Februarys mildest weekend saw racers from across the country, and Europe, gather at the historic dockyard in Kent for Maritime Raceways OffRoad Wars. The word 'Maritime' is originated from a 'lady-of work' in the 1850's called Marie, the local lads would exit the boozer and exclaim "It's Maritime", and proceed to her boudoir (located atop the building seen below). With entry figures in excess of 100 drivers each day, an early start was necessary to ensure timely running of the event. Despite the venue being closer to France and Belgium than it is to most of England, the majority of drivers were British nationals, with guest appearances from Jorn Neumann of Germany, and a couple of Belgiques.

The off-road wars is not the first large event hosted by Martitime Raceway; PetitRC made their debut UK appearance here back in 2009 and returned in 2010. The club also run their successful carpet wars series for on-road stuff.

Right: Schumacher's Tom Cockerill turned up in the new company van, Trish Neal wanted to go for a spin but Tom would not hand over the keys.

The setting is Chathams historic dockyards in Kent
BBC one's recent successful series 'Midwife Born Every Minute' was filmed here last summer. Ace.

Practice kicked off early - one round in heat order for the racers to get used to the layout. The drivers briefing got underway just before 10am and Ian 'Shouty' Knight got to use his ear-splitting voice for the first time as he described the rules of the event and location. Qualifying would be FTQ.

Ian Knight repells people with his mighty voice	Dave Belsten thinks about thinking after the aural hammering

Lee Martin "Does anyone want to come to the toilet?"

Southeners are ACE!

The track was laid out as in previous years, on top of the touring car track. A variety of surfaces, jumps and obstacles had been added to mix things up.

The pits	Kyosho legend Craddock oversees this hairy-chested (chest wig? Stu) youngster

Qualifying kicks off

Dan Greenwood flying high	Danneth, oOple's lovechild.

Danny McGee with the Ansmann

Keith Robertson - C4.1	Tom Cockerill racing the Schumacher Cougar SV2

	2WD Qualifying Round 1 - Top 10
	position name result 1 Lee Martin 17/ 311.92 2 Tom Cockerill 17/ 313.45 3 Ellis Stafford 17/ 317.39 4 Tony Truman 17/ 317.47 5 Richard Lowe 17/ 317.83 6 Jorn Neumann 17/ 318.00 7 Lloyd Storey 16/ 303.51 8 Keith Robertson 16/ 304.19 9 Nathan Ralls 16/ 305.40 10 Darren Bloomfield 16/ 305.84

2WD Short Course Truck
Truck specialist Richard Lowe was still able to take the 2WD Short Course qualifier. The national SC champ dominated the race from start to finish.

	Lowe lands hard over the cross-over

	SHORT COURSE Qualifying Round 1
	position name result 1 Rich Lowe 15/ 312.87 2 Andy Carter 14/ 305.24 3 Martin Hayes 14/ 307.14 4 Dave Andrews 14/ 313.45 5 Darren Boyle 13/ 300.81 6 Jonathan Peters 13/ 308.05 7 Mark Headling 13/ 320.19 8 Brett Hope 12/ 301.78 9 Steve Davis 12/ 318.21

Race control was a hive of professionalism

This young couple came to watch the racing

2wd Rd 2.
Richard Lowe set a new fastest time but once again it was Lee Martin who out-gunned everyone as he wound out everything his Tamiya-Vega car would give to take the round in an even faster time. Tom Cockerill hung on to Lee for a while but a couple of errors saw his SV2 drop off the leader.

The track was much faster in this round as the temperature in the race hall was higher - the 'Fastest Time' qualifying format means that for most people, round one was a waste of time. If the track continues to get faster we could well be looking at an all-or-nothing battle for the FTQ in round 4.

David 'Poulet' Poulter with the Team Durango DEX210

Lee Martin on his way to a new TQ time and second round win.

