Friday - Practice

Since 2006 the Neo race has been held at the Harper Adams agricultural college in Shropshire, United Kingdom. Running over the Easter weekend, we have four days of racing. Friday sees practice, which is important for seeding drivers into qualifying for Saturday and Sunday with finals on Monday.

This year qualifying is being run over 7 minute sessions. This requires the drivers to get the most from their engines to avoid fuel stops which cost precious time. Friday practice however consists of a 5 minute heat followed by two timed 7 minute practice heats.

As you expect from any Neo event at DXR, the track is phenomenal. The flatter section around the back is longer than previous years, meaning the track should be faster, but this is DXR so there are still sets of killer jumps to look forward to!

Typical for this time of year in England, the weather has remained overcast with occasional light showers. It is certainly a good thing that the Neo is an indoor race. This year we have 220 drivers, and it is purely nitro 1/8th nitro buggy. With temperatures around 10 degrees, it got very chilly in the track hall due the flowing air. That said, the fans done a brilliant job of keeping the air clean and clear.

Throughout Practice 1 and 2 the race track was very slippery. This was evident where cars were sliding off the cambered corners when they didn’t carry momentum. Despite improving slightly through the day, it’s clear though that the track wouldn’t hit optimal during practice. Drivers have been very positive about the track, praising its flowing nature. That said, when mistakes are made they can be costly as there is plenty of air available on these jumps, maybe the highest jumps at DXR since Neo06.

Round2 was 7 minutes in length and certainly led to some surprises. The relevance of practice is not so great, as long as you are seeded into a heat which doesn’t hold you up, exact positions mean little. However, for us spectators and fans it gives us a glimpse of the performance of the competitors.

Top 5 - Practice Round 2
1 Mike Truhe 3/ 2m 0.69
2 Elliot Boots 3/ 2m 1.08
3 Adam Drake 3/ 2m 1.96
4 Robert Batlle 3/ 2m 2.65
5 Martin Bayer 3/ 2m 2.79

Truhe set the fastest time in Round 2. After speaking to Adam Drake, it appears they are using the Losi 8ight 2.0EU. However, Adam and Mike have a US style setup on it, unlike their European teammates, and this is clearly working with Drake setting the 3rd fastest time in this round. Splitting the two Americans is Elliot Boots. The young Brit had in fact set the fastest lap-time of the round at 39.58 seconds.

Running well to a tight schedule, the race moves into Practice Round 3. The seeding is done based on the drivers fastest 3 consecutive laps. This is a fair method as it allows the drivers to experiment during the practice rounds without having to pay the penalty for one or two mistakes (it is practice after all).

Top 5 - Practice Round 3
1 Yannick Aigoin 3/ 1m 58.16
2 Adam Drake 3/ 1m 59.26
3 Darren Bloomfield 3/ 2m
4 Jerome Aigoin 3/ 2m 0.45
5 Billy Easton 3/ 2m 0.54

A expected the track has got more grip and speed, and the drivers more experienced with it. This lead to a good speed increase for the third and final round of practice. Yannick Aigoin had brought his Losi’s setup in line with Drake and Truhe, this clearly paid dividends as he took the fastest time in practice.

This is also a fantastic result for Losi, with top 3 spots in practice. Yannick says this is down to a great team which shares information and helps each other out, and considering Yannick is using the Americans set-up I think that has been proven. A very exciting day, with the track getting faster can only mean better things for the weekend ahead.

Saturday - Qualifying

Saturday sees the first day of Qualifying. Qualifying is split over six rounds, with 1-3 taking place on Saturday and 4-6 on Sunday. These qualifying sessions are 7 minutes in length, which like the final practice sessions yesterday should provide an interesting challenge as drivers need to get the best balance of fuel efficiency and outright pace.

Qualifying 1 kicked off at 8am sharp with glorious sunshine creating dramatic lightning in the hall with beams of light and smoke/dust in the air. The dominance of the Losi that was experienced in the Friday practice was again repeated, this time 5 of the top 6 were all Losi! The number one spot however was American racer Mike Truhe, he was comfortably 5 seconds faster than Czech team mate Martin Bayer.

We caught up with Mike Truhe after the round to get his views. Like Drake and the other Losi drivers, Truhe says he is running the 2.0 EU spec buggy though he has opted for at the least the US spec body shell out of personal preference. He says that the car is running his standard setup and that the only changes he wants to make is of his shock oil.

One interesting thing with Neo is the amount of new kit it always attracts. One such new manufacturer is Agama racing, and we sat down with Dani Vega to have a chat about this soon to be released buggy. Vega described the design as a combination of good ideas taken from other buggies and a combination of their own ideas.

He suggests that the engine is one of the most centrally located of any buggy, and a key feature of this buggy is that all 6 drive shafts are equal length to make spares easier to stock/source. Overall configuration of the buggy allows the throttle servo to slide to be located by user preference. More info in the video! The Agama will be coming sometime this month.

Round 2 of qualifying was certainly eventful! Elliot Boots and Renaud Savoya were both fighting to break the Losi dominance. Boots, who was running the RB X10 engine, was trading fastest laps with Czech driver Martin Bayer. They were setting laps around the mid 38 second mark, roughly half a second faster than most of the others.

A little tangle between the two left Bayer out in front to take the TQ for the round. With 5 of the top 7 running Losi, it’s fair to say their dominance continues here. However, like the Losi the Mugens have also traditionally suited the DXR style track and this shows with Boots in second and Savoya in third.

We caught up with Bayer after the round to discuss his success. Like the other Losi team drivers, Bayer is running the EU spec 8ight. However, again he is running the US setup on this. On a track like DXR I wouldn’t be surprised to see a US buggy, however it seems Losi are content with using their US setup on the EU car. Like a lot of the top drivers, Bayer is using Pro-Line Hole Shot’s and hasn’t really experimented as he says he is happy with this.

