Day 2 Gallery

Day 3 Gallery

Indoor specialist Richard Lowe - who won the 4WD Schumacher series at this venue the week previously, turned up for qualifying having not had chance to come and practice on day one. Richard didn't have enough speed to take the BIG jump with his 7.5 Nosram brushless with 12.3mm rotor - and was seen attacking his RC10T4 to remove the 6.5 from that.

Lots of lovely broken parts - and we mean LOTS started to mount up in our collection pot.

Richard did claim that he'd have no problem clearing the jump in 4WD - we'll see Rich......!

Practice day saw a HECK-O-LOTTA breakages as people found, rode and got punished by the LIMITS. Sadly most of it got binned - but we started up a collection early on day two, so we can build a commemerative piece of art to all those poor little cars.

Stu Evans was seen scavanging thru the broken parts bin to find anything he could reuse - like a tramp.

James Helliwell wanted to be at home playing with his tractor - lots of breakages made him sad.

Ben Jemison sans-wing goes supercross-stylee as he crosses it up over the big jump.

The Big One - or - 'MEGA JUMP'
The decider at this early stage might well be jumping skills. There is a small time advantage in nailing the so-called 'Mega Jump' but to do it consistently isn't easy and can (does) result in big crashes.

Before the jump, the cars come down a small banked corner - building up speed toward the MEGA JUMP. The Jump itself consists of a pair of huge table tops which link together with a smooth transition. Landing the down slope of the first jump is hard to judge but results in a pleasingly smooth transition into the second - but this isn't the fastest.

Nailing it and clearing the lot is faster - there was no doubt about that. The guys with more experience of big air tracks had an advantage here. Car breaker? well it was really down to skill and how big you wanted to go.

Practice day started promtly at 07:30am with one round of timed practice run in heat order, this was the last chance (and the first chance for some drivers who were unable to attend practice day yesterday) for racers to play on the track before qualifying commenced.

Stu Evans' car is smaller than average	Bondy sweeps the clay, sort of.

Damian Whittle brought out the big guns to tackle his Losi XX4.

Immediately after the last heat of practice, Mark 'Muzzy' Musgrove delivered a drivers briefing over the audio system, laying down the law and explaining the rules of the Players meeting.

Qualifying- Round 1

2wd - The top heat had a steady first qualifying run, with Ellis leading the pack for most of the race - Lee Martin took the lead for less than one lap, but an error over the MegaJump cost him 4 seconds and allowed Ellis back into the lead.

Danny McGee was special and had to stand nowhere near the other drivers. We think he may have discharged.

Lee Martin overcooked the MEGA JUMP whilst leading over Ellis Stafford. This roll cost 4 seconds, and a wing.
Big-E - Ellis Stafford took the first Qualifying round in 2WD with his XFactory car.

4wd - Lewis Dickinson was the first driver of the day to receive a stop-go penalty, due to him accidentally ramping his Pred off the MEGA Jump and taking out another car in his path - animal. Lewis later went on to smash his car into the rostrum on what would have been his penultimate lap of the race. Better luck next time Lewis!

PBM Racing were in attendance with their shop - and were kept busy! Baldy-headed hero Damian Whittle is a legend - at 10:05 he was TQing the players event. At 10:16am however Damian had faded into obscurity - no longer TQ and of no interest whatsoever to us, but still a minor legend. In the top heat of qualifying for 4wd, Cragg lead the heat throughout, taking TQ time with the first 14 lap race of the day - in 5 min 16.22sec. Poor Rob Carlin was the first 4wd breakage in qualifying. Most of the drivers were flying over the MegaJump, with unfortunate Richard Lowe out of the race in less than two minutes, and it was hometime for Rich as he had to take a poorly pet to the vet.

Stu examines Ellis Staffords 'enlarger'!	It's like a monkeys tea party!

2WD Round Two Qualifying Results

4WD Round Two Qualifying Results

Here at oOple we really love a good CHOC-OFF - an event for foreign drivers that was pioneered at the final round of the 2008 National Championshi, Stotfold. The CHOC-OFF is a chocolate eating contest - we pick the most obnoxiously sweet and sickly choc-product we can find, then fool unsuspecting foreign drivers into participating.

