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EUROS 2010 DAY Four - 4wd Practice.

Just hours after celebrating the previous days success, drivers were back in the pitting hall bright and early to get themselves prepared for the 4wd event. Despite a slightly overcast start to the day the skies cleared by mid morning and once again the UV rays were burning down on us and warming things up a bit.

Practice is a relatively relaxed affair, with some drivers choosing to go out without a transponder, or focussing on certain sections of the track and trying different lines. As a result of this the practice times aren't entirely accurate, but should at least offer a reasonably idea of the drivers who handle the track well, and those who will be left wrestling in the dirt.

 

The 'top ten' drivers in round one of practice were as follows:

Practice 1

  
 

position

 

name

result

1

Lee Martin

12/ 283.09

2

Peter Pinisch

12/ 284.78

3

Ben Riley

11/ 278.07

4

David Poulter

11/ 279.58

5

Kit Jones

11/ 282.94

6

Tom Cockerill

11/ 285.64

7

Nathan Ralls

11/ 287.03

8

Roland Hauleitner

11/ 288.77

9

Tom Yardy

11/ 289.68

10=

James Helliwell

11/ 292.20

   
 

Cruise Missel taking things steady as usual

Lee Martin and Peter Pinisch going fastest two in practice round 1.

 

T-Cock being also fast.

Practice round two had a bit more of a continental feel, with less domination from the UK. The fast lads were:

Practice 2

  
 

position

 

name

result

1

Jorn Neumann

12/ 289.09

2

Marc Rheinard

12/ 289.15

3

Lee Martin

12/ 293.00

4

Neil Cragg

11/ 270.18

5

Martin Kreil

11/ 275.20

6

Rene Trauner

11/ 276.18

7

Jiri Mara

11/ 278.20

8

Paul Bradby

11/ 282.66

9

Nathan Ralls

11/ 283.29

10

Peter Pinisch

11/ 283.77
   
 

 

Fastest laps:
Neumann 23.44, Martin 23.47, Pinisch 23.54, Cragg 23.58, Rheinard 23.69, Trauner 23.75, Honigl 23.81, Cockerill 23.8.

By lunchtime the temperature had risen to 28 degrees, the track temperature varied from 33 degrees on dirt and 36 degrees on the astroturf. Lap times were getting more rapid, with Joern Neumann chucking out a 23.44 second lap in round two, and Lee Martin thrashing this with a 22.75 second lap in round 3, the first sub 23-second lap of the day.

Practice Round 3.

Practice 3

  
 

position

 

name

result

1

Paul Bradby

12/ 284.97

2

Viktor Wilck

12/ 287.88

3

Peter Pinisch

12/ 288.06

4

Lee Martin

12/ 292.95

5

Jorn Neumann

12/ 293.66

6

Simon Moss

11/ 273.36

7

Carl Maignien

11/ 275.62

8

Nathan Ralls

11/ 276.06

9

Marcus Prihoda

11/ 277.13

10

Cyrille Baldini

11/ 278.72

   
 

 

Fastest laps in round 3: Martin 22.75, Honigl 22.76, Kreil 23.04, Rheinard 23.16, Bradby 23.16, Pinisch 23.24, Neumann 23.31, Wilck 23.37

Jani Hovi with his 2WD masterpiece

Jani Hovi from Finlandia brought along his awesome 2WD creation to the 2010 Euros. Unfortunately he chose not to run this beauty because the material used on the chassis was the wrong type of aluminium and too soft, so it could possibly bend in a heavy crash. EFRA rules mean that a chassis can't be changed during the event unless it's a like-for-like swap due to breakage. So Jani chose to go with a more mainstream car for this event.

The buggy used the XFactory rear gearbox but surrounded by some very nice looking machined alloy parts that hold the gearbox / motor and suspension, shock tower etc. The front end is Associated parts whilst the rear used nearly complete Durango DEX410 parts, along with DEX410 dampers all round.

Great looking car!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Le Sac Magique

Ben Riley

Dave Gibson turned up for 4WD - he was loving it

Ross Williams

It was all getting pretty serious by the end of round three, and the drivers were putting in some very competitive lap times. Throughout the day practice was timed at 4.5minutes each, with 1 and a half minutes in between each round. After round three of practice was completed a team managers meeting was held, and the feedback received by drivers was that the final round of todays practice would be timed officially. This decision was made following the poor weather conditions experienced on 2wd day two, earlier in the week, when no racing had been able to take place all day. The plan is that if weather conditions deteriorate tomorrow, at least the practice sessions held today can be used for determining the start order of qualifying heats - whenever they will be held.
The forecast for the remainder of the week has been very variable so far, it will remain to be seen what the fate of our racing setup will be.

Victor Wilck

Team Durango's Adam Skelding with IFMAR WORLD CHAMPION Martin Achter.

Power-mad Ellis Stafford has gone from an 8.5 wind motor in his Xtreme Predator X11 down to a lowly 9.5 wind - Saying he felt sick having to do this, but claiming it was needed. Ellis has been struggling with the setup on the clay during practice - lack of rear traction being the issue.

The Yokomo guys were trying one way diffs in the front of the cars for their top two drivers. Only for one run though - quick, but very inconsistent.

