After a couple of weeks of stunningly good hot and sunny weather we were rather unfortunate to turn up for round one of the third series on a cooler and slightly wet evening. Anyway, there were eight of us including DaveL back after a few weeks absence and I was reasonably confident for three of the classes although I needed to borrow a car for the 70's Rally class.
We start with 2.0 litre Saloons with the majority of people running SCX saloons of various descriptions. Jim actually started off with a Ninco Mitsubishi 4x4 and scored a convincing win with it before transfering to a SCX car as well. I had the choice of either my Alfa 156 or my Seat Leon and I plumped for the latter as I haven't raced it for a while. There was some discussion at my first race whether it was a saloon or a hatchback but it was allowed to race. It proved to be a good mid-field car scoring an average 4 points to a surprising 3rd place overall on 24 points. I did have a terrific race long duel with Will, running a club Honda Accord, in my fourth race and I think this is the race where he spun crossing the line and I just pipped him. DaveL also used a club Honda Accord, to very good affect, as he ran out top of the class with a perfect score of 36 points with six wins and his best score on the night. Keith was the other race winner with with his Honda Accord taking second spot on 31 points. It was quite close behind us with Will on 20 points from Jim 18, Wes with a BMW on 17 and PJ with a Seat Leon on 16 points; his best score on the night.
So onto TransAm (Open) and I had three cars, all Scalextric, to choose from in varying states of "improvement" My Corvette L88 has always been very fast so I decided to keep that un-modified. My Camaro had "Wasp" tyres fitted and my Mustang had a Slot.It orange bell motor, Slot.It rear axle and gear and SlotCarCorner wheels and tyres. I ran that car first and was holding a comfortable second place when I managed to throw it off at the "radio corner" on the very last lap. I then tried my Corvette L88, which in standard form was just about holding it's own with the leader, when it front de-slotted" coming onto to the front straight early on. The Camaro was next but this is the first time I've run it with "Wasp" tyres and the grip just wasn't there. So it was back to the Mustang and three second places followed. Fantastic, especially for what I percieve to be the least competitive of the Scalextric TransAm's. In my last race I was neck and neck with DaveL, running a Pioneer Mustang, and just when I thought I was going to get the win he managed to edge past me for it. This wasn't really surprising because DaveL had manged to score ten straight wins on the trot and was absolutely "on it" in the first two classes. He spoilt a perfect double "36" by falling off in one of the TransAm races but he still managed to take the top spot on 33 points with five wins. In fact it was the same finishing order as for the first class, which was pretty amazing. Keith, also running a Pioneer Mustang, ran out second on 28 points with two wins. I came in third on 25 points. Will and Jim, both running Camaros, tied in fourth on 22 points with Jim taking the last race win. Wes, I think running a Pioneer Mustang to 14 points led in a tied PJ and Trigger on 12 points.
At the break it was no surprise to see DaveL at the top with 69 points from Keith 59, ME 49 (yeah) and Will and 42 points.
We start off again with 70's Rally and as I lacking any sort of 70's Rally car DaveL lent me one of his, a Sunbeam Talbot. Unfortunately it was a typical SCX car which hasn't been run much as it was down on power! Mind you in my first race I did finish second with it! I was fortunate that the rest of the field decided to throw themselves off! It went downhill from there so halfway through the class I changed to a club Ford Escort. Again, in my first race with it, I fortunately scored well after another "demolition derby" ahead of me. In my last race I had a race long dice with Will and Wes where I could have finished anywhere between third and fifth. Unfortunately on the last lap where I moved into third as I started I eventually dropped to fifth as we ran to the line but it was exciting stuff. Two people not running Escorts were Jim and Keith and they ended up tied at the top of the class on 33 points. Keith took five wins running a Fiat 131 and Jim took the other three wins running a Fiat Spyder. They both scored their best scores on the night. These scores enabled Keith to take the top spot overall from DaveL and Jim to bounce up from fifth to third overall. Third in class on 23 points and taking his best score on the night was Will. DaveL on 20 points led in a tight bunch of Wes, 19 points and ME 18 points ahead of PJ, 15 points and Trigger on 7 points.
So we came to the last class "Open" and I was quite looking forward to that, as I knew I had a good contender in the shape of my Race Across America (RAA) Spirit Dallara. I wasn't to be disappointed either as I ran out to a perfect score of 36 points with six wins and obviously my best score on the night. Naturally I was delighted.

DaveL chased hard running a modified Slot.It Porsche 956 (an ex Peter car which I had previously painted up for Peter in "Alpha" colours and if I say so it looks great) and he ended up second in class on 31 points with one race win. The other race winner was Keith, running a Ninco Mitsubishi 4x4 of all things, but to great effect. He ended up third in class on 28 points. Behind us everyone else rather trailed in and were led by Will, who borrowed my Scaleauto Radical to score 18 points from Jim on 16 points running a Spirit Dallara. Tied on 14 points were Wes and Trigger. trigger scored his best score on the night running a Slot.It Audi. Disappointingly for PJ, he came in last running his Slot.It Ferrari 312 which is fast but he can't seem to keep it on the track for very long.
At the end it was DaveL and Keith tied for the top spot on 120 points. My great Open class score had seen me bounce back up to third on 103 points. Jim followed on 89 from Will 83, Wes 64, PJ 54 and Trigger on 39 points.