Saturday February 7th 2015

REPORT WILL BE UPDATED Tuesday 10th Feb, evening, with extra stuffs.

We set off a tad late to the 2015 British Winter Open Championships. Luckily the BRCA had saved us a table and set up all the stuff we needed to report - making us welcome after a years break from doing the BRCA National events. We were of course really coming for the Sunday event since we'd decided last minute to attend. I didn't have a BRCA license as I'd forgotten to renew / had much more serious things to think about - so it was sadly impossible for me to go on the track to get nice photos during the weekend.

So.... Arriving during the break before finals as we did, and going round saying hi to people we'd not seen in an age - it was straight into the main stuff!

2WD A Final Leg One
A Final leg 1 got underway with Lee Martin and Neil Cragg quickly pulling away. It was all about the front pair and small errors from both kept things interesting. Neil lost ground but managed to catch back up to Lee as the pair started to come into traffic. With some superb nail-bitingly close racing, the pair looks as if an invisible rope was joining them - a short rope at that.

Lee Martin had a small error - coming off the big jump in front of the rostrum to the side and had to rejoin the track. Neil slipped through and took over the lead but a mistake saw Lee retake the lead. The two were still together on the track but coming over the big jump Lee got caught up with a back marker and his expression says it all (below) - as he flipped the Yokomo and was lucky to not damage anything. Neil took over the lead again. The pair just managed to get through for the extra lap and the fight to the line was on. It was all about the big jump in front of the rostrum once more - or at least the corner after it, that played a part once more as Neil took the apex a little too close and rolled. Lee Martin was through back into the lead and sailed through for the win, Neil took second 4 seconds back. Tom Cockerill took third with his new Yokomo ride, with Simon Moss close behind for 4th in leg 1.

Lee Martin looks on in amazement and wonder as his Yokomo goes inverted.

Lee looks for an inside like as Neil takes it wide	Lee pushed Neil all the way - Neil rolled next corner

	2WD Buggy - A final leg 1
	position name laps result 1 Lee Martin 17  318.84 2 Neil Cragg 17  322.84 3 Tom Cockerill 16  305.77 4 Simon Moss 16  306.81 5 Tom Yardy 16  314.53 6 Kevin Lee 15  301.46 7 Danny McGee 15  307.45 8 Richard Lowe 15  309.20 9 Ellis Stafford 15  312.27 10 Elliott Boots 10  212.10

Get those KF2's ready to sell - the new version was on display at Worksop

A final leg 2

The A-Finalists line up for the second leg. It was all about the Proline hats tho. Flat peaks are chavvy sorry!

Cragg was hot off the line and moved into the lead on the very first corner, keeping a very keen Lee Martin firmly behind his back door. Stafford had an early roll and dropped down into 7th position.

Lee Martin looks on in amazement and wonder as his Yokomo goes inverted.

A clothed streaker chances his luck	The cars thread their way through in lap 1

A short distance behind Cragg and Martin, 3rd and 4th place were being manned by Richard Lowe and Elliott Boots - Lowe started to move away from Boots, and soon had a charging Simon Moss on his tail.

Lee Martin follows Cragg, going small.	Richard Lowe running third

Cragg goes big as Lee stays low and gets better drive.

Up front, Cragg started to pull away from Martin, with a half second lead. Lee Martin was pushing hard and started to close the gap, all over Craggs rear end. Martin had a angry-driving flip coming over the huge jump, and dropped back 2 seconds to relax the pressure on Cragg for the last couple of laps. Richard Lowe held on firmly to third with Simon Moss again in 4th.

Richard Lowe dancing round in third place	Cragg again goes big as Lee tried to stay with him.