	Lee Martin - Tamiya VEGA 2WD
	Tamiya TRF man, Lee Martin, was racing his new 2WD ride, the Tamiya based Vega mid-motor car. This is the same car Lee used to good effect at the recent Area51 race. Lee is now using the proline bulldog shell for the TLR 22.     Lee's car is fast because it's got a scary skull

Team oOple driver Stuart Evans was keen to discover some important and revealing facts about fellow drivers, and at the top of his list was Adam Lewis, who Stu wanted to know:

"What would you rather be attacked by, one horse sized duck, or ten duck sized horses?"
Adam, who isn't phased by size, stated that he'd take on the horse sized duck.

Right: Adam 'Showtime' Lewis - against the odds, indeed!

"The loos outside are very cold, would you rather the seat be cold or pre-warmed by another racers bottie when you sit on the pot?" Adam said "Warm to be honest, but I'd rather know who was the previoius occupant".

"Would you rather have fingers on your feet or toes on your hands?" "Errr, fingers on my feet as it would open up a world on new things to do. That said, I'd probably drive better with toes on my hands!"

"What can you do to ANNOY Lady GaGa?" "I don't know who that is."

Thanks Adam, you should be on Radio 4, entertaining and informative.

The track was quicker again in round three and Jorn Neumann was now well on the pace. Jorn took up the lead and was going for FTD in his run but an error which required marshalling left him off the pace. Jorn was still on a charge however and quickly pulled it back - setting a new TQ time on his way to the win.

	2WD Qualifying Round 3 - Top 10
	position name result 1 Jorn Neumann 17/ 300.16 2 Tom Cockerill 17/ 301.20 3 Lee Martin 17/ 308.21 4 Ellis Stafford 17/ 309.32 5 Tony Truman 17/ 309.93 6 Lloyd Storey 17/ 309.94 7 Richard Lowe 17/ 310.70 8 Nathan Ralls 17/ 313.21 9 Danny McGee 16/ 300.04 10 Steve Brown 16/ 304.13

	SHORT COURSE Qualifying Round 3
	position name result 1 Rich Lowe 16/ 315.23 2 Andy Carter 14/ 300.24 3 Dave Andrews 14/ 314.23 4 Jonathan Peters 13/ 302.02 5 Martin Hayes 13/ 303.85 6 Mark Headling 13/ 306.54 7 Brett Hope 13/ 310.81 8 Darren Boyle 12/ 251.76 9 Steve Davis 10/ 307.95

The final round of qualifying saw Tom Cockerill up front with his Schumacher Cougar SV2. Tom's time wasn't quite enough to surpass Jorn for the TQ position but with the second fastest time of the day Tom would sit right behind Jorn on the grid.

	2WD Qualifying Round 4 - Top 10
	position name result 1 Tom Cockerill 17/ 302.83 2 Jorn Neumann 17/ 304.28 3 Richard Lowe 17/ 306.62 4 Ellis Stafford 17/ 306.80 5 Keith Robertson 17/ 309.09 6 Darren Bloomfield 17/ 311.81 7 Lloyd Storey 17/ 312.44 8 Danny McGee 17/ 313.24 9 Matt Benfield 17/ 317.75 10 Nathan Ralls 17/ 317.84

	2WD Overall FTD Qualifying - Top 10
	position name result 1 Jorn Neumann 17/ 300.16 2 Tom Cockerill 17/ 301.20 3 Lee Martin 17/ 303.25 4 Richard Lowe 17/ 306.62 5 Ellis Stafford 17/ 306.80 6 Darren Bloomfield 17/ 309.00 7 Keith Robertson 17/ 309.09 8 Tony Truman 17/ 309.93 9 Lloyd Storey 17/ 309.94 10 Nathan Ralls 17/ 313.21

	SHORT COURSE Overall FTD Qualifying
	position name result 1 Rich Lowe 16/ 315.23 2 Andy Carter 14/ 300.24 3 Martin Hayes 14/ 301.65 4 Dave Andrews 14/ 303.14 5 Darren Boyle 14/ 304.62 6 Jonathan Peters 13/ 302.02 7 Mark Headling 13/ 304.30 8 Brett Hope 13/ 306.50 9 Steve Davis 12/ 308.55

A final leg one

Jorn lead them away and quickly broke away from the pack with Tom Cockerill. An error at the start of lap two as Jorn came over the corner tabletop at the end of the main straight saw Jorn require some marshalling and Tom Cockerill was through for the lead followed by Darren Bloomfield.

