Schumacher KC + average club racer

Average Club racer tries out a Schumacher Cougar KC

Available from Schumacher Racing - : http://www.racing-cars.com/pp/Car_Showroom/Cougar_KC.html

## Please read the following considering I am not a top driver .... and my setups etc are personal preference, usually providiing a well balanced car, rather than a razor sharp car. I am sharing my experiences considering how I feel the car has improved my racing, and how I run the car.##

An experienced guy once told me, you can give the top drivers any car, and they always do well, however a real measure of how good a car really is, is when you look at club racing, so here is my review of my first 3 days with a KC, for what it's worth, I'm not blisteringly fast, or particularly mechanically minded, but maybe thats just like you?


Reviving the blog:

Its not very often I in this blog, so it's taken something special to revive it.


My Previous 2wd cars:

• Associated RC10 B4
• X Factory X-6 sqd
• Centro C4.1
• Kyosho RB6
• Schumacher SV2
• Schumacher KF

Let me put this review in perspective:

I received this kit 3 days ago. I built the car from 10pm Friday night, until 3am Saturday, not ideal, but the only time I had available.

And here I am, having built it in five hours, and raced it once, feeling compelled to write a review, the car has been that impressive.


Why a KC? Why now?

Those that know me, will know I keep my cars a very long time, and very rarely change. Even with Schumacher releases, I am slow to adopt the new cars, sticking with the SV2 upto 1 year into the KF release for example.

However, looking at the improvements in Schumacher 2wd results in the short time the KC has been available, was enough to convince me to buy into the KC early.

Orlowski - EOS win (carpet)
Yardy - British Winter Open Win (carpet)
Williams - UK Masters TQ (low / medium grip)
Neal - British Winter Open 3rd place (carpet)

The build:

Schumacher builds are widely recognised as one of the best (both manual and parts organisation), and it was a pleasure to build. The fit and finish was excellent.

Prior to this build, I would've agreed the Schumacher builds were well organised, and clearly documented above the other manufacturers I had experienced. However, there were some other brands that had superior parts, fit, finish and materials.

Considering the latest 4wds (K1 and K2), I thought these were on par with the best, but never thought the KF was up there with the premium brands. With the KC it became clear the bar has been lifted, and the KC is now up there with the premium brands.

Examples of good bits?

The best example is looking at what most will consider a carryover front end.
However, if we consider the front right outer hingepin on the SV2 / KF, I found it needed checking as it had a tendancy to work loose with suspension movement. An alternative method of fixing, when I ran Associated, I understood the binding that could occur with captured hingepins. The KC now uses an outer hingepin keyed into the wishbone with a retaining grub screw locking the pin in. Brilliant. 

Shock tops: On all of my previous cars, the alloy shock tops / or alloy pivot ball within the shock tops, had a tendancy to wear, creating quite a bit of slop in the top shock mounting. The new KC has a super strong plastic ball cup mount, which pairs up with the alloy shock body and collar, and steel ball stud, to create a precise fitting, and low maintenance cost, high performing shock top. I was initially concerned with the strength of, and reliability of the shock caps, but from handling them, and really strength testing them with my crashes, I have no worries. As with the other ball studs on the car, there is a small hole allowing access to the hex drive of the ballstud, which means the shocks tops do not need to be 'popped' off.


Also, with them having the optional bleeder holes, they are multi functional, sealed or vented depending on if you drill them or not, so more options covered in the kit. Speaking of which, with all of the belts, layouts, shims, spacers, and holes available, all in the kit, this kit really does have it covered for all conditions.

^^^^^^^   yes that's a KF bodyshell mounted on there, until I get my KC shell painted ^^^^^^

.... and body off shot:

What setup?

I was booked in to attend a North East regional @ MBmodels, an all carpet tight indoor track.

An area I feel Schumacher are ahead of the game, is the wide variety of setups from A team drivers, which are a great starting point for everyone else.