This time we had our Norwegian friends Jostein Helland and Ole Karlsen ready and hungry for competition. The choice of weapon was the Cadburys Creme Egg - a truly sickly and maddening fruit of satan. This little sugary egg of tooth-rotting madness contains fondant juices in the guise of a real egg which can choke the competitors into submission in the blink of an eye.

The guys started quicky but Jostein was first to open and take the bite - Timed accurately by Stu Evans Casio watch the guys battled hard for SEVERAL SECONDS.

In the end - Jostein utterly DOMINATED and Ole was left looking sick as a dog in second place as he finally chewed down the final choccy goodness some 10 seconds after Jostein had taken the win with his almighty nordic viking shout of 'oople' - well done to Jostein and Ole for being good sports and entertaining us in the Choc Off race.

The guys start out - having to unwrap the eggs

Jostein is first to unwrap and takes an unholy chomp on his eggy goodness.

Ole chogs and looks like he might be sick

Jostein by virtue of his bigger mouth and superior chomping muscles is first to finish and scream 'OOPLE' for the win. Ole still looks ILL !

insert something here. round 3 qual / finals format.

Players race 1 - 2WD

Ellis took the lead from the start line, with his peers close behind. A mistake over the MegaJump enabled Neil Cragg to take lead from Ellis, followed by Lee Martin, Danny McGee and Ellis Stafford. An error over the megajump resulted in Richard Coates losing his bodyshell momentarily - a far cry from some of his breakages so far this weekend.

Lee takes the lead from Cragg, but Cragg and McGee are tailing close behind, looking for a way through, Neil was hot on Lees tail but he was keeping the door well and truly closed. Neil found his window of opportunity over the middle section, passing Lee in the air. McGee took a tumble over the MegaJump but managed to land on his wheels, the error set him back from Cragg and Martin though. Lee also flipped his car going over the MegaJump, giving Cragg some breathing space and seeing the lead extended. Another error from Lee coming off the mats gave McGee room to move into 2nd place, however Neil was holding a lead of 6 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

A tumble from Cragg over the MegaJump brings his lead down to 4 seconds, but he remained well ahead of his peers and won the first players race. Nice one Neil.

Players Race 2 - 2WD

Ben Jemison, after a rough ride throughout qualifying and many breakages, lead the way from the start line, followed closely by Bradby and with James Helliwell pushing to catch up after a couple of small errors on the first lap. Bradders rolled his car, leaving room for Helliwell to take 2nd place. Jemison pulled way ahead of his peers, with a 4 second lead from Helliwell, Bradby and Hamblin. Ben was making a good show of landing the MegaJump on the downramp, much to the audiable delight of his audience. Bradders caught up to Helliwell and was all over his back door, looking for a way through, eventually managing to make his pass mid flight over the MegaJump. By that point Ben had a 5 second lead from the rest of the field and was flying away. Superstar Damian Whittle moved up into 4th place! Ben held on tight to his lead throughout the race, despite an error over the MegaJump coming up to the end of the race, this brought his lead time down to 1.7seconds, but BenJem still managed to get through for a final lap and won the race ahead of Bradders and Helliwell.

Players Race 3 - 2WD

The Players race format was wowing people from the start and even without the likes of Cragg or Bradby in race three it was still exciting from start to finish with drivers wanting the win but knowing there were several races still to go they weren't afraid to really go for it from the start.

The start was chaos unlike the previous two and we got two breakages right away with pre-race favorite Grant Williams unfortunately out.

Chaos at the start saw two early retirements	Rob Fox - Fabien - Dave Belsten

Belsten and Fox goin crazy on each other - swapping places like they're going out of style.	Dave Belsten lands backwards off the Mega Jump!

After a brief lead by Fabien, it was Paul Fox was out front and taking the Mega Jump with a single-single but Dave Belsten was closing in slowly in third by taking the Mega Jump in one. Fabien crashed and Belsten was up to second and closing every time he went over the Mega Jump.
After more position changes it was a slight marshalling error that saw Fox lose hope after both the leading pair crashed at the same time coming over the big one - Belsten got marshalled first whilst Fox was dumped back onto his roof. Belsten taking the win by over 2 seconds from Rob Fox and Fabien third.

