Stu Evans thought it would be a jolly good idea to come to the final three rounds of the Schumacher Worksop winter series - to get me back into producing stupid reports after a such a long layoff from being poory / feeling sorry for myself.

Man bra's are ace! I got one yesterday which pulls my shoulders back - apparently all these mad diseases and crazy drugs that ruin 2013 for me for all for naught - since it's just my posture. No idea how long I have to wear the special man bra but it feels more an instrument of torture than one of relief.

Anyway so after an evening meal with 'the lads' and a sofa at Farmer Helliwell's - we just about got enough sleep for the day ahead after 5 or so minute dash to the track which was already heaving packed with sardine-like-humans. Such a strange atmosphere when the only life I've seen for quite a while is the dust on my work room floor as I slowly get back into my vast workload. 10th and 8th brca national jockeys hate me so much that I thought there might be a lynching but it was only a stareing match in the end. The hateful states forcing me to look down at my computer.

And then the pain drugs wore off.

 

The toilet area at Worksop has always been a disgrace - so much that a camera wasn't able to handle it - and we never got photos of the true turdy horror - with holes in the floor and stains upon stains - upon whatever bodyly artifacts.

BizWOW - with the vast piles of cash these guys rape out of us year after year - the corruption has finally ceased and the toilets have been given a total refresh. Some have enterred and assumed wrongly that it must be either staff or ladies toilets so have left their expulsions in the hallway outside.

Barry Williams wants a mirror, we don't know why, it's quite clear he has not seen one for a number of years.

This unrinal beauty makes me want to piss up the walls - to recreate the original atmosphere.

Not everyone was 100% happy with the refurbushed poo-house, many racers have been coming to the venue for 20 years and had grown to like the facilities as they were. These guys have a facebook campaign to un-refurbish them to their pervious state, please visit www.facebook.com/iwannafuckadog

The racing got underway a little after 9am with 2WD on the track first of all.

2WD Qualifying Round One - Top 10

 

position

name

result

1

Neil Cragg

16/ 5m 9.09

2

Richard Lowe

16/ 5m 10.07

3

Craig Collinson

16/ 5m 12.43

4

Paul Fox

16/ 5m 16.38

5

Steven Pierce

15/ 5m 3.48

6

James Helliwell

15/ 5m 4.55

7

Greg Williams

15/ 5m 5.32

8

Rob Fox

15/ 5m 6.17

9

Eugene Galley

15/ 5m 9.02

10

Craig Collinson

15/ 5m 9.75

 

Richard Lowe and Neil Cragg battled for position but it was Neil Cragg running the all not-new Centro 2WD buggy that put in some fast laps toward the end to take the overall victory.

Local hero and former touring car special boy Leon Morrell finished dead last in round one.

4WD class round one came around and the oOple favourite for the win, Chris Doughty, didn't disappoint. Neil Cragg had a few errors. Greg Williams briefly took up the lead - then Richard lowe had a punt. After it was all done and Chris had a clear track he took the win by two seconds over Cragg, with Craig Collinson

4WD Qualifying Round One - Top 10

 

position

name

result

1

Chris Doughty

17/ 5m 12.45

2

Neil Cragg

17/ 5m 14.06

3

Craig Collinson

17/ 5m 15.13

4

Richard Lowe

17/ 5m 18.24

5

Greg Williams

16/ 5m 0.66

6

James Helliwell

16/ 5m 4.78

7

Adam Mackman

16/ 5m 7.28

8

Rob Fox

16/ 5m 11.39

9

Jack Neil

16/ 5m 12.42

10

Richard Drury

16/ 5m 12.84

68

Chris Holmes

A bit slower

 

 

Stuff is different down worksop way - baby selling!

A mid-day shutdown had to be enforced when the heating broke down but MANGAS saved the day

After a decent start in 2WD - Neil Cragg backed it up with a real dominaor of a performance - Cragg kick in the head of his previous time - putting in a 17 lap run with Craig Collinson just 2 seconds off the extra lap and Richard Lowe approximately 2.5 further back.

2WD Qualifying Round Two - Top 10

 

position

name

result

1

Neil Cragg

17/ 5m 17.36

2

Craig Collinson

16/ 5m 2.44

3

Richard Lowe

16/ 5m 4.69

4

Nathan Waters

16/ 5m 7.17

5

Greg Williams

16/ 5m 8.06

6

Paul Fox

16/ 5m 9.33

7

James Helliwell

16/ 5m 15.11

8

Steven Pierce

16/ 5m 15.63

9

Johnathan Skidmore

16/ 5m 17.81

10

Oui Oui - Simonini

16/ 5m 18.55

 

With a victory already under his belt - the Doughtynator was too relaxed in round two - or to be more exact, Neil Cragg's ass was on fire as he put in consistent 17 second laps until the very last one. Doughty looked good in second but some errors dropped him to 4th. Greg Williams took up the chase but no one was going to get close to Cragg who blitzed it and once again was the only driver to steal an extra (18th) lap. Greg was 7.65 seconds off the extra lap with Craig Collinson just a second further back.

