The first full day of The Players The Rematch event kicked off with a round of timed practice starting promptly at 08:00.

This preceeded three rounds of qualifying which would decide the top 24 'Elite' drivers.


Drivers briefing was held after practice finished at around 09:30, Mark 'Muzzy' Musgrove, race boss, explained the format of the event. At last years event the drivers who didn't qualify for the reedy style races just went in to finish qualifying and run normal finals, however at this years event the lower qualifying drivers compete in their own series of players races, called the players open class.

Leon posed with the winners trophys for this event, and Muzzy threw £100 into each trophy for the winners of The Players, The Rematch event.

Mark introduced referees for the event, Charlie Fraser and Lindsay Skelding, they promised to 'go easy' on the drivers to ensure a relaxed racing atmosphere but we're sure they will clamp down on any of the really naughty boys. Having said that, due to the tight time schedule drivers were instructed not to leave the track area in between racing and marshalling, as there is not sufficient time to return cars to the pitting area. Any drivers caught breaking this rule will receive a 10 second penalty - naughty!

Dan Greenwood thought that Drivers Briefing was 'really good' but learnt that moving away from Ellis Staffords rather potent botty gas resulted in him being deemed a 'loner' by electric-guest Rob Rasey.


James was excited about his imported Sloe-vakian Gin Whereas Stu was slightly disturbed after finding a turd in the bottle.

JConcepts.

Once again JConcepts have produced the goods, and sponsored this event with a generous donation of goodie bags, including some rather glamorous yellow ball-cups, stickers and wings.

Stu was excited to be accessing his JConcepts sac.

JConcepts goodies.

   

Round 1.

Alec Springer received a warning for cutting the track - the first warning of the weekend of many we're sure.

Neil Cragg couldn't hold onto Ellis Stafford in 2WD - as the 2-time reigning National Champion took the round with the only 15 lapper.

The 4WD cars were far quicker from the start and the top three went through for 16 laps. Cragg took the round just ahead of the pair of big-bore Schumachers of Moss and Williams.

Round 1 Qualifying - 2WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Ellis Stafford

15/ 319.85

2

Neil Cragg

14/ 301.88

3

Paul Bradby

14/ 302.67

4

Danny McGee

14/ 302.73

5

Tom Cockerill

14/ 304.10

6

Grant Williams

14/ 304.44

7

Nathan Waters

14/ 306.12

8

Nathan Ralls

14/ 307.25

9

James Helliwell

14/ 308.13

10

Lee Martin

14/ 308.33

   
   

Round 1 Qualifying - 4WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Neil Cragg

16/ 314.03

2

Simon Moss

16/ 317.01

3

Grant Williams

16/ 318.09

4

Paul Bradby

15/ 300.37

5

Lee Martin

15/ 302.11

6

Craig Collinson

15/ 303.72

7

Nathan Ralls

15/ 307.65

8

Nathan Waters

15/ 308.05

9

Bruce Thompson

15/ 308.58

10

Ellis Stafford

15/ 309.90

   
   

 

Trishbits.

Trishbits have these new simple lipo weights for the durango as seen on team driver James Helliwell's car - they come as a set of four brass weights and add up to the same weight as the official Team Durango weight set but move the weight further forward because they do away with the rear skid-plate brass weight.

They're £13 for the unpolished and £15 for the shiney polished versions seen here. Check trishbits.com out for more details.

   

 

Round 2.

Dave 'DC' Church was at work on the mic all weekend and described Ellis' round two as 'he drove like a nipple', this resulted in the unfortunate breakage of a driveshaft, leaving him 49th in round (one place behind DC incidentally) driving just 12 laps and not completing his race time.

Neil Cragg was another with problems - coming off the big jump and hitting part of the 'business' underneath holding it all together. The result was a broken wishbone and an early exit - putting on the pressure for the final round of qualifying if he wanted to make it into the Elite Players race format.