Mistake coming onto the straight for Lee	Cragg sucks in lower jaw in extreme concentration

	2WD Buggy - A final leg 2
	position name laps result 1 Neil Cragg 17  315.39 2 Lee Martin 17  317.58 3 Richard Lowe 16  304.47 4 Simon Moss 16  305.88 5 Ellis Stafford 16  311.03 6 Danny McGee 16 311.66 7 Tom Yardy 16 314.80 8 Tom Cockerill 16 316.15 9 Kevin Lee 15  302.15 10 Elliott Boots 15 307.01

A final leg 3.
With one win each between the pro-driver pair of cap-wearing heroes Cragg and Martin, it was all down to the final leg.

Clean start to the race, leaders maintained start order for the first few laps. In the third lap, Cragg took some big air flying over the mega-jump, landed well and smoothly moved past Martin into the lead.

Small jump from the lead pair - Cragg follows Martin	Cragg goes BIG as Lee keeps it low.

Cragg gets alongside after going large	Some unseen tussle saw Cragg exit the corner ahead

Further back Lowe was defending 3rd place from Tom Cockerill.

A roll from Cragg saw Martin take up the lead again at half race distance, Martin lead 1 second back to Cragg. Cragg was pushing hard to catch up, more big air over the megajump, but couldn't get past Martin. Cragg put in his fastest laps trying to catch Martin, 17.75 second laps, but it wasn't enough to reclaim the lead and poleman Martin finished in first place to take the overall win.

Cragg back to second but charging hard.

Another BIG air from Cragg as he pushes his limit	George Clooney marshalls Neil's car after a mistake

Neil Cragg took second after giving Lee Martin the breathing room he needed to cruise to the line. Tom Cockerill finished third.

Lee Martin took the overall victory after a real battle with Neil Cragg through all three legs.

	2WD Buggy - A final leg 3
	position name laps result 1 Lee Martin 2 Neil Cragg 3 Tom Cockerill 4 Richard Lowe 5 Danny McGee 6 Tom Yardy 7 Simon Moss 8 Kevin Lee 9 Elliott Boots 10 Ellis Stafford

Some congratulations and man love is shown for Lee

Cragg's B5M 2nd - Lee Martin 1st Yokomo - Tom Cockerill 3rd Yokomo

	2WD Buggy - A final overall
	position name laps result 1 Lee Martin 2 Neil Cragg 3 Tom Cockerill 4 Richard Lowe 5 Simon Moss 6 Danny McGee 7 Tom Yardy 8 Ellis Stafford 9 Kevin Lee 10 Elliott Boots

After the finals were done it was time for trophies and the large number of U13 Juniors each recieved medals - a worthy gesture to encourage the young-uns certainly. Photos to follow - I have to go do some filming now.

Sunday 9th February 2015 - 4WD
Sunday saw practice kick off at 8am for the 4WD buggies. Two rounds quick 3-minute heat-order practice. Drivers briefing was long and covered lipo rules, control tyres, and some other stuff. The drivers were told that modifying their tyres using anything but hand tools was not allowed.

Round 1 Qualifying
Daniel Harrison caused some upset in round 1, after repeatedly being asked not to dremel his tyres, he nearly took round TQ with dremeled tyres and was heavily chastisised. Consequently he failed to marshal and hasn't been seen since. Unofficial reports indicate that his dremel has been kidnapped for a ransom, and Daniel is selling body parts to raise the necessary funds. Neal Lewis was later seen searching for his own car. Actually Danny didn't race and fully complied by the rules set out in drivers briefing.

Cragg took the round one TQ - roles reversed from yesterday when Lee Martin TQ'd the first three rounds. The BRCA wouldn't give us results this year so we don't have the times. Please contact your local BRCA rep to report this incident.

	4WD Buggy - Qualification Round One - Top 10
	position name   1 Neil Cragg 2 Lee Martin 3 Elliott Boots 4 Danny McGee 5 Tom Cockerill 6 Craig Collinson 7 Richard Lowe 8 Ben Jemison 9 Simon Moss 10 Greg Williams

Some new BRCA rules were in effect for 2015, which don't allow you to renew your BRCA license during the weekend period and despite being logged in and paid up BRCA member on the Sunday thanks to Steve Pierce, it isn't legal until the following working day - so sadly despite paying 17 quid and having a licence, it wouldn't come into effect until Monday, meaning I was still not allowed to talk to anyone, and had to use remote controlled photographers to get any on-track antics.

