Hi yah all, just returned from competing at the 1/10^th Off Road Euros in Pau, France.
It all started on Friday 19^th late at night where I set off to pick up Jon Spencer from Northampton and from there off to pick up Ellis Stafford from Essex, crab the M25, then M2 and on to Dover to catch the P&O ferry. Already knackered (LOL) and we are not even into France yet!. Arrive at Calais and now the 650 mile journey to Pau, south of France. Actually Jon and Ellis have more than enough humour and the journey was just fine but I cannot possibly mention some of the shenanigans going on so when you see me, just ask.

Finally got to the track and to be honest was instantly disappointed at the surface, the preparation and even some of the facilities. Turning up at a Euros event where the track was not in pristine condition to me was not acceptable. At UK National level and even at Regional level we turn up and take all of this for granted but this is the high standard that the UK track organisers have reached and we somehow don’t appreciate their efforts enough…… The pitting space was sort of OK but again for a European Championship event in my opinion was a very tight space so not really comfortable like I would have thought the organiser would want to make their guests.

The weather was hot to the point it reached some 40c and fans on every pit table was a must. We already thought of this so packed the desk fans. Day one of practice and the cars hit the track to find it actually very slippery and it was noted that rear motored cars were sort of better than mid-motored cars. As many of you know I have the choice of the RB5 SP2 or my usual Vega Elite were I run at all the Nationals and Regional this year. I run the Vega for 5 practice rounds and working with Jon Spencer we got the set up very good. I switched to the RB5 and instantaneously I lapped a little quicker on a faster single lap scenario. Many drivers said that is the car I should run and decision time was upon me as the chassis have to be marked for tech purposes. To many of a surprise I chose the Vega Elite mid-motored car.

I did this because it was consistent and I could do regularly the same lap times rather than the RB5 was quick but I just couldn’t hold on to it enough to be consistent over a 5 min run. I remembered conversations with Marc Knight about being consistent first and then being quick would just come……
Next day it was proven that the Vega was the right decision for me as I got a 16^th in round 2 of qualifying and was actually 17^th overall after 2 rounds. Was it a highlight, sure it was and what didn’t get mentioned that was with a couple of errors…..who says the mid-cars don’t work? You just have to find the right set up for the cars – simples!!
2wd was done and dusted and ending up in the D final. It wasn’t brilliant at the end but for me it was good – it is the Euros after all. It was also great to see Lee Martin winning after a great battle with Neil Cragg and these two UK lads showed everyone from word go that they were the best 2 in Europe – well done to the pair of you for great racing and sportsmanship.

4wd came and the weather was still hot and sunny and we got in some great practicing sessions in on the Thursday. The FS2 was real good and with Ellis driving it too, we worked hard to get it nice on the now blue grooving track. – Then disaster struck as the temperature dropped to sub 20c and rain like you wouldn’t believe.

We got at the track at 7.0 am to be told postponed till 12.0. We decided to go shopping for the morning. Got back at 12.0 to be told come back at 6.0pm for controlled practice to determine the start order within tomorrow’s heats – I couldn’t understand this but there you have it. Between 12.0 and 6.0 some of us went Indoor Kart Racing where we discovered James Helliwell being light as a feather helped him win the quickest lap time. Ellis turned into a Karting animal ramming Jon up the rear on the straight as well as me in a corner. LOL – All good fun of course!
The 6.0pm deadline came and we run the cars round but learned nothing at this stage. The next day the qualifying was cut down to only 3 rounds with 2 to count. I couldn’t understand this either as in the UK we can do 2 practice sessions, 4 rounds and finals with 12 heats in less time than they had with only 10 heats. I like some other UK lads was puzzled and after asking we were told it’s about a rule in allowing the A Final to have a practice run.
Anyways, I didn’t do too good in 4wd and ended up some 54^th at the end. I was disappointed just like Ellis must have been popping a ball cup just before the last corner on a great 1^st run and again the smallest of errors on another run finding ‘Roger’ the super marshal sleeping prompting my quote of the week. “Roger you are a real nice guy but my God you are a shit marshal” – Everyone laughed but not Ellis !!!

I also ended up commentating the Main A Finals for the club as there is apparently another EFRA rule stating English commentary! It was a pleasure announcing Lee Martin as the 2wd Champion as well as Jorn Neumann for the 4wd event.
The British Team as a whole did very well indeed.