Round 2 Qualifying - 2WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Danny Mcgee

15/ 318.68

2

Ellis Stafford

15/ 322.69

3

Nathan Waters

14/ 300.50

4

Lee Martin

14/ 301.69

5

Neil Cragg

14/ 302.85

6

Richard Coates

14/ 309.26

7

Tom Cockerill

14/ 309.93

8

James Helliwell

14/ 310.72

9

Paul Bradby

14/ 310.94

10

Grant Williams

14/ 315.10

   
   

Round 2 Qualifying - 4WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Paul Bradby

16/ 318.63

2

Simon Moss

15/ 300.47

3

Grant Williams

15/ 301.21

4

Craig Collinson

15/ 303.81

5

Lee Martin

15/ 307.27

6

Nathan Waters

15/ 307.51

7

Danny Mcgee

15/ 308.08

8

Tom Cockerill

15/ 310.08

9

James Helliwell

15/ 311.29

10

Bruce Thompson

15/ 312.49

   
   


Team Xtreme

With no 4WD car in their stables any longer with the demise of the X5 - the XFactory team have all danced off to try out different cars. Team leader and all-round GOD of R/C, Ellis Stafford, decided to join the Xtreme RC team for his 4WD needs. It's only second time out with the car for Ellis so he wasn't expecting too much but still took some top ten times.

Xtreme have a new chassis at The Players, which returns the layout to using a (lipo) stick pack down the left hand side rather than saddle packs up front. The new chassis uses the same materials as the existing chassis.

   

Round 3.

Lee Martin was sporting some new colours on his cars - maybe it was taking him a while to get used to it but by round three he'd got it together to take a new fastest time in 2WD and was the only driver on 15 lap pace. Team mates Paul Bradby and Neil Cragg proved there's life in the rear-motor cars yet.

Neil Cragg overcame a bad second round which could have seen him miss out on the Elite-class Players division - but a storming run saw Neil take a new fastest time in 4WD, well ahead of second place Bradby.

Round 3 Qualifying - 2WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Lee Martin

15/ 316.18

2

Paul Bradby

14/ 304.73

3

Neil Cragg

14/ 308.03

4

Dan Greenwood

14/ 310.92

5

Nathan Waters

14/ 311.30

6

Nathan Ralls

14/ 317.92

7

James Helliwell

14/ 320.24

8

Ellis Stafford

14/ 320.44

9

Bart Van Echelpoel

13/ 303.98

10

Ben Jemison

13/ 307.15

   
   

Round 3 Qualifying - 4WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Neil Cragg

16/ 311.54

2

Paul Bradby

16/ 319.72

3

Craig Collinson

16/ 319.82

4

Simon Moss

15/ 301.01

5

Nathan Waters

15/ 301.78

6

Danny Mcgee

15/ 301.83

7

Lee Martin

15/ 302.67

8

Tom Cockerill

15/ 307.08

9

Nathan Ralls

15/ 307.23

10

Andrew Jones

15/ 308.59

   
   

With the brief 3-rounds-of qualifying over and done, there was a break whilst the heats were sorted out for the four classes. Only the top 24 in 2WD and 4WD go into the Elite 'Players' class and will battle it out against each other over 6 rounds of the Reedy-style Players format of racing. Those that didn't make the cut still race in the same 'Players' format but get to battle each other without the presence of the top drivers.

Pavel is from Slovakia - you can tell! :)

Joffo races against Mark Dremel - owner of aDremel!

 

The track isn't as mad as last year - and the on-site shop closed early in response, sickened as they were that there wasn't already a bin liner full of broken parts. The BIG jump is a step-up, and the only realistic way to jump it is in one - but if you're not lined up nicely you're off the side and into the rostrum. oooof!

The two double jumps in the centre of the track are low and fast - come up short and you're likely to flip or bounce badly and lose time.


Shane Foot leading Jimmy oOple round the track in Q2

When two unbreakable objects collide the laws of physics must be re-thought.

