[woodcote]

Stage Two: Jupp's Farm II

Winner: Oliver Walker, SRC Porsche 914/6 GT

   

The Jupp's Farm stage has been significantly shortened. Gone is the long, sprawling circuit of mostly Ninco off-road track, with just the bottom section retained. A Ninco loop is attached on the left and a tiny HobbyClassic loop on the right. It gives us a smaller dose of bumpy track and a footprint that saves space and tables.

   

Ollie's Mini was fixed for this stage and went remarkably well. Here it sits on top of the Hobby Classic loop - 3D printed and laid with braid. Despite the very tight radius, everyone seemed to get round it quite easily. However, the main challenge of Jupp's Farm remains the uneven surface of the off-road section. Forty-four of the 57 cars got round in less than a minute, but some didn't. The SCX Seat Ibiza club car skips over the bumps rather well and rally slot debutant Kevin managed to push the yellow hatchback to a fabulous eighth place overall, eight seconds ahead of James and nine ahead of Stephen...

   

Less impressive on pace, but always a good-looker, was Mike Mc's SCX MGA - five times round in 63.11 seconds...

   

Jeremy led the way in both manufacturer championships again, but was further back in the field - his Puma 21st and the SCX Peugeot 206 in 22nd.

   

SRC cars dominated the front of the field with four of the top five places. Oliver's 914/6 beat Mike's Peugeot to the stage win by a tiny margin of 0.09 seconds. Mike's 914/6 was third, Andy's Ninco Impreza fourth and Terry's 914/6 fifth - all of them within half a second of the winning time!

   

After two stages, that meant Mike's Peugeot had a 0.65 second lead over Andy's Subaru.