NeoInvitational 2006 Race Report
 
17,000 laps by 145 drivers from 15 countries, competing in 122 races over 3 days!
 

The NeoInvitational 2006 has been hyped as the indoor race of the year. With top drivers from all over the world traveling to the DXR clubs track at Harper Adams agricultural college, in the beautiful Shropshire countryside, England.

The event spread over three days. Friday consisted of four timed practice rounds, Saturday had 5 qualifying heats and Sunday for the finals, Christmas tree style for the buggies and standard for the truggies.

Greeting the drivers on Friday is what can best be described as typical English weather! Drizzly rain and low temperatures, however it must be said, considering it was the middle of December things could have been much worse.

Friday gave us an opportunity to see the Team Magic M1B for the first time at a race meeting. 8 times UK national champion David Crompton being the big name driver, also Jari Eklund from Finland was running a Team Magic.

TV Coverage of the event. Phil M, Mr NeoBuggy, being interviewed

A huge indoor pitting area

The timing was a joint effort between Rob and Father Christmas

On the whole marshalling was to a very high standard

Booking in gave the drivers their first look at the track, and were we impressed! The track was truly 3D. A long straight leading, two groups of jumps running parallel to this, raised corners and a technical back section lead to a very interesting drive. Despite the looks to track wasn’t demanding on the buggies strength, in fact the track allowed a very smoothly flowing drive.

Throughout the day Adam Drake was getting great times, with the fastest practice time being just 1.85 seconds off a 9-lap result. An unexpected surprise on Friday was a brief power loss leaving the pitting area in the dark. Some had small lights which allowed them to continue work, fortunately the problem was rectified quickly allowing the racing to continue.

Saturdays start was early (7am Booking in) however there were over 160 drivers (12 heats) requiring 5 qualifying rounds, that’s a lot! Despite the still relatively cold conditions (7°C) we where blessed with sunshine that lasted through to Sunday. Sunlight out on the track and in the pitting area was welcome by all.

By round 2 of qualifying Adam Drake was just 0.85 seconds away from a 9-lap finish and 0.97 seconds away on round 3. Spectacularly on round 4 Drake beat the 9 lap barrier, by an incredible 24 seconds! Needless to say Drake TQ’d the buggies, Drake also TQ’d the Truggies. The qualifying on Saturday went very well, and actually finished ahead of schedule thanks to the buffer time put in place.

Sunday saw the finals start. The Buggy finals were arranged in the Christmas tree format, a standard for large multiple day events. The smaller number of truggies, being a supporting class, ran standard final format, A through to C.
Full results from the final can be seen from NeoBuggy. Adam Drake, as expected from his weekends performance, won the A Main.

Regarding the Team Magic performance, David Crompton performed very well with it. Overall he qualified just one place higher then former SVM Crono drive, Davide Tortorici, who finished 2nd overall in the A Main final. I think this proves the M1B is certainly capable, especially when you consider this was its first race meeting!