2010 1/8th Off-Road European Championships

Day 2 - Practice The weather was meant to be at its hottest on Wednesday, but from early morning there was a little cloud cover that kept the temperature down a bit and at least made the morning bearable. The first timed round of practise got underway at 8.30 and first man out from our stable was again Tony Truman. The organisers had watered the track and made some repairs to some of the holes that had appeared and coupled with the lower temperature this combined to make this run a nightmare for Tony. Going out on a used set of M2 Calibers, which had been great in the afternoon heat of yesterday was a mistake, and as the track was slippery from the work done overnight he just had no traction at all, making the run a tough one. Neil Cragg was next up with some changes made from yesterday and similar problems befell him, as a lack of traction prevented him really pushing. Neil and Mick felt that they needed a different clutch set up and would also change engine for the second run today to see if Neil can get better feel. Craig and Uncle Bob had also made a few changes, but gearing up a tooth on the clutch bell was a mistake, as it robbed the engine of the punch and feel that Craig likes and as a result he lost his timing on the washboards and through the switchbacks. Craig, being in a heat later than the others, had a chance to glue up a softer set of M3 Calibers, which were better in the cooler conditions. John Howells felt his Hobao was much better this morning, and he also felt he had got the tune right on his RB motor, in fact it felt so good that he came in to check it wasn?t running too hot! The fastest in this round was Miguel Matias, The Portuguese former European Champion looking good as the competition heats up. Other notable quick guys were again Darren Bloomfield who posted the fastest lap time of 37.11 and the French stars Yannick Aigoin and Renaud Savoya. Into the second round and the track was really starting to break up in places which was slowing the lap times a little, and also causing drivers to make more mistakes as they adjusted to the ever evolving bumps. Tony put a steady run in but changed exhaust pipe which took away some of the punch and gave him the same problems Craig had in the first practice run. Neil made wholesale changes which brought about an improvement in that his lap times actually improved despite the track conditions, his biggest complaint now was a lack of steering through the flat switchback section in the centre. After a discussion about tyres Neil and I decided to try the Revolver with some heavy cuts to help cut through the dust. Neil usually likes the Revolver tyre and we felt that most sections that were dusty were not heavy acceleration areas and that this tyre tuning would be good. Craig?s car looked much better and he had really good punch from his Reedy ST motor allowing him to make the little doubles where he could, but for the last run this afternoon Craig and Bob decided to ?load the shotgun? and make massive changes. We would have to see how that turned out. Both John Howells and Matt Perry were quite satisfied with their Hyper 9 cars, but both felt there was a little room for improvement in the last runs. In overall times, Yannick Aigoin was the star of this practice round beating the field by some 7 seconds. A measure of his consistency was in his lap times, his best lap was 38.0 and his average was 38.4! Which on this bombsite of a track was incredible, if he keeps that up the race would be his to lose. The final short re-seeded runs in the afternoon didn?t tell us much as there was no official timing which made knowing who was doing what very tricky to keep a track of. Neil did have an electrical fire which brought his run to a premature end. Mick then had to set about putting a full new set of electrics in the car for qualifying the following day. Day 3 - Qualifying The first round of qualifying kicked off at 9.00 a.m. with Craig and Neil both in heat 1. The track had be swept, repaired and watered before qualifying which meant that, for the first heat, the track would be quite loose as the dirt from the repairs came away from the racing line, making the track very slippery until the cars swept it away. Neil finally got a good run together and with the car and engine working well he put his Reedy powered RC8B 6th in the round and only 4 seconds off the round TQ man Yannick Aigoin, which after practice, seemed like a distant dream. His choice of M3 Revolver with some heavy cutting seemed to work well with Closed Cell inserts and Neil said he actually enjoyed driving the car for the first time in the meeting. He also felt that had he been in the second heat with Yannick and others he could have gone quicker as the track cleaned up a little. Craig put a solid run together to finish 5 seconds slower than Neil, and 16th in the round. Yannick sneaked the TQ time, just in front of team mate Martin Bayer and an excellent run from Simon Willetts put him 3rd. Those 3 guys all came from heat 2, where track conditions were optimal, as the worst of the loose dust had cleared, but the track had yet to start breaking up in some of the critical areas. The second round of qualifying started with heat 6 due to the rotation system in place and Tony Truman was out and running well despite a braking issue that was robbing him of the confidence to really work the brakes hard. Neil decided to switch to M2 Revolvers as the temperature had risen noticeably, but he thought this was a retro grade step and he didn?t have as much traction as previously. A few errors kept him away from the top ten anyhow, but he was prepared to try some M3 calibers in round 3 to try and improve the balance of his car while increasing the general level of traction. Craig had a similar run to Neil but with a few less errors, he will go back to his Proline Bulldog bodyshell in round 3 as he prefers the way the car drives with it on. Round 2 saw Jerome Aigoin take TQ, just beating reigning champion Renaud Savoya by a few 1/10ths of a second. Unlucky man in round 2 was Associated?s Robert Batlle. On for a time that would have placed him 3rd in the round, he flipped 3 corners from the line only for the dedicated marshall to be attending to another car in the other direction, this would eventually cost him 8 seconds and provide much frustration and plenty of Spanish swearing! At this time there was some suggestions doing the rounds that some drivers had been, or were using, tyre additive, which is of course is totally illegal. Carlos from EFRA was checking tyres at the beginning of round 2 to see if he could notice anything, but in my experience of using additive in 1/10th scale years ago you cannot really tell until the tyre has been run, as the pins have a slightly ?fluffy? appearance as they wear. Nothing came of it so we have to assume it was a false alarm. On with round 3 and once again it was Yannick Aigoin who set the pace, although only 1 second in front of David Ronnefalk who posted his second top 3 time of the meeting. Of our guys, Neil posted a steady time in 15th, although 1 mistake of 5 seconds kept him out of 6th such was the closeness of the times. Craig had a tough run and Tony Truman posted a much better run after