So I went with Orlowskis EOS winning setup:

http://www.racing-cars.com/images/Technical_Info/Schumacher/Current%20Cars/Cougar%20KC/Set%20Up%20Sheets/KC_MO_EOS_R3_Trencin_SK_print.pdf

.... with the following changes: Front shocks moved to inside hole on wishbone to get a bit more turn in around the hairpins at this particular track, and moved rear shocks to outer hole on wishbone to prevent the rear collapsing on power going onto the straight.


I'd only been to this carpet track once before, for 3 x 5 minute runs 6 months ago. So effectively, I wasn't familiar with the track. The track is attached to a shop, and there are some very very fast locals who work in the shop, or live nearby. I knew this would be a difficult meeting.

In the 3 minute practice, the car felt very natural to drive, very well balanced. I always felt that all of my previous 2wd cars had a balance that was very speed / throttle sensitive. Whether it was a little understeer on power or off power, coupled with oversteer on power or off power, I never found a really well balanced setup. From the first few laps, the KC felt so well balanced, to the extent that I didn't need to get used to the car at all, because I didn't need to compensate for any handling traits. My only concern was, how would the lap times appear, as I usually associate an easy to drive car with not optimising lap times.


Mechanic at fault

I must admit, that havnig finished the car at 3am, I had taken (notably one) shortcuts. The rear turnbuckles ... I pulled turnbuckles from another car, and popped on the KC. It was to be my undoing.

Rd1 - I rolled the car, several cars piled into me, and popped the turnbuckle off (the one I had stolen from another car). The marshall popped it back on, but I only managed 36th in round. Individual lap times were good though, maybe 0.7s per lap slower than the top locals.

Rd2 to 4 - Despite a few big crashes into immovable objects, the car held together really well. Strength test successful. My lap times closed a bit nearer to the fast locals, as I became more familiar with the track and the car.

I qualified 5th overall.

Final - After a bit of a messy start, I got up to 3rd on the track, behind Jack Hirst, and James Helliwell (TQ). I was around 3 seconds beind at the 3 minute mark, but managed to close the gap and get back into the race with them with around one minute to go. Jack made a mistake, and I was briefly up to 2nd, before Jack recovered from the mistake (don't ask). I then pushed to get back to 2nd place, rolled, and the turnbuckle popped off again. The lesson here is not to take shortcuts in the build, and use the Schumacher parts.

FInished up 4th:

Electrics:

ESC - Hobbywing v3.1
Motor - Thunder Power 7.5 geared 24/83
Cells - Nosram P5 LCG shorty
Servo - KO RSX2 response

In Summary:


Such a well balanced 2wd car, I could concentrate on racing lines with confidence, and throw the car at the track if needed. I was much faster with the KC, than I could've dreamed of with any of my previous 2wd cars.

I found the KF / KF2 always wanted to over rotate on power, but this KC had no tendancy to do this. I suspect the real test is in 2 weeks time at the UK Masters on a low grip surface, however A team drivers have already reported that on power, and on breaks, the car remains balanced and controllable on line. I think this is due to the new central transmission, and the motor rotating the opposite way to what it does in the KF.

It seems incredibly strong, easy to build and maintain, with great support and setups already emerging from a wide driver base on all surfaces.

Video of the race:
My car is the blue car running in 3rd , starting just off camera (the pink and black car is 1st, the white car is 2nd). Probably only worth watching from 3mins to 5 mins.

https://youtu.be/QAeU0hYoq3g?t=3m8s

Thanks to Davey Liddle for the video.



The Schumacher KC is available from http://www.racing-cars.com/pp/Car_Showroom/Cougar_KC.html
Thanks to Mike Parker www.number5rc.co.uk for your support, and painting skills. Check Mike out for custom paint jobs, or his model shop for all your hobby needs.


I must add that I am a sponsored driver for Schumacher Racing www.racing-cars.com , however I would not be running these cars if I didn't believe they were the best cars out there in 1/10th electric. Thanks to Schumacher for their support, and the provision of a quality RC car.

NEAM racing at Seaham 17th Feb 2013

For more info about racing at this venue, please see:
www.neamrc.co.uk
Sunday nights racing in the North East 6 til 10 pm


Following on from last weeks 3 rolls of carpet and 2 table tops, we had to go one better, 3 rolls of carpet and 3 table tops.

