Ardent Raceway is down south - that's TRUE. Apart from the Euro chaps (and those UK drivers who live on the actual south coast) we all had to make the long trip down to the venue. The trek to Southland for us started at 9am on Friday, departing Burnley in the Dog Milk van. After skirting the slightly southern city of Manchester we found ourselves at the picturesque banks of Ladybower reservoir, in the agreeable southern district of Derbyshire.

Ladybower Reservoir, Derbyshire.

The Peacock pub in Bakewell was a nice quiet spot for lunch, apart from the geezer sitting opposite. The moment we looked like we were vacating our seats to leave he decided to loudly announce to all present, while pointing at my goodself, 'he's full of sausages' - WTF? While we digested the oddness of that he proceeded to sit at our not yet vacated table, clearly preferring our bottie spots to his own. Wierd Southern ~~~~er.

This bird is real.	The pool car.

Carries first impressions of the track were 'cold', so instead she has opted to spend Saturday cuddling Henry the penguin in a cosy luxurious abode close to the M6 - soft lass.

Fortunately once we reached the aiport the venue was well signposted.	On the outside Ardent raceway doesn't look very sturdy.

We arrived at the venue around 4pm on Friday, practice was well underway having being ongoing since 1pm. A feature of the track proving tricky was a jump at the back of the track placed imediately after a chicane. The problem facing the drivers was the total lack if run-up to get the cars squared up for launch, the result being all sorts of madness with cars being jettisoned from the track at various jaunty angles.

Track photo...

		Jorn - serious about winning practice.

Saturday January 14th 2012 - COLD.

REPORT-OFF commences!

The doors at Ardent raceway opened at 7am, an early start was anticipated although practice didn't get going until 8am due to slightly reduced entry numbers. Two rounds of timed practice (4 minutes each heat) were used to seed qualifying heats - with the best 3 consecutive laps to count.

After practice was completed a quite drivers briefing informed us all that qualifying would be run in Fastest Time of the Day format (FTD), and that all drivers were to use controlled tyre - D-Boots in any compound.

Jorn Neumann, who has won at Petit races for 6 consecutive years, took to defending his title straight away and stormed away with the fastest practice times.

Best 3 Consecutive Laps in Practice.

Blast from the past...?	Rough rider re-release - warrior! John Dawsons machine.

Short course = fun

Germany VS:	Austria

Short Course Rd1

The short course trucks are running 10 minute heats, with 7 drivers competing and a 100% attendance rate of Durango DESC 410R's. Hupo took the first round of qualifying in short course, in fact he was the only driver to complete the full race, completing 36 laps in the 10 minute slot. Short course is all about having fun though :)

2wd Qualifying round 1.

Setting the pace, Jorn took the fastest time in round 1 of qualifying, the only driver to make 23 laps. Team buddy Hupo had an unfortunate run and made a few errors which saw him demoted way down the order. Team Durangos Craig Collinson took 2nd fastest time in round one with 22 laps. In the words of Craig Collinson; "Jorn nearly lapped me, AND he had a big incident with his car upon its roof - what he can do with a toy car is amazing." We reckon that once Jorn gets his act together he'll be able to squeeze in 24 laps.
The highest placed non-Durango driver was James Helliwell just a couple of seconds behind former team mate Craig.

Round 1 Qualifying Times.

Jorn piloting his DEX210R to TQ round1	James Helliwell - 3rd in round 1

	Nathan Waters - Durango modified rear inner camber link
	We spotted a modification Nathan has made to his Durango 210; the inner rear camber link position is spaced much wider than can be aceived with the standard kit. The shorter link gives more camber change. The mod looks to have lowered the ball-stud slightly to add to the affect. Jorn's car is standard, with ball-stud in the outer hole whereas Adam (below right) is on the inner hole. Differing set-ups are seen across the well performing team. Nathan Waters modified brace Adam Skelding - kit standard.

2wd Round 2

Jorn improved by his round 1 time by 6 seconds, taking the fastest time in round 2. Hupo had a much better run, taking second fastest time in round, and Nathan Waters made it a Durango 1-2-3 in round, finishing with the 3rd fastest time in round.