Team Durango had a lot of drivers - sponsored and privateers at the Player event. DEX410 drivers Shane Foot and Jimmy 'Joffo' oOple did some Durango strength testing research - what happens when two DEX's collide head-on at full speed! Shanes car suffered some damage and dumped the entire contents of one shock onto Jimmys car. Shane sprayed his juices everywhere and the track was particularly slippery in that area for a while.

"It was like being punched in the face, I was stunned for a couple of seconds before setting off again - poor Shane though":- Jimmy oOple

Jimmy's car suffered apparently no damage at all- but a retirement in the second round of 'Players' races due to a broken gearbox top hinted at earlier damage sustained when Shane went nuts over the jump.

Greg Williams is running some new gear in 4WD, provided by Adam Hampton from Red Racing these Team Powers products have previously been run in other classes but are new to off-road.

Greg was given a 6.5 turn brushless motor and speed controller, 5000mAh LiPo pack.

The hobbywing controller has an optional setup unit

They are aiming to have the motor and lipo cells homologated for BRCA competition next year.

Overall Qualifying:

Top 24 in each class made it into the elite players races - alowing the best drivers the chance to fight among themselves for top honours without the riff raff (me) getting in the way.

2WD Elite Players class - top 24 drivers after three rounds (2 to count)

 
 

position

name

score

qualifiers

1

Ellis Stafford

3

[1 2 (8)]

2

Lee Martin

5

[(10) 4 1]

3

Danny Mcgee

5

[4 1 (23)]

4

Neil Cragg

5

[2 (5) 3]

5

Paul Bradby

5

[3 (9) 2]

6

Nathan Waters

8

[(7) 3 5]

7

Tom Cockerill

12

[5 7 (39)]

8

Nathan Ralls

14

[8 (42) 6]

9

Dan Greenwood

15

[11 (11) 4]

10

James Helliwell

15

[(9) 8 7]

11

Grant Williams

16

[6 10 (38)]

12

Richard Coates

22

[16 6 (19)]

13

Richard Coates

24

[15 (21) 9]

14

Andrew Jones

26

[(24) 15 11]

15

Ben Jemison

27

[17 (20) 10]

16

Alec Springer

27

[13 (18) 14]

17

Andy Griffiths

27

[14 (36) 13]

18

Daniel Austin

30

[(19) 14 16]

19

Eugene Galley

31

[18 13 (20)]

20

Ashley Caunt

35

[23 12 (28)]

21

Pavel Balint

36

[20 16 (34)]

22

Steven Pierce

37

[12 25 (49)]

23

Dave Grunhill

41

[26 (28) 15]

24

Mark Christopher

41

[(36) 19 22]

   
   

 

4WD Elite Players class - top 24 drivers after three rounds (2 to count)

 
 

position

name

score

qualifiers

1

Neil Cragg

2

[1 (60) 1]

2

Paul Bradby

3

[(4) 1 2]

3

Simon Moss

4

[2 2 (4)]

4

Grant Williams

6

[3 3 (18)]

5

Craig Collinson

7

[(6) 4 3]

6

Lee Martin

10

[5 5 (7)]

7

Nathan Waters

11

[(8) 6 5]

8

Danny Mcgee

13

[(66) 7 6]

9

Nathan Ralls

16

[7 (13) 9]

10

Tom Cockerill

16

[(15) 8 8]

11

Bruce Thompson

19

[9 10 (11)]

12

James Helliwell

20

[11 9 (12)]

13

Ellis Stafford

23

[10 (49) 13]

14

Andrew Jones

24

[(62) 14 10]

15

Dan Greenwood

24

[13 11 (20)]

16

Ben Jemison

27

[12 (58) 15]

17

Adam Skelding

29

[(36) 15 14]

18

Graham North

32

[(20) 16 16]

19

Rob Fox

33

[16 (17) 17]

20

Sam Dixon

36

[17 19 (25)]

21

Andy Griffiths

39

[18 (34) 21]

22

Steven Bond

40

[(22) 18 22]