Carpet carpet carpet......
Most people only wanted 2 rolls of carpet, and I think it wouldve been more fun with only the 2 rolls, but we have a lot of newer drivers attedning the club at the moment, which is great .... and it makes it a lot easier with more carpet down.

Table Top Table Top Table Top ....
Thanks to Ian Dalziel, we had a fantastic new table top support to make our corner table top. This was very solid and was a big success. This freed up equipment to build another two table tops one after another. When building, it was anticipated you could hop onto the 2nd table top, but the track didnt allow cufficient corner speed to be carried, and the quickest way over these was to use both down ramps effectively.

A busy practice session ensued, with a few new drivers on the track, getting their first fix of RC racing, great to see.
Racing kicked off at around 19:30, slightly behind schedule while setting up the new laptop. But once setup, the laptop worked great with 33 drivers booked in, and ready to hit the track. We had a full range of drivers, from first time drivers (Declan with his Ansmann X4TE)



to someone who once posted times in the worlds top ten.....Mr Snee using brushless technology for the second time only in an old B4.

From the Worlds 2003:



The track drove really well. Head of team Williams commented that it looked fast at first, but when driven, it didn't carry the speed that it first look like it could have. Great to drive your lines on, and a nightmare to get past a car.

Personally Speaking, my SV2 was going really well, as it has done since I got a setup together on it. I tried minipins in practice, but they were too worn, so I went to yellow minispikes on for this week.

It's really stable on power, and has plenty of steering ...... but it's interesting to note how a car can suit some people, and not others.
I gave a few people a shot of the car .....
Chris Green "I dont like it"
Jeff Steele "Your throttle profile has no power, and it lacks steering"
David Snee "It's ... weird.... really different to the B4"

And so..... after 4 rounds of qualifying, it was a pity we didnt have time to sort into proper A and B finals, because we wouldve seen that storming performances from Mike Pemberton, Ryan Mould, Paul 'Gold Tub Corky' Johnson:

 



...........and .............. the flying  Davey Liddle:

 would've seen them in a 10 car A final! Some super fast laps going in from these guys.



The unsorted A final was kindly captured by David Liddle .....



I had a good race, with a couple of little errors.  I think Snee got tagged early on, and was fighting back from last position.
Mustve been a good race though, as Rob, Nat and Snee finished within 4 seconds of each other.
Click the results to make them readable:

I unfortunately missed vdeoing the next final, as I was marshalling, which was unfortunate, as Mike Pemberton is really getting back on form follwing his break from racing, now that his B4 is becoming less seized up. Scott Tinkler was also flying, and seemed happy with his B4 on the carpet track. Both Scott and Mike finished on 18 laps, 2 laps ahead of the others, with Mike pipping Scott to the line in the B final by 7/10ths of a second, and both drivers getting into the low 16s lap times.

Click the results to make them readable:

C final:

Here are a few laps from the C final:

Again, without sorting the finals, it's obvious Richard Harrison was too fast for the heat.

His qualifying time wouldve put him at the sharp end of a 10 car B final.

At the same time, Dean's super fast form from last week was interuppted a little as he had some issues with his yellow and red B4. With a loaner car (Greg Williams Cougar),

Dean went well, but the minipin tyres and  the limited speed held him back from the previous week's confident form. Next was Declan in a respectable 3rd place with his improving (slowed down) Ansmann, and improved driving.......

 followed by Tyler who put in some really consistent laps for the second half of the race, to get 4th place. ....................

Nathan was looking much happier with his now sorted SX3, but had an unlucky final....

Result:

The next heat .... heat 4, and Davey Liddle would've ended up 6th in the top heat with his storming final time. The consistency of David's laps was incredible, just watching the car, it looked easy to drive, and was hitting the right lines around the track .... if you ignore the first lap, all of his laps were within 1.6 seconds of each other.

Second was Steven Forster, who was fastest in the heat, with some mid 16s hero laps with his X6sqd, but the odd 22s lap spoiling his run.

And Marks car looked great:

Results .... tilt your head:

And finally.... at the end of an unusually late night.........

Heat 5:

With Ryan and Graham both hitting 18 laps on top 10 pace, it was a great race.