	TYREGATE The Tyre situation at the BWOC 2015 was one of the main talking points at the meeting. Indeed, for some it's the only talking point. The BRCA dimension measuring box is used for all national events and the width of the regular Workop tyres - Schumacher Mini pins - is too wide for most modern cars to actually fit the width regulations, since they overlap the wheels. Schumacher were quick to bring out a new Mini Pin tyre but not in time to be used at this event. Using the usual BRCA national rules - two tyres need to be nominated, so for the 2015 BWOC, the Schumacher mini spike and Ballistic Buggy spikes were nominated. A few drivers tried the Ballistic tyres in various compounds but from talking to a couple of those that tried them - they had the drive but felt looser in cornering. Schumacher Yellow compound tyres were the choice and after one racer recently discovered that smoothing off the centre of the tyres to a slick was the fastest way round- some hastily improvised rules were introduced to 'keep things fair and even' - which they didn't, at all. This man cried as he cut his new tyres into nothing A box full of tyre spikes - and male tears. Lee Martin's tyres only touched the body of the Dremel, not the spinning wheel of controversy. Speaking to some of the drivers however it seemed everyone had a lot to say on the subject. The BRCA rules don't have any rule against trimming tyres to adjust grip. However it was announced at the meeting that modifying the tyres to make them slick/semi-slick was, in certain cases, not allowed. But just how this was judged and implemented seemed a bit hazy at the very best. Power tools were OUT - but officially the car's motor is classed as a 'power tool', according to the BRCA. So using the motor in the car to spin up the wheels on a bit of concrete outside was also illegal - possibly. Ragging your car round outside before the meeting - was that ok? What just was OK? In truth, worksop had a last minute tyre change and no one knew what to do. Worn tyres semed for most people to be the defacto option. Having to define how their tyres became slicks was simply unworkable. MEGA REET GUILTY - SCUM! One driver attempted to flatten his 2WD front tyres in the carpark by using them on the rear of his 2WD buggy - but was reprimanded. Everyone however still managed to have totally flat stagger ribs on the front of their cars. Cutting the tyres was allowed - it was any other off-track modification beyond cutting that 'seemed' to be the main issue. Sanding or filing them was allowed, but then it wasn't - until it was again and then not. Tom Cockerill used a powertool to power his car CHEAT - errrm, yeah probably. Up and coming driver Danny Harrison got well and truly caught out with the 'rules' - having hand-sanded his tyres following the drivers briefing which said nothing about sanding tyres off the car, indeed claimed it was OK to use hand tools which I believe sand paper to be - Danny's car was spotted by an eagle eyed official as he lined up for his first qualifier - and he wasn't allowed to race. Judge for yourself below at what was considered illegal VS legal. I did look at the guys tyres after his final who'd 'fingered' Danny - and his tyres had lines round just like Danny's 'illegal' tyres. FACT. The discussion lead to him missing the start of his Marshalling duties which then lead to him losing his fastest time of the day. And all this without turning a wheel on the track! Much respect to Danny for staying and qualifying 7th in the C final after such a negative and franky unjust start to the day. Personally speaking- let's not mess about here. Plenty of people had done a LOT to their tyres to get them worn down, prior to turning up and with discetion. Some people were more even than others, and that's never good. If totally smooth tyres are best, then let everyone be equal. If it makes little or no difference then what does it matter what people do? Sorry but this was BOLLOCKS.

This genuinely is as sad as we could get Charles to look, as he cuts his tyres into oblivion.	Dave Poulter - faster with oOple name decals

Serious about race controlling

Round 2 Qualifying
Lee Martin stuck his Yokomo in the #1 spot in round two to dethrone Craggy. Again it looked like these two drivers were the ones to watch.