Craig Collinson had some loose wiring issues which saw him lose out on a fast round 2 time.

Short course was good - and followed a similar pattern to round 1 with general joviality - Jorn swapped positions with Hupo to take the round and wrestle TQ from Hupo. Adam Skelding, Nathan Waters, Craig Nutting, Simon Heath and Andy Wesson also bumped about having a laugh.

Round 2 Qualifying Times.

	Manolis
	oOple buddy Manolis from Greece made it over this year with his good lady. He kindly took the time to show off his latest equipment. Based on the RB5 platform Manolis has crafted an aluminium chassis with sturdy stiffening rails. In the hand the car feels very stiff, this was relating into a tricky car to control on the track - Manolis tells us that the flex will be adjustable by replacing the aluminium stiffening rails with plastic. The most impressive thing about all of Manolis' cars is not track performance but the way in which he uses the basic materials he has to hand to make truly individual stuff. Hats off to you boss.

Round 3.

Jorn continued to dominate on the track, edging ever closer to the 24 lap glory - missing out by just one third of a second. Hupo is clearly extremely quick but he just doesn't have the aggressive edge of Jorn. Portugals superstar Hugo Miguel made his way to an impressive 2nd fastest in round 3.

Round 3 Qualifying Times.

	Portugese National Champion Hugo Miguel. Hugo amazed the field by putting in a stellar performance in RD2, pushing his Durango DX410 to 9th in round. The car was minus it's front drive shafts and clad in stealthy matt black. The buzz surrounding this must have had some sort of affect on his juices as he put in an astonishing 3rd in round three. The grinning warrior was clearly loving this, but we suspect that Jorn will not be breaking out his 410 just yet.

Round 4 - 2wd

Andy Cottom gave us some insightful information about the laws of physics. Andy is a professor of physics & mathematics at the university of Ramsbottom; Jorns impressive speed is theoretically due to his angle of attack on the small kicker jumps. Jorn is able to take advantage of multipolar individualisations to launch his car through an inverse parabolic arc in order to maximise speed and lift potential. Either that or he's just quick. Whichever tactics Jorn used, he powered his Durango DEX210R to a 24 lap run in qualifying round 4. Awesome. James Helliwell, sitting in 9th place after 4 rounds of qualifying, vowed to 'lay some smack down' in the final round of qualifying and give young Jorn a run for his money.

Jorn picks up exactly where he left off in rd2.	And rapidly starts to pull off.

Rich Lowe makes an error as Collinson approaches.	Rich Lowe gets back on it.

Jorn through the traffic, and even manages to make Matt Latham look slow.

Round 4 Qualifying Times.

Round 5.

Yeah, Jorn set off in his inimitable maximum attack style but came unstuck relatively quickly - putting the car on its roof before the 2 minute bell ended. Hupo nipped through and didn't look back, which is just as well as a lapse in his concentration could have lead to disasterous circumstances. Hupos time was his fastest of the day but unfortunately for Hupo he could not match Jorns previous 24 lap run.

Vintage hotshot	oops!

Monster Munch - under Adams lid!	Quavers under James' lid.

It's very, very cold.

Round 5 Qualifying Times.

Young Wesley Van Helmond from the Netherlands impressed with his Losi 22, very smooth driving style (and spiky hair) not normally seen from someone at such a young age. Dan Greenwood "A driving style beyond his years. You can have that quote for free". A true compliment from the mild mannered Mr Greenwood.

Wesley qualified 28th overall in 2wd, a result which he was happy with.

A final leg 1.

The start of the a final was delayed as Hupo made an error on his warm up lap which resulted in a fractured rear shock tower. Hupo proudly announced that this is the first breakage he has had to his DEX210 in 6 months of running (since its first public appearance at the oOple Invernational last year).

Jorn made a clean start from the grid with Hupo close behind. Kevin Brunsden ran into early dificulties as he wheelied off the line, setting him back a bit. Lap-on-lap Jorn was visably pulling away from Hupo, whilst the remainder of the pack dropped further back yet.

Jorn lines up on pole position	Jorn leads, Kevin flips.

	Jorn leads, Kevin follows.

