Some good classes chosen for this day. Track owners choice was a variation on a previously raced theme. Club Rally! This was for rally cars of any era but they had to have either an NC1 or 8, a navigator and a visible spare wheel, inside or out. The temptation was there to convert a Ninco Porsche 997 and race that but most resisted and some of the classis Rally cars were to make the start line.
Big John brought his old favourite, a delightful Teamslot Lancia Stratos, winner of many heats on other tracks. There was a converted Ninco 911 rally which was always going to be a threat. Bob brought out his classic Seat Ibiza for the ride and there were a couple of Clios to bring up the rear guard. I chose to drive a veteran Healy 3000 which had an NC 1 conversion. It has been hard to drive ‘til now, not being able to corner slow enough on standard Parma controllers being the issue. The new PM controller transformed this model in to a veritable pleasure to drive.
Paul Stevens was always going to be the one to beat as his finely tuned models are very difficult to better and his driving ability second to none! But the biggest surprise was the lack of Ninco Celicas. These usually account for almost fifty percent of the field but on this afternoon they were represented by a sole model!?
So the racing got under way and it wasn’t long before the shenanigans began. Heat one saw Ken trailing and an untimely deslot caused Justin to take evasive action. But it wasn’t evasive enough as the racer marshalling Ken managed to knock Justin off in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, this was just the start of Justin’s bad luck.
Heat three was a nail biter for Ken as we battled for the lead. A final deslot left me in front on the line and Ken wondering where it all went wrong so quickly. But heat five saw Ken get his revenge and achieve a heat win! This heat also saw Bob beat Eggy into third place! A couple of heats later, Paul and Greig were setting about each other when Paul made a forced error to leave Greg half a lap out front. Paul drove his little Clio like a man possessed and he caught Greigs 977 up and took the heat win by inches (that’s centimetres to our younger readers!) But when the power went off for the final time Greig’s consistency had paid off. Results were :
Position Gp B. Driver Race time 1. 1. Greig 11’ 54.360†2. Paul 11’ 59.083†3. Norm 12’ 12.766 4. Justin 5. Phil 6. Alan 7. 2. Ken 8. Kev 9. 3. Eggy 10. 4. Bob 11. 5. Peter
A couple of GT Porsches and an M1 BMW or two were potential possibles to put the cat amongst the pigeons, but it was to be a couple of rank outsiders that made all the running and coming home at the head of the pack. In a senior moment I picked the wrong car for the class but replaced it for the second heat. By then Paul and Greig were stamping their mark on the event and I had to drive like a sub fifty year old to keep up. Fortunately the marshalls were kind to me and the result showed my SCX Aston Martin came home 00.735 of a second before Greigs SCX Aston Martin after fifteen minutes racing!!
GT Motor class B 1. Phil 15’ 41.085†2. 1. Greig 15’ 41.820†3. Norm 15’ 45.395†4. Paul 5. Kev 6. Justin 7. 2. Ken 8. 3. Eggy 9. 4. Jordan 10. Alan 11. 5. Bob 12. 6. Peter
Both sick and healthy made it to the track for their heats and Historic GP was run in a magnificent melee of continual racing incidents! Heat one was restarted in accordance with Slotcar Legend guidelines after a four car pile up on the second bend of the first lap! The restart saw two Mercs do a similar thing at the same spot but this time the race continued.
A couple of heats later saw the Eggmeister deriding a lowly contender after their model had an incident where there was a decapitation. The mirth soon abated after John realised it was HIS model Jordan was driving! A lesson there John?! Later John’s phone rang and in true Legends style, everybody laughed out loud after which John hung up! We have reason to believe the caller later contacted Paul!
The demon marshal was still prevalent as during lap seven and to spice things up a bit, Kev managed to have all for models off at his position. I wondered for a moment if Ken was paying him? Mmmmmm? But finally, historic GP was run for the last time and the months of slotcar stress rolled away as there was a collective sigh of relief! But one thing it didn’t change was the results, which went something like this!
Historic GP trophy event Round 6 1. Norm 12’ 33.498†2. Paul 12’ 34.915†3. Kev 12’ 55.306†4. Phil 5. 1. Eggy 6. Alan 7. 2. Ken 8. 3. Jordan 9. 4. Bob 10. Justin 11. 5. Greig 12. 6. Peter
Some good racing followed by good results. The historic GP was an example of a good mix of models in the results with Norm and Kev racing a Cartrix W196, Paul racing a Ferrari 375 and me racing the Cartrix Lotus 16. Almost a unique occurrence too and maybe a trend for the future. Greig had tied a small scarf around his drivers neck to add a little nostalgic ambience and Paul decided that his model should have a scarf too! If somewhat larger. Perhaps in future Historic GP, we won’t have stickers, but lane coloured scarves instead!! Check the video below.