23

Andy Wesson

40

[(31) 21 19]

24

Damian Whittle

43

[23 20 (30)]

   
   

Damo

Round one of players races:

Race 8 - Open Players Race, 4WD.
The race started somewhat chaotically with multiple pile ups at the end of the straight and around the bottom corner, this was a fine example of why local Worksop-warrior Leon 'I can jump higher and further than anyone else' Morell is kept seperate from the Elite finals. But just to prove us wrong he took the lead for the first two minutes, from 'Cockney Wide Boy' Rob Rasey, by just over one quarter of a lap.
Leon flipped coming over the big jump, he had become somewhat over excited, and Northern Monkeyboy Greg Williams saw his chance and slipped through to take the lead with his stealthy low down Predator car..
Four minutes into this final, WideBoy-Rasey pressured Leon coming over the double jumps, forcing an error and taking 2nd place. Leon was not to recover from this traumatic pass and had to settle for 3rd place, whilst young Greg brought it home to take ONE in this race, and was called over to receive some chocolate fingery delight from Muzzy (of the Cadburys variety), as every race winner to press had received whether they wanted to or not.

Overall finishing positions:

Open Players - Race 8 - Round 1.

 
 

position

name

result

1

3

Greg Williams

14/ 305.60

2

2

Rob Rasey

+ 14.24

3

8

Leon Morrell

+ 18.40

4

4

Rob Jaques

-1/ 312.44

5

6

Mark Dyson

-1/ 321.51

6

1

Graham Smith

-3/ 301.10

7

5

Ian Barnard

-4/ 232.03

8

7

James Garner

DNS

8

9

James Wilkinson

DNS

   
   

Race 9 - Open Players Race, 4WD.
Despite trying to keep it clean and go easy from the start line, Jimmy 'Joffrey' oOple took a rough one from behind, ending up on his roof at the bottom of the straight, but he was soon back on his wheels and put up a chase to return the favour.
Stu Evans and Jon Dell (mechanic to Lee Martin) tussled through the centre sections of the track (in a manly fashion of course) but it was Stuart big-man Evans who won this man-wrestle and brought home the goods in third place.
Joffrey ran into difficulty shortly into this race, when the drive pin from his centre CVD became seperated from its parent assembly, penetrating deep into his Li-Po, it didn't work out too well and he ended up sitting out the second half of the race like a naughty school boy.
Stu couldn't really remember anything else eventful, despite having driven fairly well for his third place, but stated he had some nice pie, chips and gravy for his tea. Jeff Steele brought home the bacon with the win from Sam Smith in second.

Open Players - Race 9 - Round 1.

 
 

position

name

result

1

4

Jeff Steele

14/ 300.53

2

5

Sam Smith

+ 8.26

3

7

Stuart Evans

+ 8.72

4

8

Jon Dell

+ 14.07

5

2

Jamie Cheshire

-1/ 306.68

6

9

Stuart Band

-1/ 315.69

7

6

Jimmy Oople

-5/ 209.36

8

1

Robert Black

-11/ 72.96

9

3

Russell Woodhouse

DNS

   
   

Race 10 - first Elite Players race in 2WD.
The first race in the specialist Elite class started reasonably well, with only a couple of minor flips or clips on the bottom corner. Nathan Waters was into the lead one lap into the race, and started to pull a good lead on cuddly Orange Hero Andrew 'Jonesy' Jones who was busy battling for 2nd place with Nathan Ralls. Further back the field Mark 'Sponsored by Dremel' Christopher could be seen weaving his car all over the track, possibly suffering from interference, his car almost went AWOL underneath the big jump.
Nathan Waters was on a mission and kept well ahead of everyone else, meeting traffic only when he came through to lap the field. Nathan Ralls was thrashing hard trying to catch up, but had to settle for second place, 11 seconds further back.

Elite Players - Race 10 - Round 1.