Ryan eventually winning by 4 seconds.

The race looked really clean, with all drivers getting into the sub 18 second laps.

Results:

NEAM racing at Seaham

For more info about racing at this venue, please see:
www.neamrc.co.uk
Sunday nights racing in the North East 6 til 10 pm

So ... we had the new timing equipment.
Some teething problems meant that despite a 5 oclock start for some of us, we didnt hit the track until 7:45, so there was plenty of open practice, and as a gesture of goodwill by the club, a free nights racing due to the delay.
For a change, it was decided to run 3 rolls of carpet (as opposed to the usual 2), and so  the grip was up quite a bit. This change was welcomed by a a lot of the drivers.

The track was really good, with a really good flowing line, a ripple section, small tricky jumps, and a corner table top into regular tabletop.

Qualifying went really well, with great driving throughout the field.
After qualifying, these were the positions:

Finals followed, videos shown here (apologies, I didnt catch the C final).

Results:

B Final winner David Pack
Runner up Natalie Williams.

Natalie got really close to David at around the 4 minute mark, as David ran wide passing Jason, Nat hit Jason's car and a tumble saw her chances for a win disappear..... shown below:

A final:
1st Chris Clarke
2nd Chris Pattinson
3rd Andy P.

This video mainly follows Jeff leading with Chris Clarke following, and me trying to catch them. Jeff then makes a mistake meaning I had to try and hunt down Chris' Durango for the win, but unfortunately, I was pushing too hard on minipins, clipping a corner and rolled after the sweeper at the end of the straight.

Video also features Paul "Corky" Johnson pushing his Vega B4.1 into the A final mix.

More pictures of the evening:

Keith's Cougar, transparent styleee.....

Paul AfroP hops onto the corner table top, turns, and then down, this is how most were driving this corner, including myself.....

.... but Dexter shows how to jump the tabletop altogether, commited driving as always! .... not many were able to do this .....

shown above ...B Final WInner David Pack .. flat and neat.

and below, runner up Natalie Williams showing more style for the camera....

Oople Invernational 2012 DIRT

Oople Invernational 2012..........videos still to be added.


Robinhood Raceway Dirt.

........... Sitting down to write up this blog, I've tried to put the initial WOW factor of this meeting aside, reflect,  and put things in perspective ....... but words cant describe the best weekend in 15 years of racing.... I'll have a go....


Friday....

My B4 FT

Not ideal for high level racing, I now use this car for bashing round caravan sites when away on holiday. It has a 5.5 motor in, which was admitedly too fast for the clay track, especially with the switch like Novak GTB Gen1 speedo. I put the Kit setup on the car (thanks to Rich Lowe for the advice), and it handled really well.

First race meeting for this car was in July 2004 at Huntingdon school YORCC regional......

DIRT

I arrived at Robin Hood Raceway Dirt at 5pm, got the caravan setup in record time due to my anticipation of clay racing, and headed over to the track.  It was all a bit exotic from track side... clay track, blue groove, sun blazing, people brushing the track and loads of rear motor 2WDs with proline tyres balooning up over the double double .  Looking at the amount of air the cars were getting... and looking at that narrow line at the end of the straight  [maybe two car widths max]

I couldnt help feel I would struggle to get my old B4 on that line lap after lap, and control it in the air.
Andy Pearson was on track with his RB5 rear motor, and it looked really good. I was expecting tippy toeing round on a slippy surface, but Andy was really pushing on.

With Pearson instilling a bit of  confidence, I got my B4 out, complete with M3 Holeshot tyres  (the ones us UK drivers throw away from Associated kits). First impressions.....  oh s#@t Ive put my car down right infront of the double doubles, and now I have to drive over them.... So I doubled the first double (slowly, as advised by Jeff "I've been here since Thursday and have two weeks holiday" Steele and Andy), and then the advice was to gun it for the second double .... but to beware to stay towards the rostrum side of this double as the far side had a big kick that flips the back of the car up.....

....  after retrieving my B4 from beyond the perimiter fencing I put it down on the track after the double double.... and tried the rest of the track.

