With an extra round of qualifying carried over from the previous day - finals day was going to be a long one. A practice round followed by three qualifiers and then finals.

After a quick 2minute round of practice on the moist track the first round of qualifying got underway at 9:30am with heat 8. Our friend Cedric was on the track at 9:38 and not on again until 13:15 because of the staggered heat order during the qualifying rounds.

Round 3

The first round of todays qualifying (round 3) finished by 11.30am, with no new suprises making top 10 times. Ellis Stafford once again put in a super fast time to take TQ in round, over 3 seconds ahead of 2nd in round Lee Martin. Joern Neumann will be the only newcomer to this rounds press conference, finishing a fraction of a second behind Lee Martins time.

Neil Cragg started the day not quite on his usual top form, allowing some of the other competitors a chance at top 10 stardom by placing his B4 11th in round, he's a good lad is Neil and although he seemed to enjoy participating in the press conference yesterday, it would be a bit repetitive if the same drivers made the top 3 in every round.

Tom Yardy threw out some good skills in this round, finishing in 6th place and leaving him sitting 10th overall after 3 rounds (with 2 to count), this included a mistake over the quad-jump, in which Yardy was able to quickly flip his car back onto its wheels by applying the throttle, although the overall conclusion was that it would be better not to crash whilst in the lead.

Following his previous days success, and embarrasing late arrival at the second press conference, Hupo decided to take a back seat in this round of qualifying, finishing 5th in round hence avoiding the mad rush to the commentator's tent.

Round 3 Qualifying

Manolis Troullos from Greece finally has his 2WD creation on the track and power sliding through the dirt

Round 4 Qualifying.

The temperatures were rising and a little sun even made an appearance briefly for round four. Hupo Honigl looked nearly flawless, quickly passing Ellis Stafford through the dirt section to take over the lead on the track. Lee Martin had a problem in his heat - breaking after a roll down the big hill.

Hupo Honigls time was slightly slower than Ellis Staffords so Ellis kept TQ - maybe round 5 would change things around but only Hupo could steal it away from Ellis now.

Break Dancing is getting more popular

Ralf Missel is like a Missile when marshalling also!

Tom Cockerill powers his X6 through the dirt

Lee Martin lost control coming down the huge slope and crashed out

Hupo

Ellis Stafford

Round 4 Qualifying

Here is the break down of the cars and electrics powering the competitors here at the 2009 Euros CARS   Associated B4 60 XFactory X6 41 Losi 16 Kyosho 12 Losi XXXCR2 Atomic Carbon ED. 6 Prototypes 2 Batteries       Orion 19 Robitronic 4 LRP 19 Corally 4 Reedy 18 Hyperion 3 Vampire 13 Integy 3 Nosram 11 Yungtong 3 Intellect 11 Xcell 1 Speed Power 11 Xtreme 1 Trakpower 7 SMC 1 GM 6 EP 1 Motors       LRP 32 CS 4 Novak 28 GM 3 Speed Passion 21 Ballistic 1 Nosram 18 RPM 1 Orion 15 Hyperion 1 Tekin 5 Corally 1 Losi 6     Speedos       LRP 50 Losi 3 Nosram 32 GM 2 Novak 23 CS 2 Speed Passion 8 GM 3 Tekin 6 Xcel 1 Orion 5 KO 1

Round 3 & 4 Press Conference.

The press conferences for rounds 3 and 4 were held at the same time due to the staggered heats meaning that all the top drivers had raced by 12:15.
First at the EFRA interview table - Ellis Stafford, Lee Martin and Jorn Neumann, top 1-3 in round 3. Jorn was gleefully happy with his round result and feels that he is in with a good chance of making the A main, with maybe some room for improvement. Overall he would like to aim for a podium finish, but would be happy with top 5. Jorn stated that the track is good but there was no grip on the dirt sections.