 
 

position

name

result

1

5

Nathan Waters

14/ 303.44

2

3

Nathan Ralls

+ 11.25

3

2

Andrew Jones

-1/ 304.68

4

6

Daniel Austin

-1/ 305.68

5

4

Alec Springer

-1/ 319.13

6

1

Mark Christopher

-1/ 324.27

   
   

Race 11 - Elite Players, 2WD.
As soon as the start tone sounded, Lee Martin was straight into the lead, whilst an unfortunate turn of events saw fellow southern-dude Grant Williams straight to the back of the pile. Lee was quick to pull a strong lead on 2nd place Danny McGee, with local track-design-warrior James Helliwell in 3rd place. Pile-ups and chaos on the track saw multiple changes in race position, Helliwell was caught up and demoted to 5th place, doesn't sound so far back but remember these are 6 car races.
Danny was pushing hard and an almighty cracking sound as he landed off the jump trying to catch up with leader Lee had his fans gasping, but his alloy-chassis'd car continued to move in the correct direction and he wasn't ready to give up the fight just yet, despite being some miles back from the top spot. Danny finished 5.8 seconds behind Lee Martin in the ONE spot.

Elite Players - Race 11 - Round 1.

 
 

position

name

result

1

5

Lee Martin

15/ 318.36

2

2

Danny Mcgee

+ 5.87

3

4

Ashley Caunt

-1/ 325.57

4

3

James Helliwell

-2/ 306.32

5

6

Eugene Galley

-2/ 312.33

6

1

Grant Williams

-2/ 314.82

   
   

Race 12 - Elite Players 2WD.
This race started rather dramatically, with cartwheels and pile-ups at the start, Tom 'JoffreyHair' Cockerill and Dan Greenwood made it out good, with Dan taking the lead like a gentleman and TomCock rolling off the Big Jump, Steve Pierce was keen to show what he's made of and was soon into 3rd place putting up a chase.
The racing was close at the front, Dan and Tom both knowing that Ellis would be piling on the man-pressure to catch up, and indeed he was, overtaking Steve 'no nickname' Pierce over the Big Jump. The two would swap and change places with Ellis making silly errors as he pushed too hard to catch up the leaders.
Meanwhile further back the field were Dave 'Stampys best mate' Grunhill and Richard Coates, racing up close and personal over the double jumps, indeed neither of them wanting to be last place.
After holding a decent lead for much of the race, Dan was to lose out to TomCock with two minutes left to go, and he was soon left behind as Tom started lapping up the backmarkers.
Third place Steve Pierce found himself nose-in to the trackmarker right before the loop, and Ellis slipped through to take third place, which was followed by a dramatic final lap between the dancing pair, but it was Steve who finished ahead of Ellis with the exact same race time. Tom Cock took the win with Dave Grunill seriously considering what Stampy said about him back in last place.

Elite Players - Race 12 - Round 1.

 
 

position

name

result

1

5

Tom Cockerill

14/ 303.41

2

2

Dan Greenwood

+ 5.25

3

3

Steven Pierce

+ 18.23

3

6

Ellis Stafford

+ 18.23

5

1

Richard Coates

-1/ 304.72

6

4

Dave Grunhill

-1/ 309.90

   
   

Race 13 - Elite Players 2WD.
This was a star-studded event which had viewers and fanclubs across the country gripping their chairs for the race duration. As the start tone sounded Bradders cruised swiftly into the lead, with a rather keen Neil Cragg appearing to lose some traction as he alighted from the start line, however the many time national / European / World Champeen was hot on his team-mates tail and pushing his ageing B4 hard to keep up.

Slovak superstar Pavel meanwhile was chasing in the third spot, followed by Andy Griffiths, Bart Echelpoel and Ben Jemison bringing up the rear. Thats four drivers - four distinctly different countries! AMAZING!

Griffiths snatched third place from Pavel one minute into the race, whilst Bradders slammed his door shut on Neil, an error from Neil spinning in the mud at the end of the straight allowed some degree of breathing space for Bradders, but this was to be short lived as a slight error from Bradders and some thumb-energy from Neil saw the two racing closely once again.