Conclusion with the hope I don’t offend anyone. European events are different to UK events. I believe and it’s only my personal opinion that the venue had some issues. Toilets were really poor with only 2 porta loos and they were not cleaned etc etc. I think the track could have been presented better with some painting and so on before the event. I think the rostrum although big enough was not situated in the right place compared to the track. It was set on one side and everyone wanted a certain spot to the left to be as central as possible in relevance to the track. Even some had arguments though qualifying about this. The track has to be swept up by a bunch of the UK lads and the part they did held up really well and even blue grooved. The parts not done broke up and were bumpy etc – this sort of told me the club haven’t experimented enough with their surface for such a huge event. The pitting was not in my opinion to a high standard. We had to build like a fort with tables to keep the water out and off our tables. In general in every aspect one could say it could have been better. With that said, all that the personnel at the club are extremely friendly and helpful whenever they can so it sort of made up for some of the other issues. They had some fair catering going on so not all bad. You could say that I am too fussy but when the travel, the tyres, the preparation, hotels and entry fees equate to well over £1000, one sort of expects the organising club to do the very best of everything especially at some £18K gain!……..The British Team spirit, all the joking around, evenings out and a lot more certainly made the week for me so thanks chaps and catch up soon……

Now another total rebuild for the cars for the last major event of the season the F2 championships at Silverstone – see you all there………

Tony Evdoka

Hi yah all, in brief the last few weeks have been real good for me.
Started off at the Herts 2wd regional ( http://www.hertsnitromodelclub.co.uk )where I felt on the pace and really feeling as if I was getting towards my old best.
Could of TQed the meeting with some luck but instead qualified 4^th and finished 4^th – Very happy with that as they say, especially as there was many top drivers in attendance!

Another Mid-South Regional event but this time 4wd Off to Silverstone buggy club. http://www.silverstonercmcc.co.uk  I felt real confident for this event as my FS2 now has a real good base set up and although many F1 drivers in attendance, I was amongst them all at the 1^st 4wd regional at Stotfold..
The weather was not kind to us this weekend and it was raining on and off all day. I ended up 5^th on the grid and ended up with 5^th worth point as the meeting was called off after 3 rounds. Was I happy? Not really. I thought in he finals I could of picked up a podium so sort of disappointed.

Well not off to the National at Kidderminster. Even when I was sort of good (LOL) I never did well here but this time I was determined to try real hard as a few good results will regain my F1 status once more.
Damp day and on and off rain on the 2wd saw me make some errors in my first run but still get 14^th in round with the luck of the weather.
Round 2 was upon us and I had a clean run and went 16^th in round with no weather benefits so I was getting a little excited. They say at my age I shouldn’t do that so I sort of tried to keep calm but as Paice, Stafford and Boyle will tell you, it wasn’t the case. I was buzzing LOL..
Another top 20 in round and I ended up C3 and finished C2. I was happy with that.
4wd was a dryer day and the Kyosho FS2 was real good to me. Ended up in the D but I know I was better than that – too much excitement the day before you see!!

TLR Super Cup weekend. I was disappointed that I just could not race the whole weekend as a family Christening was on the Saturday so racing was a no go for me. The lads at Eden Park Raceway did a great job in preparing not only the track but loads of gifts with the entry, race control personnel and so much more. The only way I can describe it is it was all as it should be for an EVENT and not just another meeting. The TLR Team was all present and accounted for and with drivers like Matt Benfield and Kevin Moore in attendance along with Ellis Stafford, Danny McGee and many others the quest to put the 2wd and the 4wd in the A Final with only 2 runs was never going to be easy.
Was I nervous, sure I was. I wanted to achieve this for 2 reasons. The first is obvious as a racer you want others to take note but this time I also wanted it for the club so it could show that it could be done with only attending the one day event and not need to commit to the whole weekend. Yes, you guessed it. Finished 5^th in 4wd and 8^th in 2wd so real happy with that ….full report here – http://www.horizonhobby.co.uk/autoonline/d_breaking_news/d_articles/d_articles_pg5.html

Off to the 4wd Regional indoors at DMS this weekend and National at Oswestry the weekend after – Cars are all ready and so am I – bring it on as they say – LOL

Catch up soon all

Tony Evdoka

Hi yah all.

