  17

Once again - a huge thanks to the Team C guys for giving me the chance to race the fully prepared and maintained 2WD SC truck. The truck handled great but my driving lacked a bit. I was top 10 in practice and slowly went down hill from there thanks to my overenthusiasm and lack of track time these past few months.

All being well the guys will invite me back to race at another round as it was a lot of fun to race and still be able to report - and these guys are an awesome bunch of fellows who're trying hard to push the new brand so please give them love from me! :)

A final 4wd leg 1.
The race was help up for a short time when Darren Bloomfield forgot to put a transponder in his car - oops.
Neumann lead them away and it quickly turned into a two-man race as Naoto followed close behind Neumann with a gap to the chasing pack rapidly growing. Both drivers were putting on a great show out front and Naoto was losing nothing to Jorn. An error from Naoto however dopped him back after he came up short on the tabletop and rolled into the fence.

Nein - nein!!!! Ich Habe nein PT (I made that up)	Eh, transponder? eh?

1st corner action	Coming through the chicane - Jorn and Naoto

Naoto takes the double as Dustin and the chasing pack round the turn.

Jorn had a nice lead now but Naoto wasn't done - he made up some of the space he'd lost but another mistake cost him dearly this time. Again on the tabletop but this time at the start - coming up short again he bounced badly and fell off the side.

Naoto throws his car sideways - pushing like a mental nutter to catch Jorn

Jorn was way in front now and help it all the way to the line with Naoto hanging onto second just ahead of Hupo Honigl.

A final 4wd leg 2.
Jorn lead for the first lap, then lands off the racing line as he comes over the doubles, Naoto is through to lead. Moments later Jorn made another error and tumbled off the tabletop, dropping him further down the order into 5th place.

Jorn and Naoto go big	Jorn comes up short - lands chassis-first

Jorn gets well out of shape - drops to third	Another mistake as Jorn rolls into the fence

One minute into the race Naoto was holding onto the lead, with Dustin in 2nd place, Lee Martin in 3rd, Jorn in 4th and up and coming Polish junior superstar Mikael Orlowski riding the 5th spot with his new Durango drive.
An error from Dustin Evans saw Lee Martin move up to 2nd place. Naoto was pulling a good lead whilst Jorn was now closing in on Lee Martin in 2nd place.

Lee took a bad landing off the triple jumps and Jorn was up to 2nd followed closely by his Durango team mate Hupo in 3rd.
Bloomfield moved up from 6th place into 3rd place when Hupo ran into trouble. With less than 2 minutes left to race Naoto had pulled a 7 second lead. In the final minute of the race Bloomfield moved in close to Jorn to challenge him for 2nd position.

Jorn gets well out of shape - drops to third	Another mistake as Jorn rolls into the fence

With Naoto so far ahead he took the leg 2 win without any issues, the battle was on for 2nd place with a very close final lap being driven by Jörn, Darren and Lee - Jörn just taking the second spot.

	4wd A Final Leg 2
	position name result 1 Naoto Matsukura 15/5:02.281 2 Jörn Neumann 15/5:12.570 3 Darren Bloomfield 15/5:13.201 4 Lee Martin 15/5:13.657 5 Hupo Hönigl 15/5:20.792 6 Michal Orlowski 14/5:00.956 7 Dustin Evans 14/5:03.147 8 Martin Bayer 14/5:03.971 9 Tom Cockerill 14/5:18.414 10 Oliver Speith 13/4:58.849

A final 4wd leg 3.
Naoto and Jörn had each won a leg and finished second - making the final leg a all-or-nothing battle, as only these two could now take the win - this could end up brilliant or messy!

Jorn gets out of shape but maintains the lead

The drivers come through the small triples

Jörn nearly made a small error over the first jumps but managed to avoid any problems, that is until a traffic jam just a few corners later. It looked like Naoto was going to take the inside line but Jorn turned in, the two cars made contact and Jorn ended up on his roof whilst the other cars came flying past.
Naoto was in the lead but within moments his conscience got the better of him, he pulled over to wait for Jorn to come past - much to the excitement and applause of the audience - it was back on as Naoto tucked in behind Jörn and the pair continued their battle.

Naoto looks for the inside early on	But he clips Jorn and sends him onto his roof

Naoto waited until Jorn was back in front of him	Naoto wasn't giving up though as he bears down

Lee Martin was now in the lead whilst the two previous leg winners were way further down the field.
All cars were super close now, as Hupo moved into the lead, Jorn landed the triples prematurely and Naoto moved past.
Hupo, Bayer, Lee, Naoto and Jorn. Martin Bayer took the lead from Hupo.

Naoto works his way through the pack as Lee Martin gets up on two wheels before rolling

Lee had poor landing from the tabletop and now Jorn and Naoto moved past. Jorn appeared to drive over Hupo and this sent Jorn off the racing line, Naoto tried to take the opportunity to move past but Hupo was on it and kept his back door shut.
The order was now Bayer, Hupo, Naoto, Jorn, Bloomfield, Lee.

