Sunday evening dried up nicely, at least it did in the city centre. Monday morning however started with a constant drizzle and the cloud was barely much higher than the track itself - indeed it was lower in other parts of the valley, having the look of rolling down the mountains.

Practice was supposed to start at 8am but the weather caused a halt to proceedings whilst it was decided what to do. A team managers meeting was called and it was eventually decided to drop round one of practice since it had already been delayed so long. Instead practice would start on the second round as per the schedule and run 7 rounds instead of 8 today.
The decision was also taken that only the local track staff / officials would marshall since they were used to the conditions (!) and would possibly better handle the slipping and sliding. There weren't too many objections it has to be said.

The racing - if you can call it that, finally got underway a little after 9am and could be described as farcical, in the wet conditions.

The marshalls were doing their thing barefoot! slipping around much like the cars were. There was only a little standing water between some of the jumps but half way through the round the rain started again - oh dear.

Cleaning the cars after running wasn't easy, the fine clay really stuck to the cars. Air compressors and water were provided.

Lee Martin lands in a puddle sideways	X6 of Tamiya driver Satoshi Maezumi

Marshalls were finding it very slippy	...... A look of despair

Just before 11am the practice was stopped once more - with the rain now coming down harder it was becoming slightly silly, not to mention dangerous. The last practice heat before the stop was called had only one driver braving the conditions. It was agreed that when the rain stopped there would be another hour wait for track maintenance before practice could get underway again.

With the practice stopped it's time to take a look at some of the cars. Some drivers, especially those that are not sponsored for 2WD, have up to three cars here to use and pick the best.

Travis Amezcua was running the X6 in the first practice round, but also had a brand new Associated B4 and Losi XXXCR to play with should they take his fancy. Someone else borrowed his B4 to run instead of their own and this was a similar story between guys like Hupo, Drescher, Pinisch and Rheinard who were all sharing a sacrificial B4 for practice.

Atsushi Hara could be seen in the pits preparing his Kyosho RB5 but also had an Associated B4 and XFactory X6 prepared to run.

The Hot Bodies guys were hoping to get a 2WD prototype in time for this event but it wasn't ready it seems.

The track staff went out to do what little they could given the circumstances - resorting to using sponges to soak up the water. The day brightened up slightly and the rain was holding off, but the track was still very wet and slippery.

When the practice round finally restarted, cars that lost momentum coming up to some of the jumps were funny to watch as they struggled, sometimes in vain, to drive up the slippery slopes. It was chaos.

The last round started around 4:20pm and the track was a lot faster but no less dangerous to marshall. The racing line was starting to dry out a little - but by 'drying out' I really mean it was only 'wet' rather than 'very very wet'.

The rear tyres don't hook up too well on the soaking wet clay so some drivers are using TF32 yokomo tyres up front with the spiked cut down. These dig into the surface and provide a little extra steering. The only problem is availability - the Yokomo guys have them and those that know someone, but all being well they won't be needed after practice if things dry up.

Comments of the day:

Craig Drescher: Bollocks. I love mud wrestling.

Bradders: The track's actually quite cool. It's not even moist any more, just sticky.

Mick Cragg: The hot dogs aren't warm enough, the coffee's good though.

Paul Worsley: I don't have any objection to the Japanese feet getting damaged, I only have to look after the European feet. There's that much clay around their feet it probably wouldn't hurt them anyway. If you saw Hupo marshalling without shoes on would you have something to say about it? 'Yeah!'

There are some great new products on show or at the prototype stage here at the World Championships.

Jason Ruona of JConcepts had a great looking new shell for the RC10B4 called the 'Illuzion Hi-Flow' and was being used by Jason Ruona, Ryan Maifield, Jared Tebo and Cedric Devillers.

Jason also had some funky new wheels which I'd previously seen on Travis Amezcuas car earlier in the day. The wheels are unusual since they go against the 'norm' and are spoked instead of dished. They look and feel great.

The new Kyosho ZX5 4wd prototype is here and will be racing in a few days time - the car photographed isn't the latest version which is being finished right now and should be with the team by the end of the 2WD event. It uses plenty of ZX5 parts but is heavily revamped.

The new Yokomo 4WD evolution is here also and sports a new flat 1-piece chassis, new body, totally new steering setup, new 1-piece top deck, fully enclosed rear belt cover, new rear gearbox with adjusted shock mounting positions, smaller shock towers front and rear and Tamiya 501X-style camber link mounts.