Bloomfield chases Tom Cockerill

The last lap was absolute carnage - leader Tom Cockerill put in a steady 18-something second lap, whilst all the other drivers were in the mid 20-second laps.

	2WD Buggy A final Leg 1
	position name result 1 Tom Cockerill 17/ 300.16*43 2 Tony Truman 17/ 301.20 3 Lee Martin 17/ 303.25 4 Richard Lowe 17/ 306.62 5 Ellis Stafford 17/ 306.80 6 Darren Bloomfield 17/ 309.00 7 Keith Robertson 17/ 309.09 8 Jorn Neumann 17/ 309.93 9 Lloyd Storey 16/ 309.94 10 Nathan Ralls 16/ 313.21

The search for the missing neck continues

Bradley Letham

Magnum P.I. would be proud of Tony Evdoka

Dan Greenwood helps A-finalist Rich Lowe break in some tyres.

This lad wanted his pic on the oOple report - we're happy to oblige (and edit him to look like a nutter)

This lad was looking for his neck all day - still missing!

A final leg two
The second leg of the A final started well, with Jorn Neumann leading Tom Cockerill, Lee Martin, Richard Lowe and Ellis Stafford around the first lap. As the drivers came down the tabletop corner onto their second lap, Jorn rolled his car on the ramps and Tom Cockerill was through into the lead.

The leaders go up the corner table top	Jorn and Tom Cockerill battled early

Quick marshalling saw Jorn back on the track in 2nd place. On the following lap Rich Lowe and Lee Martin came together over the jump at the centre of the track, Lee Martin recovered pretty quick but Lowe ended up all scewed up and Darren Bloomfield was soon caught up in the chaos.

Jorn rolls - but is quickly marshalled

One minute into the race and Tom Cockerill was holding onto the lead position with Jorn Neumann very close behind.
3rd place Lee Martin and 4th place Ellis Stafford were pushing hard to hunt down the leaders. Tony Truman had moved up to 5th place, Rich Lowe down to 6th, Nathan Ralls 7th.

Tom Cockerill took a wide line coming onto the straight and Jorn Neumann slipped up the inside, taking the lead position.
A wide-slide from Tom on the following lap saw Lee Martin move into 2nd place.

Tom gets sideways on a landing	...And Jorn is quick to take the inside line

Jorn back into the lead	Lee Martin takes the outside round Cockerill for 2nd

Lee chased Jorn very hard and the pair pulled a gap back to 3rd place Tom Cockerill. With less than one minute left to race Lee looked to pull a move past Jorn,
But got it all out of shape and ended up dropping back a touch.
Jorn took the second leg win, followed by Lee and Tom.

	2WD Buggy A final Leg 2
	position name result 1 Jorn Neumann 17/ 302.49 2 Lee Martin 17/ 303.84 3 Tom Cockerill 17/ 305.13 4 Ellis Stafford 17/ 313.09 5 Tony Truman 17/ 316.83 6 Darren Bloomfield 17/ 317.14 7 Lloyd Storey 16/ 300.83 8 Nathan Ralls 16/ 302.81 9 Keith Robertson 13/ 260.64 10 Richard Lowe 12/ 227.97

Will (far right above, with green writing) from www.willswear.com had a few drivers wearing his new custom-made racewear. Will's designs are pretty sweet and obviously a lot of work goes into them - check out his website for more information.