The surface was weird to drive on, slippy but grippy...it took a few laps to get into it, but after that, the car suddenly came to me. It seemed very predicatable, responsive to steering into corners, and corrections to keep the back end in line. Wheelies were possible on the straight, it was stable on power but sharp enough in the turn, and I was binning it less and less on the double double.

Seven minutes later, and that was Friday's clay track practice over.
Most people had the same experience as me. I was speaking to Craig Mawson, who smashed his car the first two times out, and then got the hang of the big air. Jeff was loving it, say it was "the most fun he'd ever had with an RC car"..... big grins all round.

The stuff we were supposed to drive on resembled a kind of polished, almost marble like surface, the stuff we were'nt supposed to drive on was really rough and pitted dry dirt .... and we were all really perplexed by it ......


Friday 7PM .....

Vintage race on the Astro Turf Track.....

My Tamiya Terra Scorcher (24 years young) is as it was when I last pulled it off the track in 1992 at Brinkburn School, with a Futaba ESC and 27T motor, and Acoms AS servo. This is the car that I put down in my first race in September 1991, alongside David Packs Kyosho Raider. The only changes were a 2.4 Ghz receiver, a PT, and some Schumacher tyres.

A quick try of my Terra Scorcher, to see if it went in a straight line, and threee corners later, the spur gear stripped. Great, this thing is more fragile than I thought. So I meshed the gears tight, and hoped it would last, and not burn out the period speedo and motor.

Two races scheduled: Pre '86  and Post '86.
I had my 1988 entry level Tamiya Terra Scorcher...... on Oople, the entry list had me in the pre '86 race, which I thought was due tot he 'entry level nature' of my car. I went over for the race, and in the Pre '86 race there were some 6 gear RC10s, Kyosho Ultima, MRC MRX, Grasshoppers,  and I thought I'd have a chance of holding my own against these, just.
I looked at the Post '86 race entries, including Brushless Cougars, Brushless RC10 Stealths, Cat XL, Lazers, Yokomo Dogfighters, and was glad I wouldn't be pitted against those, even though it was the true period of my car.

The drivers were called onto the rostrum by MC DAMO for the Pre '86 race, and my name was not amongst them ... damn it . Northy won the Pre '86 race with his RC10 6 gear, it looked really good. Jim Dixon was second with his Kyosho. We did have period retirements aswell, as Andy Bulmer pulled his Chain Drive Optima off when it dumped (I'm only disappointed it didn't lock the servos open and go round in circles like my Terra Scorcher used to do).

Ok, Post '86 time, time for me to stay out of the way of the quick cars, and not break anything on this 24 year old car.

VINTAGE VIDEO ... thanks to Greg for the camera work.

Handling ... not too bad, too much steering, and the feeling it would tip if I pushed it too hard, I was suprised to finish 4th, :

1st Nathan Ralls - Cougar
2nd - Dan Greenwood - RC10 Stealth
3rd Graham north RC10 Stealth
4th Me - Tamya Terra Scorcher...
5th James Wilkinson - CAT XL

I wonder if my car was the only one with a driver figure in it???

General consensus from everyone on Friday night:
Clay: Thumbsup
Double Double : everyone is getting there with it. Thumbsup
Can't wait for qualifying to start.



Saturday Qualifying:
After 1 round of practice in heat order, to clean the track, everyone still felt good about the track.
The grip was up, maybe due to moisture in the air? And we were all having a good go at the track, with pace and relatively clean runs.
In 2wd, I felt confident with the car, and was very pleased with my 29th in round. I went on to better this with a 26th, 25th and 21st in round, and was over the moon with my B4, and the track. I was particularly pleased with the control I learned over the double, and the double double.

There was some really good driving in our qualifying heat, particularly considering how close all of us were. Nick Gurnell, Lee Fraser driving really close to my car very cleanly, thanks guys. Special shout out to Mr. Ambrose for waiting after T-boning me in a corner, very good driving  from him, and the kind of gesture that made my day.



Kash had missed out on Friday practice, and was playing catchup for the whole meeting, and so was a little less familiar with the track, but had a feeling for the surface by the end.