The third and final round of qualifying for the day started with a typical British summer weather fashion - rain showers . Indoor racing in the UK, there is a point to that! This round of qualifying was certainly action packed!

Renaud Savoya was having a battle with Ryan Maifield during their heat. Maifields driving is very aggressively, and seems to be struggling as a result. After 3 rounds he is provisionally 54th, however all is not lost at round 3 with 3 rounds ahead of him.

Yannick Aigoin was on for a very quick run this time. However, some slight issues with his servo on the last lap gave him a bit of an issue. He still finished the round a very respectable fifth place, sitting fourth overall at this stage.

Richard Taylor was one of the stars this round, he brought his Losi to 3rd place behind Mike Truhe and Renaud Savoya. Once again, the Mugens are proving they can keep pace with the Losi. These two manufacturers are really shining in these first rounds.

Top 5 - Qualifying Round 3
1 Mike Truhe 11/ 7m 15.63
2 Renaud Savoya 11/ 7m 17.70
3 Richard Taylor 11/ 7m 19.16
4 Jerome Aigoin 11/ 7m 19.26
5 Yannick Aigoin 11/ 7m 20.49

Sunday - Qualifying

Sunday sees the busiest day in the Neo10 calendar. It starts off with a mirror of Saturdays timetable, which is 3 rounds of qualifying at 7 mins per heat, drivers take the best 4 of 6 rounds to get their starting position in the finals. This is then followed by a couple of the lower finals (1024th and 512th) in order to free time up for tomorrow. To top the day off there is the Dash4Cash where the top 12 qualifiers start in reverse order with double-sided grid and race for 10 minutes. Top 3 get Cash Prizes. (1st £250, 2nd £150, 3rd £75).

This is Easter Sunday, and the day kicked off with some fantastic sunshine. The first round of qualifying of the day (Q4) was action packed, as you might expect, but also threw up some surprises. Atsushi Hara took the fastest time in the round with a fantastic drive. Speaking to Hara after the round, he says that his car wasn’t slow in previous rounds, but rather he had made mistakes. He is running a fairly conventionally set-up on his Hotbodies D8 and says he has gone with lighter oils to compensate for the colder weather.

Hara says his biggest change was switching between Pro-Line Holeshot M3 compound to the M4 compound. He also changed his clutch, with softer springs too get as much traction as possible. He also says he is using a transmitter muff to keep the cold out of his hands, and warming up the engine plenty in advance.

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Durango DNX408 - NeoBuggy Investigates

The new Durango car has been creating a great deal on interest in the Neo live coverage. Consequently we sat down with Adam Skelding and Hupo Honigl to let them guide us through the buggy. We have the video to the right; I think it’s fair to say they seemed unenthused, which is a bit of a shame as the buggy is quite exciting. Maybe they were just tired, the Neo is a tough weekend!

Durango have been very brave, they have described the Neo as a public test session. Key features of the car are easy access differentials, which need minimal disassembly to get them out at change it. The car is very narrow, and very central - we think this helps the jumping an awful lot as it looks great in the air. Many drivers and spectators alike say how nice it looks as it seemingly glides through the air.

Another cool feature of the car is the fuel tank, although offset the entry is central. This is not dissimilar to how Team Magic created their fuel tank on the M1-B, though this is slightly more conventional and hopefully more durable!

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The fifth round of qualifying was super fast. All eyes were on Hara in Heat 13 who put down a super time with 11/7m 10.06. No-one was sure if anybody in the following two heats could beat this. Nobody in Heat 14 put up a substantial enough, but heat 15 proved a completely different story. Yannick Aigoin was very fast early on, and on pace to beat Hara’s time. Adam Drake showed great sportsmanship by getting out of the way of his Losi teammate, however Yannick rolled putting an end to this challenge.

Following this Savoya picked up a lot of pace in this round. He was on track for a very close time, on the on the penultimate lap the computer was predicting he may just beat Hara by a second or so. A tense blast to the line... he finished 0.5 second slower than Hara, giving Hara two round TQ’s in a row. Only 3 seconds divided the top 6 drivers.

The sixth and final round of qualifying saw Adam Drake take the round TQ. Adam described his run as safe, saying that he was just making no mistakes. That said, his overall time is very fast indeed! Adam says he has changed something on every run in qualifying, and this pursuit for perfection may be very useful indeed in the finals.

Savoya was very disappointed with his run. He switched his tyres from Holeshots to Recoil but this didn’t pay off. He described his decision as a test before the long finals yesterday, citing fears that Holeshots may not make the long main final. This experiment didn’t matter though, as Savoya finished qualifying overall in 2nd place, just ahead of Martin Bayer.

Top 5 - Qualifying Round 6
1 Adam Drake 11/ 7m 7.71
2 Jorn Neumann 11/ 7m 10.71
3 Jerome Aigoin 11/ 7m 12.18
4 Ryan Maifield 11/ 7m 12.48
5 Robert Batlle 11/ 7m 12.49

As mentioned previously, Dash4Cash is a 10minute race where the podium all get a cash prize. It’s a bit of fun to end the Sunday night before the serious finals of Monday. The top 12 qualifiers start in reverse order for a sprint for the money. Seriously impressive in this round was Adam Drake, who started from 12th place (TQ) and finished in second place! His laps were consistently around 38-39 seconds, which is flat out pace!

Yannick Aigoin who started from 6th place took the lead, and takes home £250 in cash. Lee Martin finished third after starting 6th. Overall an amazing result for these drivers - with a Losi 1-2-3!

Monday - Finals

Final day race report will be ready on Wednesday