Round 3 top three

Lee, who performed well in round 3 but unfortunately broke in round 4 felt that maybe rather than increasing the pressure, the break wasn't a bad thing as it showed he was pushing too hard sometimes, and stated that after rolling his car he doesn't drive as well because his head goes all badgered. Overall though Lee was happy with his results, sitting in 3rd place after 4 rounds and would be happy starting the A final 3rd on the grid.
Ellis, having TQ'd round 1 and 3 of qualifying stated that he hadn't needed to make any changes to his car (which was strangely presented without its wheels and boots), although he had renewed his shock oil (one would think he might have done that prior to coming to a major event such as this). After struggling on the dirt sections yesterday, Ellis had been trying out some new lines today which he has found better to drive although stated that the dirt remains random.

Round 4 top three

Kev Lee, first time at the press table with his 3rd place in round 4, was pretty happy with his results so far, stating this is his best Euros result to date - this event is the 5th European Championships that Kevin has attended. Driving the X-Factory X6 with an atomic carbon front shock tower, Kevin stated he was happy with the car and hasn't needed to make any changes to it since practice.

Ellis - again! The commentator was getting a bit bored of interviewing Ellis by this point, but did question him about his invisible wheels and tyres - Ellis said he'd been called over whilst pitting his machine, Ellis is considering putting some tyres on for the finals. Hope he remembers to add the wheels too. Ellis was happy with his round score especially considering he'd made two mistakes and had a run-in with Hupo on the dirt section (There is actually some astro on the track too, the dirt section gets many special mentions!).
Hupo stated that making top times after having made mistakes (probably on the dirt section?) isn't impossible due to every driver making mistakes on this challenging track.

The Losi XXXCR2 Atomic Carbon Edition cars are pretty popular here at the Euros. Several guys from Sweden are using the car along with the Horizon drivers from the UK that made the trip out.

Otto bought the Left Hand Drive version of the Atomic CR2 Losi but didn't have a reverse-capable ESC to obtain the correct motor rotation so instead he modified his car to add an extra idler gear.

The idler is a standard internal gearbox idler and is screwed into the upper motor mounting slot - when used with a 20t pinion this gives perfect mesh and the motor is then slid back to mesh with the spur gear. It's a really simple solution - Otto even went over and performed the modification to Losi UK team manager Brian Preddy's car.

The idler gear also mounts the motor	0.5mm spacer spaces the idler from the mount

Brian 'Brain' Preddy with his newly aquired extra gear

Overall qualifying after 5 rounds - 2 to count

A Final Leg 1.

Ellis bummed out on the first lap after flipping on the quad jump, leaving Hupo to take the lead, and chaos futher down the grid meant a lot of shuffling with the race order. Neil Cragg was straight up to 2nd place and chased Hupo hard for the race duration, errors on the slippery dirt meant he couldn't quite catch up.

Ellis leads them off	Oof.... Ellis slams his ass on the third jump and tips over

....and over	Hupo jumps OVER! ---- No Ellis, nooooo!

Marshalls go at it like they're on fire as the chaos ensues.	More madness

The order was Hupo, Cragg, Jorn and Ellis - Ellis looked for a way past Jorn as the pair exited the dirt and came onto the straight to finish lap one but the pair collided and it wasn't happening. Tom Cockerill managed to squeeze past Ellis for fourth place and looked for a way past Jorn himself.

Hupo warriors off - Neil almost parks it up	Lee and Borja fight AGAIN! - this time on the track!

Ellis out drag-races Jorn down the straight.	But loses it and makes a total mess.

Ellis Disqualified: After the A final leg one - the cars were scrutineered and it turned out that the wing on Ellis Staffords car was too big (front to back depth) - despite being scrutineered all day long before this point they only seem to have checked after the A final and Ellis was disqualified despite only being a few mm over the size. Several drivers checked their wings to make sure and found they needed to make changes to avoid the same penalty.