About this final, the following people said:

Dan Greenwood: Messy. People have different lines over the tabletop, and take it at different speeds. Unfortunately some drivers are unwilling to compromise their speed in this area. Plus, while I was mincing around marshalling Helliwell rammed into me, and his car also hit my leg.

James Helliwell: An utter mess. No-body knew what position they were in, Durango Team Boss Adam Skelding allowed underling Nathan Waters through because he thought he was Jorn. LOL.

Nathan Waters: For me it wasn't the best, although I did gain a place on the boss.

Craig Collinson: It was just a mess to be honest. It's all a blur.

James Ambrose: It was a massacre.

A Final Leg 1

I Final

Manolis, John Dawson, and Craig Hilton battled it out in the I final, with Manolis' home creation and John Dawsons original vintage Sand Scorcher (complete with fully functioning headlights, indicators and brake lights) being the stars of the show.

Manolis	The Bug - John Dawson

I final

* We made that up.

A Final Leg 2

Jorn started off well, but just a few laps in he started crunching some business, and he took an early retirement from the race. This left Hupo in the lead, who had already pulled a good gap back to 2nd place. After Jorns gears packed in Hupo was fairly unchallenged throughout the race and didn't look back, taking the leg 2 win.

Jorn leading	Hupo drops to 3rd behind Kevin

Jorns car marshalled as the gears started to crunch	James Helliwell chases down Collinson

Looking to make a move...	An error from Collinson and Helliwell moves through.

Gerd works on Jorn, after the race.

These drivers had the following to say about the second leg:

Rich Lowe: "James Helliwell was annoyingly fast, and my back door was letting go towards the end. James has good top end boss".
We can confirm that towards the end of the final James was nearly carving chunks out of Richard.

Rennay Cottom: "I didn't see it if I'm honest. I'm cold."

Carl Latham: "It was right that Jorn got a telling off from the organisers for leaving the rostrum before the race was over. Jorn should be leading by example."

Stephen Adams: "It was good, I was marshalling so was pleased it was a much cleaner race than leg 1.

A Final Leg 2

Short Course A Final

There was a final for trucks as well, here are some photos.

Short Course A Final

A final Leg 3

Another good start from Jorn in a final leg 3

Hupo made an error early in the race which dropped him right down the field - he quickly started to pile on the pressure and pulled some places back, but it was going to be very difficult to catch up to Jorn and Kevin who had scampered off into the distance.
Jorn followed Hupos lead and made an error of his own, which saw Kevin move up into the number one spot. The best race of the day then ensued between Kevin and Jorn with some awesome driving mixed in with some minor errors. The race was close right up until the end - Jorn had regained the lead only to lose it again about 30 seconds from the end. Kevin could not be caught and Jorn had to settle for 2nd in leg, trailing back 3 seconds.

Error!	Hupo chases Nathan Waters after dropping down the order

Chasing...	Kevin hassles Jorn.

Bad move for Jorn	But he sets about chasing new leader Kevin

Carl awaits the A final results with anticipation.	Greenwood and Lowe share their secrets

As the 6 minute bell ended no-body was fully sure who had won the meeting, with the top 3 drivers being tied on points. It was Jorns fastest time from leg 1 that pulled it off for him and he won yet another petit title (Jorn is now 8-times PetitRC Champion - good skills Jorn!)

A Final Leg 3

4wd - Sunday January 15th 2012

Report-off continues.

After being put to shame by our competing oOple report over at Area51 during day one of the report-off, today we needed to prove our worth and arrived at the venue full of enthusiasm and serious about reporting.
Practice had just finished when we arrived and there were some minor adjustments being made to the track. This was an ideal opportunity to sample the cooked breakfasts served in the race cafe, it was yummy. We would have taken some photos but were too eager to eat and didn't want to get food all over the camera.

The track had been reversed for 4wd racing, with all the same features but now facing the opposite direction.

Anyway we were kindly provided with results from practice (we nicked them off the results board). Richard Lowe hassled Jorn for the top spot but narrowly missed out by just one tenth of a second.

Adam Skelding BQ'd practice - we'll have to check under his lid for any gremlins which may have interfered with him making the top 10 in practice.