I have just about recovered from the National this past weekend at Talywain where it was rain, rain and more rain.
Can’t say I was much excited to being there to be honest as the track/venue was no different to other years.
The weather affected many drivers including myself but that’s racing…….

On Tuesday night I decided I needed to get my mind off the National scene and the bad weather experienced over the bank holiday weekend so I decided to go and get a little track time at the new Astro track at Herts Nitro Club. Yes it’s not a spelling mistake, I did say Nitro.
The Herts venue, some of you may refer to it as West Mill, has a great dirt/multi-surface 1/8^th Off Road Track that holds many top competitions throughout the year and I was fortunate enough to have 15 minutes of running Mike Craddock’s (Kyosho UK) MP9 round this great track. First time for me and what can I say! No wonder the MP9 won the World Championship – great car – I was like a duck to water!!

Anyways, the organisations there have decided to build an Astro Track for electric and I assume as a back up all weather track for their Nitro racing. It’s a really good size track with the fast lads doing some 25 second laps. This could even grow when they put in some more jumps that I know is planned. The permutations of the track layout is endless so some exciting racing ahead. The venue is just great with a huge amount of pitting space. The track is holding a Mid-South 2wd regional this Sunday (5^th of June) and a 4wd regional on the 31^st of July.
Great organisation by Ian Edwards and Karl Jackson, both top class racers, and they certainly seem very keen to get this venue on the map.
Even better to see the youngsters racing and coming through and I had a big smile on my face when some of the Dads were getting excited to some marshalling that was that split moment too late. Just what racing is all about! Get yourselves down there as it’s a really good venue with a great bunch of people doing a great job. Thank you for your hospitality all and see you at the weekend at the 2wd regional

For more info on the club, visit their website: http://www.hertsnitromodelclub.co.uk/

           
                                      2wd                                                                            4wd

Tony Evdoka

Since coming back to racing I have been up and down the country trying to get run time on Regional and National tracks as this is where one gets their licence grade and I would like my F1 status back at some stage. LOL

What I didn’t forget is my routes and where I started racing over 20 years ago.
TORCH – http://www.torchracing.org.uk – is situated in Titchfield and really a short trip for me down the M3 motorway.
I had a sort of free weekend so I decided to get down there as I used to race there many moons ago with Martin Nichols from Surrey and Hants Models and Ron Winter (sadly not with us any more) from RW Racing.
TORCH have move venue since those days and upon my arrival I couldn’t believe what I was to discover.
The track just looked ace. Real good quality Astroturf and jumps and with features that looked like they could be moved around if need be and this would take away the permanent home advantage that a lot of racers talk about. All nicely done and blended together. So far I was very impressed and please don’t misunderstand I wasn’t there to judge anyone, it’s just my opinion.

Went out for practice and my car was good but as normal I did few set up changes that made the car just great.
As many of you know I am a MK Racing and Kyosho/Orion driver, and lucky enough to also be able to run the Kyosho Vega Elite through Team Xtreme.
I found myself at the top of qualifying after the first run and to be honest this surprised me.  I am no different as a racer and when we go to a new venue one assumes that the local drivers will always be on top and there are some real good drivers at TORCH.
My car was real good though and this fortune of fame (LOL) was to continue through qualifying and into the TQ spot.
The track was really good and I cannot relay this enough. Plenty of grip and although I could see ware on the rear tyres, I found you could still run with worn tyres. Needless to say new tyres would be of benefit but that is really across the board at any of Astroturf tracks.

A quick sum up
Get yourselves down to TORCH. A great bunch of lads, which have done an amazing job of their new track and still looking to improve the venue.
I have no doubt at all in my mind they will welcome you like they did me and you will have a great time for sure.
Superb!

Tony Evdoka

We have just received our 1st batch of this new 1/10th 2wd Buggy from Team Losi Racing, all pre-orders are being shipped out to customers today.

We also have a few kits left from this batch, please follow link to our web site.

TLR 22 Details

With all the bad weather in the run up to Xmas all the meetings I was going to attend got cancelled. So with New Year out of the way I just wanted to get on and do some racing .

