I didn't leave work until just gone quarter past six in the evening and I was concerned that I wouldn't make round three. By the end of the night I was rather wondering why I had rushed! Anyway, eight of us turned up for racing with me being the last one to arrive.
Scalextric Group C start us off as usual and wonder of wonders I got a race win at last! I had taken six cars to chose from and decided to give them all a run. I started with my Jaguar XJR9 but PJ came off and spun into me, so I was off with just 3 points. My 'Pepsi Challenger' Porsche 962 was next but seems a bit slow and I ended up a lowly fifth. Continuing my midfield result was my 'Kouros' Sauber which ran out to fourth. Then wonder of wonders, in my fourth race there was a massive crash and I found myself out in front with my 'FromA' Porsche 962 and hoping to stay on for the win. I did. I then slumped down to fifth in my next race running my 'Michelin' Sauber but finished off third in my last race with my 'Liqui Moly' Porsche 962. This class was very competitive with five different race winners. Keith got the most, four wins and ran out in top place with his best score of the night of 30 points racing a Porsche 962. Close behind him on 28 points, one of his two best scores on the night, was DaveL also running a Porsche 962. Just two points behind him was DaveH, not scoring a race win but also getting his best score on the night using a Jaguar XJR9. Jim was one point behind having tasken a race win running yet another Porsche 962. The final race winner was PJ who actually managed to stay on the track for a whole race for a change and win quite easily using a Porsche 962. Just like the real thing in it's day, Porsche 962's dominate the grid and there is some fast and close racing in this class.
So onto Raid and I got into my head that my controller was playing up and during the running of this class used three different controllers starting and finishing with my usual MRRC 45 ohm version. Shaking my head I can hear the doubt rattling around in my head!! It goes without saying that I had some extreme ups and downs with two second place finishes, two last place finishes and two fourth place finishes. Not great and extremely frustrating considering I have had my best score on the night in this class. This time around it was dominated by Jim who took four wins and DaveL who took three wins and also came first and second in class on 31 and 28 points respectively. This was DaveL's second of his best scores on the night. Third in class was DaveH again on 24 points just beating Keith by one point. Will on 21 points led in myself on 18 and Wes on 17, who also took the final race win and his best score on the night.
At the break it was DaveL and Jim tied on top with 56 points from Keith who had slumped down to third on 53 from DaveH on 50 points.
We start again with BMW M3's and I started with that horrible rattle and shaker yellow roofed club car which finally launched itself, literally, into the scenery at the first flyover. I then changed to a silver car for race two and a fourth place finish before finding the white roofed club car which gave me an instant win and then two second place finishes. In my final race I was running second when I hit the start line gantry and ended up fifth. That was disappointing to say the least. I ended up with 22 points and that was going to be my best score on the night. This was another very competitive class with five of us scoring race wins. In first place on 28 points and with two race wins was Keith running a SCX ALMS M3. He was just one point ahead of DaveL who took three race wins (according to my sheet) once his car, yet another SCX ALMS M3, got up to speed. He was just one point ahead of DaveH who came in third for the third time on the night running a club car like me and scoring a race win. His tally of 26 points was his best score on the night. Remarkably, just one point behind him was Jim, who also took the final race win as well. I was all on my lonesome in fifth on 22 points but Will and Wes continued the one point difference, albeit on 15-14.
We end up with 1.6 litre Hatch and although my Scalextric Mini seemed to have a bit more grip with a bit more weight in it, I still managed to lose it at the starters hairpin. After that I used my Ninco Clio which started off great with a second place finish and then somehow seem to lose all grip and I scored two fifth place finishes and two last places. Very dis-spiriting quite frankly. This was Jim's class as he ran away to six wins and a perfect 36 point score running a SCX Fiesta. Naturally, this was his best score on the night. Keith, in second place on 28 points, took the other two race wins running his SCX Suzuki. DaveL came in third place on 23 just beating Will with a Ninco Clio (I think) on 22 points, his best score on the night. The bottom four were led in by DaveH on 19 points from PJ on 15, his best score on the night and I just beat Wes in 13-12.
At the end it was Jim who leap-frogged into the top spot on 117 points followed by Keith 109, DaveL 106, DaveH 95, ME 73 just managing to beat Will on 70, Wes 53 and PJ on 49 points.