A Final Leg 1 Results

A Final Leg 2.
Ellis didn't make the same mistake twice and sailed over the quad in a 3-1 formation. Hupo chased and the pair quickly pulled a small gap over the chasing pair of Lee Martin and Neil Cragg. Ellis and Hupo carried on pulling away and as Hupo looked for a way inside around the dirt Ellis closed the door and Hupo got caught on the pipe - allowing Ellis to pull the length of the straight.

Ellis followed by Hupo	Hupo closes in

	Hupo looks for the inside

Hupo already tried to go on the inside of Ellis who was prefering the wider line - two laps to go and Hupo saw his chance. Taking the inside line, Hupo gave it everything he had and sailed through the air to land next to Ellis - most importantly on the inside into the corner. Ellis tried to get back but couldnt.

It doesn't work out and Hupo loses some seconds	Again Hupo looks for the inside after a mistake from ellis allowed him to catch up.

Hupo jumps high......	....And jumps alongside Ellis

Hupo takes the lead - Ellis tries to come on the inside onto the straight but can't get the traction.

The pair chased another lap and Ellis over-jumped the quad to land on top of Hupo's car but couldn't keep control and Hupo got away to take the win - leaving Ellis to spin in the dust.

The last lap effort by Ellis ALMOST paid off - OVER JUMP	But he couldn't keep it on track.

A Final Leg 2 Results

With two leg wins, Hupo became the 2009 EFRA Champion with his LRP powered Associated B4 - which features Sanwa and LRP electrics, Tamiya dampers and various TRISHBITS.co.uk hopups..

Neil congratulates the new Champion

Hupo and his lady - she was very happy

Tamiya Dampers and Trishbits front bulkhead

Schumacher stagger ribs - cut down beading stretched over wide wheel.

LRP X12 8.5

LRP SXX

Trishbits rear brass bulkhead - weight where it's needed

Hupo didn't run leg three since he was already champion - so the path was clear for a fight between the other drivers for the podium positions.

A Final Leg 3.
Ellis made a clean getaway from the start, and pulled a gap on 2nd place Lee Martin and 3rd place Neil Cragg and Tom
Cockerill in 4th place, all racing close together. On the second lap Ellis landed hard coming off the quad-jump, leaving his
car on its lid on the banked corner and seeing Lee Martin slip through to take the lead closely followed by Neil Cragg. Ellis
was marshalled quickly and was placed into 3rd place ahead of team mate Tom Cockerill. Another flip from Ellis in the same
place one lap later saw 4-times-Euros-A-Finalist Tom Cockerill promoted to 3rd place. Ellis wasn't taking any nonsense from a student though, and coming onto the straight pulled some trickery on the young sheepy haired XFactory driver and slipped back into 3rd place. As if to rub salt into Toms wounded ego, Ellis proceeded to perform a forward flip on the quad-jump, crashing but landing it on his wheels and maintaining the 3rd spot right in front of Toms nose.

Coming down off the banked corner Neil Cragg made an error, flipping over the track marker and allowing Ellis and Tom through to take 2nd and 3rd place, followed by Tom Yardy in 4th place. Neil was back on the track but straight onto the dirt section and went off the racing line, colliding with another car and struggling to regain his previous confident pace.
Like something out of a UK national A final, the top four - Lee Martin, Ellis Stafford, Tom Cockerill and Tom Yardy lead the
way around the track. Ellis was pushing to catch up with Lee, who was storming off calmly ahead. The two toms in 3rd and 4th place kept close together. Further back down the field, Neil Cragg and Marc Rheinard were battling out for 6th place, following a series of misfortune for Neil.
Poor Jorn Neumann had a load of bad luck in this final after qualifying for the A late in the day, and was struggling at the
back of the field as the leaders came round to lap. Lee Martin took the leg just seconds away from making 12-lap time, with his fastest time of the day.

A Final Leg 3 Results

Final Results - 2WD European Championships 2009