There were only two meetings running on this weekend one was Frankley CML winter series but that was fully booked so my only other option was to drive to Nottingham to race at N.D.O.R.

When we arrived at the track it was freezing cold but we were  not disapointed as the track was really impressive .The track was really big with some technical jump sections, banked corners , and some volcano style corners that caught you out if you took them too tight .

There was a good turn out of around 40 drivers so it looked as it would be a good meeting .

Due to the amount of drivers practice was limited to 5 mins which was not a lot of time to learn a track of this nature .I went out and just cruised around trying to find the best lines through the jump sections and get a feel for things .

The first heat went well and I started to get more confident with the track , my diff set up was too thick but it looked like it may dry up so I decided to leave them .After heat 1 I was 2nd overall .

During heats 2 and 3 I just used the time to try more lines through the tripple double section  and different tire combinations . During these heats I could not a clean run , seemed to have a lot of bad luck with cars taking me out and marshalls not watching ect , ended up qualifying 4th overall so was happy with that considering the circumstances .

As the day went on I was hoping the track would dry and be better suited to my diff set up but it did the opposite the ground started to thaw and water seeped up though onto the surface making it a wet race , I did not have time to change my diffs for the final so I had to work with what I had .

The A final started well and within half a lap I was up into second behind Graham Alsop and we had pulled out a lead on the field .Some sections at the bottom of the track had started to get really wet by now so had to be careful at the end of the straight as it was very slippery and was catching a lot of people out .Richard Greenough and Colin Brennan were having a good battle for 3rd place until Richard retired on his pit stop .I had an incident halfway through where someone tried to jump over me getting stuck on the top of my car which lost me a lot of time by I still held my position . After 20 mins of racing Graham Alsop crossed the line in 1st , I came in 2nd and Colin Brennan took 3rd

We heard the S.R.M.C.C club were holding an event to raise money for the children’s charity C.A.L.M so I decided to make the trip up to give our support .
We arrived at the track to find it had a good dusting of snow all over it which would make for interesting conditions. The track has undergone a lot of work by the new committee and is a lot more interesting and the lap is a bit longer .
Practice got underway and with the ambient temperature at 0 degrees this is where the engine pre-heaters really come into their own. The surestart made my engine start effortlesly which was more than could be said everyone else . Most people were really struggling to get the engines to fire due to the temperature .
Changed my plug to a no5 to help keep the motor temps up then hit the track and we all found out how slippery frozen astro covered in snow was the answer is “very”.
I brought the car in and made some minor changes to generate some grip and when I went out it was a lot better .
In the warm up to the first round my throttle servo failed and I missed the first 2 rounds due to repairing this . After the first 2 rounds Zahir Nayani was sitting in the top spot with Ray Sargent in second and Clinton Dredge in third .
I got my car fixed and went out for round 3 . The round went quite well and I managed to set TQ for the round.
By the time we got to round 4 the racing line had cleared of snow and there was a bit more traction so everyone was looking to improve their times I had a good run and managed to improve my time by 14 seconds and hold TQ for the meeting Zahir also improved to take second and Ray Sargent claimed 3rd .
When the A final came around the temperature had dropped to -1 ,we all got warmed up quickly as we were all keen to get the race underway .The race started clean and we all got away well there were some good battles going on between Clinton and Ray for 3rd position, at the halfway point I came in for fuel and was informed I was over a lap up on the field. The cold was really starting to get to me now so I just kept things tidy .We were all glad to hear the final beep I crossed the line in 1st , Zahir Nayani brought home a comfortable 2nd and Clinton Dredge in 3rd .
After the meeting there was a trophy presentation for the winners of the finals and an anoncement that we had raised £150 for the charity so a very succesfull day for the club .

Hi all,
I know a few of you have wondered where I got to over the passed few weeks and I apologise for any emails not replied to…..
My mother passed away some weeks ago now and it’s been a bit of an educational journey of emotions.
I attended racing on Sunday wearing customary (Greek Orthodox) black clothing and unshaven that we customary do for 40 days after a family death, so no MK Racing, Kyosho, RudeBits, LRP, Orion logos on clothing till after the 12th of December.
I used my Kyosho Lazer FS2 for really the first time and already I learned a lot about some of the adjustments on the car and their benefits.
Qualified 7th so not too unhappy with that but the car was so much better.
So we move closer to Christmas and events coming real quick now.
Taplow indoor this weekend (sorry lads I cannot make it) so get your entries in for that as i believe Lee Martin (European Double Champion) may be making it for this one so well worth the education.

