Ben Jemison decides to mess with my Nikon

Already a few breakages over the BIG ONE!

After reporting until nearly 3am, the 6:50am alarm which both woke and alerted me to the required morning bladder expulsion, saw me stumbling around the hotel room half asleep. Returning to bed for that sneaky 'extra 5 minutes' wasn't a good idea since I slept on my phone and didn't hear the alarm. So - eventually I turned up 3.5 hours after everyone else, well into round one of qualifying - still half asleep. I felt a bit silly.

2WD Round One Qualifying
2WD round one qualifying was taken by young Greg Williams with his Schumacher Cougar.......... SVR! Running the same dirt-spec car he'd used at the oOple Invernational race at RHRDirt, Greg blitzed everyone with his rear motor layout - everyone was stunned.

Nathan Waters Durango DEX210 came in second and Simon Moss third with the 'traditional' mid motor Cougar SV2.

	2WD Qualifying Round One - Top 10
	position name result 1 Greg Williams 14/ 5m 5.52 2 Nathan Waters 14/ 5m 6.63 3 Simon Moss 14/ 5m 8.32 4 Tom Cockerill 14/ 5m 10.98 5 Craig Collinson 14/ 5m 10.99 6 Neil Cragg 14/ 5m 11.24 7 Paul Bradby 14/ 5m 12.52 8 Eugene Galley 14/ 5m 13.57 9 Matt White 14/ 5m 22.20 10 Ben Jemison 14/ 5m 26.31ec

4WD Round One Qualifying
4WD saw Tom Cockerill on top, closely followed by his Schumacher team-mate Simon Moss, with Neil Cragg third just 2/100's of a second back from Simon.

	4WD Qualifying Round One - Top 10
	position name result 1 Tom Cockerill 15/ 5m 3.22 2 Simon Moss 15/ 5m 4.58 3 Neil Cragg 15/ 5m 4.60 4 Craig Collinson 15/ 5m 5.84 5 Richard Lowe 15/ 5m 6.84 6 Greg Williams 15/ 5m 13.60 7 Nathan Waters 15/ 5m 17.04 8 James Helliwell 15/ 5m 20.57 9 Lloyd Storey 15/ 5m 20.87 10 Graham North 14/ 5m 2.42

Boys will be boys

Nip Exposure - THIS is off road racing.

The oOple shop was starting to pick up - stickers and tshirts were in high demand and by mid way into the race day I'd still not taken a single action shot, or indeed anything more than candid comedy shots of people eating and looking generally silly. Back to work.

Young Greg Williams was feeling the pressure

Worlds longest transmitter antenna?

2WD Round Three Qualifying
Three drivers made it through for the magical 15th lap in the third round of 2WD qualifying. A battle for position between team mates Neil Cragg and Paul Bradby saw Cragg come out in front again for provisional TQ.

Bradby finished close behind and Tom Cockerill scraped through for the 15th lap in third. Greg Williams was falling down the order - now 13th in round - perhaps the rear-motor car worked better when the track was cold/dusty? Hmmmm.

	2WD Qualifying Round Three - Top 10
	position name result 1 Neil Cragg 15/ 5m 17.36 2 Paul Bradby 15/ 5m 18.98 3 Tom Cockerill 15/ 5m 22.37 4 Simon Moss 14/ 5m 1.44 5 Craig Collinson 14/ 5m 3.41 6 Eugene Galley 14/ 5m 5.23 7 Nathan Waters 14/ 5m 6.04 8 Lloyd Storey 14/ 5m 6.22 9 Steven Pierce 14/ 5m 10.11 10 James Helliwell 14/ 5m 14.88

TEAM FISTER driver Graham North - Much MAN 7

AWwww go on, giz a bite

4WD Round Three Qualifying
Simon Moss lead a procession of drivers breaking through to 16 laps in the 4WD class. Simon took the win by three seconds from Tom Cockerill, with Paul Bradby a further second back in third and the last of the 16-lap drivers. The track was certainly getting quicker as rubber was laid down and the surface cleaned of dust.
Only rival Schumacher man Tom Cockerill could now wrestle TQ away from Simon but it would have to be a supreme run in the final round.

Craggy kicked-in the face of TQ with a new fastest time a mere 7 seconds faster than the previous TQ time. Nathan Waters was looking quick and managed to secure the second fastest time of the day - along with second in round.

Lee Washington shows off his awesome new 'Shillys Shells' paint schemes. It's ALL PAINT! madness.

2WD times seemed to be quicker in the final round of qualifying but 4WD had gone the opposite direction, with only Simon Moss getting through for 16 laps this time - although it was a slower time than his previous, it was more than enough to seal up a convincing overall TQ..

	4WD Qualifying Round Four - Top 10
	position name result 1 Simon Moss 16/ 5m 17.69 2 Neil Cragg 15/ 5m 0.90 3 Craig Collinson 15/ 5m 2.40 4 Nathan Waters 15/ 5m 3.16 5 Tom Cockerill 15/ 5m 3.35 6 Lloyd Storey 15/ 5m 5.38 7 James Helliwell 15/ 5m 8.87 8 Mark Smith 15/ 5m 10.63 9 Jack Neal 15/ 5m 10.87 10 Greg Williams 15/ 5m 11.15

2WD A Final
Pole man Neil Cragg lead Nathan Waters and Simon Moss away from the grid, but before the first lap was complete Simon had dropped down to 4th place with Bradby taking up 3rd. Mere seconds later, coming over 'the big one' Neil Cragg nose dived and toppled out of first place. Nathan Waters moved into the lead and Bradby held 2nd place for a few corners before Neil Cragg came through.