Apparently these tricky thumb screws are by CREAM

Tony Truman ponders life

A Final Leg 3
A pile up on the first corner saw 3rd place man Lee Martin drop down the order. Jorn Neumann and Tom Cockerill pulled a slight lead back to 3rd place Tony Truman, Darren Bloomfield in 4th, Nathan Ralls in 5th, and Lee martin bearing down in 6th.
Jorn started to pull a gap back to Tom, and by half race distance was boasting a 4 second lead. Tom was pushing hard and looked to be getting closer on the track but the time gap remained the same, Lee Martin was carefully climbing back up the order and with less than two minutes left to race he had passed Darren Bloomfield to take 4th place.
Truman had been out on his own in 3rd place for much of the race, but now had Lee Martin and Darren Bloomfield hunting him down.
Bloomfield took a bad landing off a jump which saw him removed from the race. This gave Lee Martin the space he needed to hassle Truman hard, and as the pair came down the straight at the end of their final lap, Lee Martin throttled past to take 3rd place off Truman, just 0.08sec ahead.
Jorn won the leg from 2nd place Tom Cockerill, taking the 2wd race win.

	2WD Buggy A final Leg 3
	position name result 1 Jorn Neumann 18/ 315.87 2 Tom Cockerill 17/ 305.57 3 Lee Martin 17/ 308.14 4 Tony Truman 17/ 308.22 5 Lloyd Storey 17/ 313.01 6 Richard Lowe 16/ 300.74 7 Nathan Ralls 16/ 306.53 8 Darren Bloomfield 15/ 272.68 9 Keith Robertson 5/ 137.80 10 Ellis Stafford 1/ 22.77

	2WD Buggy A final overall results
	position name chassis 1 Jorn Neumann Team Durango DEX210 2 Tom Cockerill Schumacher Cougar SV2 3 Lee Martin Tamiya / Vega TRF201X 4 Tony Truman Associated / CML C4.1 5 Ellis Stafford Xfactory X6sq 6 Richard Lowe Associated / CML C4.1 7 Lloyd Storey Schumacher Cougar SV2 8 Darren Bloomfield TLR 22 9 Nathan Ralls Fab RB5 mid custom special 10 Keith Robertson Associated / CML C4.1

4WD - Sunday February 26th 2012.
The schedule for Sunday followed a very similar format to 2wd the previous day, but with fewer heats and the extraction of Short Course Trucks, the day was planned to reach completion by around 6.30pm.

Practice kicked off on schedule, however an early morning heated discussion between Tony Vodka and Ellis Stafford almost saw the event come to an early close. Ellis had directed an additional ramp onto the straight, however Vodka argued that many drivers with a lesser ability, such as Adam Lewis, would struggle to mount such a ramp. Tonys insistance eventually led to the deletion of said jump and the racing was allowed to resume.

	Martimes new permenant off road track
	Maritime Raceway showed us round the new permenant off-road track they're developing in another part of the same huge building. Like a mirror image of the track that was being used for the off road wars, the new venue will allow the existing veue to remain 100% on-road, whilst this new venue will only be used for proper classes, like buggies. Still a lot of work to do - but it's getting there. The old building has some interesting stuff to look at if you manage to get free reign of the place and take a look around. Some frighteningly-easy-to-open doors which lead to near-certain death were all over the place along with some crazy old conveyer system for carrying prisoners or something mad like that.

Predictably the fastest drivers in practice were Jorn Neumann, Lee Martin and Ellis Stafford, however with FTD the order of the day again they'd have four qualifying rounds to prove their worth.

We found the culprit for Elliots new neck tattoo

Adam Lewis - couldn't tolerate the additional jump.

The search for the missing neck continues

Young Bradley Letham took home a Cougar SV2!!!

Big timing displays - quick info for the racers!

Bloomfield swaps to the 22 dampers on his xxx4

Jorn Neumann carried on as he finished the previous day, taking the opening round with Lee Martin and Tom Cockerill the only other drivers to make it through for 19 laps on the slightly revised layout.

Darren Bloomfield - still not swapped those dampers	Tom Cockerill's Schumacher CAT SX3

Elliott Boots was the only driver not to compete in 2WD to make the top 10, finishing 5th in round after just one practice round - not bad for the Kyosho man.

Trish Neal was quite pleased to place the third Schumacher into the top 10 - with both Tom Cockerill and Lloyd Storey putting their CAT SX3's making the cut.

