2008 European Championships
CML Team Manager Dave Duggan reports back from the 2008 1/8th Off-Road European Championships held last weekend in Herakilon, Greece.
Monday 30th June
Our travelling party arrived at Gatwick airport around 05.30 for a scheduled 7.15 direct flight to Herakilon. A small delay saw us arrive at the hotel in Crete around 2.30 in the afternoon Greek time. After checking in and meeting up with some others from our team like Richard Saxton of AE, we took a quick look at the track to find our pitting area and meet up with the local Proline distributor for the drivers to pick up there wheels and tyres. Neil and Elliott noticed a few small changes to the track from the warm up race in May, which seem to be for the better so now we are looking forward to a pleasant evening in the hotel with friends and in preparation for technical inspection and the first round of practice tomorrow.
The Team Associated pitting table and a very tired Darren Bloomfield.
Tuesday 1st July
Most of the drivers were in the pits at the track and just prepping their cars reading for the practice round this afternoon. The Associated team decided to prep their cars at the hotel away from the hustle and bustle of the cramped pitting area. The three works cars of Neil Cragg, Elliott Boots and Peter Pinisch were all using the still prototype Big Bore shock absorbers, for which Richard Saxton had brought some revised caps and bladders. Neil wanted to try his Proline Bowtie tyres on both the original Proline rim and the new bigger V2 rims to see which direction to take. The one practice round today is a 15 minute slot which will allow changes of the nature without seriously affecting track time. Bernard Durand from RB engines has given the drivers (Neil, Elliott and Graham Alsop) the engines they will use for this event. Graham is starting with his usual set up on his Hyper 8.5 that has served him so well this season.
After the first 15 minute practice session the Hobao guys all felt that they were somewhere close with set up, Graham Alsop looking fast and consistent, his only change will be to go to slightly thicker front diff to try and smooth the car out. John Howells thought his car was great but he was on first and the track will have changed a lot for his next run, so he will see how it performs in the morning. Of the Associated drivers it was Elliott Boots who looked in the best shape, during his run his pit crew lowered the car significantly and found it a large improvement and both he and Neil Cragg found the new V2 rims to be better than the smaller size. Neil will also change his car to be more like Elliott?s for tomorrows first practice session as he felt the rear of his car was too stiff.
All the RB drivers were happy with the performance of their engine/pipe combinations, Neil?s looking particularly fast. Bernard Durand was on hand during each of their runs to keep an eye on the tune of the motor. Elliott?s motor has some porting differences from the standard WS7 he normally runs and he was giving Bernard a full description of how it felt in the track and compared to the standard motors.
The track was very tough to master especially in such heat.
Wednesday 2nd July
Today we have 2 10 minute practice runs which also qualify for re-seeding. There is also a 5 minute run at the end of the day in the re-seeded heats to check for frequency clashes. In the first round of the day Graham Alsop put a fast time in to be 6th in the round and he felt that his car was slightly better than yesterday, but was still easy enough to drive. The AE guys had fairly tough runs in this round although Neil was able to run fast lap times when he managed clear laps. The discussion after this round was about how to make the car more compliant and forgiving on this track that was anything but. The track was now pretty blue grooved in most places and generating a lot of traction which was not helping the edgy feel to the cars. For the second round all three works cars tried the Holeshot tyres in different compounds, Neil felt that his harder compound was working well but now that the grip was up he wanted to go back to the higher powered motor he had taken out yesterday. Elliott was able to run some really fast laps as he pushed his car to the limit to see what it was capable of, and his car really did look like it was close on set up. Peter ran the second fastest time in the round with a very consistent run despite not breaking into the 39 second laps. After these runs all the drivers from both Hobao and Associated had done enough to be seeded in the top group of heats, which should help come qualifying as they should not have any slow cars to negotiate. In the final 5 minute run Neil went out on the Knuckles tyres and said he felt that was the way forward for him come qualifying. He felt they took the edge of his car which allowed him to push harder without fear of the car biting him. Peter tried a different compound of holeshot tyre which he said had too much traction and he will return to the harder compound of the previous run. Graham was happy with his car and he will stick to the Crimefighter M2 tyres he has run all through today?s practice.
