Friday - Practice

It’ s the Easter weekend, which in the world of one-eighth off-road RC racing means only one thing; the Neo Race. 2011 marks the sixth running of the event and for the fifth time we return to Harper Adams agricultural college in Shropshire, United Kingdom. The race kicks off today, Friday, with the practice sessions. The drivers then will be trying their hardest to set some exceptional times in qualifying over Saturday and Sunday followed by the finals and award ceremony on Monday.

The extraordinary tracks that the DXR crew produce have become a major defining factor for the Neo Race. This kind of ‘ big air’ dirt track is the dominant style in the USA, however in Europe they are few and far between. Being shielded from the elements in a large dirt hall certainly helps with the unpredictable English weather too, not that it is necessary today as we bask in glorious English sunshine (note: that is not a euphemism!) .

NeoBuggy’s own Philip Mortstedt happened to raise an interesting fact, only 7 drivers have attended all six Neo Races including this one: Elliot Boots, Brennan Ralls, Christoffer Svensson, Jon Hazlewood, Karl Jackson, Mark Dell and Rob Oldman. Talking of Neo Race veterans, Atushi Hara is no stranger to Neo having made the A final here 3 times. We caught up with him and got his thoughts on the track, amongst other things:

Today consists of three rounds of practice; the first is five minutes long and the other two are seven minutes in duration. Practice is more important than it may first seem. Perhaps the most obvious purpose of practice is providing the racers with some time on the track which is critical for finding the fastest lines and learning the rhythm of the jumps. Also, the three fastest consecutive laps of any of the three practice sessions are used to seed the drivers into their qualifying heat – consequently practice is of critical importance to ensure drivers are seeded into the best available qualifying heat to enabling them to avoid slower drivers holding them up.

We can’t really read much into just the first round of practice - it’s only 5 minutes, the track is very slippery as no rubber had been put down and the drivers have not had time to hone their set-ups. That said, the top drivers after the first round of practice were all familiar names, Robert Batlle was third fastest, 2006 & 2008 Neo Race winner Adam Drake second fastest and instantly finding a good pace was Billy Easton setting the fastest time.

The second round of practice was a similar affair, Drake finishing third fastest behind Tebo but this time Ryan Maifield had the best pace just six tenths of a second ahead of the fellow American. Tebo once again found good pace in the third round of practice, finishing third fastest. Ryan Lutz took second fastest and Ryan Maifield again was the fastest. Predictably this final round of practice was faster than the previous. To show how the track has sped up, Easton’s Practice 1 time was 3/1’50.4, Maifield’s P2 time was 3/1’46.6 and his P3 was 3/1’45.9. This is likely a combination of rubber bedding in the track, drivers improving their setup and gaining familiarity with the track.

The day finished with a bit of fun, a ten minute long mechanics final. The mechanics final gives those who will be working hard through the weekend on others cars an opportunity to try out the track, an opportunity Jon Dell put to good use as he took the win in this final.

Saturday - Qualifying

Once again we kick off with some glorious sunshine, it is really turning out to be a wonderful Easter weekend with this fantastic weather. The plan of action for Saturday is straight forward – we have three rounds of qualifying, seven minutes in length, and we finish the day with a Juniors Race where the top fifteen drivers under seventeen years of age will battle it out.

Today’s three rounds will be followed by three more rounds of qualifying tomorrow, Sunday, and the best four of these six rounds will be added together to give the overall qualifying position. With only two rounds to be dropped the racers really have to make the most of all of their qualifying rounds.

For a majority of the first qualifier Adam Drake was on course for a round TQ finish but Ryan Maifield, the fastest man in practice, replaced him in the final minutes. A mistake on the very last lap cost Maifield and we actually ended with Jared Tebo taking the Q1 TQ honours.

The second round of qualifying saw the lap-times plummet as the world’s best drivers displayed just what they are capable of. Round one TQ Jared Tebo crossed the line first and sat on top only for Ryan Maifield to make up for his earlier error and take the TQ for the round with a 34.14 second lap-time along the way.

A few clouds rolled in by the end of the day, taking the sunshine away for the first time in this NeoBuggy race. To quote Phil’s Neo-Buggy home page: “with slightly cooler temps the coolest man on the drivers stand this time around was Ryan Lutz, wheeling his Durango round to take TQ in the 3rd round of qualifying.” A shining example of a Phil’ism! He wasn’t far wrong too, Lutz was on fire and kept catching slower drivers, if he had some cleaner traffic he could have been a few seconds faster still.

With qualifying for the day finished the results and the results combined round one top qualifier Jared Tebo is first and round three top qualifier Ryan Lutz is second. Despite not having a round top qualifier so far, Adam Drake has been consistently good and stands third overall so far.

The Junior race is a nice touch as it helps to break up the weekend. Rather than 3 solid days of practice and qualifying we had the Mechanics Race on Friday evening, the Juniors Race this evening, the Dash For Cash on Sunday evening and of course the main event – the finals on Monday. It was no surprise who won the junior event, having set the third fastest time overall in the third qualifying session that the young Swedish racer David Ronnefalk won this quite comfortably. He was followed by the Australian world’s finalist Kyle McBride and another Swede, Mikael Johansson, in third.

Sunday - Qualifying

The format from Sunday really isn’t too dissimilar to that of Saturday, we have three rounds of qualifying which are seven minutes in length. As a reminder, the best four of six rounds will count for the drivers overall qualifying position. Following the final three qualifying rounds today we jump straight in to some of the lower finals, the 1024th and 512th. Then at the very end of the day the Dash For Cash returns, the fun race where the top 12 go for a fun shoot out, more on that later...

