Day 1 - practice

Day 2 - qualifying

Day 3 - finals

The neo-buggy.net team in conjuction with DXR are organising the event and have been building the track over a few days leading up to the race.

The racing is - if you didn't already realise - Nitro 1/8th scale buggy and truggy (trucks). With 140 buggy and 20 truggy places up for grabs among an international field of drivers - it has been massively over booked with long reserve lists of people hoping to get in at the last minute.

A few last minute cancellations gave extra people the chance to attend - which is exactly what happened in my case. I am driving my christmas present (HongNor X1CR Pro) a little earlier than planned. This will also be my first time really driving an 8th scale buggy - scared? Just a little.

Harper Adams college is located near Telford, not awfully far from Birmingham in the midlands of England. It's a fairly central location for most people apart from those attending from overseas. And speaking of those from overseas, some of the best from Europe and the USA will be in attendance. Various World, European and National champions are down to race, 1/10th off road World champion Neil Cragg, 1/10th European 2002 Champion Chris Doughty, 1/8th National Champion Dave Crompton, 1/10th electric touring car World champion Andy Moore - the list goes on and on.

After around 100 miles of driving we managed to find the track around 9pm and had a look around. The actual track is located in a large hall which was dark when we arrived. Right next door is another similar hall which contains a vast array of agricultural machinery (tractors and the like) - this hall is also the pitting hall and long rows of large wooden tables have been laid on for the racers. On Thursday night approximately half the tables had been reserved by teams or individuals - so we did the same, claiming our own little piece of real estate. I can picture it now, all my car gear on the floor and various cameras and the laptop on the table.

The main hall looks to have decent ventilation and lighting, but only time will tell how easy it is to get photos in there - right now I'm going to sleep to dream of setups. Camera setups, naturally.

Friday morning started off rainy and miserable - this didn't really change all day. Light at the track is fairly good but not good enough for great photos which is a shame.

The first day of the neo invitational is just timed practice - but it is a good indicator of who is going to be quick. This got underway at 10am - a full hour later than expected. 10 heats of buggys first, then two heats of truggys. The truggys only get 2 runs today vs 4 runs for the buggys.

In round one of practice it was Adam Drake who put the quickest time in - by a good margain with his Losi Eight. Jon Hazlewood was 2nd closely followed by Graham Alsop.

Of the electric guys it was just Neil Cragg who put it in the top 10.

Round two again saw Adam Drake win by a large margain, this time over Neil Cragg who was getting the hang of the track - still, Adam is clearly in his element here.

The hall is ventilated by large fans and all available windows and a huge door are open - but still the air gets thick with fumes during racing and this can sting the eyes. The guys on the rostrum luckily have a little fresh air but marshalling isn't the nicest. Some wise people have taken to using masks.

After round three the fastest guys were as follows:

All these drivers were on 8 laps - with only Adam Drake threatening 9 laps.

There was a power cut right at the end of round three so there were no lights - so heat 12 (Truggys) get to rerun their round three race at the end of round four.

The track is holding up well to the abuse of 160 drivers - no holes appearing. The track has remained moist all day so there is no dust yet either. People also seem to be getting the hang of the largest jumps with a lot more trying and completing the huge double in the middle of the track.

David Crompton is here with the brand new Team Magic M1B car. He had a poor start as you'd expect with such a new car and having only had the car since the previous weekend. Dave seemed a lot happier by the end of practice and save for a 10 second first lap was on for 8 laps in around 5:20 which is right on the pace.

Top three after practice ended were Adam Drake - Neil Cragg - Jon Hazlewood.

The track is as previously mentioned, designed just for the neo invitational event. The DXR team who created the track are a very capable team as can be seen from the photographs. The jumps are well made and have excellent profiles.

Round the track - Starting off down the straight from right to left, a 90 degree right hander at the end forces some heavy braking if you are trying too hard which sees many cars rolling up to the first corner on the front wheels.

Around the first corner some small jumps lead up to an elevated corner (1) with a step-down half way around. Coming off this and heading back toward the rostrum there is another couple of small jumps placed on a 90 degree left bringing you parallel to the start straight.

The jumps get interesting at this point - the first double (2) is easy to clear but easy to over-jump. Keep the speed down and land at the top of the down slope which transfers into a slight bomb hole. Out of the bomb hole is a massive jump which when nailed is a double (3) but can be driven one at a time if you don't have the angle or speed. This is by far THE jump at the event - it's a monster and claims a few victims every race. Breaks on the fairly soft dirt are few however despire some massive crashes. The tucks are particularly impressive over this series of jumps - with the occasional flip thrown in for good measure.

The huge double is the most dangerous place on the track for marshalls. Cars can reach well above head height and standing to the side is no guaruntee of safety as the cars come barreling down the series of jumps at all manner of insane angles.

After the huge double, a 90 degree left takes you over an inverted-double (4), thats the best way I can describe it. This jump consists of a dip, followed by a rise, followed by another dip. The best way to approach this is to accelerate into it which slams you into the rise in the middle and over the second dip.