His Losi 22 was still in mid motor configuration with a grass setup on it, and so the car may not have been as dialled as it could have been. Unfortunately, he got caught up in traffic  and rostrum 'banter' when on a good run, and his other good run he incorrectly thought his car had been called finished and pulled over.



Stephen Adams managed to get a 2WD entry on Saturday morning, but his (Mike West's) Tamiya 201 didn't look as composed as it had done in Friday practice.

One of his best runs was spoiled when a turnbuckle pulled out the rod end during a roll.

Following some diff adjustments, Greg Williams looked like he was fighting his Cougar round the track, with the back end looking very loose on power, but he still managed a 9th in round, which he was suprised with.

Further adjustments to diff and setup, never seemed to get the car hooked up on the Saturday. A cheeky setup change, trialled during the record attempt made the car a lot more raceable on the Sunday.

As with Stephen, Keith Shields had a great practice session on the Friday, but Saturday and Sunday qualifying, the car went away from him, and it handled like a completely different car.,

A reprogramming of his speedo by an SMD guru before finals helped his throttle control, and he felt the car came back to him a bit more.

Andy Twigger's RB5 looked very composed and settled on the track It looked really smooth and quick, without the small corrections I was having to make on the track to keep my B4 in line.

Just a few little mistakes prevented better scores.

In 4WD, Rob Calvert never got the run his pace deserved.  A spur gear here, a wheel off there, and return to Durango from his Tamiya 502 was a bit of a let down. When on the track, Robs car looked quick and aggressive.... when on the track.

Gary Waller's car looked really well balanced, round the corners and in the air, he had the flight over the Double Double nailed. So much so , that when he attempted a backflip from the transmitter, the car still flew level ... hinting at illegal onboard telemetry controlling his car in the air ... just unfortunately not helping him hit all apexes, as the car just went in too deep to a few of the corners .... it had plenty motor on the straight though.

As seen above, Gary's character in the fancy dress race, visited his Durango during the night, to add some finishing touches to Gary's car, as it sat on his Stella Stand.

Jeff ..... yes the car was quick, it pivoted really well round the corners, it was on rails ... but forget all of that, because Jeff "backflip" Steele was giving it large over the Double Double with some really special backflip action, with Muzzy's subtle encouragement of course ("Can Jeff beat Mr. Stokes's 6 backlips in a row on this lap?" ; and -- "Jeff Steele, that was your fastest lap, thats the way you need to do the double every lap" :o)

It looked like Jeff was having a great time, and his times showed he was on the pace.

Greg Williams .... top stuff from Mr Williams, his CAT SX3 looking really Agile, and making some really massive Proline Holeshots over the double double on his way to a 5th in A final qualification.

Top Stuff.

The other half of team Williams, Natalie was keeping things tidy with her CAT SX3, its just a pity the others in her race weren't doing the sme thing, spoiling what looked like her best run.  Her car, like Jeff's, seemed to pivot really well round the corners, and she controlled it really well to get out of the corners on line.

Mr. Pearson was a demon round most of the track, it's just a pity someone put a couple of jumps in front of the rostrum and other cars on the track. I'm convinced Andy would've ended up much higher, if the traffic had been more favourable.

 The Lazer was turning in really well, and getting the power down out of the corners as well as anyone. But we all know Andy is quick, and consistent, it seemed to be the consistency that was being interuppted by the traffic from what I saw, but he was quicker than the lead cars of his heat when on it.

Stephen Adams looked really quick with his TRF511. The track really suited Stephens commited driving style, as on Astro he is forced to contain the comitment that entertains so many spectators at Worksop.

He was on for a really quick time in round 2 that I watched, leading the heat which had Jeff Steele, and Trish Neale in, but his spur gear went. The other runs were fast, but had a few small errors. Stephen left it late until Sunday morning qualifying, after a night of drinking, to throw his 511 round the track very quickly and into a C final position. Thumbs up time.


RAFFLE


Worth a mention, as Jeff Steele wins, and is the proud owner of a brand new Cougar SV2 . Well done Jeff.