I will see you all soon and meanwhile if anyone needs to get in touch then you can email me
tony@rudebits.net

See you all at Ardent 19th of December

Tony Evdoka

I was staying up in London for the weekend so i decided to take my racing equipment and attended round 7 of Fairlops second sponsored series the VP Pro .

The Fairlop RC track is in a really nice location in a golf club next to a boating lake and has really good onsite facilities and friendly locals.The track is half astro half dirt and has some good size jumps and a technical infield section so has a bit of everything.

When we arrived at the track there were quite a few puddles on the track , these were quickly cleared up by the locals before the start of practice .

Practice got underway and the rain had made the astro sections of the track very slippery especially using dirt tires .

During the heats the astro sections dried out and got faster but the dirt sections started to rutt up in the accelerating/braking areas making line choices a bit tricky .I set TQ in round 2 but as the heats went on the track got slower .

The sun came out during the break and by the time the lower finals and truggy finals were over the track had got very loose and dusty on the surface .Before the final I made some adjustments to the car to help cope with the ruts and generate some more traction .

The A final started well and I got clear of the usual first corner madness and two laps in i had a comfortable half lap lead in front of James Renwick who was in a battle with Dave Skerratt and Dave Mascall all driving hard trying to get the last available points for the series .With the lead I had i knew I could afford to ease off a bit and drive smart just keep things tidy and avoid the worst of the rutts .I came in for fuel on 10 mins pit stop went well then three quarters of the way round the following lap my engine cut .By the time the car had been returned to the pits and re-started I had lost nearly 2 laps putting me back in to second place . I had to really push hard to get the time back and catch James who had taken a full lap lead this is not the situation I wanted to be in with the track being so loose and rough .I managed to put in fast a consistant laps and regained the lead . I was worried about cutting again so decided to keep pushing hard when the final time ran out I crossed the line 2 laps ahead of Manolito Fernandez in second and Dave Mascall in third .

After the racing there was a trophy presentation for the day and also for the overall series followed by a big raffle with over £500 of VP Pro equipment given away .

Well done to all the series winners and thanks for a very enjoyable day .

Dan Blight

I made the 4 hour trip from Plymouth up to Clanfield RC for the 2010 Dirtmasters. I have never been to Clanfield before and my first impressions when I walked around the track was how rough and stoney the surface was, I was told this was because the roller had broken shortly before the event so the track could not be prepared.
Race format for the day was 5 rounds of qualifying then finals with a point system which was worked out from how well you did in the qualifying rounds, so consistancy was key through the heats.
During the 30 minute practice session I relised just how tricky the track was in certain places and how the car was easily upset if I put to much power on, I was also trying to learn where the worst of the bumps were so I could try to avoid them when racing.
Before the racing started i decided to make a few changes to the car, so I went lighter on the shock oils and also added some more rebound.
During the heats i just used the time to get a safe set up for the car and try various tire combinations to get a decent car for the final. At the end of the heats I still was not completely happy with the car so I had just enough time to play around and change a few more things, I made some adjustments to the bump steer and roll centres. I took the car out and it felt a lot better, I was able to carry a lot more speed through rough sections and was more predictable.
For the final I decided to go with XBT red up front and Eclipse red in the rear as this seemed to produce the best times.
TQ was taken by John Wolf and myself in second place, the final started clean and after half a lap John Wolf made a mistake which lost him some time, my car was going well so I worked really hard and put in a few quick laps which gave me a comfortable half lap lead.
I was on 10 minute stops for the final so I eased off a bit and just kept it tidy and let the other cars do the work, with my fuel stop out of the way I came out the pits still with a comfortable lead knowing all the other cars had to stop again so I just had to not crash and I would be ok, with 10 seconds remaining called and I had time to cross the loop and do another lap but I decided to hold right back till the time finished then I would cross the loop and end the race, John Wolf came in 2nd just behind me then Les Taylor in 3rd.Thanks to all at Clanfield RC for an enjoyable well run event .