2008 Euros - Day 2 - 08 July 2008
Practice once again started at 08.45, and this time Jimmy made it into the correct heat. Today practice is marshalled, and cars are being scrutineered after each run. Although both rounds of practice this morning will be timed, only the second practice times will be used when deciding the start order for the qualifying, which starts at 12:00.

In round one of timed practice Neil Cragg was the quickest on the track with a 29.267 best lap. Lee Martin had the second fastest best lap on 29.933. There was nothing between Hupo Honigl and Jorn Neuman who both scraped into the sub-30 second lap times. Overall times over the 5 minutes don't mean much right now, but Neil Cragg had the quickest time, 7 seconds ahead of Hupo - but hey, it's just practice.

Conditions at the track are dusty - my (jimmy) first round of qualifying was eneded early with a stuck brush in the 14x2 Peak Vantage I was running. I've been running these orion/peak motors for years but not often in conditions like these - the open brush tubes are a weak point for dust entry.

Mike Williams lent me a 13x2 checkpoint motor - a slightly similar design to the Peak but with enclosed brushes so less chance of dust jamming a brush.

The final round of timed practice before qualifying was another chance of Neil Cragg to show off his pace - getting the first sub-29 second lap, 28.925. The next fastest lap was by Hupo Honigl, 3/4 of a second slower than Neil. Paul Bradby, Ellis Stafford, Lee Martin and Tom Yardy were all down into the 29 second lap range.

Round two of practice - Hupo was fast....

But Cragg was faster!

Wraggy is still pretty fast, easily faster than Lee (says Neil). Lee agrees with this and is currently wandering around wondering where his wheels, tyres, foams, and cells are. Ian Barnyard is chewing tyres like chewits.

Grant Williams doesn't have any trackside gossip yet, although he and his Dad have been chased by Chinese women on two occasions now, the second one was 'alright'. Lee (Farrer) doesn't know very much at all, other than something about Tom Cockerills motor, but he can make something up if we want. I told him that I'd just made all this up so we need some real stuff.

From early on in the day (like, first practice) temperatures were soaring, with Dave Churches thermometer reading 25degrees celcius in the shade (pitting hall with multiple fans), and 38degrees in direct sunlight. I was then informed that the temperature should be read in the shade (I disagree, I can vouch that it was very hot in the direct sunlight), Paul Worsley then informed me that his accurate on-body thermometer was reading approximately 22-23 degrees celcius. He then began asking Oscar Jansen at what temperature are celcius and farenheight the same figure. Paul states this is at minus 70 degrees (for anyone who was wondering). Google it if you don't believe him.

When asked what he knows after going out to get some race report gossip, Ellis Stafford stated that it was 'blooming hot' and that he thought his chest was going to melt - el scorchio. He also found it highly inconsiderate that the sun was in his eyes throughout first practice.

The intense heat left many of us feeling sleepy. Photo By Tony Truman.

The first round of qualifying was run in heat order 1-12, from midday until nearly 2pm. Seven UK drivers made it into the top 10, along with drivers from Austria and Spain. Neil Cragg was the only driver to put in 11 laps, with only 9.5 seconds seperating the following nine drivers.

Matt Benfield, Tony Truman, Kevin Lee, Stephen Lawson and Tom Cockerill from the UK all made top 20 times, with just three seconds between their times. Bruno Hermans from Belgium lost his best qualifying time for failure to marshal.

Manolis Troullos from Greece arrived just in the nick of time, turning up at the track after first practice on day 2, following a long journey of trains and busses across the continent - Unfortunately though he scored zero in round 1. Manolis is here with his personal fan club and two cars of his own building, a mid motor 2WD and an 'unknown' 4WD creation!

Lee Martin looks through his tyres - which finally arrived

These guys are like some bad ass 70's cops

Round 2 qualifying positions.

Vickys Reportage Madness:
Neil Cragg once again stunned the crowds with his excellent performance, improving on his first qualifying time by nearly 3 seconds. Hupo broke through 11-lap barrier, coming in less than one second behind Neil.

Following a great result in round 1 (9th overall) Tom Yardy 'accidentally' switched to hole-shot tyres, ending up 11 seconds slower in round 2, placing him 17th place overall after two rounds.

An excellent performance from Tom Cockerill placed him 7th in round, and 10th place overall after two rounds of qualifying. Other UK top 20 drivers in round two include Matt Benfield (14th), Stephen Lawson (12th), Kevin Lee (16th), and Grant Williams (20th).

Ian Barnyard is being thrashed by Preddy (53rd place), and is in 63rd place after 2 rounds. Jimmy is one place ahead of Big Whyman, at 95th and 96th place respectively. Norways Ole Steen Karlsen (Interviewed at Worksop earlier this year) is the only person to score zero after two rounds of qualifying - Sorry Ole.

We're proud to say that after two rounds of qualifying, Lee Farrer is the lowest scoring Brit, in 103rd place. When asked if he had any comments Lee stated 'my car doesn't steer left'. I think with all that dust on the track, steering is a poor excuse, just keep spinning right! Lee doesn't know what round scores he has, as 'it's too bad to look'. We reckon Lee is driving his small car similar to how he drives his big car in Italy - like most Italians.

Paul Wragg is standing in 70th place after two rounds (80th in Round one and 62nd in round 2), pitman Lee Martin reckons he needs some calming down juice. He doesn't have any pit gossip though. They're all running two stage inserts over there.

Tom Cockerill of UK stardom tells us that the rumour around the pits is that Piespeed is ace, and that the competition only get the crumbs. We believe Tom, because he's off his pups.

Round 3 Qualifying Results.
A few drivers joined Neil on 11 laps

After switching back to Losi X2000 tyres, Tom Yardy put in another great time in round 3 of qualifying, over 5 seconds quicker than in round 1 and placing him in 10th place overall. The X2000's seem to be the tyre of choice right now on the grooved up track, though a spot of rain could easily change that. Tyre wear is quite high for some drivers - and of course for the top drivers a set of rear tyres per run is the order of things. Fronts seem to be wearing well - especially the Losi ribs. Tyres in the photo on the right are Losi X2000 (left) and Proline Holeshot (right).

OPTIMIZED X6 Motor Plate
Cedric Devillers from Optimized RC came over to show the new X6 motor plates his company is making. Available in a range of colours - light blue (Tamiya), blue, black & red.

the plate has a counter sunk screw for the front support unlike the prototype. They are available now direct from Optimized - contact details to follow!

Top XFactory driver Ellis Stafford is already running one in his car.

The back side of the motor plate - red version!

Ellis has the blue Optimized motor plate in his ride

Day two of the 2wd European championship event drew to a close after three rounds of qualifying were completed, the scorching temperatures had seen the track get faster throughout the day, with four drivers putting in 11-lap times by the third round, compared to just one in the first round.

UK drivers made up a grand total of 24.5% of the overall driver list at the 2wd event, but with 12 UK drivers in the top 20, a whopping 60% of the top 20 drivers are from the UK. And 44% of the UK drivers are in the top 20 after 3 rounds of qualifying. So there are some statistics for you.

Paul Worsley kindly provided us with some attendance numbers for the event, the table below displays how many people were due to attend from each country, and how many people actually turned up to race. The numbers for 4wd are shown below but won't be confirmed until later in the week. Some contenders simply didn't turn up for the race without informing the race organisers, which we think is a bit rude and adds to the workload of race officials - of 120 booked in, 110 turned up to race.

Tom Cockerill

Tom Yardy

Mick Cragg rebuilds shocks after a day of domination

Paul Wragg shows off his piespeed stickers!