Neil chased Nathan hard for a few laps seeking any opportunity to pass, he finally thought he saw his chance at the end of the straight but lost control, wiping out himself and Nathan in one rare error and leaving Bradby to mop up the sloppy seconds. Bradby moved through into 1st place and quite possibly didn't look back.

Nathan and Neil were quick to return to the racing line but now had Tom Cockerill, Simon Moss and Craig Collinson hot on their heels. Cockerill looked to take the inside line past Neil Cragg, but alas the line was gone and Cockerill slipped off the edge of the track. As Cockerill straightened up, Moss moved past into 4th position. An error with a track marker soon afterwards saw him drop back down the order. As Paul Bradby pulled away from the 2nd-5th place crowd, Neil Cragg in 3rd place continued to push Nathan Waters but despite his best efforts was unable to make a pass.

	Nathan leads after an early mistake from Cragg
Nathan's DEX210 was like a brick wall	Cragg was NEVER getting past Nathan - EVER

	2WD A final results
	position qual name time chassis 1 4 Paul Bradby 15/ 5m 5.90 Centro C4.1 2 2 Nathan Waters 15/ 5m 7.05 Team Durango DEX210 3 1 Neil Cragg 15/ 5m 8.49 Centro C4.1 4 7 Craig Collinson 15/ 5m 11.39 Team Durango DEX210 5 5 Tom Cockerill 15/ 5m 12.09 Schumacher Cougar SV2 6 3 Simon Moss 15/ 5m 15.13 Schumacher Cougar SV2 7 6 Greg Williams 14/ 5m 0.16 Schumacher Cougar SVR 8 10 Chris Doughty 14/ 5m 2.22 Team Durango DEX210 9 8 Lloyd Storey 14/ 5m 4.50 Schumacher Cougar SV2 10 9 Eugene Galley 13/ 5m 3.21 Schumacher Cougar SV2

Nathan Waters 2nd - Paul Bradby 1st - Neil Cragg 3rd

4WD A Final
Simon Moss in pole position made a clean start from the 4wd A final grid, looking to pull a short lead back to Tom Cockerill in 2nd place and Neil Cragg in 3rd. On the second lap Neil Cragg pulled a smooth move past Cockerill into 2nd place, but clipped the downramp off the big jump and landed facing the wrong way into oncoming traffic - needing marshalling assistance Cragg was now down to 6th place. Moss now had a healthy lead ahead of the 2nd-3rd-4th train of Cockerill, Collinson and Bradby, whilst Cragg battled further back to climb up the order. A tussle between Collinson and Bradby saw rising junior hero Greg Williams move up into 3rd place, behind team mate Cockerill who was chasing hard to catch up with lead man Moss - making it Schumacher 1-2-3 at half race distance. A couple of laps later Moss made a mistake coming off the big jump, and Greg Williams now in 2nd place was right on his gearbox with Cockerill close behind.

Moss - Williams - Cockerill - Bradby - Cragg ; The top 5 were now extremely close.

Gregg Williams made a confident side-by-side move coming over the big jump and seemingly had the power to make it through into the lead, but as Williams and Moss rounded the corner after the jump their wheels touched and Moss slipped off the racing line - not for long though as he rejoined the line at the next corner it was Williams who was nudged wide and off-line as Moss took up the lead again.

A slippery landing off the big jump saw Williams slip down to 4th place, promoting Cockerill to 2nd and Cragg to 3rd. Cockerill and Cragg mounted the small double jumps together but Cockerill flipped out and came off the jump sideways, Cragg was now up to 2nd and ready to challenge Moss for the lead. Moss was laughing though as he crossed the finish line with nearly a 2 second lead.

	4WD A final results
	position qual name score chassis 1 1 Simon Moss 16/ 5m 12.28c Schumacher CAT SX3 2 3 Neil Cragg 16/ 5m 14.11 Associated B44.1 3 8 Greg Williams 16/ 5m 14.53 Schumacher CAT SX3 4 7 Nathan Waters 16/ 5m 16.33 Team Durango DEX410 5 2 Tom Cockerill 16/ 5m 18.07 Schumacher CAT SX3 6 9 Lloyd Storey 16/ 5m 22.52 Schumacher CAT SX3 7 6 Richard Lowe 15/ 5m 1.93 Associated B44.1 8 10 James Helliwell 15/ 5m 7.18 Tamiya TRF 511 9 5 Paul Bradby 12/ 4m 0.44 Associated B44.1 10 4 Craig Collinson 6/ 1m 55.74 Team Durango DEX410

Huge respect to Greg Williams who could have taken the win quite easily here - Greg is surely one to watch in 2013. We predict his first national A final win can't be far off.

Thanks to Schumacher and Muzzy for helping me out with some accomodation which allowed me to come and start the report early - well, if I'd not slept in it would have anyway. Thanks to everyone that helped me out, Steve Pierce, Ben Jemison, etc. I'm tired and it's time for bed.