Practice timed out and the first heat of eleven was called. Some good driving with most taking a few laps to settle in, still it provided work for the marshalls and turn one once again proved to be the Achilles heel of a few drivers. The start straight has a small rise in the middle and a drop to the corner. On the start it is quite easy to over brake on this downhill section and the thing to watch for is when blue lane (inside) driver over cooks it and takes the other three lanes out. I must plead guilty to this myself but I had a good excuse. Alan was first spectacular crash of the day when he took turn two at an amazing rate of knots, leapt the safety fence and sent a marshall scrambling to the floor to recover his model. Miraculously, both model and marshall survived this high speed incident!!
Mid sixes is a good time by anybody’s standard and heat six saw the times tumble. By now it was getting serious and this heat drew top drivers in the same heat. By the end of the heat, three had recorded a fastest lap of 6.4 secs and there wasn’t too much space between them at the finish. I suspect a bit of nervous tension took hold in a later heat with some drivers, (They know who they are!) failed to observe their lane colour and took up position at someone else’s drivers station! No matter. the issue was resolved and the ensuing heats saw Paul assert his dominance of the event. I had brought an old Pro Turbo powered SCX Astra out of retirement and had blueprinted the motor for the occasion. It stood me in good stead and after eleven and a half minutes racing I finished one and a half seconds behind Paul, with John F close behind in third.
The computer does not lie and this is what it told the gathered throng.
Event one DTM 25 laps Position overall B. Driver Best lap 1. Paul 11’35.874†2. Phil 11’37.391†3. John 12’02.530†4. Norm 5. Perro 6. Eggy 7. 1. Ken 8. Rob 9. 2. Bob 10. 3. Alan 11. 4. Peter Fastest lap Norm 6.109â€
Heat two was one of the above events where Rob and I spent almost all the heat chasing each other only for Rob to take line honours by a few cars lengths. Surprise performer for me was Alan’s Honda GT with an NC1 fitted in angle winder format. This model was VERY hard to keep up with and if he had showed a bit more discipline at the corners may well have shook a few more places off in the final results. To his credit he did take out a heat and how he avoided ken I’ll never know? Times weren’t so dusty for these either with some drivers averaging 6.8secs in their heats.
Part way through the event saw us stop for refreshment and victualling. Once again Eggy put on a sumptuous barbeque and we all descended on his sausages for a while. About this time Eggy pulls out his party piece and proceeds to doctor his food with some of grandma’s jalapeño relish. I’m sure he must be a masochist as it has the same effect on him at every meeting. He has to disappear into a secluded spot, only to return, mouth agape, looking more ruddy than ever! Surely he must have learnt by now??!!!
One of the later heats saw Rob, Paul, Norm and myself at the track and Paul proved to be rock steady whilst we formed up behind him. Plenty of steady driving and Paul came home first with another text book drive (one day he’ll be good!!) At about this time it was necessary for Glen to give us his Justin impersonation as he was unable to attend himself and I’m sure a few of us were missing his vitriolic contributions as to the state of the track, cars, marshalls, shoe size, traffic noise etc, etc. Eggy seemed quieter than normal, I thought maybe he was unwell but I suspect Justin’s absence had a profound effect on him?? Come on home Justin, all is forgiven!!
Once again the computer stopped us all in our tracks and dispensed joy for some and tears for others!
Event two GT1 Group 1 25 laps 1. Paul 11’44†2. John 11’52†3. Norm 11’54†4. 1. Alan 5. Phil 6. Perro 7. Rob 8. Eggy 9. 2. Ken 10. 3. Bob 11. 4. Peter Fastest lap Alan 6.406â€
Last up was JGTC, this was open to the GT500 class which is just the Japanese cars and excludes McLarens and Subarus and Moslers and a whole bunch of other hangers on. In spite of this I could swear I saw a 997 in the pack a couple of times? Mmmmmmmmmm??? Anyhow. This, if any, would be the race where the sub sixes would be reached, and just to be mischievous, Eggy upped the track voltage a couple of spots to Just over fourteen volts.
By now some are suffering slotcar fatigue and others have become desensitised to the race and attention flags. I notice it took two or three attempts to get the host to his marshalling duties, he preferring to discus the finer points of the race with one of the contestants on more than one occasion! ?? Surprise of the event and embarrassing for the other contestants involved was when in a later heat, Alan changed tack and abandoned his class car and raced his NC 1 Honda against NC5’s .......and won!!!! Good on you Alan!
I’m not sure if it was the sun or the weather or the drink but the Eggmeister, whilst pondering the fluff in his navel declared, rather profoundly, that he was “at one†with the slot??......... Stay tuned!! Apart from these extraordinary events, the class heats drew to a close with some very quick racing. Paul once again showed that set up was nine tenths the battle. He gratefully loaned me one of his model to race and when I paid attention I got it to fly almost unassailably. But as always the computer was to dash some hopes and confirm others and this is what it did to me!!!
Event three JGTC (GT500) 25 laps 1. Paul 11’27†2. John 11’29†3. Phil 11’33†4. Norm 5. Eggy 6. Perro 7. Robert 8. 1. Alan 9. 2. Ken 10. 3. Bob 11. 4. Peter Fastest lap John 6.109â€