An issue that has become a real talking point has been the state of some sections of track. The log section has become so inconsistent that it is pure luck rather than skill that decides who gets over it quickly, if at all. The face of the first double jump (which is concrete) has had two great holes dug out of it by the cars continually pounding in to it which has also provided a degree of inconsistency to this section.
Thursday 3rd July
Overnight the organisers have re-concreted the face of the two double jumps and this proved to be a great benefit for the racing as it meant they became less of lottery. The log section however was unchanged and really has the potential to ruin otherwise good runs through no real fault of the driver.
The qualifying sessions started with the Elliott and Neil both making the top 15 in round 1 despite having scruffy runs and not being at all happy with the set up of the car. Graham Alsop managed a 19th in round although he broke his car in the warm up and had to soldier on with a damaged car. TQ in this round was Warm up winner Renaud Savoya, he and his car looked great on this testing track and it is easy to see why he won the warm up race.
Round 2 and Elliott made the decision to go back to his original small bore AE shocks, and also run Holeshot tyres in XTR compound which Scott Hughes of Proline had made available for this race. The difference was immediately visible and Elliott put in a sensational drive, reeling in Savoya until an unfortunate roll where his wheel caught a rut and dropped him 5 seconds. His time was still good enough for 4th in round but we knew that without the roll Elliott was on for the fastest time of the meeting by 2 seconds. Neil battled through for a 12th in round with a car that was obviously too stiff and. Graham switched to Bowtie XTR tyres that were being used by Savoya and was unfortunate to be assaulted by a random back marker while on for a top 15 time. This round was also taken by Savoya by less than 2 tenths of a second from Hobao driver and last years champion Robert Battle from Spain.
Into the third round and Neil moved his car over to a set up close to that of Elliott?s and despite an error put a solid display in to get 6th in this round, although for tomorrow we will lower the ride height as Neil felt the car was still a little too high. Elliott was unfortunate in that during warm up he had a big collision with another car and broke a front shock. Despite this he drove his car round and still managed a top 30 round score. Graham was again on for a good run until the final lap where 2 costly errors blunted his charge. Savoya managed to secure overall TQ by again winning the round. The final two rounds of qualifying will take place tomorrow with the weather forecast predicting even hotter weather, if that is possible! Also today the AE team decided to leave their places in the crowded pits and pit by the pool at the hotel, the manager Joe was more than happy to allow us to do so and this provided a much better area for us to get the work done to our cars.
Friday 4th July
The final 2 rounds of qualification and Neil managed to put 2 good runs together with 5th in round 4 and 4th in round 3. In the final round Neil and Elliott both tried a more ?European? style set up, with very heavy differentials and lots of negative camber. Both found the car to be faster, especially Neil who shaved nearly 1 second off his fastest lap. Elliott managed a 6th in round 4 which combined with his 4th and 12th easily secured him a semi final place.
Graham Alsop had a tough final 2 rounds where he found a clean run hard to come by. The overall top sixteen and semi finalists after qualifying were as follows.
Renaud Savoya (France)
Robert Battle ? Hobao (Spain)
Borja Hernandez ? Hobao (Spain)
Alessandro Laffranchi ? (Italy)
Neil Cragg ? Associated (UK)
Yannick Aigoin ? (France)
Elliott Boots ? Associated (UK)
Fabio Beoro ? (Italy)
Jerome Sartel ? (France)
Martin Bayer ? (Czech Republic)
Daniel Vega ? (Spain)
Raul Peris ? (Spain)
Guilliame Vray ? (France)
Darren Bloomfield ? (UK)
Riccardo Perin ? (Italy)
Rodrigo Luis ? (Portugal)
In the lower finals CML?s Rob Rasey managed to bump up 2 finals on Friday evening with some clean and consistent drives, after the second he performed a little dance on the rostrum much to the amusement of the watching spectators and Dallas the referee.
The UK team scrubbed up quite well.