Same corner - this time Naoto goes through Hupo	I've no idea what's going on here - this is madness

Naoto and Jorn were faster than anyone on the day	Martin Bayer lead but Jorn was just too fast

Another traffic jam on the corner saw hupo drop to 3rd as Jorn moved into 2nd place.
Bayer had a short lead back to Jorn, but it was all chaos in 3rd, 4th 5th and 6th place as Hupo, Bloomfield, Lee and Naoto all tried to be in 3rd place at once.
Naoto was FAST but making too many mistakes as he desperately tried to drive through (quite literally) the midfield pack to catch up to the leaders.

Jorn chased hard to catch up with Bayer and the pressure was soon on - Bayer made an error coming over the triple jumps and Jorn was through and back into the lead.
Jorn lead Bayer round with a slight gap back to Hupo in 3rd place and Bloomfield very closely behind in 4th.
Jorn pulled a good lead to take the leg win and overall 4wd.

	4wd A Final Leg 3
	position name result 1 Neumann Jörn 15/5:07.945 2 Bayer Martin 15/5:13.797 3 Bloomfield Darren 15/5:18.252 4 Hönigl Hupo 15/5:21.538 5 Cockerill Tom 14/5:01.950 6 Matsukura Naoto 14/5:04.041 7 Orlowski Michal 14/5:07.017 8 Speith Oliver 14/5:07.185 9 Evans Dustin 14/5:15.940 10 Martin Lee 12/5:02.582

Jorn poses with a fan	Two wins this time - Jorn will look to avenge!

	2wd Short Course A Final - OVERALL Results
	name   leg 1 leg 2 leg 3 points 1  Neumann Jörn DE 16 5:20.673 (1)  15 5:12.570 (2)  15 5:07.945 (1)  2 2  Matsukura Naoto JP 15 5:07.159 (2)  15 5:02.821 (1)  14 5:04.041 (6)  3 3  Bloomfield Darren GB 15 5:28.373 (7)  15 5:13.201 (3)  15 5:18.252 (3)  6 4  Hönigl Hupo AT 15 5:10.457 (3)  15 5:20.792 (5)  15 5:21.538 (4)  7 5  Bayer Martin CZ 15 5:17.328 (6)  14 5:03.971 (8)  15 5:13.797 (2)  8 6  Cockerill Tom GB 15 5:13.330 (4)  14 5:18.414 (9)  14 5:01.950 (5)  9 7  Martin Lee GB 14 5:04.172 (8)  15 5:13.657 (4)  12 5:02.582 (10)  12 8  Evans Dustin US 15 5:16.236 (5)  14 5:03.147 (7)  14 5:15.940 (9)  12 9  Orlowski Michal PL - (-)  14 5:00.956 (6)  14 5:07.017 (7)  13 10  Speith Oliver DE 4 1:32.097 (9)  13 4:58.849 (10)  14 5:07.185 (8)  17

	4wd Short Course A Final - OVERALL Results
	name   leg 1 leg 2 leg 3 points 1  Neumann Jörn DE 14 5:02.680 (1)  14 5:01.631 (1)  - (-)  2 2  Evans Dustin US - (-)  14 5:12.504 (3)  14 5:05.841 (1)  4 3  Levin Oskar SE 14 5:18.389 (2)  14 5:20.912 (5)  14 5:10.651 (2)  4 4  Hönigl Hupo AT 14 5:21.071 (4)  14 5:10.702 (2)  9 3:24.738 (8)  6 5  Prümper Björn DE 14 5:20.920 (3)  14 5:16.650 (4)  13 5:00.256 (3)  6 6  Højfeldt Torben DK 13 5:22.040 (6)  13 5:21.328 (7)  13 5:18.486 (4)  10 7  Novotny Kája CZ 13 5:09.040 (5)  13 5:04.018 (6)  6 2:17.606 (9)  11 8  Bender David DE 12 5:12.347 (8)  12 5:11.967 (10)  12 5:01.550 (5)  13 9  Strenge Gerd DE 12 5:08.762 (7)  12 5:08.461 (9)  12 5:07.701 (6)  13 10  Evens Nicolas BE 12 5:14.314 (9)  12 5:03.059 (8)  12 5:21.471 (7)  15

Rumours were that Naoto was only coming for this round - and indeed before winning the 2WD that's what he'd been telling people. Things changed however after the win and maybe we'll see Naoto again after all - let's hope so!

Wesley Van Helmand loves to pose	TWO flat-peaked hats? Uber chav? ;)

A group of MC Dortmund e.v (the model car club) members gathered for a photo - these guys put in a huge effort that has gone into hosting round 2 of the EOS races here in Langenfeld.

(Left to Right) Top Row: Samuel Richter, Oliver Speith, Dennis Funck, Thomas Wernich, Manuel Serowiak, Markus Funck. Front Row: Marcel Tourbier, Christiane Lohmeier, Lucas Wessel, Florian Funck.

Designer of the track, Gerd Strenge, suggested that up to 50 people helped in the set-up effort running up to the event, and contributed towards helping throughout. The materials and set up costs were estimated to be around 2000 Euros, however thankfully the wooden constructed jumps and much of the carpet will be reusable.

Thanks again to everyone that helped - the EOS crew, the EOS sponsors, the track crew and all our friends who let us make them look a 'bit silly' in the name of FUN. See you in Austria!