4WD Qualifying Round Two - Top 10

 

position

name

result

1

Neil Cragg

18/ 5m 17.53

2

Greg Williams

17/ 5m 7.65

3

Craig Collinson

17/ 5m 8.74

4

Chris Doughty

17/ 5m 13.06

5

James Helliwell

17/ 5m 15.09

6

Richard Lowe

17/ 5m 17.15

7

Adam Mackman

17/ 5m 17.24

8

Rob Fox

17/ 5m 17.95

9

Paul Fox

17/ 5m 18.80

10

Nathan Waters

16/ 5m 0.47

 

Send Stu Evans - oOple man in the extreme - on a mission to get some mad shots with the fish eye cam, this is what you get.

Stu is scared of goimg up to people to take photos

I hope that's not a hot plate, somet might melt

Stu loves to sniff things - a brand new TLR 22-4 (XX4) was handed over so we could get to enjoy the new car close up and personal. After a good sniff as he carefully manipulated the blade I 'pumped' the box to give him a real good dose of the gas coming off the new super car.

Left: DOG MILK is coming

Me - I'm a taster - I had to get my face into the kit and whilst I enjoy a good sniff there's nothing better than getting a new kit in your hands and licking and chewing all the parts. This is racing - this is how we roll, because we love it.

Stu gets some of the precious gas

I get my mouth over all the parts. Sweet.

And it wasn't even our car. Thanks Shane for the lend!

John Walton loves all things serpent and had the new SPYDER 2WD running at Worksop. A real stunner of a car with some very sexy big bore dampers. It's great to see all these new cars coming out - Serpent sponsored our 2013 oOple race series despite not having a car! Big things to come from these guys i'm sure.

All looks nice and solid

John with his Serpent 2WD

Unlike the DEX210 - the bend in the wishbone does lower the dampers

Rear mounted shocks - everyone knows this is just better for some reason :)

 

Ok it's cab forward but - I can just about say I like it.

Neil Cragg again was the only one to make it through for the 17th lap - shaving a second off his previous time. Nathan waters was 5 seconds off 17 laps in second place - Cragg is on fire.

2WD Qualifying Round Three - Top 10

 

position

name

result

1

Neil Cragg

17/ 5m 16.10

2

Nathan Waters

16/ 5m 5.15

3

Richard Lowe

16/ 5m 7.74

4

Greg Williams

16/ 5m 9.26

5

Craig Collinson

16/ 5m 12.00

6

Colin Jackson

16/ 5m 13.38

7

Chris Doughty

16/ 5m 14.20

8

Rob Fox

16/ 5m 14.90

9

Neil Adamson

16/ 5m 15.33

10

Eugene Galley

16/ 5m 15.72

 

Chris Doughty approves

 

D O M I N A T I O N - Cragg once again poured on a display of supreme driving.

Neil Cragg's Cars
With the first new 2WD car out in over a decade - Neil Cragg wasn't having any of it. The mid-motor version isn't out so Neil was sticking firmly with his trusty Centro. Well worn and with the ifmar worlds chassis sticker on - this has seen some track time. Mostly good.

 

No surprises that Neil's running a B44.2 in 4WD as always - It felt too cheeky to lift the lid so I didn't. But those flames down the side aren't kidding about as Neil blew everyone away again in round three.

 

Cragg once again took the 4WD win with another untouched 18 lap run, Chris Doughty put in his best run a couple of seconds off the extrra lap. Craig Collinson took third in round wltih Nathan Waters just behind.

4WD Qualifying Round Three - Top 10

 

position

name

result

1

Neil Cragg

18/ 5m 14.37

2

Chris Doughty

17/ 5m 2.52

3

Craig Collinson

17/ 5m 5.16

4

Nathan Waters

17/ 5m 6.29

5

Greg Williams

17/ 5m 8.36

6

Richard Lowe

17/ 5m 10.46

7

Adam Mackman

17/ 5m 13.64

8

James Hart

17/ 5m 15.80

9

Rob Fox

17/ 5m 18.99

10

Jack Neal

16/ 5m 1.34

 

 

MAN

Track repairs - the down slope took some beatings

2WD Qualifying Round Four - Top 10

 

position

name

result

1

Neil Cragg

17/ 5m 13.92

2

Nathan Waters

17/ 5m 17.05

3

Craig Collinson

17/ 5m 17.15

4

Richard Lowe

16/ 5m 1.52

5

Chris Doughty

16/ 5m 1.98

6

Gred Williams

16/ 5m 7.31

7

Jack Neal

16/ 5m 8.49

8

Coli Jackson

16/ 5m 9.05

9

Rob Fox

16/ 5m 10.26

10

James Helliwell

16/ 5m 10.96

 

 

Cragg in full race concentration mode

Maltloaf had a rather ACE dual charger.

Cragg made a mistake in the final round of 4WD and his new team mate Greg Williams took the close fought round tq. Cragg finished less than a second behind with Nathan Waters 4 seconds back on the AE pair.

