I visited one of my older brothers a little while ago who had the Ninco #30 Art Sports McLaren GTR in addition to what came in his Scalextric Le Mans set. He has now given up on slot car racing and after a bit of talking he agreed to give it to me as I'm an enthusiastic club racer. I must admit that I was somewhat taken aback by the stick on 'decorations' and it wasn't helped by being somewhat dusty. Still I got it for free so what's there to grumble about! It was always going to be repainted but I was struggling on what to do with it. I was spurred on by the fact that we've just started four new classes including Ninco GT and we've now got to the stage where football is about to kick off again. I support Fulham FC and this car lent itself very easily to a simple repaint to get it into a livery of a Fulham FC McLaren GTR. The 'stick ons' were quickly taken off especially as they didn't have much stick left and the car given a good wash to clean it up and make sure it was sticky free. I used parafilm to mask off all of the car apart from the bottom bit and this was quickly spray painted black. I then used my own made decals to decorate it as well as repaint the driver figure.




I'm really pleased with it. I just hope it goes better than my collection of repainted Scalextric Group C cars which looked terrific running around at the back of the field recently.

My wife and I have very recently celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary and our two daughters very kindly bought us a gift of a trip in a hot air balloon. This was meant to happen on the day of our wedding anniversary, in fact at 0630 in the morning! Perhaps fortunately for us, as it was coming as a surprise, it got rained off which considering the weather we've had this year wasn't a surprise. We were actually very lucky for it to be re-arranged for the next week so we duly arrived at the launch site very near the Meon Hut on the A32 in Hampshire for the much more sociable hour of 1815 on a very pleasent evening. A group of six of us were going to 'fly' accompanied of course by the 'balloonist' Alan and after a safety brief he got down to inflating the balloon. We then had to hop in pretty smartish as the balloon got buoyant but not yet flyable. Soon, however, we were up.

I then had a very profound thought; there was no wind because you were going with it of course as it blew us along at 15 mile per hour. It was all very serene and the views were fantastic.

Our journey took us North East'ish past New Alresford and just beyond the M3 corridor.

We landed in a cornfield, fortunately cut, fairly near Popham Airfield and waited a little while with the balloon still inflated for the chase vehicle to find us. We all helped with the packing up which actually didn't take long and we were returned to the launch site. It had been a great flight and something that my wife and I had wanted to do for a long time as we live in an area where hot air balloons frequently over fly. I really enjoyed it and given the chance I would certainly do it again.

I really enjoyed the 2012 London Olympics. Was it because Team GB got so many medals including 29 gold medals or the crowds were so passionate or it was all so exciting? I don't really know, I just loved it all. I really enjoyed watching the bike racing in the Velodrome and couldn't help turning up the volume to take in all the noise. It was fantastic. Mind you so was the crowd at the rowing events at Eton Dorney. Then of course there was Super Saturday when Jessica Ennis, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah all won their Gold medals within an hour in front of more wildly cheering crowds. What is good about the Olympics is the fact that you get to watch a lot of sport that doesn't normally make it onto the television and also get to see other British champions that don't normally make the headlines.

Well after almost two weeks of intense, must watch competition I managed to pull myself away from the 2012 London Olympics to go to round one of the fourth series having checked that someone else was actually going to turn up! In fact there were nine of us which included a returning Ruebens and and new one for me in the shape of Bill, who has raced on Mondays.
So new classes and everything up for grabs. We start with Ninco GT and I've arrived with a Honda NSX JGTC car and a FIA GT1 Lamborghini Murceilago. After practise I decide to run the Lambo and it's quite good for me. Unfortunately in my first race I get taken off by a crashing PJ but two second place finishes and quite a dominant win follow. It could have been another win in my fifth race but my car "bobbles" out of the slot as I come onto the front straight whilst leading and six points become two. I bounce back with another second place finish in my last race. This class sets the tone for the rest of the evening as five of us share race wins. In first place on 28 points with two race wins is Keith running initially a Porsche and ans SCX on at that. Seemed like he mixed up his classes. I think he moves onto an Ascari but I haven't listed it. Tied in second place on 27 points are DaveL and Jim, both running Ascari's. DaveL takes three race wins to Jim's none so obviously someone was a more consistent scorer than the other. This was Jim's best score on the night. I'm in fourth on 26 points with Will one point behind me on 25, with one race win also running a Ascari. Ruebens takes the last two race wins on his way to sixth place on 23 points with a very quick Mosler. His excitment got away with him sometimes which accounts for his dropped scores. Bill got his best score on the night running a Porsche 911 and led in PJ on 12 and Trigger on 8 points. Some exciting racing in this class with some race long duels.