	4WD Buggy - Qualification Round Two - Top 10
	position name   1 Lee Martin 2 Neil Cragg 3 Elliott Boots 4 Craig Collinson 5 Danny McGee 6 Greg Williams 7 Simon Moss 8 Tom Cockerill 9 David Poulter 10 James Helliwell

New 4WD front cut-stagger rib tyres from Schumacher - so people don't have to look stupid with 2WD fronts.

Round 3 Qualifying
A couple of mistakes from Neil Cragg in the top heat saw him drop off the pace - which was quickly taken up by Craig Collinson's TeamC car. Lee Martin's time from the previous heat wasn't under threat however and he remained top of pile despite the best efforts of Neil Cragg to come back from his errors to take his heat. Young super-child Jack Neal took a rather respectable 4th in round.

YEAH!!!!

Cragg chases down heat leader Collinson	Kev Lee from Inside Line Racing

	4WD Buggy - Qualification Round Three - Top 10
	position name   1 Lee Martin 2 Neil Cragg 3 Tom Cockerill 4 Jack Neal 5 Craig Collinson 6 Danny McGee 7 Elliott Boots 8 Richard Lowe 9 Kev Lee 10 Greg Williams

Mysterious admirer shows Tricky some love.

And speaking of love, the 'love from Toby' brand is ever expanding. Alex Johns was sporting a new bodyshell, and stickers and racewear were seen around the pits. I've no idea what's going on personally, I've missed somet here - but I like it, whatever it is.

	4WD Buggy Breakdown We like facts, but we like made-up stuff even more. However for this particular meeting we wanted an actual break down of what cars were actually running. You'll not see a truer representation of what's going on in toy car racing than this. 100 drivers booked in to race on Sunday, Mrs Crompton in scrutineering kindly audited the chassis coming through her checks and identified the following: Schumacher (45) Kyosho (9) AE (14) XRay (7) Team C (6) Yokomo (9) Hot Bodies (2) Losi (7) Tamiya (1) Obviously just like in 2WD - the Schumacher buggies dominate in terms of numbers and T-shirts in the pits! A surprise is the lack of Team Durango buggies - probably one of if not the most popular cars not too long ago. Tamiya is no surprise - they only ever played at racing and probably lost interest during the release of the orignal TRF 501X.

Round 4 Qualifying
Like a couple of hungry happy little 'share bears' suckling on the singular teet of WIN - Neil Cragg and Lee Martin kindly shared the qualifying equally as Cragg took the final round so it was two rounds each. Craig Collinson drove like a hero for second in round and that scarily fast Jack Neal was just behind the previous days winner Lee Martin in 4th and 3rd respectively.

	4WD Buggy - Qualification Round Four - Top 10
	position name   1 Neil Cragg 2 Craig Collinson 3 Lee Martin 4 Jack Neal 5 Tom Cockerill 6 Richard Lowe 7 Ben Jemison 8 Greg Williams 9 Danny McGee 10 Simon Moss

	4wd Overall Qualifying
	position name   1 Neil Cragg 2 Lee Martin 3 Craig Collinson 4 Elliott Boots 5 Tom Cockerill 6 Jack Neal 7 Danny McGee 8 Richard Lowe 9 Greg Williams 10 Ben Jemison

