Last years winning car, the Tamiya 501X, is here in decent numbers again. Top Tamiya driver and last years winner Hupo showed his car for this years event. Unlike last year Hupo now runs the big pulleys and belts. Hupo also picked up some new development parts at the World Championships last year which are being used again here to good effect.

Hupo is using a Team Azarashi front wing on his car along with the DB01 Baldre body shell. The spur gear and pads are Team Losi items - as is the slipper spring, which is from the XXXBK2 differential. Springs front and rear are Kyosho yellow with the paint stripped off.

Inverted CVD shafts (opposite to standard)

Touring car belt tensioner

Specially machined wishbones all round - these are modified original items to give more flex for low traction surfaces.

Cedric Devillers from Optimized RC - makers of the gearbox cover for the TRF 501X, has a nice conversion on his 501X.

The idea is inspired by Satoshi Maezumi - Tamiya TRF driver, who had a similar setup in recent photos of his car.

The idea is to move the shock absorbers to the rear of the car, turning the gearbox top around in the process. The effect? Apparently to give a better feel over the bumps. Cedrid tested back-to-back and prefered this setup.

Qualifying Round 1
4wd qualifying commenced on time at midday, with the first round being in heat order starting with the slower drivers. Lee Martin took round 1, nudging closer and closer to 12-lap pace but with a slow fastest lap of 27.302 seconds - Hupo put in the fastest lap with his Tamiya buggy. The top three drivers are all running differentials in front.

Ellis had a bad time of it, stripping another belt - this made 4 since the start of the 4WD event. Ellis hadn't damaged anything all year on much more punishing tracks than this so wasn't happy with his poor luck. If there was a problem with the car that was causing this, then he just couldn't find it.

Tom Cockerill had a thermal shutdown on his Novak brushless during round one - Tom changed motors to the newer 'ribbed' can design and did 'the special trick' to try prevent thermalling for round 2.

UK Drivers: Grant Williams with the new CAT finished 14th in round, followed by Tom Yardy (HB D4) in 16th, Greg Spicer in 17th, and Matt Benfield (who had rather puffy eyes all morning, so give him some leeway) taking 19th in round. Ian Barnard improved vastly on his 2wd result (qualified 49th overall) and took 20th in the first 4wd qualifying round - and Ian states it can't have been him (fluke!) but thanks to Oscar Jansen for sorting his motor out. When asked if his tyre wear was still comparable to chewits, Barny said 'tyre wear isn't bad, well... yes, no, maybe'.

Wraggy was pretty happy with his 52nd in round. Lee-Mag was unfortunate with his first round of qualifying, although he felt that if his car had moved off the line and if he'd driven faster than anyone else, he could have TQ'd the round.

Round 2

An error on the start line when heat 8 set off resulted in complaints about the calling of the start order, due to this the race organisers felt it necessary to re-run heat 8 round two after the completion of round 3 qualifying. Phew, confusing eh!

Hupo Honigl took his Tamiya TRF 501X to the top in this round - getting closer and closer to that elusive 12 laps.

Manolis from Greece didn't make it to the track until round three - totally missing the entire day to that point. Why? Well Manolis had some ideas he wanted to try, which involved totally recreating his 4WD prototype car. Not much then! Sadly he didn't have chance to create the strength he thought he needed - and had to take it 'easy' around the track - but he could be seen wandering the pits in the evening looking for a source of carbon fibre sheet! Good luck Manolis - I see another long night of drilling and filing ahead. Manolis is fast becoming a legend and received an impromptu round of applause and cheering after completing his first run with the newly re-created car!!

Round 3

The Big-E, Ellis Stafford, laid down some angry laps after a lot of work on his X-5squared to fix the problems he'd had earlier in the 4WD event - and it paid off. Ellis put in the quickest time so-far in these championships with 11 laps in 300.158.

Ellis Stafford rarely has a Dremel out of his hand - whether it's demeling glue off his thumb or modifying a chassis - Ellis is the stuff of legend.

Neil Cragg was second in the round, just barely behind E's pace. Hupo Honigl got another great time which gave him third in round, less than a second behind Cragg.

After three qualifiers, it was Hupo Honigl sitting at the top on 308 points (best score from two rounds of qualifying to count). Lee Martin sat alongside Hupo on 308 points - both drivers attaining a first and second in round - but Hupos faster time gave him the TQ going into the final day.

Neil Cragg performed miracles to race a car he'd quite literally never seen before the previous day (Yokomo Bmax)- and put in some of the fastest times of any driver in Europe. Neil lined up third overall with a 2nd and 3rd in round to count. Not bad for a plastic car, hey.

Overall qualifying positions after three rounds - two rounds to go on day 6, and two to count.