August 21st - 23rd 2015 saw the sixth annual oOple Invernational race held at it's spiritual home on the all-weather astroturf track at RobinHood Raceway in Blyth, Nottinghamshire. The usual team of JamesHelliwell+co grafters had been working hard to prepare the venue in the aftermath of this months European Championship event held on the dirt track 2 weeks prior. Following Invernational custom there was the huge marquee set up for pitting, with gazebo cover provided for the bar and cafe, and campers-a-plenty lining the field.

Racing commenced on Friday afternoon with open practice, whilst John Price booked drivers in from his cabin of passion.

*Disclaimer. This report cannot and will not match the quality that Jimmy would produce, however will aim to maintain the inappropriate humour and factual incorrectness that can be expected of any oOple coverage.

Friday evening saw the vintage / fun classes take to the track, with three heats of cars out - junior class, vintage (brushed motors / slow cars) and retro (with brushless motors). Matt Moore won the retro ahead of Graham North in 2nd place. John price raced the Jimmy Storey edition RC10 car against James Wilkinson up at the top of the vintage race.

Saturday consisted of hangover recovery, birthday parties, practice, and qualifying - ahead of the real party kicking off in the marquee.
oOple ringleader Damian Whittle opened the event officially on Saturday morning with a highly emotive drivers briefing, paying tribute to the man behind all things oOple and reminding drivers that the oOple Invernational is all about having fun.

Some rain late in the afternoon affected the days final round of qualifying, in anticipation of the forecast rain the event organisers had managed to get ahead of schedule slightly to avoid too much delay due to weather. A dedicated track clean up effort meant that disruption was minimal.

The Beer Race - Saturday Evening.

MC-Northy mounted the rostrum after the fourth round of qualifying finished on Saturday evening, to announce the start of the infamous beer race, and to inform the contenders what treats they'd be in for this year. In tribute to Jimmy oOple, the participants were required to dress as Jimmy and down his favourite drink - a Chod (cherry coke and vodka), eat fish fingers doused in vinegar, and down a bottle of Desperado before racing their cars around the track for 'three laps'.

Tom Cockerill, who incidentally didn't dress at all like Jimmy, took the beer race trophy. Paul Bradby emerges from racing retirement once a year to participate in the oOple invernational beer race - he was confused about the theme though and arrived dressed as Mrs oOple.

Immediately after the beer race, willing participants take to the track for the Oval Speed Challenge - a single fast-lap around the track. Natalie Williams took the win with a 12 second lap, winning an r/c helicopter kindly donated by Propel RC.

With daylight rapidly diminishing the final track event before partytime is the ring of fire, for anyone daring enough to drive their R/C pride and joy through a hoop of burning curtains and suchlike.

Ring of fire photos courtesy of Mrs Gooder.

Since it's inception, the oOple Invernational has hosted local Barnsley lads 'Hitomi' to kick off partynight for the past 5 years. With the departure of one band member however the group have now reformed as the Four Authors, and returned to us this year the aurally satisfy our needs. True to form the guys put on a splendid show and had the crowd rocking out for a full 1.5hour set, climaxing with a crowd-surfing beach ball and some party poppers.

The Four Authors treated us to a mix of some of Hitomi's work, some covers and some of their new releases. As is customary at the Invernational events, our resident DJ Kirky was lined up to keep the party going into the night. Not before a selfie with the Four Authors though.

Anyone would think there had been a party.

Sunday morning saw everyone wake up bright eyed and ready to complete qualifying and prepare for finals. Most race reporters were oddly off duty at this point. Sundays highlight would mostly be the sharing out of very generous raffle prizes donated by PropelRC, with at least one winner in every heat.

Overall Qualifying - 2wd

	2WD Qualifying Overall
	position name Score 1 Lee Martin 2 2 James Helliwell 3 3 Neil Cragg 4 4 Ben Jemison 5 5 Craig Collinson 6 6 Greg Williams 7 7 Paul Crompton 8 8 Eugene Galley 14 9 James Mcfadyean 15 10 Chris Doughty 17 11 Richard Coates 19 12 Ben Smith 20

	Youngest A Finalist Ten year old Ben Smith made his first A final this weekend, joining former world and European champions on the rostrum. He was qualifying in the B final when the last round of qualifying on Saturday was rain affected and he bumped up into 12th on the A final grid. Well done Ben. Ben with his dad Simon. Bens A-final Schumacher K1.