Saturday 5th July
Rob Rasey once again drove an excellent race in his third final, but was on the end of an unfortunate marshalling incident when lying second. The marshall stopping his flywheel and putting him out of the race. Other CML drivers John Howells and John Holmes also had bump ups, John Holmes went from the 1/32 finals to the 1/8?s and was looking to good to bump up to the ? finals when he had a unlucky engine cut in pit lane. This was a common sight on this, the hottest day by far of the championships. (54 deg C was recorded in the sunshine!)
Onto the finals and Graham Alsop had a tough race including a stop and go for a tangle with another car, despite this Graham put on a charge over the last four laps to chase down Hupo Honigl, these were Graham four fastest laps of the entire championships and he came within 1/10 of second of clinching the fourth place he needed, but in the end it was in vain. After the race there was a brief moment of hope when Hupo?s car failed tech for fuel tank size, but after allowing it to cool down and be re-checked it came in legal.
Now the really serious business began with the semi finals, and in the first semi Neil Cragg nearly had a disaster before the race had even begun. 2 of his tyres had not set from gluing and Craig Drescher ran into the pits and asked if anyone had a set of XTR tyres glued up that he could use, David Crompton came to the rescue with a set of Crimefighters that he had and these were bolted onto the car and off he went. Neil struggled early on to get used to the tyres, having not used these for the entire event, and dropped back to about 9th place. After the first pit stop Neil?s tyres had warn a little and they started coming to him, and from then on Neil set a fantastic pace to pull himself through the field to take a comfortable 2nd place by the flag. Elliott Boots was running a strong second at the start and was looking comfortable for a main final place when after 15 minutes his radio system shut down due to overheating and he was out. This was a great shame after the fantastic driving this young man had put in during the week. But he has proved his quality and his time will surely come. Jon Hazelwood also secured a main final place with his Byron fuelled, Proline tired car by finishing 6th in this semi final. TQ man Savoya won this semi to secure pole position for the main final.
The 2nd semi final turned into a bit a race of attrition with several of the favourites dropping out with problems. Yannick Aigoin retired with what is believed to be a radio problem, his brother Jerome was running a strong second until he broke his car. Darren Bloomfield was also in contention for a final place until his receiver pack came unplugged which cost him a couple of laps and ultimately cost him place in the final as he finished 7th, one place outside what was required. This semi final was won by Robert Battle with his Hobao Hyper 8.5 car and this put him 2nd on the grid for the main final.
The main final got under way with Neil Cragg having start from the pit lane after blowing a glow plug and missing the formation lap, what his mechanics didn?t know was that in warm up his pressure pipe had split and as a result his engine was running very lean and he required to pit stops to tune it correctly which by this time had already put him 2 laps behind the leaders. Neil then set about trying to regain some the lost time and had worked his way up to 7th place when his receiver pack failed with 10 minutes of the hour left, putting him out. It did however give Neil the best seat in the house to watch the fantastic on track fight between Savoya and Battle which continued basically to the flag. For the early part of the race it was Battle who had set the pace and had actually built up a sizeable lead until Savoya clicked into gear and chased him down relentlessly. With 10 minutes to go he was with him and they had a great tussle for a few minutes until the superior traction offered to Savoya by his Proline tyres allowed him to pull away. In fact Battle looked to be in real trouble with his tyres and was struggling to keep his car on the track. Savoya managed to see out the final laps to take what was a deserved victory, he had been consistently the fastest man during the week and made the least errors. A worthy champion. Battle had to settle for second after his heroics of last year and 3rd went to RB powered Richi Gomez of Spain. The UK?s Jon Hazelwood took his Byron/Proline car to fourth despite a cut and Neil ended up 11th after his retirement.
On reflection we are very satisfied with the results we obtained at this race, we knew that it would be tough with the level of competition that was here to race. Neil and the team believe that 3rd was possible at this race without the problems but now has his 1st 1/8th Euros? under his belt, and with the lessons learned feels that he can make a serious challenge to the front guys next year.
Elliott has showed to top guys that he has the pace to match them and will be stronger as he and his dad gain more experience, and Graham Alsop will have the new Hyper 9 next year which in testing has proven to very fast indeed.
