(Photos at bottom of page)

Euros Day 5 [Friday 27th July]

Another hot and sunny day in Finland. Thursday was to consist of two rounds of practice - the second round decided the start order in the first qualifying round, and this was decided on the best two consecutive laps. In this second qualifier the fastest driver from the previous days practice was again at the top - Joern Neumann, driving the Durango. Lee martin wasn't too far behind with the similarly laid out AERO. Third fastest and it was the old man Ellis Stafford finally showing us he's a super star and putting in the third fastest lap time. Pinisch was fourth and Neil Craggo 5th.

Round one of qualifying was as follows- with Hupo Honigl on top with his Tamiya 501X - Richard Taylor took second in round with the XXX4, Ellis with the X-5 rounded out the top three. Lee Martin is still chasing a good setup and had to settle for fourth while Richard Cree pushed his BJ4we into 5th in round.

Qualifying position round 1

Heat four were first off in round two of qualifying. Heat six was abandoned when the carpet covering the tabletop jump tore - the heat was re-run at the end of the second round.

Top 10 scores in round 2 of qualifying.

Top results from round 3 of qualifying.

Optimized R/C Products - 501X gearbox covers Arnaud Ledun from the french team at the Euros came to show some new dust covers for the Tamiya 501X. The dust covers were just rapid prototypes for now but the finished items should be available soon moulded in black plastic. The new covers are both for the rear gearbox - the rear replacing the kit cover and the front joining up with the rear to provide a very nice seal for the rear gearbox / differential. Arnaud teamed up with Cedric Devillers to start the company with the aim of producing innovative and exciting parts for the popular cars (not Just the 501X) - the dust covers will be their first product and should provide a good seal especially at the rear.

Rear cover - sits in front of the diff New REAR-rear cover sits behind rear diff

Tom Cockerill surprised a few including himself with some great runs to lay 8th after three rounds - Tom is using the XX4 with alloy CVD's all round and raised rear hinge pins - also a one way diff.
Richard Taylor was 5th after three rounds with a standard XXX4G+ - The car seems well suited to the smooth Vaasa track.
Joern Neumann driving the Durango started inconsisently but got it together to take round 3 just ahead of Hupo. Joerns Durango now sports the beefy Tamiya front suspension arms.

Overall qualifying positions after 3 rounds of qualifying.