Rich nearly won practice...	But Petit many time winner Jorn Neumann TQ'd praccy

Best 3 Consecutive Laps in Practice.

Qualifying round 1 - 4wd.

After practice was completed a very brief drivers briefing was gathered, where drivers were instructed to report to race control if they wanted a slap across the face by Nicolas Petit (this was due to reported bad language on the rostrum during the previous day). Drivers were informed that due to lower than expected attendance levels, there was an option to slip in an extra qualifying round - or keep to the planned 5 rounds and wind the day up at a sensible hour (possibly even during daylight). After much deliberation and hand waving, the results were confirmed and it was agreed that 6 FTQ qualifying rounds would be run, with an expected finish time of 5.30pm.

Jorn - Rd1 TQ	Ralls hunts down Brunsden

Hugo-boss	Lowe, High.

As round one of qualifying commenced, Stu was still chewing on his fried breakfast, upon realising that he should really be taking some photos he quickly chugged back the remainder of his food and sprinted onto the track like a gazelle in heat. He then had to sprint all the way back into the pits to collect his camera, before returning red faced to commence his snapping duties of the day. All the same he managed to get these good shots - cheers Stu :)

Jorn came out tops with the only 24 lap pace, followed by Nathan Waters nearly a full lap behind - Jorn had clearly had Weetabix for breakfast again.

	Fun and happiness on the rostrum

Round 1 Qualifying Times.

Qualifying round 2

The second qualifying round was quickly upon us, and Hupo started with putting a good run in, but an injury to his front shock tower impacted heavily on his ability to finish the race - and he didn't.

After breaking his car in round1, Dan stripped a front wheel in round 2 - bad start to his day. Dave Church came to the rescue from the commentary box, and instructed James Wilkinson to withdraw a wrench and a fresh wheel from his pit box to be bolted rapidly onto Dans car. Dan was soon back on the track to get some practice laps in preparation for round 3.

Nathan Waters took the fastest time in round 2, two seconds behind the fastest time set by Jorn in round 1. Jorns ball cuppage went all wrong and he ended up pulling out of his race in round 2.

Dave to the rescue	Dan chasing Andy Wesson on the track

	oOps

Jorn and Gerd discuss strategies for world domination	Connor cocker finished 7th after Rd1.

Round 2 Qualifying Times.

Qualifying round 3

Jorn stormed back in round three with 24 laps in 6:02.67 - almost urinating all over Nathans 24 lapper of the previous round. Some quicker drivers from earlier rounds were affected by incidents in rd3, with Craig Collinson managing to get around the track just three times, James Helliwell managed 10 laps, Manolis only 5 laps, and young Connor Cocker shit out after just the one lap.

Mark Smith - 10th in Rd 1.	Kev Brunsdon - Adam Skelding

A pit-power cut in rd3 plumetted us into darkness.	Nick Caro proudly displays his raffle prize winnings.

Too many fan heaters desperately trying to heat the pitting areas eventually blew a 40amp fuse, this lead to many spanked bottys and tellings off - only halogen heaters from now on, surely we don't need to be THAT warm!?

Nick Caro was excited to tell us about his lucky winning raffle ticket from the previous days event - Nicks number 69 was extracted from the pile first and with great expectations of being able to take his pick of the goodies, he bounded over to the heavily loaded prize table. Extending an arm to grab for the Durango DESC410 truck kit, Nick was taken aback when he was told he could not choose his prize, however he seemed to be equally as delighted with the RW pinion and packet of connector tubes for soldering onto his cells. At least he won something :)

Round 3 Qualifying Times.

Adoration.

Round 4 Qualifying.

Jorn Neumann stopped messing around in rd4 and whipped out a 25 lapper, a few hours ahead of Hupos 2nd place time. Hupo, Lowe, Waters and Collinson were all on 'the pace' - being an acceptable 24 lap pace.

Nathan Waters - On the pace throughout qualifying	Hugo

Round 4 Qualifying Times.