A hair pin and 90 degree right hand turn again bring you parallel to the main straight and two more doubles loom into view. The first of these (5) is the larger and harder of the two - though both (5) & (6) are fairly easy to clear.

After this series of jumps a long chicane lays ahead. The large opening at the back of the hall in the middle is right on a corner and a combination of moisture and cold makes this corner the slickest part of the track. The last 'big feature' is the top right corner (7) which is a large elevated corner with a tricky down slope which sends cars airborne.

A few more turns brings you under the loop and back onto the straight to complete another lap. These are the main features but as you can maybe tell from the photos - there are plenty more bumps & jumps all round the track

Touring car world champion Andy Moore is here racing for the first time ever in 8th buggys. Andy hasn't raced off road for about 12 years, since back when he raced electric 10th scale. Andy had some respecable times with a best of 8 laps in 5:29.26 - not bad at all considering his experience with this class of racing.

There was a small rumour that Andy might give the new Hot Bodies 1/10th 4WD buggy a few races next year - lets hope.

Andy is pitting with former touring car World Champion Marc Rheinard and both drivers have the services of HPI pro mechanic "popa" Miura, who has come over from Japan especially for the neo race. Both drivers are using the Hot Bodies Lightning 2 Pro buggys

1

Adam Drake

9/ 5m 36.61

USA

Losi

Drake

2

Robert Batlle

8/ 5m 3.80

Spain

HoBao

Falcon

3

Borja Hernandez

8/ 5m 9.02

Spain

Mugen

Ninja

4

Neil Cragg

8/ 5m 4.83

UK

HoBao

RB

5

Andrew Smolnik

8/ 5m 7.88

USA

CEN

OPS/Radical

6

Karl Jackson

8/ 5m 17.52

UK

Kyosho

Sirio

7

Daniel Vega

8/ 5m 8.52

Spain

Mugen

Ninja

8

Graham Alsop

8/ 5m 9.07

UK

HoBao

RB

9

Greg Degani

8/ 5m 9.80

USA

HoBao

Picco

10

Jon Hazlewood

8/ 5m 9.15

UK

XRAY

Recab OS

The finals are all long (to a 10th electric racer) but everyone does get a final today which is nice. The lowest Truggy final (C) is 10 minutes, B is 20 and A 30 minutes long. The buggys have a lot more finals of course and these are all 1 minutes up to the 1/8 stage which is 20 minutes and semi final being 20 minutes. 'The final' is 45 minutes long which is a real test for all the drivers.

To race in the finals the drivers need a good team backing them up. Really two people are needed for the pits, one to pickup / put down and one to refuel. The drivers have to marshall their own finals which isn't quite as harsh as it sounds - there is no running off the rostrum to pick cars up. Instead, the drivers have to supply someone to marshall for them on their spot.

Interview with Phil Mortstedt, Race Organiser.

How much time was spent organising the neoinvitational event? Started organising the event in March, this is the second event which I have organised, the first being in Belgium last year. How did you decide on a venue for the neoinvitational race? I saw that there was a Proline race here at Harper Adams in April this year and decided to organise an event here. Who helped in the planning of this event? Cameron and Lewis at DXR, Jason for arranging the online registration system.

How did you decide who to invite to the event?
I invited the top 100 8th scale drivers in the world.

Have you been pleased with the response to this event?
Yes, I am very pleased with the track which was designed by Cameron and Lewis. In Belgium the track required 25 truckloads of dirt to be delivered for building the track, whereas here at Harper Adams there was sufficient dirt.
Have heard no complaints about the track which is very challenging to drive.

Where did the name neo-buggy come from?
In 2003 when I was 16 I was inspired by the film 'Matrix' in which the main character was named Neo, also the Biblical meaning is 'The One' which I like. It stands out and is memorable.

What was your intention when starting the Neo-buggy website?
The website started out as a very basic html page which I updated daily with gossip, a fun adventure in which I tried to match the 'TWFH' website that I used to work for. The site is much better than I had originally anticipated it would be.
It is a news site for the 8th scale buggy and truggy racing, all about having contacts across the world to provide reliable information.

How did you decide who to involve in the running of the neoinvitational?
I knew that I wanted Rob from BBK timing as he is the only person that I trusted to do the job properly.
Kev (race director) and Sue from the BRCA ran the race mostly to the BRCA rules, although it isn't an official BRCA race.
The emphasis is on having fun at this meeting and not being too pedantic on rules, which is why we chose not to have cars scrutineered prior to racing.

Would you change anything about this event with hindsight?
I would try to improve the ventilation, and lighting of the arena.
Also would have a proper broadband connection installed to allow for continuous updating of live results.

Phil would like to thank everyone involved in the planning and running of this event, including Jason for website help, racing sponsors, DXR, Harper Adams college, BBK timing.

Day 1 - practice

Day 2 - qualifying

Day 3 - finals