I suspect Red Racer had done a roaring trade that day as one by one, there was a procession SCX Citroen DS 21’s shining from the corners of the guys’ race boxes. Not only that, at least one of them was destined for the first event, in which it acquitted itself more than adequately!
One of Al’s options for the Can Am trophy!
I just had to take the Renault for a Ninco shakedown.
Paul’s Carrera M20 and the HSRR M8
Chris’s ‘New that day’ Audi R8 LMS
Ken had a very pretty 307 for the day
Jordan’s Porsches
More of Jordan’s Porsches!!
Mike has come prepared for Battle
First up was track owners choice, this was to be Classic rally open, the only guide line was that the models needed to be from the fifties, sixties or seventies. I wasn’t sure what sort of unhomologated Frankensteinian machinery would be making its way to the track, but, in the event, a large slice of common sense prevailed, and I would even go as far to say that it was a rather sedate and civilised event……….mostly!!
Is Eggy racing two cars???
One of the early heats saw Justin and myself go head to head lap after lap until Justin eventually decided it was all too much. We had deslotted a couple of times but I hadn’t realised Bob had passed us in the meantime!. With five laps to go I put the hammer down and crossed the line half a car in front of Bob!!
Heat five was total chaos and the marshalls spent a good deal of time keeping the event running. With cars leaping the catch fence there was an inevitable change of models mid race. I think Jordan just managed more car changes than the rest of the field.
Watch out for the Talbot
Eggy chose to race a rather cheeky SCX Lancia Integrale and if nothing else, it created a new record for the use of the call ‘Red OFF!’ It was soon obvious this was a tactical ploy. In deslotting in a difficult spot, he was then reslotted in a more reachable spot, halfway round the track, considerably shortening his lap times!!
Mike drove well with his Fly Renault 5 and was probably the fastest on the track, but in sheer determination and staying on, I managed to take first spot with a box standard SCX Sunbeam Talbot
Results for Classic Rally open
Next up was open wheelers barring F1’s. As expected there were a lot of fast A1 GP’s on the track, but in all fairness there were some quick Indy cars too.
Switzerland had a good turnout!
This became a two horse race fairly early on with Paul and myself making it personal on the track. The first joint heat saw us both race neck and neck till about lap ten. With a bit of an air gap between us I backed off slightly and settled in to finish the race. Always a bad move when racing Paul. A couple of laps from the end I could see him a matter of feet behind me but I managed to hang on to the line and finish, once again, inches in front.
Open Wheeler results
Last up was the Can Am trial. Nothing untoward and no controversial models on the track. The biggest threat didn’t come from the spurious entries but from the bona fide models!!
Heat three saw Paul disappear into the sunset with his Carrera M20 with twin magnets. Nothing wrong there as most of the racing will be done on board tracks. But I have a sneaking suspicion Paul and his M20 will be just as uncatchable there too. No worries.
The rest of the field was quite varied. I had chosen to race my M20 in board track mode but still managed to keep off the bottom. Jordan raced most everything in his box at one stage or another. Even his little Cooper Cobra got an outing.
Alan and a couple of others seemed to be dogged by loose wheels which suspect can only be attributed to having taken them off one too many times.
The intensity of competition was reflected in heat five when three models piled up within feet of the finish line on the last lap. The Eggmeister was amongst the victims. Need I say more? But inspite of all the track incidents, the favourite managed to pull it off, and the rest of us got to feel inadequate yet again!
Can Am results!
Another great race day with a great bunch of guys. I can't wait 'til the next meeting!! And many thanks to Bob and Julie for hosting and supplying snacks and refreshments during the day.