Upon arriving at Harper Adams, It’s was a cold and drizzly day today. Just the type of weather I was expecting in Britan, as I would be disappointed if it were any other way. You could feel the excitement in the air, as soon there would be a grid set, and a Neo Champion crowned for 2012.

Semi one was unbelievable for Cody, starting out brilliant, and ending in a disappointing way. The first few laps were tense as it was a time for caution and clean racing. Cody managed to get by team mate Jared Tebo, and then endured some pressure from Robert Batlle. After these two brief challenges, Cody stretched out a buffer, maybe enough to crash and still retain the lead. After a near flawless first 10 minutes, the second 10 would be nearly the opposite.

While leading the race, Cody came into pit lane for fuel and Joseph Quagrain’s pit crew dropped THE Car on top of THE Leader, and nearly knocking Cody off THE Pit Lane. Clearly a pit lane foul, Cody’s car was stuck there for THE longest time as the marshal was not near. This would yield a 47+ second pit lap, maybe loosing 10 seconds from this incident. After getting back to the track, there was much trouble with traffic for the second 10 minutes. Cody missed a few steps, and would get knocked around a few more times as THE unnamed lapped traffic was screwing up the top 5 racers. Don’t ask me what race officials were doing while some of the cars were being destroyed by lapped traffic. Anyhow, Cody had a good enough margin from his early clean running to stay in the top 5, and put him 7th on the grid for the final.

I wish I had great news to report about the final, but of course we are disappointed falling outside the top 10. The positive things were 4th fastest lap in the final (4/100 off Maifield’s best), the MP9 was great, and tires and engine were fantastic! Cody had a crash early, shuffling him to the back of the pack, and for this race, that is a very steep hill to climb. Even after getting sorted out and back on form, you’re already 1/2 a lap down to the leaders. The driving near the back was really bad with a lot of contact between the cars. Pit maneuvers and take outs were the rule not the exception as the cars on the front end had clean air. We are very pleased to have the most cars, 4 Kyosho’s in the final. Also congratulations to Elliot Boots who has shown he can run at the top level with his MP9 chassis under him.

Final results are here:

Congratulations to Jared Tebo, Kyosho and Orion on another big title! Special thanks to Mike Cradock and his family for their hospitality, Marc Jones for the help in pit lane, and all the UK folks. Great job to Phil Mortstead at Neobuggy and his whole crew, as well as liverc and everyone involved on a fantastic race! Very special thanks to topRCsupply.com, FDL Kyosho (France), and Byron Fuels for making our trip possible. Hopefully we can return for 2013.

Just a couple more things.. Congratulations are in order for A Main Hobbies’ Curtis Door winning the Junior category, and Team Orion’s own Adrien Bertin winning the over 35 group, both on Kyosho chassis. A fine Neo-sweep for Team Kyosho..

Link: Cody King RC