	4WD qualifying - Round 1
	position name result 1 Jorn Neumann 19 309.86 2 Lee Martin 19 312.79 3 Tom Cockerill 19 316.16 4 Darren Bloomfield 18 300.24 5 Elliot Boots 18 303.48 6 Lloyd Storey 18 306.32 7 Danny McGee 18 308.53 8 Nathan Ralls 18 310.60 9 Tristram Neal 18 312.30 10 Andy Griffiths 18 314.37

Jorn was on top again in round two after an early mistake which required marshalling dropped him off the pace.

Intense racing drew the crowds of young fans	Tony Truman

Some nice moody lighting in the Maritime facility

Jorn improved his TQ time on his way to the round two win ahead of Tom Cockerill and Darren Bloomfield.

	4WD qualifying - Round 2
	position name result 1 Jorn Neumann 19 308.07 2 Tom Cockerill 19 313.40 3 Darren Bloomfield 19 316.64 4 Lee Martin 18 304.84 5 Tony Truman 18 306.36 6 Richard Lowe 18 309.57 7 Andy Griffiths 18 311.16 8 Kev Lee 18 311.51 9 Tomas Holicky 18 312.08 10 Ellis Stafford 18 312.12

Jorn made an error which allowed Lee Martin past on the track and on for a predicted new TQ time 2 seconds inside the previous fastest, set by Neumann in round 2.

Jorn closed up behind Lee and followed close for several laps before Lee made the smallest of errors and Neumann was back through for the lead on the track - which he quickly built up to the lead on time. Darren Bloomfield had been on for a good time but took early retirement after 13 laps.

	4WD qualifying - Round 3
	position name result 1 Jorn Neumann 19 307.01 2 Lee Martin 19 309.95 3 Tom Cockerill 19 311.57 4 Lloyd Storey 18 301.09 5 Tony Truman 18 302.50 6 Kev Lee 18 306.30 7 Danny McGee 18 306.64 8 Dan Greenwood 18 308.75 9 Tristram Neal 18 314.88 10 Tomas Holicky 18 315.24

The final round of qualifying saw Elliott Boots on for a very quick time - inside TQ by around 1.5 seconds - but an error and then getting stuck behind traffic saw him drop off the pace slightly. Darren Bloomfield put in his fastest time of the day so far to take the round, but it wasn't fast enough to dethrone Jorn from the top of the grid.

	4WD qualifying - Round 4
	position name result 1 Darren Bloomfield 19 313.56 2 Lee Martin 19 314.65 3 Jorn Neumann 18 302.37 4 Elliott Boots 18 303.15 5 Tony Truman 18 303.22 6 Tom Cockerill 18 303.36 7 Danny McGee 18 305.02 8 Ellis Stafford 18 305.43 9 Nathan Ralls 18 306.62 10 Ed Kerry 18 309.62

4WD A Final Leg 1
Jorn 'The Machine' Neumann lead Lee Martin and Darren Bloomfield away from the start line for the first leg of the A-final.
A pile up on the first corner affected some drivers further back down the field.
Jorn pulled a 1.5 second lead on Lee, and Darren was much further back on the track.

Jorn quickly built a healthy lead and looked like he'd take a very easy win in leg 1

The race order was Jorn Neumann, Lee Martin, Darren Bloomfield, Tony Truman, Danny McGee, Lloyd Storey.

Just half way into the race Jorn was approaching back markers Kev Lee and Elliot Boots, whom he passed uneventfully. However as Jorn mounted the tabletop corner at the start of the straight, he caught the track edge and flipped. Rapid marshalling saw Jorn back on his wheels but he now had a chasing Lee Martin hot on his tail.

Jorn pulls up as Lee passes for the lead	Jorn gets some attention but retires soon after

Lee Martin came through at the end of the straight, and Jorn pulled over for a rapid repair as he'd popped a turnbuckle.
With his balls back in situ Jorn returned to the track but was severely down on time - and the same problem again effectively put him out of the race as he saved his tyres for leg 2.

Elliot Boots	Darren Bloomfield gets past Lee for the lead

Lee Martin lead 2.5 seconds ahead of Darren Bloomfield now. Bloomers was pushing hard to catch up, which paid off less than one minute from the end of the race when Lee Martin misjudged his racing line and flew off the side of the tabletop ramp. Darren's belt was obviously slipping like MAD under braking, creating an horrific noise - it didn't sound like it would last much longer.