Another error from Cragg flipping as he approached the Big Jump saw some more space for Bradders, with a 2.4 second lead.
By half race distance Bradders was homing in on the backmarkers, and more drama for the chasing Neil Cragg as he became caught in the traffic and hen crashed on the downslope of the Big Jump, yet never dropping far back from his first place target.
After what had been a dramatic race so far for Neil, an error from Bradders coming over the double jump was all he needed to slip through into the top spot. Bradders wasn't far back though and kept close to Neils tail, dropping the hammer down and pushing to reclaim his first place, but the ever-cool Cragg wasn't playing any games now, this was his race and he was going for the ONE.
Meanwhile BenJem had moved up into third place whilst no-one else was watching, and all eyes remained on the top two, and Neil took the win 0.78sec ahead of Bradders.

Elite Players - Race 13 - Round 1.

 
 

position

name

result

1

1

Neil Cragg

15/ 313.53

2

3

Paul Bradby

+ 0.78

3

2

Ben Jemison

-1/ 318.21

4

6

Andy Griffiths

-2/ 301.93

5

4

Bart Van Echelpoel

-2/ 308.04

6

5

Pavel Balint

-2/ 309.06

   
   

Race 14 - Elite Players 4WD.

"Bradders and Neil, the ReMatch, well, almost"
After a rather intense race 13 and with no break in between races, the duo were back on the track to battle it out with their 4wd cars, was this going to be as exciting as the previous race?

Cragg was straight into 1st place in this one, whilst a defient Bradders was held up in a pile up. Team Durango Team-boss Skelding made it out clean and was close to Cragg but was soon to make a silly error which saw Bradders nudge past a crashing Skelding-mobile to take 3rd place.
Meanwhile Jonesy seemed to have appeared quite at random, and was moving pretty rapidly behind Cragg, whilst Skelding and Bradders were not too far behind.

Bradders was soon looking up the inside of Jonesy, pressuring to make his pass; An error from Skelding coming through the doubles saw some more space at the front of the field for Bradders to push Jonesy harder. Jonesy was oblivous to all this drama on his rear end, as he was dazzled by the brightness of his orange machine, alas the dazzling effect proved too much and Jonesy flipped his car twice in the space of half a lap, which indeed was all Bradders needed to make his move into 2nd place and start the close-in on Cragg.
This really didn't make an awful lot of difference to the top-spot man, who by now had a strong lead on his peers and was up ahead 'getting it done'. Skelding was down to 5th place and Nathan Waters in 4th.
Bradders ran into some bother when his car landed on the wrong side of a track marker coming off the double jumps, which was all the cue Jonesy needed to slip back into 2nd place. Something happened to Skelding and he was well out of it by now. Cragg of course remained on his lonesome up ahead, with free reign of the track, probably wondering where all the other competitors were. An error from Jonesy coming off the double saw Bradders take 2nd place, 13 seconds behind Cragg in the ONE. Cragg is a god.

Elite Players - Race 14 - Round 1.

 
 

position

name

result

1

3

Neil Cragg

16/ 318.57

2

5

Paul Bradby

+ 13.47

3

2

Andrew Jones

+ 14.05

4

1

Nathan Waters

+ 14.45

5

4

Adam Skelding

-5/ 243.39

6

6

Dan Greenwood

-11/ 109.37

   
   

 

Top 10 in round 1 - all 4 classes.

