Following the success of inaugural 'The Players' race in March this 2009, the entrepreneurial Worksop club were keen to return with a bigger and better event for the start of the 2009/10 indoor season, thus was born The Players, The Rematch.

The event this time around is run to a slightly different format; racing is open to 144 drivers (72 drivers in each class), who all compete in three rounds of qualifying, after which the top 24 drivers in each class will move into a seperate 'Elite' division and the remaining 48 in each class to the 'open players' event. This 'cut' would be decided by 3 rounds of conventional qualifying on Saturday morning, with the best 2 rounds to count. 2wd and 4wd races will be held on both days.

The players races (reedy) style means that every run is a race for position and points - 1 point for a first and so on. Each driver will have 6 races in each class with the best 4 scores to count.

The track build process started in the early hours of Friday morning, with many dedicated professional track builders dragging themselves out of bed before sunrise to prepare the venue for the arrival of eager racers.

Local hero James Helliwell had designed the track and mostly the track build went to plan, everyone did as he said, especially lary lout leon.

A team of ten trackbuilders grafted throughout the day, with no food or hydration until 3pm.

Despite practice not opening until 5pm, some over-eager drivers were queuing up for the rostrum as early as 3:45pm.

After a light mid-afternoon snack, the track build team were ready to add the finishing touches to the track decor.

The bare hall - an interesting 'cork' surface!

The start of the banked corner near race control
 

Carpet being laid over some features.



Toy cars. Stu Evans was seen to be inspecting his new device.

 

Team Xtreme

Having recently sold their model shop to concentrate on manufacturing and development of the Predator X11 - the small British company produce all parts in house in the United Kingdom, Team Xtreme are benefitting from a high race profile this weekend by supporting current 2WD British Champion Ellis Stafford, and sponsoring The Players The Rematch.

Stu is the longest member of team Xtreme, measuring in at 6foot. Team Xtreme however are small, but as everyone knows - the best things come in small packages (Stu's words not mine).

They're well known for being XTremely (extremely - get it!) supportive of their customers and team drivers, with a full team presence trackside at many British regional and national events.



Practice.
Once practice opened at 5pm there was a surge of drivers battling to mount the huge rostrum that had been constructed. 12 drivers max would be allowed up at any time but with the extreme duration of modern LiPO batteries drivers could stay out for a while.

The monsterous - nay - insane jump of the original event was thankfully dropped for The Rematch race. The organisers still had a real treat of a layout for the drivers though and a huge jump was still created to entertain - but without the car-breaking characteristics seen previously.

 

New front suspension arms are much improved.


Schumacher Racing have some interesting new development parts on their 4WD cars - sadly the new 2WD was swiftly taken away after some secret testing at the nearby RHR race track facility and won't be run this weekend. We were told by a little birdie that it's as unique as the CAT SX was when it was released.

The big bore dampers are the 'biggest thing' on the cars - and only the top team drivers had the chance to run them this weekend, with only three sets in existence it was a bit of an exclusive club. The dampers are large - possibly not as monstrously humongous as the Yokomo big bores, but maybe that's not a bad thing.

All the springs for the new dampers are black - but helpfully have the weights etched into the top shoulder. The springs are tapered toward the bottom to clear the suspension arms.

The team also have some new suspension arms to test out - and our man Graham 'blitzboy' Smith was one of the few drivers with them, and is sure to give them a thorough strength testing! ;)

The new Schumacher big-bore dampers

I think I'll fit some black springs...hmm! So many to choose from!

Tapers at the bottom of the new springs

Spring weights are etched in!

The pistons on the new dampers are still in the testing phase - shown my some markings for drilling out additional holes. Though these pistons are flat with beveled edges, we're told the final pistons might well be tapered - as is the current craze.

Test pistons

New 'grey' improved outdrives - coming soon!

Lastly there's some new outdrives coming - identified by their grey colour. Allegedly much improved.


End of open practice rolled round by 10:30pm - a late one! Drivers slowly ambled out of the building and it was closer to 11pm by the time the lights went out.