I must thank Richard Saxton of Team Associated, Scott Hughes of Proline, Bernard Durand of RB Products, George Difonnis from Modellsport Greece (Byron Fuel) and Alan Dell the UK team Manager for all their fantastic effort and support throughout the week.
Dave Duggan
CML Distribution
Download Neil Cragg's RC8 Setup Sheet
Download Elliot Boots' RC8 Setup Sheet
The Team Associated pitting table and a very tired Darren Bloomfield.
Tuesday 1st July
Most of the drivers were in the pits at the track and just prepping their cars reading for the practice round this afternoon. The Associated team decided to prep their cars at the hotel away from the hustle and bustle of the cramped pitting area. The three works cars of Neil Cragg, Elliott Boots and Peter Pinisch were all using the still prototype Big Bore shock absorbers, for which Richard Saxton had brought some revised caps and bladders. Neil wanted to try his Proline Bowtie tyres on both the original Proline rim and the new bigger V2 rims to see which direction to take. The one practice round today is a 15 minute slot which will allow changes of the nature without seriously affecting track time. Bernard Durand from RB engines has given the drivers (Neil, Elliott and Graham Alsop) the engines they will use for this event. Graham is starting with his usual set up on his Hyper 8.5 that has served him so well this season.
After the first 15 minute practice session the Hobao guys all felt that they were somewhere close with set up, Graham Alsop looking fast and consistent, his only change will be to go to slightly thicker front diff to try and smooth the car out. John Howells thought his car was great but he was on first and the track will have changed a lot for his next run, so he will see how it performs in the morning. Of the Associated drivers it was Elliott Boots who looked in the best shape, during his run his pit crew lowered the car significantly and found it a large improvement and both he and Neil Cragg found the new V2 rims to be better than the smaller size. Neil will also change his car to be more like Elliott?s for tomorrows first practice session as he felt the rear of his car was too stiff.
All the RB drivers were happy with the performance of their engine/pipe combinations, Neil?s looking particularly fast. Bernard Durand was on hand during each of their runs to keep an eye on the tune of the motor. Elliott?s motor has some porting differences from the standard WS7 he normally runs and he was giving Bernard a full description of how it felt in the track and compared to the standard motors.
The track was very tough to master especially in such heat.
Wednesday 2nd July
Today we have 2 10 minute practice runs which also qualify for re-seeding. There is also a 5 minute run at the end of the day in the re-seeded heats to check for frequency clashes. In the first round of the day Graham Alsop put a fast time in to be 6th in the round and he felt that his car was slightly better than yesterday, but was still easy enough to drive. The AE guys had fairly tough runs in this round although Neil was able to run fast lap times when he managed clear laps. The discussion after this round was about how to make the car more compliant and forgiving on this track that was anything but. The track was now pretty blue grooved in most places and generating a lot of traction which was not helping the edgy feel to the cars. For the second round all three works cars tried the Holeshot tyres in different compounds, Neil felt that his harder compound was working well but now that the grip was up he wanted to go back to the higher powered motor he had taken out yesterday. Elliott was able to run some really fast laps as he pushed his car to the limit to see what it was capable of, and his car really did look like it was close on set up. Peter ran the second fastest time in the round with a very consistent run despite not breaking into the 39 second laps. After these runs all the drivers from both Hobao and Associated had done enough to be seeded in the top group of heats, which should help come qualifying as they should not have any slow cars to negotiate. In the final 5 minute run Neil went out on the Knuckles tyres and said he felt that was the way forward for him come qualifying. He felt they took the edge of his car which allowed him to push harder without fear of the car biting him. Peter tried a different compound of holeshot tyre which he said had too much traction and he will return to the harder compound of the previous run. Graham was happy with his car and he will stick to the Crimefighter M2 tyres he has run all through today?s practice.
An issue that has become a real talking point has been the state of some sections of track. The log section has become so inconsistent that it is pure luck rather than skill that decides who gets over it quickly, if at all. The face of the first double jump (which is concrete) has had two great holes dug out of it by the cars continually pounding in to it which has also provided a degree of inconsistency to this section.
