We made the trip over to England once again for the Neobuggy race (this was the third for us) but this time we rented a car! It was actually fun driving on the wrong (left) side of the road. The difficult part was the left hand shifting, but after about 20 miles negotiating UK roadways, I had the hang of it. Cody was actually shifting with his right hand while I worked the clutch leaving the airport. Thank goodness the pedals aren’t reverse, or we would have been in real trouble! The drive from Birmingham airport to Harper Adams was really quite pleasant, with some scenic rural 2 lane roads much of the way.

The event this year did not disappoint, with all the big race feel of years past. The curry stand was outside, and the parking lot was filled with caravans (camping trailers for you yanks!). With a little warmer weather this year, it was like spring in America. With the warm weather came the wasps! Cody got stung the first day, but it was the only sting I heard about the entire weekend, and fortunately they didn’t really come inside the building.

The Track

The DXR crew worked their magic once again with a very challenging but fair layout. There were definitely places to pass as we saw some side by side racing throughout the event. The straightaway was on the front side, with a pretty large kicker at the end to keep the drivers honest. A right turn into a double followed another right turn into a double then set up the cars for the first of two chicanes on the track. This first chicane had a catch basin on the right side, and if you fell off into it, it basically cost you a full second. Definitely had to thread the needle on that one. After the first chicane came the big quad in the back. Gas cars were tripling, while the electric buggies could quad it pretty easy.

A 180 followed by the second and shorter of the two chicanes went into a kicker going into a keyhole section that lead to the middle jump section. This section consisted of a table top, into what was dubbed “the catapult,” followed by a steep step jump. The only problem with any catapult is usually the landing, and this one was no different. Some of the sportsman/league drivers were really having trouble with this, and had to fix a lot of broken cars. I think a more generous landing area will be arranged next time. After the step up there was one more keyhole section where the loop resided.

Qualifying

Cody hit the ground running and captured TQ in the first round of qualifying. Coming to this race, we felt Cody had a good chance because last year his pace was very good, and he qualified 3rd behind Jared and Ty Tessmann. Here is a link showing Cody’s car after the first round TQ: Click Here.

Jared and Cody both had 2 TQs after 4 rounds, and Cody had a slightly better throw-out, so once again, Cody was the overnight TQ. It was a little more exciting this time because they had more rounds under their belt. Still there was a lot of work to do. The following day Jared would grab the TQ in round 5 with Cody 2nd, and it would come down to round 6 between Jared and Cody. The two still finished close together in round 6, Cody with 4 points and Jared with 5, but still not enough to overcome the 3 zeros posted by Jared. The overall Neo ’13 TQ would go to the defending Neo champ, Jared Tebo, with Cody 2nd.

Semi and Final

Cody’s semi didn’t go well, as we felt like the rear shock fluid was too thin with the higher temps on Monday. He didn’t have a great semi with a few mistakes, but still gridded up 4th for the main. In the final our worst nightmare basically came true, as he got cleaned out in the first corner! It’s really surprising how a driver at this level could do this, coming from several positions back on the starting grid, and blast someone just 10 meters into the race? It takes a special kind of carelessness to do that, something we don’t subscribe to. Anyway, this shuffled Cody back to last at one point. This year he really stuck with it and battled his way up to 4th position, which is really hard on a tight indoor circuit with all the traffic. It was fun to watch Cody work his way through traffic, and Elliot Boots and Robert Batlle were dukeing it out for the 2nd place spot. Fortunately Cody’s team mate would prevail, making it a Kyosho 1, 2 finish, with Batlle in 3rd and Cody 4th.

Wrap-up

Here is the equipment Cody used to race this week:

• Kyosho MP9 TKI3 Buggy
• Reds Racing R5T-TE engine with 2104 pipe, XS Manifold, and Reds #5 plug
• Pro-Line X4 Suburb tires, with lightweight wheels, Pro-Line foam and Pro-Line glue
• Byron Fuels Worlds Blend, 30% Nitro, 8% oil
• KO Propo Radio Equipment with RSX Power servos
• Protek RC lipo receiver pack, and Protek RC fuel gun
• Cody’s set-up sheet can be seen here.

It was nice to see Cody in the hunt and setting the pace early, but of course we wanted to win the race. Congratulations are definitely in order for 5 TIME Neo champ Jared Tebo (even though we were trying to upset his plans.. ha!) When you have a bad day, it’s nice to have friends and fellow racers to hang out with. It makes the racing fun even when things don’t go your way. That was the theme for us as we watched the DXR crew demolish and level the track in just a fraction of the time it took to build it. It’s always a little sad to see the facility get cleaned out. We can only hope to be back next year. The barbecues and socializing around the track were really fun this year, as we stayed on campus in the dorm rooms. It’s fun to be so close to the track and makes the clean-up and early morning arrivals that much easier. Just have to walk across the parking lot to get to the track. If you haven’t been to a Neo race, it’s definitely worth it to try and work into your schedule. HUGE props to Neobuggy’s Philip Mortstead and the DXR crew for putting on another awesome event. They clearly have raised the bar on purpose built tracks and really have it down to a science. Of course a big thank you to Cody’s sponsors, and especially Kyosho, Reds Racing Engines, and Byron who all pitched in to help get us to the race. Thanks to all our friends in the UK for making it fun, and supporting us, especially the Cradocks.

You can see this posting along with the photo gallery and some videos HERE. make sure to watch the dash for cash. It’s really good and the play by play is RC announcer extraordinaire Mike Garrison of LiveRC.