The week before the last Vinatge LM race, we ran a friendly GT race, mainly to test some new cars and a different timing system. The cars were nice, but timing was totally wrong. Anyway, pictures follow...
The grid from various angles:







Heat1:

Thanos, George, Nikos, Giannis

Heat2:

Kostas, Timos, Petros

Heat3:

Makis, Christos, Alexis

It was the first for the NSR Porsche and Corvette and it was a good testing session. Also a first for the MB Ferrari 430 that Petros raced, but he switched it for a Ninco Audi with a motor mount later in the race. Results are of no importance as the classification method was totally wrong, but best laps may be interesting:

GAITANIS ALEXIS / Slot it F40 A/W - 119laps , best lap: 8.644s
KOULOURIDIS TIMOS / NSR Porsche 997 - 119laps , best lap: 8.630s
KOULOURIDIS PETROS / Ninco Audi TT - 119laps , best lap: 8.651s
FOKIANOS GIANNIS / NSR Mosler - 118laps , best lap: 8.083s
NISKOPOULOS CHRISTOS / Slot it Mclaren A/W - 117laps , best lap: 8.451s
VERGANELAKIS NIKOS / NSR Mosler - 113laps , best lap: 8.439s
NIKOLAOU KOSTAS / NSR Corvette - 109laps , best lap: 8.768s
ZOURBANOS GEORGE / MB Pagani Zonda - 108laps , best lap: 8.541s
NISKOPOULOS THANOS / Slot it F40 A/W - 102laps , best lap: 8.990s
KOYRIS MAKIS / NSR Mosler - 98laps , best lap: 9.419s

Another GT class friendly race last weekend, to keep things warm. Only this time we had a newcomer. Our distributor began representing the NSR company here in Greece, so NSR Moslers were available to race here for the first time (as well as all the other racing cars of the Italian company). 14 racers came for this event, running a variety of cars, divided in 4 heats.
Heat 1:

Maria, Giannis Fokianos, George Zourbanos and Nikos Verganelakis

Heat2:

Kostas Nikolaou, Timos and Petros

Heat3:

Iraklis, Christos Fokianos and George Kefalonitis

Heat4:

Degleris Kostas, Degeleris Nektarios, Stelios Prineas and Zannete

It was a very fast race, there was intense fighting for several spots on the standings, a new official lap record and a strong first time out for the NSR Mosler. There was not a very hard fight for the top, as the MB Pagani Zonda that Petros drove, is still the fastest car on the track. A new lap record of 7.88s and 146 laps for 20mins of racing sum up the fastest race ever held on this layout. A fight for second ended in favor of Timos who managed to edge out Kostas, both driving Moslers.
Maria, Giannis and Iraklis had a very close fight, which ended with the 3 drivers within a lap from each other. Maria drove the Nissan to 4th, Giannis the Mclaren to 5th and Iraklis, after a long time brought the second Zonda to 6th.
Nikos Verganelakis drove a Mosler with a steady pace and this earned him the unofficial top senior (over 50 ? ) place. Christos Fokianos and Gearge Zourbanos, not so fast this time, the had to settle for lower places.

After 20mins, the full results:

1.Petros 146 laps Zonda MB
2.Timos 142 laps Mosler NSR
3.Kostas Nikolaou 139 laps Mosler NSR
4.Maria 135 laps Nissan Slot it
5.Giannis Fokianos 135 laps Mc Laren Slot it
6.Iraklis 134 laps Zonda MB
7.Nikos Verganelakis 130 laps Mosler NSR
8.Christos Fokianos 121 laps Peugeot 406 Spirit
9.George Zourbanos 120 laps Zonda MB
10.Stelios Prineas 112 laps Peugeot 406 Spirit
11.Zannette 93 laps Peugeot 406 Spirit
12.Kostas Degleris 79 laps Nissan Slot it
13.Nektarios Degleris 68 laps - Porsche 956 Slot it
14.George Kefallonitis 65 laps Mosler NSR

So, another win for the MB car that Petros has prepared. It seems that this car wins everytime it races and doesn't encounter problems.


Second place for the NSR Mosler that Timos drove:


Third place for another Mosler, this one was driven by Kostas:


Top Slot it car driven by Maria, it was a Nissan this time:


After the first major test, it seems that NSR Moslers will become a major player here in Greece also, but the main question remains for another race. Who can beat
the purple Zonda? Until next time.....