The weather is a little cooler than it was yesterday, with track temperatures considerably down due to the lack of direct sunshine. The first round of the day is round four of qualifying overall and as the action kicked off it was clear even from the earlier heats that the tack temperature had reduced quite considerably. We later spoke to Ty Tessmann who said that the colder temperatures were indeed affecting the grip level a little, event commentator and JQ driver Rob Rasey also mentioned the colder temperatures saying that he feels his choice of ProLine Holeshots M4 are right because the soft compound provides plenty of grip even on the cold surface.

The fourth round of qualifying was all about one man, Jared Tebo. Every lap that Jared put in was machine-like - he was hugging the apex on every corner, his lines were spot on, and it was simply incredible to watch. By the eleventh lap Tebo was clearly on course to make this a thirteen lap run, this is racing however and anything can and usually does happen.

Tebo came hurtling down the main straight approaching a slightly slower driver. Inching closer still to the car in front through the first corner having taken his usual line he was onto the double jump which is also part corner. His rhythm was not quite there, perhaps due to the distraction of traffic, the buggy didn’t quite make the down-ramp and crashed. Several racers have commented on the complexity of this feature throughout the weekend, rightly so if it can trip up even the best drivers in the world. It cost Tebo a thirteen lap run by the smallest of margins, he crossed the line to take twelve laps in 7 minutes 0.04 seconds – just four hundredths of a second away from a thirteen lap race.

However, Tebo cannot be too displeased with his result, he finished nearly eight seconds ahead of second place Neil Cragg and third place Ryan Lutz. After these four rounds Jared Tebo takes first place overall, followed by Ryan Lutz in second and Darren Bloomfield in third.

If the fourth round of qualifying was all about smooth driving then the fifth was about rough and ready outright pace. Tebo had a bad start to the round and it looked as if he would not set an impressive time at all, however Maifield and Lutz were on the throttle and really giving it some. Lutz was sliding his Durango around the corners, Maifield was clipping corners and sending his buggy spinning but lightning fast reactions meant they ended up the right way around and giving it more throttle than ever.

Both Maifield and Lutz were popping in and out of the predicted thirteen laps pace, it was impossible to guess who would make it. Maifield made a few mistakes too many and despite his raw pace he only just missed out on thirteen lap pace by finishing six tenths shy, taking second in this fifth round of qualifying.

Lutz managed to maintain his pace and he was pushing for a top finish harder than before, the elusive thirteen laps felt so close. The harder he pushed the more on edge his Durango was, he nearly crashed out on the ‘minefield’ section before the main straight on lap eleven, he was up on two wheels around the s-bend on lap twelve and sliding sideways on almost every lap – it was awesome to watch! The result from his efforts, he just clears the loop and becomes the first driver to get thirteen laps; Lutz becomes a very comfortable top qualifier for round five. Interestingly Tebo recovered well setting the fastest lap time of the event, finishing the round fourth just behind Darren Bloomfield.

Round six, the final round of qualifying, and there is still no clear event top qualifier at this stage. Isn’t it exciting when the qualifying comes down to the last round? This round started off quite like round five, though the drivers seemed to be a lot more focused and making far fewer mistakes. Ryan Lutz was the man to beat for almost the entirety of the final heat of this round right up to the last few laps, his lead over Maifield just four seconds. Maifield however just managed to push that little extra on those final few laps to take round six top qualifying honours denying Lutz with a margin of just two and a half tenths. Tebo had a very bad round finishing only twenty-sixth.

Tebo’s poor result in qualifying round six however didn’t matter, Maifield beating Lutz time in those dying laps denied Lutz of the event TQ, and made Jared Tebo the Neo Race Top Qualifier for 2011! Lutz drew with Maifield for second place on points but Lutz fastest elimited round was better than Maifields thus he takes second place and Maifield third overall.

Just like last year the Dash For Cash is a race where the top twelve qualifiers start in reverse order for a fast paced, fun-filled and action-packed ten minute race where the top three drivers all take away a cash prize. First tried at Neo10 the race has returned again for another year, last year’s winner Yannick Aigoin is not present but last year’s second place Adam Drake certainly is and his eighth place inversed means he starts from fifth on the grid.

The Dash For Cash starts with a crazy blast down the straight, Cody King and Jerome Aigoin who started on pole and second have a coming together and fly through the air, King being caught by a turn marshall and put back on the track straight away. This leaves David Ronnefalk out in the lead but almost straight away he cuts the infamous double-corner-jump. Waiting, but not nearly long enough, he charges off and maintains a lead. He was really building up a gap from the chaos behind him by the time he takes a penalty awarded for cutting the track.

Robert Batlle managed to pass as Ronnefalk rolls coming into the pits to take his penalty. By lap eight Batlle was still in the lead but Ronnefalk was catching him, the young Swede was right on the Spaniards tail by lap eleven and slams into the side of him in a genuine racing accident, however Batlle retains his lead. Maifield and King are behind having a fight over third place. It’s fair to say in a ten minute blast everyone everywhere was having a real fight for position, far too much action to follow, brilliant! Batlle rolls on lap twelve and Ronnefalk catches and passes despite the lead that Batlle had made himself. On lap sixteen with just seconds to space Ronnefalk flames out, the ten minutes just eluded him and at the £200. Instead, Batlle takes the win and collects his £200, Maifield holds onto third and Cody King takes third – they both get some cash too.

Monday - Finals

The return of the sunshine is a great way to start off the final day on the Neo Race. The schedule for the day is really straight forward; it's simply working through the finals in reverse order until we hit the mains. The finals are all twenty minutes in length except the main, which last forty-five minutes.

With over two-hundred drivers it would be a little hard to cover every final, the results are available online should you wish to check on any of these finals. The finals had the top four drivers bump up to the next final until we reached the semi-finals where the top seven from each would bump plus the next fastest driver – making a main final of fifteen drivers. .