	Phil Allcroft Interview. (photos and editing to come, sorry - got to go film stuff in 18 minutes) Tell us a bit about your involvement with the Worksop and Blyth clubs I’m more of an honorary member at this moment in time bringing a little mischief and humour; I haven’t been back very long so no doubt they will find me something to do very soon!   When did you first start racing and how did you get involved in the hobby? I first started racing in 1988 I was given a Tamiya Falcon things started out as a bit of a run around on the street with some friends. My dad thought it would be a great idea to go find somewhere to race after one too many near misses with road going cars! We visited a club and from this point on I was completely hooked. A year later my folks set up Worksop radio car club, we originally raced indoors in the grounds of North Notts Community Arena in an old warehouse and moved inside the main arena when it was demolished in 1992. How much time out did you take? I retired back in 2003 so i’ve been out for 11 years. What influenced your return to the racing scene? I saw many of my old friends returning to the sport and they all said how easier things were, gone were the days carrying around a motor skimmer and replacing motor brushes every other run. I remember having at least 6 sets of race cells and at least 5 different motors I only have two of each now. James Helliwell was also a major influence on me returning from retirement. The team at RHR have taken the outdoor venue to a whole new level, and went the extra mile to help me get settled very quickly. I suffer with dwarfism for people that don’t know me and I cannot stand for long periods of time; I have to use a chair to race so they all made sure I’m safe when racing nothing has been too much trouble. what were the most noticeable changes when you returned last year? The most noticeable changes were the amount of people interested in 1’10th off road, the numbers went into abit of a decline at one point, but it seems to be more popular than ever which is fantastic to see. The tracks have also changed significantly most outdoor venues seem to favour astro turf I’ve always raced predominantly on grass tracks so this is still a bit of a culture shock. The cars are so much faster than before thanks to brushless motors and lipo batteries. The introduction of the warm up lap before you race is also new concept to me, this wouldn’t have been possible in the past as you simply wouldn’t have lasted race distance.       What has changed for the better? And for worse? Being able to compete with off the shelf equipment, everyone is on a level playing field now which wasn’t always the case years ago. Personal transponders are a great advancement no more rushing around at race control or waiting for somebody to bring one back. Though I’m not a fan of the computer voice that calls your number off the grid it reminds me of a demented robot!   What racing results have you been proudest of? Getting my F1 licence back in 1997 and making a B Final at national level considering the difficulties I face I felt this was a great achievement, you don’t see many people like me but it shows you can compete irrespective of disability. Which goes faster, yellow or white wheels? Definitely white wheels, only because I’m getting older as they are easier to see! What is your proven chocolate of choice to produce the very best racing results? I wonder where this question came from??! :) My favourite has to be Cadbury Flake I possibly carry as much chocolate in my pit box as I do tools! I consider it an important racing accessory. If you could describe your racing style as an animal, what would it be? No doubt about it, I’ve always been a bit of a throttle jammer, go big or go home!

A Final Leg 1 - 4wd
Nice clean start to the race, top 4 remained in start order. Lee Martin kept close to Cragg, pushed hard to find a window to pass, but made an error landing on two wheels coming over the large jump. Managed to save it without Craig Collinson coming through to 2nd, but lost time on the leader. Lee pushed hard to catch up to Cragg and was soon nuzzling his gearbox again.

Thanks Charles - lay on the floor next time tho man! :) - A Final grid

Charles Krontis gets some oOple photos for us	Cragg leads with Martin, Collinson and Cockers

Richard Lowe's HotBodies with AVID Chassis	Elliott Boots' Kyosho

Despite his best efforts Lee Martin couldn't get past Neil's Associated buggy. The pair pulled away from the rest and if they'd made it through for the extra lap we could have seen some real crazy stuff but sadly the pair crossed the loop just after the buzzer to end the excitement all too early, and Neil Cragg took the victory.

Lee Martin and Neil Cragg pulled out a lead	Lee Martin alongside Cragg as they try for 18 laps

	4WD Buggy - A final leg 1
	position name laps result 1 Neil Cragg 17  300.67 2 Lee Martin 17  301.28 3 Craig Collinson 17 305.53 4 Richard Lowe 17 306.50 5 Ben Jemison 17 307.07 6 Danny McGee 17 312.40 7 Jack Neal 16 310.85 8 Elliott Boots 14 259.38 9 Tom Cockerill 10 193.35 10 Greg Williams 4 75.62

Racing dads - one with a heavily irradiated skull. No power tools used.