Top Secret Business. SCOOP

We overheard James talking some secret business on his tellyphone (we were eavesdropping), we think it had something to do with RHR but James denied such allegations and refused to discuss the possibility of an up and coming announcement about developmental faciliies at the well known venue. We think that there may or may not be some exciting or not exciting business occuring here, but we are not at liberty to say ########CENSORED#########. Or something.

Alex Thurston

Movember gone wild?

Decembeard?

Round 5 Qualifying Times.

Round 6 Qualifying.

The top heat of qualifying took to the track to kick off round 6, this ended in disaster for most drivers competing as only 4 made it to the end of the race. Jorn was first to withdraw from the race due to technical diffiulties, leaving Hupo to take the lead. Hupo lead for most of the race but a bad landing saw him with a bad doggy bone ejected from a naughty diff outdrive. He was out of the race. Many other drivers followed suit and exited the race leaving Craig Collinson leading and in the zone to set his best time, and taking the round TQ which placed him third on the grid in the A final. James Helliwell was on the pace too with his fastest run of the day, slipping him into the A finals last spot.

Looking good mid-air...	But this run ended badly for Jorn

Manolis' machine.	Stu in his hot new ride

	Round 6 Qualifying Times.
	position name result 1 Craig Collinson 24/6'05.03 2 Nuno Roque 23/6'01.33 3 Dan Greenwood 23/6'01.89 4 James Helliwell 23/6'02.12 5 Adam Skelding 23/6'06.54 6 Kevin Brunsden 23/6'09.44 7 Nathan Ralls 23/6'11.90 8 Matthew Latham 23/6'12.54 9 Craig Nutting 23/6'13.06 10 Alex Thurston 23/6'15.60 47 Manolis Troullous 15/6'10.06

Overall qualifying results - based on fastest time of the day.

	4WD Overall Qualifying - FTD
	position name round result Car 1 Jorn Neumann 4 25/6'07.99 Durango DEX410 2 Hupo Honigl 5 24/6'02.20 Durango DEX410 3 Craig Collinson 6 24/6'05.03 Durango DEX410 4 Nathan Waters 5 24/6'08.50 Durango DEX410 5 Richard Lowe 4 24/6'09.17 AE B44 6 Dan Greenwood 5 24/6'14.45 Tamiya 511x 7 Nathan Ralls 5 23/6'00.03 Tamiya 511x 8 Adam Skelding 5 23/6'01.24 Durango DEX410 9 Nuno Roque 6 23/6'01.33 Durango DEX410 10 James Helliwell 6 23/6'02.12 Tamiya 511x

	Portugese racer Nuno Roque was over at the Petit race 2012 for his first ever international race. He has been racing off-road 2wd, 4wd and short course for about 6 months having previously not been involved in R/C racing but instead opting for racing bikes instead. Nuno has enjoyed the competitive atmosphere at this event and the standard of driving amongst other drivers. Nuno drives Team Durango products in 2wd, 4wd and short course, and is powered by Tekin. His main sponsor is through his local hobby shop JMA Modelismo. In the 2wd event yesterday Nuno finished in 34th place but in 4wd he has qualified 9th.

A Final Leg 1

A final leg 2

Jorn sped off from the start line and didn't look back. He drove an almost flawless second leg with predominently 14 second laps, in 2nd place leg one winner Hupo could only manage 15 second laps.

Jorn leads the pack	Chaos mid-field

Lowe passes Collinson and chases Hupo	But an incident over the jump sees Richard limping off

Richard Lowe drove a great final and was catching up to Hupo - an incident over the double where Hupo crashed on the up-ramp saw Richard seize the opportunity to move up a spot, however on Hupos recovery the two cars drove the downramp side by side and came together, sadly for Richard this resulted in injury and he was out.

Matt Latham was applauded for volunteering to marshal for Rich so he could fix his car in time for the last leg, good skillz Matt.

A Final Leg 2

A final leg 3

Jorn jumped off the line into the lead, regulation order following. A small error let Hupo through, as Jorn put the hammer down to reverse the balance more errors ensued, dropping him down the order. Craig and the other UK boys did what they could to race for second behind Hupo but Jorn was just too fast, battling back up to make the charge again for the win.