On Saturday we ran our first Group5 race for the 2011 season. It's been a while since we've ran a Gr5 class, mostly because there are a lot of new guys here and they don't have many cars yet, so we are working on the developement of all our classes a little slowly. Nevertheless, we gathered 15 racers for this friendly event, divided into 4 heats. 20mins of racing as usual, over the 4lane Ninco club track, simple rules, always non mag, only gr5 cars raced in the 1975-1981 period, and a lot of fun for all participants.
All cars in the pit area:


Starting with heat1:

George Kefalonitis Fly Capri Evo2, Maria's FLY BMW M1 Evo3, Stelios Prineas' Alpine A310 and George Zourbanos' FLY BMW M1 Evo3.

Then it was heat2:

Vassilis Fillipoglou Ninco Porsche, Thanos' FLY Porsche 934 Evo3 and Christos' Racer Porsche 935

Heat3 followed:

Giaccomo's FLY BMW M1 Evo3, Timos' Fly BMW 3.5CSL, Petros Fly Ford Capri FF and Dimitris Dimas' FLY BMW 3.5CSL

And finally heat4:

Nikos Verganelakis' Fly Ford Capri Evo2, Giannis Fokianos' BMW M1 Evo3, Vassilis APR Fly BMW M1 Evo3 and Alexis Gaitanis' FLY Lancia Beta Montecarlo.

It was really interesting all the way to the end. The M1 Evo3 cars had the edge over the Evo2 Capris but there were a few notably fast almost stock Fly cars, especially a front motored Capri that placed itself in a very respectable position at the finish line.
The battle was fierce between Vassilis APR, Giaccomo, Giannis Fokianos and Maria (being 5months pregnant certainly affects the stamina and the ability to drive slot cars), who ended in that order. Maria fought a really hard fight with Stelios Prineas and his A310 in her heat, but Stelios faced some front end trouble at midpoint and lost time and places. Still his Avant Slot Alpine, clocked the fastest lap of the day at 9.108secs. Vassilis was fast, so was Giaccomo, and Giannis was the steadiest of the 3 of them, so at the end they all finished a lap apart from each other. Maria was 3 laps down and then we had three drivers on the same lap. Alexis, George Zourbanos and Petros, finished the 20min race only a few seconds apart! One lap down was Stelios, a furious drive but many deslots and some damage to the front end, left him out of the fight for the top3. A further 2 laps behind was Nikos Verganelakis with his black Fly Evo2 Capri and then there was another interesting duel. Timos and Dimitris with 2 almost stock FLY BMW 3.5 CSL cars, raced each other and had possibly the most sideways moments of all the other guys !!
After all heats were over, final results were:

1. APR VASSILIOS - 123laps in 20:22.167 best lap 9,276s
2. ANDROVICH TZAKOMO - 122laps in 20:11.931 best lap 9,184
3. FOKIANOS GIANNIS - 121laps in 20:41.412 best lap 9,555
4. ATHOUSAKI MARIA - 118laps in 20:29.989 best lap 9,394
5. GAITANIS ALEXIS - 115laps in 20:23.344 best lap 10,123
6. ZOYRBANOS GEORGE - 115laps in 20:30.053 best lap 9,244
7. KOULOURIDIS PETROS - 115laps in 20:31.819 best lap 9,723
8. PRINEAS STELIOS - 114laps in 20:24.309 best lap 9,108
9. VERGANELAKIS NIKOS - 112laps in 20:31.703 best lap 9,679
10. KOULOURIDIS TIMOS - 107laps in 20:16.099 best lap 10,651
11. DIMAS DIMITRIS - 103laps in 20:34.171 best lap 10,464
12. KEFALLONITIS GEORGE - 97laps in 20:18.893 best lap 10,614
13. NISKOPOULOS CHRISTOS - 97laps in 21:32.556 best lap 9,952
14. NISKOPOYLOS THANOS - 93laps in 20:52.923 best lap 11,104
15. FILIPOGLOU VASILIS - 90laps in 21:25.430 best lap 11,662

Below are some of the pics of the cars raced, together with some info, were I had any


Chris' Racer 935, inline, Boxer2 closed can motor


Dimitris BMW, front motor 21.5k, stock wheels and tires.


Giannis Fokianos' Fly BMW M1 Evo3, almost stock, Scorpion motor, F15 tires


Giaccomo, an almost identical car


And Maria, the third almost identical BMW M1 Evo3 with Scorpion motor and F15 tires


Vassilis APR had another BMW M1 but this one had a Spirit Lemans motor, wide wheels from a standard M1, and F15 GT tires (20x11)


Thanos borrowed a Porsche 934 from Vasilis, this also had an evo3 chassis, wheels from the standard car and F15 GT tires


George Zourbanos had the Motul M1, with evo3 chassis.


George was given this Capri Evo2 from Petros, but faced controler trouble and did not very well


Petros raced this front motored Capri, stock wheels, stock rear tires, 21.5k slot it motor and finished on top of the FF cars


This is the other BMW 3.5CSL, that I borrowed from Vassilis and raced against Dimitris' BMW

Personally, this was the most relaxed and enjoyable race I have raced for a long time. I really like Gr5 cars, and especially this version of the BMW 3.5 CSL (I think it was the turbocharged car that Peterson and Nilson drove in 1976 at Silverstone), and I had a lot of fun, with extreme sideways moments in the last R5 turn that leads to the main straight. I think most of the guys had the same feelings, they all seemed to have a lot of fun.

It's been a while since I've updated my blog, but time has come to get back to slot racing. Last Saturday we ran our first friendly race for 2011, just to get a bit warmed up for the new season. Gts and LMPs would form two separate classes for the day, each one would be 20min lasting, 5min runs on all the 4 lanes of our new Ninco club track. Check it out, it's a real challenge.





The GT class had the most entries, so we started with it. Lots of fast cars, all of them A/W with boxer type open can motors and lots of power.
Heat1 :

Heat2:

Heat3:

Heat4:


The purple Pagani Zonda was driven by Petros and it was the fastest entry. I started well with the black and red Nissan, but on the second run Petros drove without mistakes, and although our fastest laps where similar (8,031 and 8,035 respectively), his stability got him in front with a lap over me. Meanwhile, right behind us, Maria (my wife), driving a white Mclaren, was fighting with Giaccomo who drove the black Loctite version of the same car. Maria was a bit faster though and was third at the end of the second run.
Somewhere at the middle of the third run, a car desloted on the main straight and Petros' Zonda hit on it at top speed, resulting a broken guide. Petros repalced the guide, but the run was ruined for him, so after run 3 it was me on top, Maria second and Giaccomo third.
Now, something went wrong with the race management system on our club's PC and, after run 3 all results was lost. So the race was ended and the total classification is unknown. All I can remember is, after Petros accident, I was on top followed by Maria and Giaccomo rounded up the top 3.
Some pics of our GT cars....

My Nissan


Maria's Mclaren


Petros' Zonda


A fast Peugeot


Gulf Mclaren


A slot.it F40, I think it didn't actually race but it was fast in testing!

After the GT race, we ran the LMP class. In this one, for the first time we had some new Scaleuto Radicals with slot it flat R motors in A/W configuration. They had to do battle with the proven force of the class, the Avant Slot LMP racers and a couple of other choices, the SCX Pro Audi and the Spirit Dallara . 3 heats on this one, and here they are:

Heat1


Heat2:


Heat3:


Here Petros, driving an AS Audi R10 got away at the begining followed by me in the black Peugeot 908 and Alexis with another R10. After run2 Petros had to quit the race as it was getting late and had other obligation at the time. I drove as fast as I could my Peugeot but I have neglected to change the guide (the one on the car was too shallow, meant only for the SCX tracks, we used at the past), and I had many unexpected deslots. In one of them the braids got mixed up, and until someone noticed it and got it straight, I lost a lot of time. Alexis, did not lose the opportunity, and got ahead by two laps, which he maintained until the end of the race, as I made another mistake and on run3 a false start cost me an 1lap penalty. Lots of mistakes by me, a good solid drive by Alexis. On third spot Christos driving a SCX Pro Audi R8 scored the same laps as Vassilis and beat him by a few seconds to fill the podium. Vassilis drove the old blue Dallara, effectively enough to beat Maria who drove a blue Pescarolo. Top Scaleauto Radical was Antonis' red car in sixth place.
Best lap by my Peugeot 908 with 8,285s, a little slower than the ones accomplished by the A/W GT racers. The Scaleauto cars seem promising though....
Results:
1. Alexis 135 laps
2. Timos 133 laps
3. Christos 125 laps
4. Vassilis 125 laps
5. Maria 124 laps
6. Antonis Kazakos 117 laps
7. Stelios Prineas 106 laps
8. Freddie Vagger 99 laps
9. Vassilis Fillipoglou 94 laps
10. George Zourbanos 90 laps
11. Petros 68 laps

Last Saturday we got together for something we had quite a long time to do. Rally! It's been very popular here in the past, surely because it offers spectacular competition, unpredictable results and a lot of fun. But the difficulty to set up and the fact that, the room of the club is mostly taken from the 4lane circuit track, kept us from organizing rallies more often. Still, we managed to make some room using part of the yard as a pit area, and we were ready to go.
We would use 2 lanes of the circuit as SS1 and SS2, and then we had 2 more stages.
Stages 1 and 2 on the Ninco track:


Front part of stage3:


And rear part of stage3:


And stage4:


We would race 2wd, 4wd, stock and modified rally cars from all eras.
We would run each of the 4 stages twice, so we have an 8 stage rally event here!
Below are all entries in the parc ferme area:

On the left are the stock 2wd cars, in the middle the stock 4wd and on the right are all modifieds (2wd and 4wd)

Our team had only time to prepare some modified cars, we had no stock cars readily available.
Here they are:

Cars, as seen above, finished in first, second, fifth and third place overall.

For the first 2 stages we would run the outer lanes of our Ninco 4lane track, for 5 laps. Then we would run 5 laps on ss3, (using a crossover piece to run it on both lanes) and then 10 laps on the smaller ss4 (again using a crossover).

Start of SS1 and SS2 for my Xsara and Zafeiris' 207 S2000:


Results of the first 4 stages overall:


Results of the second round, stages 5-8 overall:


Overall classification after all 8 stages:


Some more photos of the event.

Top 4wd entries awaiting for a circuit duel:

My Xsara pro and Petros' spirit 205

A Peugeot 307 WRC by Ninco:


A Ninco Porsche 911 took the win in stock 2wd:


Another stock Ninco 911:


Best looking car in my opinion:

George's Spirit 2002, box stock, but great result, second in stock 2wd!

A close battle was developed, for 4wd overall win, one that I lost only for 8 secs.
My Xsara would finish second in 4wd:


Winning stock 4wd, this Subaru:


Lancia 037 on the mud:


Escort Cosworth:


...and Escort MkII:


Always a good choice for 4wd:

The Avant Slot 207 S2000.

On two weeks time we will race again on these stages. Hopefully more people will attend. Meanwhille, there's another stage under construction and thoughts for a circuit special stage using all 4 lanes of our track simultaneously. Stay tuned!!!

Hi Again.
On Saturday, we ran another Vintage LM friendly event. We had fewer competitors than last time, so most people decided it was time to try something new and different than usual. Some new arrivals, most cars ran stock, some others ran mildly modified, the faster guys tried new things and some newbies drove faster cars and managed to come closer to the top. A nice and relaxed afternoon overall.

We had 12 cars divided in 3 heats.

No we did not run the Lola MkIII, it was swapped for an Alfa after initial testing.

So we started with heat1:

Freddie ran a Fly 917/10 from a Duo Kit, so no driver figure for this one, it was on the other body.
Vasilis Fillipoglou ran a stock 312PB, Kostas borrowed an Alfa from Christine, a really fast car and Thanos drove his dad's Ferrari 312PB

Then we had heat2:

Here Kostas' dad Zafeiris, drove his Alfa, Vasilis APR drove a modified Fly Porsche 906, George Dilmperakis and George Damato ran identical Ferraris (both with offset motor pods and F15 tires I think)

And finally heat3:

This was an interesting one.
Petros drove an almost stock Fly 906, it only had a 21.5k motor and slot it gears, wheels and tires where stock.
Christine drove the Racer 250LM, a heavy but powerful car, it had a Spirit SXXX inline underneath.
Timos drove the new Slot it Chapparal, this had only a mag suspension in it and loosened screws, but it still had the stock tires.
Christos drove a Fly GT40 with a slot it 19.5k 'teal' motor and P4 rears, but no interior...

After the first 5min run, Christine was on top with 31 laps, but Vasilis, Timos and Christos all scored 30. Although Kostas is a young kid (about 10-11 I guess), he drove the little Alfa good enough for a 29lap run so did Petros with his 906. George Dilperakis and George Damato tied at 26 laps.
For the second run Christine got away a bit, Vasilis followed, then Timos and Christos all drivers having a lap distance from the guy in front. Kostas got a lap from Petros and George Dilperakis beat Thanos by 3laps. But on this run, George Damato ran into trouble with his Ferrari and had to abandon the run with only 12laps.
In the third run, Christine, Vasilis and Christos all scored the same number of laps (31), but Timos lost one, so both he and Christos were tied now, while Christine and Vasilis got away. Damato came back with the problems solved and scored the most laps in a 5min run for the race, he got 33. Kostas got another one from Petros, while Thanos, Zafeiris and George Dilmperakis continued to battle it out, with the same number of laps for this one.
In the final run, Christine cleared the win, taking another lap from Vasilis, and Timos edged Christos for third place. Damato scored again the top laps, equal to Christine now (32), but with a better time. Kostas clearly beat Petros, while George Dilperakis finished on top of Thanos, and Zafeiris, beating Damato as well, as he had lost too much time in the second run.


Results after 20 mins:

1. LOUKISSA CHRISTINA / Racer Ferrari 250LM : 126laps - best lap: 9.205s
2. APR VASILIS / Fly Porsche 906 : 124laps -best lap: 9.126s
3. KOULOURIDIS TIMOS / Slot it Chapparal : 122laps - best lap: 9.287s
4. NISKOPOULOS CHRISTOS / Fly Ford GT40 : 121laps - best lap: 9.564s
5. KAPETANAKOS KOSTAS / Slot it Alfa Romeo 33TT3 : 117laps - best lap: 9.426s
6. KOULOURIDIS PETROS / Fly Porsche 906 : 112laps - best lap: 10.033s
7. DILMPERAKIS GEORGE / Slot it Ferrari 312PB : 107laps - best lap: 9.807s
8. NISKOPOYLOS THANOS / Slot it Ferrari 312PB : 105laps - best lap: 9.592s
9. DAMATO GEORGE / Slot it Ferrari 312PB : 104laps - best lap: 8.475s
10. KAPETANAKOS ZAFIRIS / Slot it Alfa Romeo 33TT3 : 101laps - best lap: 10.175s
11. FILIPOGLOU VASILIS / Slot it Ferrari 312PB : 89laps - best lap: 10.768s
12. VAGGER FREDDY / Fly Porsche 917/10 : 89laps - best lap: 11.335s

The podium of the winning cars:


Some technical info...

The winning car:

This is a 250LM racing kit from Racer, running with an inline offset pod and a Spirit SXXX boxer type motor.
Powerful but heavy, lacked the brakes and nimbleness of the slot it cars.

Second place:

A Fly Carrera 6, modified with slot it parts and a 21.5k motor. It also had F15 rear tires on slot it wheels with the stock wheels trued down to inserts. Fast, steady and reliable.

Third place:

This was a stock Chapparal, with all stock wheels, tires, motor, gears etc, but with a mag suspension added. The stock tires were quite slippery on our Ninco track, and this handicapped the car, but still added plenty of sideways action all over the course!

Fourth place:

Another Fly choice, with P4 rear tires and slot it motor (19.5k) and gears, and very light as the owner had neglected to add the interior!!!

Fifth place:

Kostas borrowed that Alfa from Christine, which was really fast, having a Slot it 21.5k motor, offset 0.5mm pod, 11/32 gears, mag suspension and Fly racing tires, an overall good setup for Ninco track. This allowed Kostas to score a very respectable 5th place, despite his age, beating Petros in the proccess!! Good job for Kostas!

Hello again!
For the second time this year, we gathered for an Open GT race. Many people seem to enjoy this category, since cars are fast and provide a spectacular race. 16 racers gathered over our newly designed track (see pic lower), to do battle and have tons of fun in the process.
The track is a 4lane Ninco, with a tight, challenging design and 12V power, controlled via a DS300 system.


Below you can see the cars in their pit boxes:

Left to right, heats 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively.

Starting with heat1:

Alexis' blue Fly F40, Christos' Totip Fly F40, Zafeiris' beautiful MB F430 and the only A/W car was George's Pug 406

Here, Chris was fastest, although George put up a good fight and was not very far. Zafeiris raced his box stock MB F430 with ease, as it was not yet race prepared and he wouldn't want to do any damage to it. Alexis faced various trouble during his race and scored fewer laps than the rest of the guys, still he had good fights with Chris for the time his car was ok.

Heat2:

left to right, Freddie's red Slot it F40, Thanos' Slot it F40, Konstantinos Slot it F40 and Vassilis Mclaren

In this heat the fight was closer, Thanos and Freddie ended up only a lap apart, after 20mins. Vasilis only 3 laps behind and a further 2laps down was Konstantinos. A really nice heat, having the lowest age average among the competitors (Konstantinos and Thanos, below 12yrs old, Vasilis young enough too, only Freddie is in his 30s)

Heat3:

Timos' Mclaren, Maria's Mclaren, Pantelis' Mclaren and Savvas' Zonda

Things were pretty fast here. Me and my wife Maria, started with a fast pace and exchanged places throughout the race. A bad start for both of us in run 2 cost us a lap penalty, but Maria had also some deslots and lost a further 2. From then on she drove very fast and managed to claim back a couple of places, scoring the fastest lap of the race in the process. Savvas was running a car he loaned form his friend Hercules, and did well too. He has practiced at Hercules' home track, and this paid off, as he was right in the pace, despite limited experience in club events. Pantelis drove his first race, but he was not so bad after all.

Heat4:

Petros' Fly F40, Christine MB Slot chassis with a Fly Corvette body on top, Dimitris' modified Ninco Megane and Hercules' Fly Porsche GT1 Evo3.

Here we also had a close fight. Petros and Hercules had great battles in all their runs, but Hercules was better here. Petros' pace deteriorated towards the end of the race, while Hercules was strong for the whole 20mins. Hercules had a pace, good enough for the top spot, but a few unexpected deslots in run4 cost him valuable time and the win. Still a fantastic drive, with an old but effective car.
Dimitris had to drive a loaned car, was not very well prepared and lost a lot of time getting accustomed to it. Christine also drove a car she was not very accustomed to (and was not as fast as some of the others), and she had to fight a recent waist injury, so normally her pace was a bit slower.

After 20mins the overall results are:
KOULOURIDIS TIMOS / Slot it Mclaren F1 Inline --- 134laps --- best lap:8.472
HAITAS HERCULES / Fly Porsche GT1 Inline --- 131laps --- best lap:8.589
ATHOUSAKI MARIA / Slot it Mclaren F1 Anglewinder --- 131laps --- best lap:8.184
KOULOURIDIS PETROS / Fly Ferrari F40 Inline --- 130laps --- best lap:8.592
LOUKISSA CHRISTINA / Fly Corvette with MB universal chassis Inline --- 121laps --- best lap:8.795
NISKOPOULOS CHRISTOS / Fly Ferrari F40 Inline --- 118laps --- best lap:9.242
SAVIDIS SAVAS MB / Pagani Zonda Anglewinder --- 112laps --- best lap:9.637
DILMPERAKIS GEORGE / Spirit Peugeot 406 Anglewinder --- 108laps --- best lap:9.632
DIMAS DIMITRIS / Ninco Megane Anglewinder --- 106laps --- best lap:8.654
NISKOPOYLOS THANOS / Slot it F40 Anglewinder --- 99laps --- best lap:8.873
VAGGER FREDDY / Slot it F40 Inline --- 98laps --- best lap:10.436
FILIPOGLOU VASILIS / Slot it Mclaren F1 Inline --- 95laps --- best lap:11.211
KAPETANAKOS ZAFIRIS / MB F430 Inline --- 95laps --- best lap:10.458
KAPETANAKOS KOSTAS / Slot it F40 Anglewinder --- 93laps --- best lap:9.506
MOUNTOULAS PANTELIS / Slot it Mclaren F1 Anglewinder --- 88laps --- best lap:11.257
GAITANIS ALEXIS / Fly Ferrari F40 Inline --- 87laps --- best lap:9.077


Below you can see the top 5 cars on the podium:


Some more photos:

Two friends and their Ferraris:

Alexis' and Christos' cars

A girl and her Vette:

Christine with a Fly Corvette with and MB Slot chassis

Small and aggressive:

Dimitris' Ninco Megane

Big, fast and black:

Hercules' Fly Porsche GT1

New kid on the block:

Konstantinos' Slot it F40

The Fast and the Furious girl:

Maria's Mclaren F1 GTR

Ferrari's top dog:

Petros' Fly F40

An Italian Masterpiece:

Savvas' Pagani Zonda (by MB Slot)

Like father, like son:

Thanos' slot it F40 (he is Christos' son)

Winner in the looks category:

Zafeiris' MB slot F430

The winning car:

My Mclaren F1GTR

Overall, a very enjoyable race. Best lap of the day by Maria, scoring a 8.184s lap, excellent drive by Hercules, nice cars, a lot of participants again, fine people doing their favorite hobby and having a great time. See you again in 15days.

On Saturday we ran another friendly race, just before the easter vacations. This time we raced Group 5 and Group 2 cars. 11 racers gathered for this event. Due to time limitations, drivers had to chose between Gr. 5s and Gr. 2s cars, with the first option being the most popular, as the cars are faster and easier to drive. So, here are all the cars at the "parc ferme":

Unfortunately Chris' Lancia Fulvia (Team Slot) is missing from this picture.

The drivers were devided to 3 heats. So, here we go...
Heat 1:

Zafeiris' Fly Porsche 911 Evo3, kostantinos' Racer Posche 935, George D.'s Fly BMW M1.

Heat 2:

Petros' Fly Lancia Beta, Dimitris' Fly Ford Capri Evo2, Christine's Fly BMW M1, iraklis' Fly BMW M1.

Heat 3:

Alexis' SCX Fiat Abarth, Vassilis' Fly BMW M1 Evo3, Chris' Team Slot Lancia Fulvia, Giaccomo's Fly Porsche 934 Evo3.

After the first run the drivers were separated in two groups. Petros, Iraklis, Christine, Dimitris, Vassilis and Giaccomo fought for the podium places while George D, Kostantinos, Zafeiris Chris and Alex had their own race right behind the others. Alex and Chris were the only two guys to choose Group 2 cars for this evening.
Petros took an early lead in order to clear the first place as soon as possible. Iraklis fought hard with Christine and Dimitris while Vassilis made a silent race and kept himself very close to the others. Giaccomo had another unlucky moment when his cable went loose from the guid and lost valuable time.
George, Zafeiris and Kostantinos seemed to have the most fun racing very close to each other but never lost their sense of humor and never stopped laughing and teasing each other. Alex had an early problem with his car that cost him several laps, while Chris was trying to manipulate his bad-tempered Lancia Fulvia.

Petros' Fly Lancia Beta.


Iraklis run this Fly BMW M1 Evo3.


Christine's Fly BMW M1.


Dimitris' Fly Ford Capri Evo2.


Vassilis Fly BMW M1 Evo3.


George D.'s Fly BMW M1.


Zafeiris' Fly Porsche 911 Evo3.


Kostantinos Racer Porsche 935.


So here are the results:
1) Petros - Fly Lancia Beta - 124 laps
2) Iraklis - Fly BMW M1 Evo3 - 123 laps
3) Christine - Fly BMW M1 - 122 laps
4) Dimitris - Fly Ford Capri Evo2 - 119 laps
5) Vassilis A.P.R. - Fly BMW M1 Evo3 - 119 laps
6) Giaccomo - Fly Porsche 934 Evo3 - 107 laps
7) George D. - Fly BMW M1 - 95 laps
8) Kostantinos K. - Racer Porsche 935 - 95 laps
9) Zafeiris - Fly Porsche 911 Evo3 - 93 laps
10) Christos - Team Slot Lancia Fulvia - 92 laps
11) Alexis -SCX Fiat Abarth - 90 laps

Here is the winner's podium.


The next event will probably be a GT race, looking forward for it.

On Saturday we ran another friendly to keep things going. It was another vintage LM class race. 15 racers gathered for this event, with a variety of cars and it was obvious that most people preferred an Italian approach to the subject:


We divided our grid in 4 heats. Below are the cars, bottom heat is no4 and top is no1, on their pit boxes:


So we got off with heat no4:

Here we had George L. with an Alfa33, Vasilis and Freddie with 2 Ferraris 312PB, all slot it.
A clear win for Vasilis, he beat his uncle Freddie by 2 laps, George L. was next, as he was mainly working on his sons' Vasilis car and he participated simply for fun.

Next we had heat no3:

In this one, we had Iraklis and Christos, both racing Fly GT40s, Alexis with a Fly Ferrari 512S and Vasilis APR with a Fly Carrera6, an all Fly grid.
Vasilis' Carrera was clearly the fastest car on this heat. He drove steadily and won his heat easily, with a 7 lap margin over the second placed man. Then, Christos beat Alexis by 3 laps, leaving Iraklis a further 3 laps behind.

Afterwards, we ran heat no2:

This was my heat, I raced the Fly Ferrari 512S and I had to do battle with 3 slot it cars. Dimitris' 312PB and Giaccomo's and Nikos' Alfas. The fight was really close at the begining, but gradually Nikos lost time in various occasions (and one with braid trouble). Giaccomo also faced motor trouble at a point near the end, so it would be between me and Dimitris. Finally, Dimitris won by 1 lap. Giaccomo and Nikos followed, several laps behind.

Finally it was heat no1:

Here Petros with a Fly 917K, had to face 3 Alfas, the plain red one was Christine's. The red and white cars belonged to Takis and Vasilis L. We had two seperate battles here. Petros fought with Christine for the win, as they were clearly faster than anybody else, and Takis battled it out with Vasilis, really close, until at some point near the end, Vasilis' car, unexpectedly, died on the track. Takis was in front by 5laps in the end.

Overall Results after 20 mins:
LOUKISSA CHRISTINA - Slot it Alfa 33 / 136laps - best lap:8.648
KOULOURIDIS PETROS - Fly Porsche 917K / 134laps - best lap:8.563
DIMAS DIMITRIS - Slot it Ferrari 312PB / 125laps - best lap:8.883
KOULOURIDIS TIMOS - Fly Ferrari 512S / 124laps - best lap:9.213
APR VASSILIOS - Fly Porsche Carrera 6 / 122laps - best lap:9.492
NISKOPOULOS CHRISTOS - Fly Ford GT40 / 115laps - best lap:9.854
GAITANIS ALEXIS - Fly Ferrari 512S / 112laps - best lap:10.107
PAPOULIAS TAKIS - Slot it Alfa 33 / 110laps - best lap:10.010
HAITAS HERCULES - Fly Ford GT40 / 109laps - best lap:10.501
ANDROVICH TZAKOMO - Slot it Alfa 33 / 107laps - best lap:9.187
LYKARIS VASSILIS - Slot it Alfa 33 / 105laps - best lap:9.708
HAITAS NIKOS - Slot it Alfa 33 / 102laps - best lap:9.890
FILIPOGLOU VASILIS - Slot it Ferrari 312PB / 99laps - best lap:11.078
VAGGER FREDDY - Slot it Ferrari 312PB / 97laps - best lap:11.031
LYKARIS GEORGE - Slot it Alfa 33 / 89laps - best lap:10.896

The winners' podium:


Overall, an enjoyable race, good competition, nice cars and great atmosphere. Next race on 27th of March, possibly this time with Gr5 racers.

On Saturday we decided to run an LMP race. It's been a long time since we had this category, and it's the first time we race it as a friendly event and, most importantly, in 12V. So far it was ran in 14.8v (something we used to do since it started on SCX track), and it had been a very difficult one. Now on the new Ninco track, current flow is much improved and LMP cars running on 14.8v without magnets, are really hard to drive. So we switched to 12v, as we do in all other classes.
10 racers came to the track, since Monday was a national holiday and some people had taken some time off. Nevertheless, it was a really enjoyable event.

A diverse grid as usual:


Not all the above cars hit the track, some were kept as reserves, and some were ran by more than one competitors (as it was a purely friendly event, we wanted some guys to get to grips with the category and choose whatever they like). Christos provided some of his cars for the guys who didn't have one yet to drive. Also the blue Pescarolo and the red Audi R10 were not raced, since they were prepared for my wife, who didn't manage to show up. We even had a Scaleauto Radical, a new arrival from the Nurnberg show, in stock form with only a set of rear tires on it. Christos, the distributor, raced it, and it seemed a very promising choice.

We divided the racers in 3 heats and ran a set of 5min runs on each of the 4 lanes of our Ninco track.
I was racing the Avant slot Peugeot 908 for the first time, and this proved the car to beat. It was the fastest thing on the track. It clocked amazing times and allowed me to easily cruise for the win.
But right at my back, a really close fight between 5 drivers was developing for 2nd spot. George Damato driving an AS Pescarolo, George Tekelis with an SCX Audi R8, Alexis with a Spirit Dallara, Christos with the Scaleuto Radical and Vasilis Lykaris with a Slot.it Audi R8C where all fighting for the runner-up spot. Alexis was the most consistent, George Damato was the fastest but made the most mistakes, Christos was testing a new car, Vasilis was missing track time, and George Tekelis seemed the most likely to come on top. But on his last run he had to abandon the race and lost an almost certain podium finish. George Damato lost precious time on his last run because he missed the correct settings on his Slot.it controller and Alexis with the fewest mistakes of all, grabbed second place. Christos ended on fourth, with a box stock Radical (apart from rear tires), really happy with the potential his new car showed. Vasilis Lykaris was constantly improving his pace, but he misses track time, and in almost every race, it takes some time for him to adjust his driving to the conditions, so he loses some ground at his first runs.

Final results after 20mins:

1. KOULOURIDIS TIMOS / Avant Slot Peugeot 908 : 139laps - best lap:8.196s
2. GAITANIS ALEXIS / Spirit Dallara : 128 laps - best lap:9.042s
3. DAMATO GEORGE / Avant Slot Peugeot 908 : 125Laps - best lap:8.652s
4. NISKOPOULOS CHRISTOS / Scaleauto Radical : 122Laps - best lap:8.937s
5. LYKARIS VASSILIS / Slot it Audi R8C : 121Laps - best lap:8.855s
6. ZAROKOSTAS KIMONAS / Spirit Dallara : 100Laps - best lap:10.028s
7. DILBERAKIS GEORGE / Slot it Audi R8C : 99Laps - best lap:10.147s
8. TEKELIS GEORGE / SCX Audi R8 Pro : 98Laps - best lap:8.865s
9. LYKARIS GEORGE / Slot it Audi R8C :94Laps - best lap:10.695s
10. KOSIBA ANASTASIA / SCX Audi R8 Pro : 89laps - best lap:11.119s

Some pics of the cars:

Vasilis' Audi, Anglewinder flat 6 motor


Kimonas raced for the first time in our club, this was his Dallara


We had another girl in our ranks, Anastasia raced this Audi R8


George Dilberakis' Slot it Audi, Anglewinder Flat 6 also.


A modified Fly Lola, George Tekelis tested before the race.


The winning car.


The new Scaleuato Radical


George Tekelis' SCX Audi R8, a really fast machine.

With this race, I feel the LMP category was reborn. At 12V, with a variety of options and really top of the line cars, it is now one of the most obvious choices for a closely contested race. All that remains to be seen is, when all people have their own car and they are all prepared to the max, and off course, with the presence of many top dogs that were missing from this one, which car and driver will emerge on top. My guess is that, every time we will have a different winner...