Thursday 3rd July
Overnight the organisers have re-concreted the face of the two double jumps and this proved to be a great benefit for the racing as it meant they became less of lottery. The log section however was unchanged and really has the potential to ruin otherwise good runs through no real fault of the driver.
The qualifying sessions started with the Elliott and Neil both making the top 15 in round 1 despite having scruffy runs and not being at all happy with the set up of the car. Graham Alsop managed a 19th in round although he broke his car in the warm up and had to soldier on with a damaged car. TQ in this round was Warm up winner Renaud Savoya, he and his car looked great on this testing track and it is easy to see why he won the warm up race.
Round 2 and Elliott made the decision to go back to his original small bore AE shocks, and also run Holeshot tyres in XTR compound which Scott Hughes of Proline had made available for this race. The difference was immediately visible and Elliott put in a sensational drive, reeling in Savoya until an unfortunate roll where his wheel caught a rut and dropped him 5 seconds. His time was still good enough for 4th in round but we knew that without the roll Elliott was on for the fastest time of the meeting by 2 seconds. Neil battled through for a 12th in round with a car that was obviously too stiff and. Graham switched to Bowtie XTR tyres that were being used by Savoya and was unfortunate to be assaulted by a random back marker while on for a top 15 time. This round was also taken by Savoya by less than 2 tenths of a second from Hobao driver and last years champion Robert Battle from Spain.
Into the third round and Neil moved his car over to a set up close to that of Elliott?s and despite an error put a solid display in to get 6th in this round, although for tomorrow we will lower the ride height as Neil felt the car was still a little too high. Elliott was unfortunate in that during warm up he had a big collision with another car and broke a front shock. Despite this he drove his car round and still managed a top 30 round score. Graham was again on for a good run until the final lap where 2 costly errors blunted his charge. Savoya managed to secure overall TQ by again winning the round. The final two rounds of qualifying will take place tomorrow with the weather forecast predicting even hotter weather, if that is possible! Also today the AE team decided to leave their places in the crowded pits and pit by the pool at the hotel, the manager Joe was more than happy to allow us to do so and this provided a much better area for us to get the work done to our cars.
Friday 4th July
The final 2 rounds of qualification and Neil managed to put 2 good runs together with 5th in round 4 and 4th in round 3. In the final round Neil and Elliott both tried a more ?European? style set up, with very heavy differentials and lots of negative camber. Both found the car to be faster, especially Neil who shaved nearly 1 second off his fastest lap. Elliott managed a 6th in round 4 which combined with his 4th and 12th easily secured him a semi final place.
Graham Alsop had a tough final 2 rounds where he found a clean run hard to come by. The overall top sixteen and semi finalists after qualifying were as follows.
Renaud Savoya (France)
Robert Battle ? Hobao (Spain)
Borja Hernandez ? Hobao (Spain)
Alessandro Laffranchi ? (Italy)
Neil Cragg ? Associated (UK)
Yannick Aigoin ? (France)
Elliott Boots ? Associated (UK)
Fabio Beoro ? (Italy)
Jerome Sartel ? (France)
Martin Bayer ? (Czech Republic)
Daniel Vega ? (Spain)
Raul Peris ? (Spain)
Guilliame Vray ? (France)
Darren Bloomfield ? (UK)
Riccardo Perin ? (Italy)
Rodrigo Luis ? (Portugal)
In the lower finals CML?s Rob Rasey managed to bump up 2 finals on Friday evening with some clean and consistent drives, after the second he performed a little dance on the rostrum much to the amusement of the watching spectators and Dallas the referee.
The UK team scrubbed up quite well.
Saturday 5th July
Rob Rasey once again drove an excellent race in his third final, but was on the end of an unfortunate marshalling incident when lying second. The marshall stopping his flywheel and putting him out of the race. Other CML drivers John Howells and John Holmes also had bump ups, John Holmes went from the 1/32 finals to the 1/8?s and was looking to good to bump up to the ? finals when he had a unlucky engine cut in pit lane. This was a common sight on this, the hottest day by far of the championships. (54 deg C was recorded in the sunshine!)