Some Team Durango drivers are trying the moulded plastic side pods from the 'R' version of the car - Nathan Waters went out in round 4 with them on and went quicker.

Hupo Honigl and Martin Kreil were both running the plastic pods also and were fully convinved they make the car easier to drive on this surface. Martin Achter went the other way however and kept his alloy side pods but added a stiffer carbon fibre chassis of his own design and manufacture.

 

Practice Round 4.

Practice 4

  
 

position

 

name

result

1

Hubert Honigl

12/ 281.17

2

Paul Bradby

12/ 282.69

3

Simon Moss

12/ 286.10

4

Tom Cockerill

12/ 288.37

5

Roland Hauleitner

12/ 294.54

6

Cyrille Baldini

11/ 263.56

7

Lee Martin

11/ 264.83

8

Grant Williams

11/ 269.70

9

Thomas Pumpler

11/ 270.20

10

Jorn Neumann

11/ 270.51

   
 

Fastest laps in round 4: Bradby 22.78, Honigl 22.81, Martin 22.82, Rheinard 22.88, Trauner 22.89, Pinisch 23.02, Neumann 23.03, Cragg 23.03.

 

 

 

Corner cutting... Naughty! ... but hey, it's practice.

 

super Martin Achter with his 8-RACING bits

IFMAR World Champion Martin Achter has been a busy boy since we last saw him at the 2009 Euros - winning both classes at the 2009 IFMAR off road world championships - and now creating his own small company '8-Racing' to create unique and exciting parts for rc racing.

Martins current products are his carbon fibre chassis plates for popular 8th scale buggies - the Losi 8 and Xray 808. Martin creates these chassis at home with his own equipment - hand layering the carbon which is then pressed between the moulds he's created before being machined on his CNC equipment to create the correct profile and create cut outs and recessed areas.

To create a stable and secure enging mounting area Martin has made an alloy plate which bolts to the main chassis plate and sits in a recess so it's flush with the chassis. This spreads the stresses (and heat) over a larger area.

As well as the 8th buggy chassis' on display, Martin also had a carbon chassis on his DEX410 buggy that he's running here in Traiskirchen. The chassis is pretty much a replica of the original alloy chassis but hand laminated and formed to include the shape of the front kick up.

Lots of milling and forming going on here

Front kick up and machining

Xray 808 and Losi 8ight chassis are Martins first products.

Underneath of one of the 8th scale chassis

 

The underneath showing the front kick up on Martins carbon durango DEX410 chassis plate

Practice Round 5.

Practice 5

  
 

position

 

name

result

1

Hubert Honigl

12/ 280.72

2

Paul Bradby

12/ 283.61

3

Rene Trauner

12/ 284.00

4

Tom Cockerill

12/ 285.41

5

Viktor Wilck

12/ 287.38

6

Peter Pinisch

12/ 288.18

7

Yannic Prumper

12/ 289.88

8

Roland Hauleitner

12/ 293.14

9

Nathan Waters

12/ 294.03

10

Marc Rheinard

11/ 253.43

   
 

Hupo was up at the top once again for practice round 5, UK team buddy Nathan Waters also made an appearance in the 10 fast times.

Fastest laps: Rheinard 22.30, Martin 22.59, Wilck 22.64, Bradby 22.69, Neumann 22.72, Pinisch 22.73, Trauner 22.74, Honigl 22.75.

Tamiya Daves name is inspired by the car he drives.

Crazy DEX410 bodyshell - by Tresrey we think?

 

Warrior.

 

Practice Round 6.
The final of practice was timed and would be used to seed the heats only if tomorrow sees rain. If there is no rain then apparently we run the morning timed practice as normal to seed the heats. The organisers are somewhat cautious - or rightly paranoid you could say, about the weather and what could happen. 2WD finals of course were no problem as most drivers wouldn't have any problem staying longer into the evening. For the 4WD event, some drivers leave the night of the finals - so if things run late of course they can't stay!

It was decided to run four qualifying rounds on Friday instead of the usual three - to give more time on Saturday in case there is rain and the associated delays.

Joen Neumann and Lee Martin made it through for 14 laps and shows their pace in this round, the first that was run at the full 5 minute duration. Hupo Honigl put in a blinder of a lap in his run - going way-way quicker than anyone else, it was questioned by Scotty Ernst as to whether there had been a track-cutting incident but Hupo confirmed he'd just had a really perfect lap. Let's see if if can throw 14 of those together tomorrow!

Practice 6

  
 

position

 

name

result

1

Jorn Neumann

14/ 319.56

2

Lee Martin

14/ 320.82

3

Peter Pinisch

13/ 306.09

4

Neil Cragg

13/ 308.07

5

Paul Bradby

13/ 308.99

6

Viktor Wilck

13/ 309.38

7

Hubert Honigl

13/ 310.61

8

Cyrille Baldini

13/ 314.44

9

Jiri Mara

13/ 314.89

10

Mikael Johansson

13/ 317.16

   
 

Round 6 fastest laps: Honigl 21.88, Martin 22.27, Pinisch 22.34, Neumann 22.38, Bradby 22.67, Cragg 22.69, Rheinard 22.72, Kreil 22.81

 

 

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