Euros Day 5 [Friday 18th August]

Qualifying begins today. After 2 practice rounds there will be 3 Qualifiers today, then 2 tomorrow just like in the 2WD event. The weather is clear skies and, just like yesterday hot!

The first round of practice saw Marc Rheinard take the top position from Darren Bloomfield and Neil Cragg, Neil had the fastest lap of the session. Marc is looking really comfortable on the track and very smooth.

Paul "Robbo" Robinson practices the 'air drums'	Bishop inserts hinge pins to his X10 with care
Marc Rheinard's BJ4 Worlds Edition	Rheinard lined up for practice

Qualifying is now underway and the temperature seems to be slowing the cars down slightly, most drivers had their fastest practice times in the first round of practice this morning. The track is holding up well still with just the occasional repair needed when a hole opens up in the dirt or carpet.

The heat means people are cutting holes in the shell to aid cooling, but this has caught a few people out because holes that are "not designed to be cut out" are not allowed to be cut out ! Since only commercially available shells (durango ??) are allowed, this means people can't modify their shells and claim that they are moulded/designed to be vents. Complicated.

BJ4 shells above: The one on the left with completely cut away side pod passed inspection - the shell on the right failed. I would guess that the KMC ZX5 conversion would also be disallowed since the shell needs a hole to fit the chassis. Given the heat today its a little bit harsh on the guys who have already modified their shells.

Round one of qualifying over and newly crowned 2WD champion Hupo Honignl showed that practice makes perfect, just edging out Neil Cragg by 0.30 seconds to take the first of 5 qualifying rounds. 7 british drivers in the top 10 so far.

Tristan Swinden from Germany is here racing what looks at first glance to be an old Yokomo but is actually a totally custom shaft driven design. The car has some really neat features, the wishbones are carbon fibre, the gearboxes are intricately machined alloy. [photos below]

The sun has gone since qualifying started and the temperature has dropped slightly, but clear skies look to be on their way back. Round two of qualifying saw Neil again get 2nd to an Austrian, but this time it was Peter Pinisch driving the Jconcepts BJ4 Worlds who took the round.

Christopher Lof, one of the two Swedish guys at the Euros this year is running electrics from a small Swedish company called 'Advanced Electronics'. This included a neat little, no, 'tiny' esc called the '5.1 PC PRO' which is supposed to be very nice. The most obvious thing is the size, this thing is very small and uses no outside add-ons such as huge power capacitors.
I'm told there are 4 profiles, one of which can be customised using a PC hook-up with included software, cool.

The last round for the day and it was again Peter Pinisch that took the win, this time from Jorn Neumann driving the Durango. Neil Cragg was 3rd with Hupo 4th. Lots of people on 13 laps this time around.

Rheinard and Pinisch ignore the racing spoon	Tom Yardy on the straight, check the balloonage.

With 3 rounds of qualifying done the top 10 looks like this:

With only 2 rounds to count, and another 2 rounds of qualifying still to go tomorrow, things are still very much open. Peter Pinisch can only possibly drop to 2nd place in the A final right now, so looks to be in a very good position. Neil and Hubert are tied on points currently for 2nd place.