Overall Qualifying - 4wd

	4wd Qualifying Overall
	position name Score 1 Neil Cragg 2 2 Chris Doughty 2 3 Ben Jemison 4 4 Craig Collinson 5 5 James Helliwell 5 6 Tom Cockerill 10 7 Greg Williams 11 8 Paul Bradby 12 9 Leon Morrell 13 10 Adam Skelding 13 11 Olly Vaux 15 12 Chris Pattinson 15

	Neil Cragg - 4wd Top Qualifier. Neil Cragg took the 4wd TQ position with his Team Associated B44.3. He was trying out a carbon chassis for the first time this weekend. This is where Jimmy would know what to write about but I don't :(

Overall Qualifying - Short Course

	Short Course Qualifying Overall
	position name Score 1 Adam Skelding 2 2 Damian Whittle 2 3 Alex Callan 3 4 Justin Kirk 6 5 Matthew Bateson 8 6 James Morris 9 7 David Smith 10 8 Karl Bradish 10 9 Peter Westley 11 10 Richard Chillingsworth 13 11 Eddie Rowland 14

A Final Results.

	2WD Qualifying Overall
	position name Result 1 Ben Jemison 3 [ 1 7 2] 2 Neil Cragg 3 [ 2 1 4 ] 3 James Helliwell 5 [ 6 4 1 ] 4 Lee Martin 5 [ 3 2 12 ] 5 Craig Collinson 8 [ 5 11 3] 6 Paul Crompton 10 [ 9 3 7 ] 7 Eugene Galley 12 [ 4 10 8 ] 8 James Mcfadyean 12 [ 7 8 5] 9 Richard Coates 14 [ 12 5 9] 10 Greg Williams 14 [ 8 9 6 ] 11 Chris Doughty 16 [ 10 6 10 ] 12 Ben Smith 22 [ 11 12 11 ]

	4wd Qualifying Overall
	position name Result 1 Chris Doughty 2 [ 2 1 1 ] 2 Craig Collinson 3 [ 1 3 2 ] 3 Neil Cragg 5 [ 3 2 4 ] 4 James Helliwell 8 [ 10 5 3 ] 5 Ben Jemison 9 [ 5 4 10 ] 6 Chris Pattinson 10 [ 4 7 6 ] 7 Greg Williams 11 [ 8 6 5 ] 8 Olly Vaux 13 [ 6 10 7 ] 9 Adam Skelding 15 [ 7 8 8 ] 10 Tom Cockerill 18 [ 9 9 9 ] 11 Paul Bradby 22 [ 12 11 11 ] 12 Leon Morrell 24 [ 12 12 12 ]

	Short Course Qualifying Overall
	position name Result 1 Adam Skelding 2 [ 1 2 1 ] 2 Damian Whittle 4 [ 3 1 3 ] 3 Justin Kirk 5 [ 2 3 9] 4 Alex Callan 7 [ 5 5 2 ] 5 Matthew Bateson 9 [ 4 10 5 ] 6 David Smith 10 [ 6 8 4 ] 7 Eddie Rowland 10 [ 7 4 6 ] 8 Peter Westley 13 [ 8 6 7 ] 9 James Morris 15 [ 12 7 8 ] 10 Richard Chillingsworth 18 [ 9 9 10 ] 11 Karl Bradish 24 [ 12 12 12 ]

Inverted Trophies

Winners - 4wd Chris Doughty - 2wd Ben Jemison - Short Course Adam Skelding.

Massive thanks to everyone who attended this years oOple invernational and had a good time, to the core crew who put in the time and effort behind the scenes to plan every small detail, the track team for all the preparation prior to and during the event, band and DJ for entertainment, and everyone who has been just fab. And of course to Jimmy, without whom the oOple invernational would have never existed.

Kind thanks as well to David McKeown who has provided most of the photography for this race report.

The epic oOple invernational 2012 video, to compensate for the compromised quality of current race reporting.