no more comedy - race stuff.

The nitro guys were really stretching it out - running for over 10 minutes without a fuel stop and a lot of guys are failing to make the time - cutting out in the last few seconds before completing their runs. Round 4 of qualifying and Lee Martin was on a good run for a top-5 time but ran out of fuel - this only affected his qualifying by one place however as it was on the final lap.

Qualifying Results after day one of qualifying - 3 rounds for Nitro, 2 Rounds for Electric. Based on round by round for nitro, and ftd for 'fun class' electric. The results shown after 3 rounds are slightly distorted as the computer is counting 3 out of 3 rounds, so the top drivers who ran into any problems and didn't put in three awesome runs aren't coming out tops just yet.

Top 20 - Nitro

We had to type this all in by hand - respect.

Overall - Electric.

For a laugh - we secretly got a cow to lick this chocolate cow - it really got into it too, wrapping its soft leathery tongue around the milkybar faux-cow leaving a fine mist of spittle. The real JAPE was when we gave the choccy-cow to Stu Evans without informing him about the cow juice incident. Stu really enjoyed it though.

There's a whole heap of nationalities at the neo09 - here's a breakdown of the numbers:

Drivers:Austria (4), Belgium (2), Brazil (1), Czech Republic (3), Finland (1), France (13), Germany (9), Greece (6), Indonesia (1), Ireland (1), Italy (2), Japan (1), Malta (2), N.Ireland (1), Norway (8), Portugal (8), Slovakia (2), Spain (7), Sweden (7), Switzerland (1), UK (86), USA (11) and Wales (3).

Round 4 results - Nitro

Electric (Final qualifying round for electric)

It was all over for the electric boys early - with the third and final round run after the fourth round of nitro qualifying - meaning those who'd not made..... Actually no, bollocks - qualifying in electric is a SHAM of a SHAM and means nothing! Since there are only two heats - it means that all the drivers no matter how good or bad go into one of two semi-finals - and it's all about this one race to decide the A final - Graham North, our intrepid oOple driver with a epoxied centre differential could still pull something out of the bag. Dustin Peckham, eat your heart out.

The Manolis-Machine did run yesterday, of sorts, for a short time. It was a bit slow for some reason that we can't quite make out (we don't understand his blabberings). He was seen late on yesterday spannering & soldering away like a WARRIOR late at night - in the campus kitchen - next to a massive toaster. Funnily enough, today his car looks like a toaster.

Joseph Quagraine consumes an EGG

Joseph didn't understand what the Jaffa Cake was and attempted to run it in his car.

Dogs love SMD - www.s-m-d.co.uk, it's grrreat!

Mr.HUDY really didn't know what we were taking about - but he liked the Jaffa Cake we gave him, RESULT.

Easter Egg firing Nikon bazooka

Do you know what this is? we do - its a sex organ

At oOple.com we love all things Germans - we love them second only to daschunds. To celebrate these brave Germanic heroes we dropped in on Hupo with a large supply of the finest English chocolatey products - YES we know Hupo isn't German, but he's close enough and he speaks the lingo so that's good enough for us.

Hupo downed 12 whole Tunnocks Tea Cakes - followed by four Cadburys Creme Eggs in one almighty mouthful. Minutes later he was seen vibrating wildly with the sugar rush - it was ace. We shared the chocolate-love with our other German friends to a resounding chorus of 'Geile Scheisser' - which was heard by all in the pitting hall as the chaps tucked in to their yummy chemical chocolate madness.

Hupo decorated his LRP buggy with the Tunnocks - ace

The Tunnock has been designed to fit the LRP .21 engine perfectly.

Never before in the history of oOple.com has there been TWO Choc-Off races at one event - but the neorace is special, and we got our English speaking cousins from over 'the pond' in the good ole' USA - Scotty Ernst and daughter Sarah Ernst to face off over the Chocolate delights.

IT STARTS - The pair look evenly matched as they franticly try top open their choco-egg-insanity but Sarah soon busts out a MOVE and goes all-in off the bat as father Ernst still struggles in dismay, his sausage-like fingers dancing over the fine foil wrapping looking for that vital opening.

Whoa - hold on, Sarah realises her mistake - Mouth simply not big enough and she has to go into a semi-limbo arrangement to keep from up-chucking the fondant-eggness.

Scotty finally gets into the egg - but his mouth is prepared from years of race commentating and he easily swallows the egg whole without stress nor strain. Daughter Ernst still attempts not to be sick but looks like she has a strong lead as Scottys cheeks bulge with choco.

WINNER! Sarah is the first to shout the magic word while scotty protests with eggychoc spittle - but its to no avail. SARAH wins!

Round 4 results - Nitro

Electric 8th Semi-A
Ryan Maifield on pole got off to a nice start closely followed by Riccardo Rabitti. Darren Bloomfield swiftly moved into 3rd place ahead of Ryan Cavalieri on the first lap, with just over one second seperating the two. Maifield and Rabitti battled closely with Maifield maintaining the lead, 7 seconds ahead of Bloomfield in 3rd place. Maifield rapidly began to pull a strong lead on Rabitti, and soon has a 5 second advantage. With 5 minutes left on the clock Bloomfield slipped past Rabitti to take the 2nd place. James Helliwell had started the race low down the order, and didn't start to gain any places until half race time, when he moved up into 6th place, whilst Nathan Ralls dropped to 7th, desperately clinging on to the final transfer spot for bumping up into the main final tomorrow.