Onto the finals and Graham Alsop had a tough race including a stop and go for a tangle with another car, despite this Graham put on a charge over the last four laps to chase down Hupo Honigl, these were Graham four fastest laps of the entire championships and he came within 1/10 of second of clinching the fourth place he needed, but in the end it was in vain. After the race there was a brief moment of hope when Hupo?s car failed tech for fuel tank size, but after allowing it to cool down and be re-checked it came in legal.
Now the really serious business began with the semi finals, and in the first semi Neil Cragg nearly had a disaster before the race had even begun. 2 of his tyres had not set from gluing and Craig Drescher ran into the pits and asked if anyone had a set of XTR tyres glued up that he could use, David Crompton came to the rescue with a set of Crimefighters that he had and these were bolted onto the car and off he went. Neil struggled early on to get used to the tyres, having not used these for the entire event, and dropped back to about 9th place. After the first pit stop Neil?s tyres had warn a little and they started coming to him, and from then on Neil set a fantastic pace to pull himself through the field to take a comfortable 2nd place by the flag. Elliott Boots was running a strong second at the start and was looking comfortable for a main final place when after 15 minutes his radio system shut down due to overheating and he was out. This was a great shame after the fantastic driving this young man had put in during the week. But he has proved his quality and his time will surely come. Jon Hazelwood also secured a main final place with his Byron fuelled, Proline tired car by finishing 6th in this semi final. TQ man Savoya won this semi to secure pole position for the main final.
The 2nd semi final turned into a bit a race of attrition with several of the favourites dropping out with problems. Yannick Aigoin retired with what is believed to be a radio problem, his brother Jerome was running a strong second until he broke his car. Darren Bloomfield was also in contention for a final place until his receiver pack came unplugged which cost him a couple of laps and ultimately cost him place in the final as he finished 7th, one place outside what was required. This semi final was won by Robert Battle with his Hobao Hyper 8.5 car and this put him 2nd on the grid for the main final.
The main final got under way with Neil Cragg having start from the pit lane after blowing a glow plug and missing the formation lap, what his mechanics didn?t know was that in warm up his pressure pipe had split and as a result his engine was running very lean and he required to pit stops to tune it correctly which by this time had already put him 2 laps behind the leaders. Neil then set about trying to regain some the lost time and had worked his way up to 7th place when his receiver pack failed with 10 minutes of the hour left, putting him out. It did however give Neil the best seat in the house to watch the fantastic on track fight between Savoya and Battle which continued basically to the flag. For the early part of the race it was Battle who had set the pace and had actually built up a sizeable lead until Savoya clicked into gear and chased him down relentlessly. With 10 minutes to go he was with him and they had a great tussle for a few minutes until the superior traction offered to Savoya by his Proline tyres allowed him to pull away. In fact Battle looked to be in real trouble with his tyres and was struggling to keep his car on the track. Savoya managed to see out the final laps to take what was a deserved victory, he had been consistently the fastest man during the week and made the least errors. A worthy champion. Battle had to settle for second after his heroics of last year and 3rd went to RB powered Richi Gomez of Spain. The UK?s Jon Hazelwood took his Byron/Proline car to fourth despite a cut and Neil ended up 11th after his retirement.
On reflection we are very satisfied with the results we obtained at this race, we knew that it would be tough with the level of competition that was here to race. Neil and the team believe that 3rd was possible at this race without the problems but now has his 1st 1/8th Euros? under his belt, and with the lessons learned feels that he can make a serious challenge to the front guys next year.
Elliott has showed to top guys that he has the pace to match them and will be stronger as he and his dad gain more experience, and Graham Alsop will have the new Hyper 9 next year which in testing has proven to very fast indeed.
I must thank Richard Saxton of Team Associated, Scott Hughes of Proline, Bernard Durand of RB Products, George Difonnis from Modellsport Greece (Byron Fuel) and Alan Dell the UK team Manager for all their fantastic effort and support throughout the week.
Dave Duggan
CML Distribution
Download Neil Cragg's RC8 Setup Sheet
Download Elliot Boots' RC8 Setup Sheet