The Beer Race
I'm sure we'll get a good review of the beer race on Oople...... needless to say, great costumes, especially our very own Beer Fairy Gary, and Zombie Stu! I volunteered to marshall, and nearly lost my ankles 4 times, and someone took out my can of Becks :o(

The backflip competition
Again , Im sure this will be covered on Oople.com....
highlights for me were : Blitz, Blitz ft. Joe, Blitz V Joe, and the lad who totally wrecked his Durango, bits hanging off everywhere who ran over off the rostrum a bit concerned asking what had broke...... it'd be easier if he asked what wasn't broke. Ahh... alcohol and expensive model cars.

Jeff Backflip Steele decided to spectate the backflip competition, despite being the only real challenger to the two Durango's efforts.

Jeff's own backflips were ket just for racing, where it clearly improved his laptimes:

The World Record attempt
An official world record attempt, because Shiek Damo himself proclaimed.....
.... thou shall drive many cars round the track.... and 101 driver did that .... and records were set.

And so, I must relay my own experience. As my B4 sat off, behind Hupo's 210, itself lead by Shiek Damo's 210, I managed one whole lap before I lost the 2.4 bind, and car failsafed into something rather dangerous. The steering was centred, but the throttle was open, maybe 1/8th speed. It trundled off over the track as a runaway. I walked round to get it, but some helpful sole had pointed it back on the track, and on it went, from point to point. I was at this point helpless to stop it (BRCA insurance take note). It trundled around for maybe a minute, until it trundled all the way across the track, crossing the busy straight (somehow) and came to rest halfway up Dan Greenwood's shin. I heard him shouting my name from the other side of the trakc, followed by a few choice words that are unheard of on Tyneside.
Sorry again Dan, but your lawyers can talk to my lawyers.


The Finals

Mike Parker lights it up off the line:

I've got no idea how anyone else's final went, but I experienced, as I had done all day, really close clean racing. Whether this was the nature of the surface, or the relaxed atmosphere I don't know, but it was really enjoyable, and a complete contrast to the 'faux pressure' we endure in regionals and nationals.

this is where we started our finals:

2WD
G8 Keith Shields
F4 Kash Kahn
E3 Stephen Adams
D6 Twigger - who managed a leg 2 win I believe
C6 Chris Pattinson - Me - the best I managed was leg 2 -> 4th
B11 Wayne Collinson
B5 Greg Williams
A9 Craig Collinson

4WD
F1 - Gary Waller
E6 - Rob Calvert
E1 - Natalie Williams
D6 - Andy Pearson
D2 -  Mike Parker
C10 - Stu Evans - sorry Stu, managed to completely miss your racing all day
C5 Stephen Adams
C4 Jeff Steele
C2 Craig Mawson
A9 Craig Collinson
A5 Greg Williams

Rain interrupted the finals briefly, but covers were pulled onto the track by an army of volunteers, to help preserve the surface:

Finals comments:

Big well done to Greg, especially for leg 2 of 4WD A final.
1. Neil Cragg
2. Hupo Honigl
3. Greg Williams



Bad luck to Gaz, as he was leading his final..... when the wheel came off.
Gaz before the final, full of optimism:

...... it all turned to dispair as the wheel came off his 4WD assault:


















Keith leads his final:

Neil Cragg's performance and philosophical observations.....

Not last, and not least, TQ, 2wd and 4wd winner Neil Cragg..... not a current NE regionalist ... but worth a mention, just because the performance put on this weekend was unbelievable.

Saturday night drinking invited such philosophical observations such as: while looking at the moon under the influence, it was mentioned how mad it is, that we are all on a piece of rock, flying through space, with the moon which is another piece of rock, flying through space at the same speed, and we are clinging to it racing toy cars....

Sunday's A finals invited a fitting closing observation from someone else...... "It's strange how some people are just wired to do something, like Usain Bolt over 100m, or Neil Cragg controlling a car round a track like that...it's amazing stuff.... why aren't we all the same?"

Well two reasons:
It would be bloody boring if we were!
And Blitz would be able to do a backflip.

Lastly and mostly:

Thanks to all involved from Team Oople, it goes without saying that it wouldn't have been possible without all of you redshirts. Thanks again.