Round 1 Elite Players Races - 2WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Neil Cragg

2

Lee Martin

3

Tom Cockerill

4

Nathan Waters

5

Paul Bradby

6

Danny Mcgee

7

Dan Greenwood

8

Nathan Ralls

9

Ben Jemison

10

Ellis Stafford

   
   

 

Round 1 Elite Players Races - 4WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Neil Cragg

1 - 1

2

Craig Collinson

1 - 1

3

Bruce Thompson

1 - 1

4

Danny Mcgee

1 - 1

5

Ellis Stafford

2 - 2

6

Grant Williams

2 - 2

7

Paul Bradby

2 - 2

8

Simon Moss

2 - 2

9

Nathan Ralls

3 - 3

10

Andrew Jones

3 - 3

   
   

 

Round 1 Open Players Races - 2WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Sam Smith

1 - 1

2

Jeff Steele

1 - 1

3

Chris Stewart

1 - 1

4

Greg Williams

1 - 1

5

Fabien Simonini

2 - 2

6

Steven Bond

2 - 2

7

Nick Caro

2 - 2

8

Rob Rasey

2 - 2

9

Rob Fox

3 - 3

10

Jon Dell

3 - 3

   
   

 

Round 1 Open Players Races - 4WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Steven Pierce

1 - 1

2

Jeff Steele

1 - 1

3

Dave Belsten

1 - 1

4

Richard Coates

1 - 1

5

Greg Williams

1 - 1

6

Gareth Stanton

2 - 2

7

Brian Shardlow

2 - 2

8

Sam Smith

2 - 2

9

Ben Broughton

2 - 2

10

Rob Rasey

2 - 2

   
   

 

Round two of players races:

Open Players - Race 22 - Round 2.
The race started with a crash on the straight - a common sight with, but Coatsey made it out good in 2nd place and Joffrey in 3rd. Dan Austin was leading for the first few corners but an eager Coatsey took the lead over the Big Jump. Joffrey and Leon both broke early in the race. Coatsey and Austin swapped and changed 1st and 2nd place, whilst Shane Foot was bringing up the rear.

Lightweight Gaz Stanton was pushing to catch the leaders, but Coatsey took the win with a 7 second lead.

Open Players - Race 22 - Round 2.

 
 

position

name

result

1

1

Richard Coates

14/ 306.04

2

4

Daniel Austin

+ 7.35

3

8

Gareth Stanton

+ 8.56

4

6

Stuart Band

+ 20.77

5

2

David Church

-1/ 318.63

6

9

Shane Foot

-1/ 321.39

7

3

Rob Jaques

-3/ 300.52

8

7

Leon Morrell

-12/ 52.04

9

5

Jimmy Oople

-13/ 24.64

   
   

Elite Players - Race 28 - Round 2.
The start of the race was delayed due to Dan Greenwood fiddling with something. Anyway the start of the race was clean, Neil threw down the hammer and was straight into the lead, McGee not far behind in the second place. Dan Greenwood was battling for 3rd place but it was Nathan Ralls who slipped in there, and an error from Dan rolling off the Big Jump saw him demoted to last place. Steve Pierce moved up to 3rd place and Nathan Ralls back to 4th.
Drama on the straight as Lindsay Skelding took TQ time legging it to rescue a falling Schumacher banner.
A rather uneventful race saw Neil Cragg take the win 9 seconds ahead of Danny McGee.

Elite Players - Race 28 - Round 2.

 
 

position

name

result

1

2

Neil Cragg

15/ 313.94

2

1

Danny Mcgee

+ 9.07

3

6

Steven Pierce

+ 13.20

4

4

Nathan Ralls

+ 18.45

5

5

Bart Van Echelpoel

-1/ 317.13

6

3

Dan Greenwood

-2/ 306.57

   
   

Elite Players - Race 29 - Round 2
The race started with a few fondlings and nudges off the start line, but no major kerfuffles. Bradders went straight for the pole position, with TomCock following close behind. Grant and Ellis were further back battling for 3rd and 4th place. Ellis made an error trying to get past, and TomCock rolled coming over the loop, so Grant was pushing hard to catch up to the top two, however Bradders had a comfortable 4 second lead. Pavel and Dan Austin were dancing at the rear of the field.
Bradders had pulled the length of the straight ahead of 2nd place TomCock; a mistake from Grant catching a trackmarker saw Ellis move into 3rd place.