A Final Leg 2 - 4wd
Leg 2 followed a similar start to leg one, Lee was pushing for Neil to make an error, but unfortunately for Lee it was he who clipped the apex at the end of the straight - sending him straight into the wall and requiring marshalling. Craig Collinson flew past - and as Lee pushed like an insane man to regain his lost time, mistake followed mistake dropping him down to 8th.

Neil Cragg, Lee Martin, Craig Collinson, Tom Cockerill - round turn one, lap one.

	Super close racing between Cragg and Martin

BRCA goes for the camera block as Lee crashes	Recsued - but way down the order for Lee

Meanwhile Boots had moved into 3rd position. Lee worked hard to move back up the order, managing eventually to finish in 5th place. Whilst Cragg threw in a flawless run to take the leg win putting in the only 18 lap time, taking with it the championship win.

Lee Martin battles through the pack like a BOSS	oOple.com love from Richard Lowe - HB D413

Neil Cragg drives the final lap on his own - taking the victory at the 2015 British Winter Open Champs

	4WD Buggy - A final leg 2
	position name laps result 1 Neil Cragg 18  314.63 2 Craig Collinson 17  302.88 3 Danny McGee 17 308.15 4 Elliott Boots 17 308.47 5 Lee Martin 17 309.08 6 Greg Williams 17 312.93 7 Ben Jemison 17 315.61 8 Richard Lowe 17 317.12 9 Jack Neal 16 301.09 10 Tom Cockerill 14 265.32

A Final Leg 3 - 4wd
The final leg was all about bragging rights for Neil Cragg - hoping to lay down the challenge of a new fastest lap. Whether he made it or not, I don't remember and an unfortunate technical error in race control limited the availability of results to mere mortals, so we may never know.

Of course for the rest of the drivers, the race for positions was still on. Craig Collinson and Danny McGee were the only drivers who could knock Lee Martin off the second spot on the podiium.

There's a small chance I instigated some announcing of 'CHAV' comments at the three proline cap boys

Lee steers in the air - I think it's called SKILL

Neil was driving like he had a screw loose or something...............

Danny McGee had no screws loose on his car, only his head.

Lee Martin and Neil Cragg with his loose screw made it through for the 18th lap on their own and battled right to the line, with Lee finally coming out on top. The battle for third between Craig Collinson and Danny McGee was right to the line, and Craig just edged it for 3rd in leg and 3rd overall. A great result for the Team C guys.

	4WD Buggy - A final leg 3
	position name laps result 1 Lee Martin 18  310.96 2 Neil Cragg 18 311.21 3 Craig Collinson 17 303.23 4 Danny McGee 17 303.55 5 Ben Jemison 17 308.10 6 Jack Neal 17 313.47 7 Richard Lowe 17 313.62 8 Elliott Boots 16 289.36 9 Greg Williams 16 319.77 10 Tom Cockerill 8 158.36

Lee Martin 2nd - Neil Cragg TQ & 1st - Craig Collinson 3rd

	4WD Buggy - A final overall
	position name chassis   1 Neil Cragg Associated 2 Lee Martin Yokomo 3 Craig Collinson Team C / Absima 4 Danny McGee Schumacher 5 Ben Jemison Schumacher 6 Richard Lowe Hot Bodies 7 Elliott Boots Kyosho 8 Jack Neal Schumacher 9 Greg Williams Associated 10 Tom Cockerill Yokomo

We at oOple are starting a kickstarter fund to buy Neil some new tyres for the upcoming season.

Neils innards looked unusually neat.	Please donate to the CRAGG TYRE fund

THANKS to everyone that helped us. To Martin Hopkins and Charles Kropololouupolousousalous for helping with photos on the track. And all the great attitudes we had in our long-awaited return to the national reporting scene. Thanks to Helliwell and all the organisers - and thanks too to Steve Pierce, who managed to get my BRCA license sorted even if it wasn't accepted by the BRCA officials on the day.