We then move onto Porsche 911 (any make) so I bring along two Proslot GT2's and a two Fly GT1's. I start with my Proslots and because they have been past winners I perhaps try too hard with them because I'm dropping scores like crazy. I start with a second place with my white 'Liqui Moly' car and then move on to my blue and silver 'Navision' version which seemed to by lacking in power for some reason. Slightly disappointing as it almost became my first '36 er' a few years ago and just missed out by a point. Back to my Liqui Moly car for my third race and I was up with the leaders when I got knocked off by Trigger who was also up with the leaders. He was running one of my Fly Porsche GT1 cars but lost concentration apologising to me and came off when he was leading! My fourth race was better as I led for most of the way until Ruebens came past me on the last lap for the win. I tried my other Fly GT1 car and after a slow start caught the leader, Keith, for the lead and promptly spun off, blooming heck. Back to the Liqui Moly car for third in my last race. All this falling off didn't do my scoring any good. By contrast Will had a great time taking two race wins and the class with 31 points, his best score on the night. Going one win better with three but two points less with 29 was Keith who ended up second with his best score on the night although he was the model of consisitency through all the classes. Ruebens also took three wins but obviously fell off as well as he ended up third in class on only 24 points, just beating in Jim who scored 23 points. DaveL and I were tied on 19. PJ had his best score on the night with 16. Bill and Trigger tied on 14, this being Trigger's best score on the night although it could have been more if he had stayed on whilst at the front.
So at the midway mark, Keith was just in the lead on 57 points from Will, who had bounced up from 5th to 2nd on 56 points. Jim was in third on 50 from Ruebens 47. DaveL had crashed down to fifth on 46 from ME on 45 points. So all pretty tight and competitive.
I like my repainted 'Team Kool' Ninco Champcar and it has been a winner before. Fortunately for me it had a great night as I ran out the class leader on 30 points, two race wins and my best score on the night. Everything came in pairs. First two second places, then two wins and then two third places. Consistency of a sort. My first race win saw a SagaSport 1-2-3 finish with Will and PJ following me in. 'Mr Consistency' in the shape of Keith followed me into second place on 28 points with two race wins with his Scalextric Indycar. Tied in third place on 25 points was DaveL, who took three race wins with his SCX Indycar and Ruebens who took one race win with a Scalextric Indycar. This was Ruebens best score on the night. The next three were tightly grouped together led by Jim on 22 points with his SCX from Will on 21 points with his Scalextric and PJ on 20 points with his SCX. PJ took the last race and also score his best score on the night. Tied at the back were Bill and Trigger on 9 points, both Scalextric shod. My good scoring saw me jump up to third overall from sixth place.

So onto SCX GT and it seems that the Corvette is the car to have as DaveL, ME and Keith took the podium places running them and Ruebens came in fourth with one. DaveL's was far and away the quickest and duly took four race wins and his best score of 34 points on the night. I took one race win on my way to second overall on 28 points. 'Mr Consistency' Keith didn't take any race wins but was only one point behind me. Ruebens took two race wins on his way to 23 points. Will and Jim tied on 20 points with Jim getting the last two race wins with his Aston Martin DBR9. Also DBR9 mounted was PJ on 17 and Bill on 13 points, this being Bill's best score on the night. The 'oddball' was Trigger running a Mercedes SLS to 7 points and I mean the car not the driver. This was another super competitive class with plenty of good, tight racing going on.
At the end the consistent Keith took the win on 112 points from DaveL who had bounced right back up again to second on 105. I was just behind on 103 from Will 97, Ruebens 95, Jim 92, PJ 61, Bill 49 (good number) and Trigger on 42 points.

It started with a fantastic opening ceremony with some quite breath taking sets and amusing cameos. Ok, it might have been a touch long but, I wasn't really aware of that until it ended and realised it was the next day! It has carried on with a great first week for the Brits with some stunning victories in the rowing and cycling events so that "we" are third in the medals table. The partisan crowd has obviously had a big part to do with this. Us Brits have a reputation for being reserved, polite and sporting but, we've really got behind our team here. The noise in the swimming pool and velodrome have been resounding, especially when you turn the TV volume up.