Fox came off worst as both leaders crashed at the same time	Belsten took the win

Ellis Stafford had a poor run in his first 4WD Players race after losing a turnbuckle for a minute or so.
He gave everyone a big air show instead with complete inversions!

Easy to forget how high these cars are going - this is about 15ft in the air.

Players Race 5 - 2WD

Race order after 1 lap - Skelding, Coates, Ellis Stafford, Leon and Helliwell. Ben broke his car on the first lap, badly! Stafford took the lead and managed to pull 2 seconds ahead of the rest of the field,drama as Ellis rolled over the MegaJump, leaving first place up for grabs - Skelding took the lead whilst Ellis waited for a spare turnbuckle to be added to his car. Helliwell ripped a wheel off his car in an unfortunate jumping incident.

Skelding lead from Coates and Leon, with Damian Whittle up to 4th place. Ellis returned to the track with 1minute 20 to go, and all eyes were on his car as he teased the cameras with half backflips and cartwheels down the MegaJump.

Random Quote: Matt White on fellow team driver Leon Morrell: 'I don't know where we got him from, but can we get a refund?'

Players Race 18 2WD

Ben Riley took the lead from the start line, followed by Stafford, McGee, and Griffiths, he couldn't hold off Stafford for long though and Ellis was soon in the top spot, quickly pulling off with a 2 second lead. Ben Riley and Northern Leg-end Stu Evans weren't far behind, but with the heroic likes of McGee, Griffiths and Helliwell, Stus stardom wasn't to last for long. A spin out on the middle section from Ben Riley gave way for Griffiths and Helliwell to slip through, whilst Stafford extended his lead to 7 seconds.
Helliwell soon caught up to Griffiths, and started sniffing around for a way through, the pressure proved too much for Griffiths who rolled off the middle section and Helliwell sneaked through to 2nd place. Ellis was no-where to be seen though, with a 13 second gap between him and Helliwell there'd be no brown pants from Ellis on this occasion. As accurately predicted by York Fruit Cake Graham North, Ben Riley snapped his beast on the final lap, coming over the MegaJump and was unable to finish the race. oOps.

Players Race 20 2WD

Neil Cragg lead from the start - one of the few 'skying' the MegaJump in this race Neil was in a class of his own. Some carnage on the first corner with poor Rich Cotes coming off worst. Ben Jemison had some trouble on lap one also, Rolling off the MegaJump and falling down the order.
A couple of laps in and Neil was leading by 3 seconds from Nathan Ralls and Dave Belsten. A lap later and Cragg rolled allowing Belsten a brief sniff of the lead but it wasn't going to be as Cragg just pulled away to lead by over half a lap from Nathan Ralls by mid race.

Neil was on for the first 14 lapper of the 2WD class but another unforced error saw his chances fade away and he crossed the line just after the buzzer sounded to take the fastest 13 lap run.

There's no particular reason we only wrote about 2WD in the Players today but with over 20 individual Players races it was impossible to cover them all.

Team Xtreme showed us their new steering parts for the Predator X11 - as with all their new hopup aluminium part these are anodised XTreme-orange! The new steering parts will go in tandem with a new steel link and change the ackerman of the steering.

ORANGE! YES! I love it.

Summary of day two.
Day Two of the Players event saw three rounds of qualifying - after which the top 30 in each class split off into the Reedy-style 'Players' event, with each race being run just like a final, there was everything to gain by going big and getting the best position.

The Players class saw three rounds run on Day Two - with five more to go on the final day of the event.  Eventually it will be six results to count from each drivers tally but by the end of day two and using all three rounds it was that man Neil Cragg on top with perfect scores in 2WD and 4WD that sat atop the leader board. 
Lee Martin was close behind and lay in 2nd in both classes with a 3-1-1 in 2WD and 2-1-1 in 4WD!

Paul Bradby sat third in 2WD with a 2-1-2 whilst Dave Belsten was in third in the 4WD also with a 2-1-2.

Adam Skelding was driving well in 4WD - looking like he'd take the fastest time but a small error killed his chances. Day three should see what he can really do and if he can make an impression on the top three.

Day 2 Gallery

Day 3 Gallery