smashing a hole in crankcase of his engine in round 2, somehow it still completed the race but that engine was finished. Day 4 - Qualifying We awoke nice and early as usual to see that the mountains surrounding the villa were covered in mist and cloud. On the drive up the air con was off in the hire car, and the cool damp air must have provided another 15bhp! The relevance of this was that the engines in the model cars will certainly need a re-tune this morning as the cool damp air will provide much more power. When the top guys hit the track for round 4 it was very apparent that the track had deteriorated badly from the previous round, even the guys getting one really quick lap together were only just breaking into the 39?s. Both Neil and Craig had very similar runs and ended up 0.2 seconds apart with Craig just in front, although both had a marshalled mistake which cost them badly, but that can be said for a lot of the drivers I guess. These times put them in the middle teens for the round which they were both reasonably happy with. Miguel Matias was the man who took the top honours in this round, his RB powered car looking strong and consistent. For round 4 Neil made a rear hub change in an effort to get the car to rotate better through the switchbacks, this didn?t work leaving his car very difficult to drive and much harder to place coming up to the blown out jumps. Craig got radical on tyres and decided that we needed to try and get softer than M2, but harder than M3. So we set about removing the internal ribbing from some M2 Bowties and also removing some material from the inside of the Closed Cell insert in an effort to come up with a softer feeling M2. In your hands it felt like you would want it to, so we went with it and he felt that they performed ok, but not really better than what we had had before. Yannick went on to take the round win and with it overall TQ for the meeting, which from the last timed practice sessions on Wednesday looked the likely outcome. Jerome Aigoin took 2nd overall with a series of under control drives that are not normally his trade mark, and Miguel Matias placed his car 3rd. Neil placed 14th after qualifying and took a semi final place as a result, which was a surprise given how his runs had gone after round 1. Craig got into the quarter finals and was set for a UK showdown with Darren Bloomfield, Elliott Boots and Simon Willetts who have all ended up in the same quarter final. The track was now a total mess really and what it will look like come the sharp end of the finals doesn?t bear thinking about. Day 5 - The Finals The track crew had made some overnight repairs to some of the jumps which will help the drivers, but there are still some huge holes in some sections of the track to catch the unwary, or unlucky. John Howells couldn?t repeat last year?s heroics and sadly went out in 1/64th finals while challenging. When the quarter finals got underway the competition started to really heat up, and the B side where we had 4 UK drivers was a particularly tough race. Darren Bloomfield took the win, despite not really driving very well! Darren had been right in contention at the beginning of the week but had slowly lost his competitive edge, and nobody could quite put their finger on it, including himself. Elliott Boots also progressed out of this quarter final and would line up in the semis. Craig failed to make it out of the quarter finals, he got a decent start but was caught up in an accident that put him at the back of the pack, and from their he could never get himself back into contention for a top 4 position and a place in the semis. The semi finals, as always were very tense and fraught, with drivers giving everything for a place in the main final. Neil got steady start in his race from 7th on the grid and was settling in for a consistent race despite the car not being to his liking until a crash in the front side rhythm section saw his car upside down and the marshal taking an eternity to reach it at which point it cut. Now, both the Euros and Worlds have provided marshals for the semi finals, and main final which at every event I have attended has caused problems as they tend to be people who are not used to marshalling nitro model cars, and as a result are not used to the risks involved and the little things you have to know. Neil would suffer again later in the race when another marshal flipped his car over and touched the flywheel causing another engine cut. In my opinion this rule that needs changing as quickly as possible and having experienced marshals is essential. Needless to say after these issues, Neil?s chance of progressing to the final was gone and he would watch the main final with the rest of us. The biggest shock of the semis was that Savoya and Batlle were able to run at a pace that Yannick could not match, it seemed the Proline tyres were coming good at the right time after struggling a little through the qualifying rounds. The main final saw Savoya and Batlle battling it out early on, with Yannick making mistakes trying to match the pace set by the two guys at the front. Eventually Savoya was able to make a break, with the superior fuel strategy afforded to him with his RB engine, he was able to put enough pressure on Robert to force a few errors and build a lead he would never lose. It has to be said his driving over the last 30 minutes was outstanding, barely a wheel out of place on a track that would have tested even military equipment to it's limits. Savoya took a 3rd Euro title in a row and with it made a piece of history as the first man to do so. Robert Batlle took 2nd with a drive only slightly inferior to that of Savoya, and he knew he was always under pressure due to having to make an extra fuel stop. Miguel Matias placed his RB powered car on the final step of the podium in 3rd after Yannick had suffered an engine cut halfway through the race. In summary, I would have to say that the event was decent as the big events usually produce some good racing from top drivers, but the track was substandard for a race of this importance. The argument that it is the same for everybody is irrelevant, in my opinion, as why should everybody be forced to drive on a poor track? The organising club provided good facilities for everything else, rostrum, pitting, food and toilets etc. But failed to provide the most important thing and that was a good racing track. It was rumoured the pitting building cost 25,000 euros to erect, if that is the case then far less money could have been spent bringing the track surface up to scratch and hiring a temporary pitting marquee. I am sure 99% of the drivers would have accepted slightly worse pitting conditions in exchange for a great track. I think this is something that the governing body who make these decisions has to address this situation as I believe it undermines them and the event. At least we can say that the track didn?t rob us of a worth champion, as Renaud Savoya has proved that at this time he is the best in Europe and must have a really good chance of adding a World title to his CV in Thailand this November. I will be there to let you know how the CML and UK drivers get on from the Worlds so until then...obrigado! You can view our online photo gallery of the event here