4WD Qualifying Round Four - Top 10

 

position

name

result

1

Greg Williams

17/ 5m 0.53

2

Neil Cragg

17/ 5m 1.28

3

Nathan Waters

17/ 5m 5.24

4

Richard Lowe

17/ 5m 6.40

5

Chris Doughty

17/ 5m 8.78

6

Adam Mackman

17/ 5m 14.09

7

James Helliwell

17/ 5m 14.50

8

Andy Pearson

17/ 5m 16.69

9

Rob Fox

17/ 5m 17.84

10

Paul Fox

17/ 5m 18.61

 

 

With Greg Williams joining the CML / Associated team for 2014 - the rising star had already seen a bit of rear motor action at Worksop when he was with Schumacher and to show his loyalty he was running the real-deal Associated B5. Rear motor and all.

Greg was unsurprisingly rocketship quick - the B5 easily matching the mid-motor cars - at least with Greg driving. A win in the final round of qualifying showed just how fast the combinatiom is.

The narrow chassis make the 'side pods' pretty useless for electrics - Greg mentioned he'd had no time really at all to swap the electrics over from his Centro so that's why things aren't as pretty as he'd like.

 

 

 

Good luck to Greg in 2014 - he'll be a serious contender at the BRCA nats and oOple nats

 

2WD A Final
Stu wrote up the 2WD final as I sorta just took photos - but it was so much jibberish it's possibly a blessing that I messed up the report and lost some parts by accident including Stu's hard work of lunacy.

After a great start - Neil Cragg took off from pole on the grid for a nice clean run to the next corner - the other drivers having pretty much an extra corner to negotiate. Cragg made an error at the other side of the track from me (remind me to get someone to help out properly next time :)

Cragg sniffs Nathan Waters car

Greg Williams having a bit of a moment

Nathan Waters - gone now from Durango and racing for Schumacher. Nathan took the lead on the first lap and despite some back and forth action - Nathan crossed the line in the lead for all 17 of his laps for the win. Mistakes from Cragg moved him all round the running order but he was clearly quicker than anyone else - he just didn't have the luck as he put in the only sub 18 second lap.

Craig Collinson has his DEX210 sorted and drove superbly for 2nd overall

Craig Collinson and Cragg had a big battle for second place but it was Collinson that hung on for the win after some close racing. Cragg dropped down to 4th after another mistake but passed Paul Fox for third and that's how it ended, 5 seconds adrift of Collinson who was a couple of seconds off the extra lap claimed by winner Nathan Waters of HPI fame.

2WD A final results

 

position

qual

name

Result

1

2

Nathan Waters

17/ 5m 15.54

2

3

Craig Collinson

16/ 5m 2.09

3

1

Neil Cragg

16/ 5m 7.84

4

6

Paul Fox

16/ 5m 8.35

5

7

Chris Doughty

16/ 5m 12.98

6

4

Richard Lowe

16/ 5m 14.50

7

5

Greg Williams

16/ 5m 18.39

8

10

Colin Jackson

15/ 5m 2.70

9

8

Steven Pierce

15/ 5m 8.89

10

9

James Helliwell

10/ 3m 30.24

 

Neil Cragg TQ & 3rd - Nathan Waters 1st, - Craig Collinson 2nd

After a bit of a disappointment in 2WD that was nearly too much to bear - Neil got his thinking cap on for the 4WD final and concluded it would be unwise to crash and even better to drive the nubs off his B44.2. Neil quickly built up a lead over Greg Williams since Greg was down to 8th after lap one. So it was the mighty Chris Doughty chasing in second and Craig Collinson and "a white car" driven by Nathan Waters did battle just behind.

 

 

 

Things weren't moving much in the top 5 - but by half race distance Cragg had already lapped several cars that the chasing pack (well spaced pack) were yet to reach. When they did there was some frantic wheel-to-wheel action. Craig Collinson got a big shunt and Nathan was past - Collinson dropped another position as Rochard Lowe took up 4th.

Cragg was in a class of his own in 4WD, Chris Doughty just couldn't close the gap.

In the end however it was all for naught - Craggy was in the groove and when he's like that it's all but over for anyone else.

4WD A final results

 

position

qual

name

Result

1

1

Neil Cragg

18/ 5m 10.29

2

3

Chris Doughty

17/ 5m 1.40

3

5

Nathan Waters

17/ 5m 5.98

4

6

Richard Lowe

17/ 5m 8.34

5

4

Craig Collinson

17/ 5m 9.15

6

2

Greg Williams

17/ 5m 9.51

7

8

Adam Mackman

17/ 5m 15.04

8

9

Rob Fox

16/ 5m 5.26

9

10

James Hart

16/ 5m 7.62

10

7

James Helliwell

13/ 4m 12.74

 

2ND Chris Doughty, - 1ST Neil Cragg, - 3RD Nathan Waters

First report in quite a while as I've slowly recovered from my shoulder pain, so please forgive if it's a bit naff. Huge appologies for all the late reports I've yet to finish, but they will be done. 2014 is when oOple gets better than ever :)

FULL RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE