Gary dressed specially for the occasion
Time marches on relentlessly and once more that valiant hoard of slotcar freaks called Slotcar Legends assembled for their June round of slotcar madness. Classes chosen where enough to raise the hairs on the back of the neck!! How’s this for slotcar fright. !! JGTC, Modern F1, 1990 onwards, and classic Mustangs. So with it all to do we mustered from 2.00 pm onwards and by not too many minutes after four we were at it!!
First up was JGTC and straight in to the quick stuff. There were some hot contenders tearing off into the lead but a quick glance told me the laps were ticking away ever slowly, someone who will remain nameless never reset the race distance after a practice session so we all lined up for the restart!
A couple of heats later Bob for once tasted sweet revenge when, normally being the knockee, he managed to reverse the tables on Ken and a couple of others to become the knocker! WELL PLAYED Bob. Marshalling was to become a bit frenetic as the cars continued to stack up under the flyover above turn one. A spot not for the faint hearted. Terry volunteered the spot for one heat and I don’t remember seeing him there for the rest of the evening!!
JGTC Results
Eventually the class was over but not before several models had deposited substantial amounts of body parts around the track, especially turn one! I had tried to put in a good performance but my advancing years decided I wasn’t going to be that good. Norm had a couple of changes of cars ‘til he placed a black stealth racer on the track and proceeded off at marginally subsonic speed!
Next up was track owner’s choice, what a class!!! What …… a…… class!! This had either been chosen as a genuine skill testing event or there had been more sinister motives?? None the less, we approached the event with caution (did we b******s). Never in all my slotcar days have I seen such chaos and mayhem in a room so small.
My car with four wheels!(yellow lane)
Turn one was proving to be even too much for Moby who had valiantly adopted the spot during JGTC!! The first heat saw me tear off into the distance on the green light and everyone else sat at the start waiting for something I wasn’t aware of? Anyhow, they soon got the message and took off like scalded cats and turn one under the flyover soon sorted that little bunch out. Eventually they caught me up and someone indeterminable smashed me into the scenery (at turn one) and it was there I lost my right front wheel for the first time!
My car with three wheels!!(green lane)
Some subliminal advertising!
A Ninco and a Teamslot Ferrari were doing all the hard work and the rest of us had to pick the bones from the finishing order. By my third heat I had abandoned my right front wheel and started the race without it. In my forth heat another momentous pileup saw my left front wheel come out of turn one before my car did! So I finished the race on two wheels!!
At the end of the class and on behalf all the gathered racers I cordial thanked John for choosing such an interesting event as ‘F1 1990 onwards’. Once again, many thanks John!! Supper break was called and we all departed to the outside dining area where pizzas were consumed at a challenging pace. Probably the fastest thing to go on the night, and NO TURN ONE!!
Also during the break, Bob took the opportunity to present the year first half trophies!
F1 Results
Ken 3rd Group B
Gary 2nd Group B
Savour the moment Peter!
Paul S 3rd Group A (in absentia)
Always the bridesmaid…..next season Norm!
No comment
Last up was the Legends Mustang Challenge. With a couple of rounds to go this event still has to be decided. Heat one saw Ken drive masterfully to the line beating allcomers in his heat. Alas, the joy was to be fleeting and it was the only victory he savoured in this class.
Heat three was almost a first. All the models were potentially the same, being black and white in colour, but Moby broke with tradition and introduced another colour with his model.
Fierce competition here and the Scaley models lauded it over all comers and the only certainty was that a mustang was going to win. The track owner featured prominently in this event as you would expect but it was a dark horse which eventually took the race by a second and a half after ten minutes racing. But that was a little way off.
Peter S managed to creep in a second in front of Kev and down the field further Rhys put in a good show which lifted him off the bottom by several places. Finally it was all over and Gary snuck in front of John to take the event. Lap times were in the high fives in general which was good for this class. The Mustang Challenge is proving to not be a one horse race as was hoped.
Classic Mustang results.
Gary’s secret weapon?
With trophies dispensed and pizza disposed off, some left early but eventually we were all away to our beds. Another fabulous round of slot racing and many thanks to Sue and John for inviting us into their home for the occasion. And . Ah yes…….. As the head honcho of Slotcar Legends, the guide lines now ban the use of the phrase
‘Under the bridge!’