Bloomfield's slipping belt was hampering his braking	Lee Martin goes to jump the corner but lands on Bloomfield

Bloomfield came out of the scrape nearly unscathed	Lee clips the cross over jump and kills his car

Lee kept close and looked to make a pass, but as he tried to pull a move coming down the tabletop, he moved in too close to Darren and the cars became entwined. Darren remained on his wheels and held onto the top spot, and in an effort to catch up again as the seconds ebbed away Lee caught the next jump badly and accidentally removed the rear end of his car.
Darren was untouchable and despite the horrible noises coming from his Losi XXX4, completed his lap to take the first leg win.

Bloomfield was on a good run - and would need a new belt.

	4WD Buggy A final Leg 1
	position name result 1 Darren Bloomfield 2 Tony Truman 3 Danny McGee 4 Tom Cockerill 5 Lee Martin 6 Lloyd Storey 7 Elliott Boots 8 Kev Lee 9 Jorn Neumann 10 Ellis Stafford

4WD A Final Leg 2
A clean start from Jorn saw a bit of a break away with Lee Martin. Lee tried to keep up and simply couldn't match the pace Neumann was throwing down. Neumann pulled out a lead and didn't look back for the win in leg two.

Jorn - Lee - Tom Cockerill

The fast way to do the corner jump - HARD!	Lee tried to hang onto Jorn

Jorn was very composed after a bad start to the finals.

	4WD Buggy A final Leg 2
	position name result 1 Jorn Neumann 19 311.80 2 Lee Martin 18 301.26 3 Darren Bloomfield 18 302.23 4 Tom Cockerill 18 305.99 5 Lloyd Storey 18 313.96 6 Danny McGee 18 316.26 7 Elliott Boots 17 304.44 8 Tony Truman 17 309.03 9 Ellis Stafford 10 188.14 10 Kevin Lee 10 192.06

4.5 turn motor - Adam Lewis. That's why they call him 'Showtime'.

New Orion charger - a bit like a George Foreman.

4WD A Final Leg 3
The final leg got underway and four drivers could still win it - Jorn, Lee Martin, Darren Bloomfield and Tony Truman. Unfortunaltely Tony lost his chance early when he got tangled with Elliott Boots which caused a huge pile up and allowed the front runners to pull away.

Jorn leads them round the first corners	Eliott and Truman get tangled up

Cars 6-7-8-9 & 10 all get	Jorn stretches out his lead

Jorn pulled away and even with a couple of mistakes his lead was big enough to stay out front and take another leg win and with it the 4WD title to go with his 2WD win.

A couple of mistakes from Jorn weren't enough to put a severe dent in his lead.

	4WD Buggy A final Leg 3
	position name result 1 Jorn Neumann 19 314.46 2 Tom Cockerill 18 301.54 3 Lee Martin 18 303.85 4 Lloyd Storey 18 307.62 5 Tony Truman 18 311.03 6 Kev Lee 17 299.61 7 Danny McGee 17 305.13 8 Darren Bloomfield 15 256.25 9 Ellis Stafford 15 311.57 10 Elliott Boots 2 43.73

	4WD Buggy A final OVERALL RESULTS
	position name result 1 Jorn Neumann Team Durango DEX410 2 Darren Bloomfield Losi XXX4G+ 3 Lee Martin Tamiya TRF502X 4 Tom Cockerill Schumacher CAT SX3 5 Tony Truman Associated B44.1 6 Danny McGee Ansmann X4 7 Lloys Storey Schumacher CAT SX3 8 Kev Lee Kyosho FS2 Worlds 9 Elliott Boots Kyosho FS2 Worlds 10 Ellis Stafford XFactory X7 Prototype

Massive thanks to both Maritime Raceway and Schumacher, along with everyone who brought us news and information and helped throughout the weekend. Maritime is a great venue - better every time we've been - and for off road it's about to get a whole load better with a new dedicated venue.

Who'll win the WARS next year?