Tom was really putting the hammer down on Bradders now, pushing to close the gap, but Bradders was firmly on his wheels and wasn't going to give this win up. With 1min 30 seconds to go Bradders was lapping the back of the field.

Ellis and Grant remained close further back, and danced down the straight side by side, eventually coming together, this proved to be a disadvantage for Ellis who came off worse, but he drove like an animal to keep up and overtook Grant coming up the the Big Jump.

The battle continued ferociously for the last minute of the race, and the pair dramatically approached the loop side by side, Grant taking 3rd place a fraction of a second ahead of Ellis.

Elite Players - Race 29 - Round 2.

 
 

position

name

result

1

2

Paul Bradby

15/ 314.59

2

6

Tom Cockerill

+ 4.42

3

1

Grant Williams

+ 19.42

4

3

Ellis Stafford

+ 19.45

5

4

Daniel Austin

-1/ 318.41

6

5

Pavel Balint

-2/ 301.82

   
   

Elite Players - Race 30 - Round 2.
The race started with a number of trips and flips coming over the mat corner, Lee slipped straight up to the top, with Nathan Waters in 2nd and James Helliwell in 3rd place.

James and Nathan danced around together through the middle of the track, whilst Lee extended his lead to 6 seconds. Jonesy was pushing to catch up but made too many errors.
There wasn't really much excitement at the front of the pack, with Lee pulling further away lap-on-lap, and Nathan with a good clearing in second place. Swapping and changing further down the field saw James demoted to 4th place with Eugene Galley taking 3rd. Something happened to Andy Jones because he was way back. The laptop powered down though so I couldn't keep up with what was happening, so here are the results:

Elite Players - Race 30 - Round 2.

 
 

position

name

result

1 1 Lee Martin 15/ 310.33
2 4 Nathan Waters + 11.97
3 5 Eugene Galley + 19.19
4 3 James Helliwell -1/ 316.66
5 6 Alec Springer -1/ 321.62
6 2 Andrew Jones -4/ 269.87
   
   

Top tens after round two of the Players races

After Round 2 Elite Players Races - 2WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Lee Martin

2 - 1 1

2

Neil Cragg

2 - 1 1

3

Paul Bradby

3 - 2 1

4

Tom Cockerill

3 - 1 2

5

Nathan Waters

3 - 1 2

6

Ben Jemison

4 - 3 1

7

Danny Mcgee

4 - 2 2

8

Nathan Ralls

6 - 2 4

9

Steven Pierce

6 - 3 3

10

Richard Coates

7 - 5 2

   
   

After Round 2 Elite Players Races - 4WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Neil Cragg

2 - 1 1

2

Ellis Stafford

3 - 2 1

3

Simon Moss

3 - 2 1

4

Paul Bradby

3 - 2 1

5

Bruce Thompson

3 - 1 2

6

Danny Mcgee

3 - 1 2

7

Grant Williams

4 - 2 2

8

Graham North

5 - 3 2

9

Nathan Waters

7 - 4 3

10

Nathan Ralls

7 - 3 4

   
   

After Round 2 Open Players Races - 2WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Greg Williams

2 - 1 1

2

Rob Rasey

3 - 2 1

3

Rob Fox

4 - 3 1

4

Jeff Steele

4 - 1 3

5

Fabien Simonini

4 - 2 2

6

Chris Stewart

5 - 1 4

7

Jon Dell

5 - 3 2

8

Steven Bond

5 - 2 3

9

Sam Smith

6 - 1 5

10

Nick Caro

6 - 2 4

   
   

After Round 2 Open Players Races - 4WD

 
 

position

name

result

1

Steven Pierce

2 - 1 1

2

Richard Coates

2 - 1 1

3

Brian Shardlow

3 - 2 1

4

Dave Belsten

4 - 1 3

5

Sam Smith

4 - 2 2

6

Nick Caro

5 - 4 1

7

Greg Williams

5 - 1 4

8

Gareth Stanton

5 - 2 3

9

Stuart Evans

5 - 3 2

10

Daniel Austin

5 - 3 2