Thursday was the first day of 4WD and consists of 7 rounds of 5 minute practice. The transponder loop is again working throughout practice so drivers can get a feel for their times. The day was a contrast to the previous day with bright sun from early in the morning. This meant the track was dried out after the first practice round.

The heat today in the sun and of course the heat generated by the 4WD cars brings up the subject of bodyshells and what is allowed in terms of cooling holes.
Only holes pre-defined by the shell makers that are moulded into the shell are allowed to be cut out. And they need to be full cut out - not a series of holes drilled. The rules are designed to protect the sport and keep the cars a good scale representation but it does leave some people a bit 'stuck' if their shell is already wrongly cut.

Scotty Ernst doesn't have quite so much to talk about today since this is practice but he's been working hard on the mic' to entertain the racers and calling out the fast laps in each heat - also warning the drivers of collisions on various parts of the track.

The track today is starting to get a 'blue groove' on the racing line and a build up of dust off it is reappearing after the moist couple of days previous.

Many people are running front one ways in the cars to help around the corners. The problem with the oneway is that if the nose comes up it's usually not possible to rescue the situation (apply the brakes to bring the nose down) and there's going to be a hard-hard landing. Using a differential up front means you can control the car properly in the air but at the expense of some steering.
The 4WD cars are able to jump a lot further than in the 2WD event but the track doesn't really allow for this to be put to good use.

A bit more news:
The JConcepts guys like Cree, Barton, Pinisch and Drescher are running the new B44 slipper - or actually a hand made prototype of the slipper. Comments back were that it's genius and makes a huge difference to the car. Richard Cree was certainly eploiting the new slipper and getting some very good times.

Hupo Honigl is running the 501X Tamiya and has some one-off machined centre pulleys. He has a new car just built with the latest large diameter pulleys and belts but has chosen to use his older car for this race. Hupo is using hotbodies ball studs with Losi white ball cups - mainly for style reasons I think.

Friday consists of two rounds of practice - timed, with the second using fastest two consecutive laps to sort the start order. Followed by three rounds of qualifying.