Phil from neobuggy always kisses Jasons car before putting it down.	Stu points out where Manolis should be :(

With 3.5 minutes left to go, Maifield was bezzing ahead of the field with a 10 second lead, James Helliwell moved down to the 7th place with Rob Rasey hot on his tail, pushing for the chance to race tomorrow. James held a 3 second lead over Rob, but this was soon jeopordised when James rolled coming off the huuuuge double and broke a front shock. He kept his cool and remained ahead of Rasey, maintaining his 3 second lead up until the final lap when Rasey raced past to steal the 7th place, slashing James' chances of racing tomorrow. Maifield took the win, having lead the race throughout, with Bloomfield in 2nd and Rabitti in 3rd place.
We have no idea what Northy was doing for the entire race, Scotty didn't mention him at all, but he finished in 8th place so it really doesn't matter anyway, no more electric for Northy this weekend!

Northy of the oOple	James Helliwell of the oople.com team was all set for the MAIN but a broken shock screw meant he was running on three corners and he dropped down.

This is called BANTER - this is what happens at electric off road meetings. This thing we call BANTER isn't generally 'had' at nitro meetings becasue it's unaudible. These guys love OoPLE

Electric 8th Semi-B
The 2nd semi final for the Electric class started with Lee Martin in pole position, and he lead the race neatly around the track for the first lap, with cars 1, 2, 3 and 4 clocking through the loop in order. Drama for Lee as he approaches the loop on his second lap and the car stops coming off the double jump in the back right hand corner, nearly causing kerfuffles for the cars behind him battling desperately for the top spot. Frias moves into the lead, and Tyler Vik takes 2nd place. Skelding dropped down to 7th place - having qualified 6th with his one good run of the weekend. Frias holds onto the lead with a 3 second advantage over 2nd place Vik. With 7 minutes to go, Lee Martins dedicated mechanic returns his car to the track and Lee proceeds to push his vehicle at high speeds, clearly the fastest car on the track, thrashing out lap times of 39.08seconds and 38.58 sec. Skelding was on fire as he worked up to 3rd place, however his motor was nearly on fire and unfortunately packed in on him, dashing any hope that he had of racing in tomorrows final. With 6 minutes to go Lee Martin was still down in 7th place, but was clearly a man on a mission and soon started to work his way back up the order. Problems for 2nd place man Tyler Vik saw his car move down to the 10th position, having held 2nd place for most of the race.

Lee leads them around	But is soon in the pits with a body-off level problem. It looks to be all over for the southern warrior.

Gerd Pfeifer	ooooh JUST!

With 3 minutes left to race Lee's fan club were cheering hard for him down at the right corner of the track, tshirts and underwear were seen flapping across the track boundaries as Lee drove through the loop for each lap, by this stage Lee had already moved up to 9th place and wasn't going to stop without a fight. Frias and Guschl held 1st and 2nd place, but all eyes were on UK 4WD 10th National Champion Lee Martin as he battled to move up through what he might describe as slow moving traffic. With just 1min45sec left to race, Lee Martin moved into the all-important 7th place, if he kept his cool and held this place, he would still be racing in the main final tomorrow. With just 37 seconds left in the race, Lee slipped his car dry into the 5th place, which he kept hold of until the end.

1/512th B - Stus first final:
Sand bagging Stu "Super Star" Evans was first up for team oOple. Starting pole on the grid, he shit out off the start dropping down to the forth spot after stuffing it over the big double. However he was soon up into the top spot and never looked back, well a bit. The only real blip of the entire race was on his in lap for his second stop where he got into a bit of traffic and as he explained it his head went "bllleeeerrrrggghhh". We're not really sure what that means but while the dream team pit crew of Dixon and Northy looked after the car at his second stop his driving mentors little BJ and Vernon shouted thier heads off at him to get him back into the zone. Needless to say he went on to win the final by a full 2 laps. Get that car preped fast Stu!!!!

The Heroic Stu Evans took on the best of the worst and dominated despite going a bit off his tits.

Stu didn't hang about - bumping up again to the 1/128th B. Jimmy and Vermin went over to help with Stu in the 128th and it was a nerve wracking 20 minutes, Stu getting up to 3rd from 13th on the grid then moving slowly down to 6th as his head was a bit 'badgered'. Only a couple of laps to go Stu was still back in 5th but with the all important 4th only a couple of corners in front Stu kept it wheeling and with another car further up the field crashing out Stu squeezed through for the 4th place finish right down to the wire. Awesome driving and another bump sees the master photographer and reporter Stu Evans starting early in the.......oh poo. A missed lap from car 9 has now been corrected by BBK Rob - punting Stu down to 5th. That's a shame, but we still love it - legend, no lesbians tonight in his bed..

Stu would like to thank Ryan Maifield for donating used wheels and tyres - swapping them for BEER, which enabled Stu to WIN.

Manolis didn't manage to get the car he was making finished - the main obstacle being electrics. The Novak sensored motor didn't work too well with the boat brushless controller he was using, which itself was a bit on the large side.

The motor and centre differential sit at an angle in the car to try and squeeze in all the components without overhanging the Losi chassis.

NAVY!

The ESC was a bit on the large side

Adam Lewis is a bit of a legend but poor results on the track saw him swiftly turn to the juice. Better results next time maybe, when he finally gets the JQ car!

The no-expenses-spared approach from the neobuggy reporting team shows no signs of slowing - Phil put this fancy camera on our chum Jason Moller's car - sadly after half a lap it was recording footage of Jasons stickers after a rolll. But we're sure it was ACE while it lasted. That'll come out of his pocket money!