Another good start for Jorn	The leaders pull off

An error from Jorn and Hupo takes the lead	Jorn chases hard

But further errors and Jorns chances of a 9th Petit title slip away...	Instead it is newly crowned Petit 4wd champion Hupo Honigl who excitedly answers BBK-Santas questions.

A string of amazing laps brought him closer and closer and when Hupo was held up by Nuno he pulled it back to just a couple of seconds. Just when it looked like Jorn was going to pressure Hupo's back door he himself came upon Nuno, who decided to park up to let Jorn pass. Unfortunately he decided to do this on the racing line a quarter of the way up the straight, the ensuing carnage putting James & Danneth off the track and Jorn again delayed. Jorn pulled the gap back to Hupo again but too late to make the pass. Hupo wins, from Jorn & Craig.

A Final Leg 3

UFO race.

The UFO race is run at the end of each annual Petit race and is a fun class in which drivers of all ages and abilities from different countries race a combination of 2wd buggy, 4wd buggy and short course trucks. The race lasted for 10 minutes at the end of which an obscene jump was opened up for some snappage nonsense. Julien Formentin from France 'won' the UFO race ahead of UK's Alex Thurston and Tomas Hollicky from the Czech Republic.

Truck in the volcano!	Dan points out the parking spot on the straight that hindered Jorns smack down on Hupo in leg 3.

UFO Race

We'd like to thank Nicolas for organising yet another awesome Petit race over here in England, he has some clout about him to get many drivers from all over Europe to gather together in sub-zero temperatures for the purpose of racing toy cars.
John Dawson and the team at Ardent raceway have put on a rocking show, great track and facilities (and thanks to those who worked tirelessly in the cafe to keep us all topped up with a good range of hot food), and they very kindly accommodated us in their VIP lounge when reporting was almost halted due to hypothermic toes.
Rob Nelson does a great job running the races with his top end timing skills, and keeping the outside world connected with his live reporting so top props to him :) DC of course for livening things up on the mic.
Big thanks also to the drivers for entertainig us with super skilled high speed racing, and to anyone who contributed towards the report content by providing information (accurate or not!), quotes, photo opportunities, and other madness.
And of course a huge thanks to Stu Evans for taking part in this weekends report-off, we went up against the toughest competition but between us we've managed to throw together a fair account of an awesome event, so hopefully we have done it some justice.

	Nicolas kindly spend a few minutes talking to us at the end of what must have been an extremely busy and tiring weekend for him, to answer our questions and hopefully to settle some of the curiousity around the changes during planning this race. How's the latest installation of the Petit Race been for you? What could have been better, and what went well? The most important for me was to have a nice venue like Ardent, and also to have 14 nations present - it's very great to be well known in Europe and have such good representation. I would have liked bigger jumps but the club weren't able to due to safety issues, they made a really good track though. There was some controversy in the run up to this event due to a change of venue, could this have been avoided and can you offer any clarification for any viewers who may remain confused? I visited Moto arena last year before I went home from Petit2011 and I found the venue to be very impressive. In May Silverstone club contacted me to ask me if I wanted to organise the event there and I told them yes. Then I heard during the summer that Moto arena would close. When I contacted Silverstone club in September I asked them if I can open registration to drivers for Moto arena - they said to go ahead, and that if the Moto arena closed they would fix a new venue. Then we received the news that Moto arena was definitely closing, so Silverstone club said they would host the event but at a different venue. In October I asked them for an update but there was no news, and when a venue was found the price was way too high for my budget, so the Silverstone club set about finding a new venue. At the same time I said that I would search for a venue nearby as I needed something definite for the drivers who were booking in. I asked John at Ardent who said he'd be honoured to host another Petit race here, so we confirmed the venue and then on the same day Silverstone club contacted me to say that they too had secured a venue. With the two venues confirmed we each contiued with the organisation of seperate meetings, hence the Area 51 race and Petit RC race falling on the same weekend. How about ideas for future PetitRC events? I might think about the next race when I have recovered from this event, I'm lookng forward to getting home and spending time with my family..

Thanks again to Nicolas and all the team, and here's hoping we have the opportunity to report at the next PetitRC event.
Thank you for reading the B-team race report, to check out our competing race report check out: http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/area51-2012/