Practice opened at 10:00am on Friday March 27th, race director 'Muzzy' arrived an hour early to set up the computer equipment and keen racers were already waiting eagerly at the doors.

With the first day of this event being Friday and a typical work day, many people were unable to get time off work to attend practice. The people who were present early-on obvoiusly have MAGIC jobs. As the day started slowly open practice was run, and drivers were asked to spend some time marshalling the track after their own practice as a gesture of courtesy.

Photo right: Early drivers set up their gear in the spacious pitting hall.

Team International.

Ben Concentrates hard on 'whatever it is' he is doing.

New prize added to the raffle stand! Awesome :)

Last minute alterations to the track to smooth the profile of SuperJump.

Despite not rolling up until midday, Danny McGee was winning practice throughout the afternoon, putting in lap times of 22.36sec with his 4wd, and 22.9sec with his 2wd. Rumour has it Danny was also jumping the highest, almost wiping out drivers aboard the 10ft rostrum. It was whilst showing off his SKILLZ on the superjump that Danny obliterated his steel outdrive. Nutter. Danny said it was Brain Preddys fault.

BenJem has been given credit for trying the SuperJump more times than anyone else.

Danny manages to break an aluminium outdrive.

Leon tests out the jumps LIKE A SUPERHERO!

Good air! Leons car nearly MOUNTS the rostrum.

Muzzy steals some time for a belly-fill before practice gets busy.

James shows off his new piece of bling from BlitzBoy.

The 'Players' Format

Worksop wanted to do something a little different for their big event, aside from the 3 days racing they decided to run to a 'Reedy' style format; this means 32 drivers (in each class) racing in 8 rounds of 8 cars for points - ie racing for position within that specific race and not overall points like traditional round by round racing. The drivers will change races each round so everyone gets to race each other, each race is mass start and the grid order arranged so every one will start from each position once.

The top 32 will be decided by 3 rounds of qualifying at the start of the meeting, everyone outside this will carry on in the open class to standard A,B,C etc finals.

Do you think I'm overdoing it with the logos?

As the first part of practice day was run in a relaxed manner, many drivers took the opportunity to test out the SuperJump and put their driving skills to the test. This was entertaining for onlookers, as racers showed off with high jumps, longest jumps and backflips.

Unfortunately this also resulted in much carnage, as an anonymous Mr McGee demonstrates on the right. Oh dear...

The review shell arrives for Jimmys Tamiya TRF 511.

When asked if the track was very 'breaky', Rich Coates responded: it depends how you drive.

Stu Evans is present reporting for RRCi magazine, but he isn't very technologically advanced and prefers to use pen and paper.

Monkey looks disapprovingly at Stus broken chassis.

Superstar MC-DC arrived early afternoon to 'do his stuff' on the microphone. Calling out fastest laps and applauding drivers for superstunts or uber-breakages.

Practice was of course timed throughout the day, allowing drivers to prepare themselves thoroughly for the competition ahead, whilst having some fun learning the track at the same time.

Below: Supporting the sponsors, Leon had to stand up a ladder all day holding the Team Xtreme banner in place.

Carnage in the pits as Reckless-Ralph destroys some strawberries.

Nathan Ralls sneaks back to the pits, hiding his broken car behind his back in shame after misjudging the SuperJump in MASSIVELY DRAMATIC fashion.

As the afternoon progressed more top drivers piled into the sports hall, and with the arrival of Paul Bradby and Adam Skelding Danny McGee was fearful that his practice-win would be snatched out of his hands so early on. Adam Skelding stormed onto the track with a 22.47second lap, whilst Paul Bradby demonstrated a MEGA jump on his first lap out - good skillz.

Continuing on his quest for perfecting the SuperJump, BenJem misjudged the track completely and launched his car through a Trakpower banner on the rostrum - oops!

Rob Nelson from BBK Timing is in attendance to help the meeting run smoothly and broadcast results live on the web. Rob is even trying out some live video feed - we weren't really able to test it out properly as our mobile 'broadband' (I think they use that term rather loosely) was a bit crap.

You can check out the LIVE video feed here: http://www.bbk-online.net/bbkRClive/

Monkey poses with a baby he found. Thanks Tel! :)

Stu has the good seed.

We found this pic on Stu's camera card - we think it's his Mum and someone she met on the moors.

But Leon wasn't allowed in on the game.

As the end of practice day approached, the big lads remained on the rostrum trying to break through the 20-second lap barrier. Lee Martin - who didn't arrive until after 7pm, was edging closer and closer, with his fastest lap being 20.76 seconds. Neil Cragg wasn't far behind with a 20.84 second lap.
Lee Martin was quick to jump in with his fast time, on only his second run out - which lasted a20 minutes and consisted of 40 laps. At this point Danny McGee was up for his 16th run of the day, and despite his impressive early results he was struggling to land the downramp, put to shame by Cragg and Lee Martin who were negotiating the SuperJump with good effect.

Neil Cragg was almost hitting the lights high up in the rafters

Dave Gibson airs the new Tamiya TRF511

Oh dear........ Can you guess the next step?

Some sad faces after the big air fun went SOUR- it had to happen.