Euros Day 3 [Wednesday 16th August]

The RMC venue is excellent. The track is superb, you can see a lot of effort (and money) has gone into the track. The entire site is protected from vandals by huge permenant fencing and during the Euros event there is 24hour security patrols to keep people safe, and they have guns! Due to the tented pitting area though, most people take all their valuable racing gear away every evening just to be safe.

Day three would decide the 2WD champion and started with a quick 2 minute practice round for everyone. This was mainly to help dry the track out from the early morning dew. Round four of Qualifying saw two of the top drivers from the previous day, Neil Cragg and Hupo Honignl both crash out on the same lap. Jorn Neumann was fastest in the round only just missing out on a 12 lapper.

The 5th and final qualifying round for 2WD saw Neil again make a mistake and finish 10th, the top 5 were so close with less than a second seperating them. Paul Bradby narrowly missed out on TQ for the round - with that man Hupo again on top.

Final top 10 positions in qualifying are as follows.

The A finals are run over 3 Legs and these drivers also get a practice final which is run just like the real thing but does not count. Neil Cragg made a mistake / was clipped by another car so he waited for Hupo and Pinisch to come round then these three made the end of the practice A final very interesting. Neil got past in this battle on the last corner though he was a lap down, still, its interesting to see how hard Neil can push when he is chasing Hupo. There should be some very exciting finals to come.

Hupo Lines up for practice A final	Neil sneaks past leaving Hupo and Pinisch in tatters :)

A final leg one was lead all the way by Hupo with young Jorn Neumann challenging for the first half of the race. Neil cragg went off line which allowed Lee Martin past, Peter Pinisch also crashed out. Some great racing didn't change the order so Hupo won for first leg followed by Jorn and Lee Martin.

Scotty Ernst - commentating for the week has really stepped up the level during the finals, the excitement and enthusiasm he shows is insane! He is cracking jokes constantly and he is doing his best to create a great atmosphere - some of the finals were amazing to watch with so much cheering and hype.

Leg two of the A final was as exciting as they get, Cragg made up the distance from 4th to 3rd after Neumann crashed on the first corner. Neil chased hard and after a few laps put the move on Pinisch, then closed on Hupo. Cragg made an error which pushed him back to 3rd and Lee Martin took up the chase on Hupo. Lee made up some distance but didn't have enough time to challenge for the lead and Hupo won - and with it the European Champion title with one leg to go.

LEG 2 Cragg chasing Hupo hard - Lee Martin just behind.	LEG 2 Hupo on his way to the 2wd title.
LEG 2 Neil loses it on the wall	LEG 2 Lee Martin receiving some love from Drescher

The B Final was worthy of watching, pole sitter and TTech driver Tom Yardy pulled a good lead but was reeled in by Marc Rheinard over the last few laps, it was a nail biter as Marc managed to get past when Tom made a mistake. Tom tried desperately to get back on top - the two touching several times, but it wasn't to be, so Marc took the win and 11th over all at the meeting.

Leg 3 of the A was a battle for 2nd place with Hupo choosing to sit this one out. Neil Cragg took the honours with a great drive which gave him 2nd over all, with Jorn Neumann from Germany taking 3rd place over all.

Trophy girls kindly supplied by Durango (!?) handed out trophys to all final winners and all A finalists, the usual Champange celebrations was preceeded by a dousing of water on the new 2WD Champion by his fellow country men.

Team GB take a well earned rest, along with the Durango girls:

Four wheel drive is next up starting with a full day of practice tomorrow, so we should be able to see who is going to be challenging for the win by the end. Stay tuned.