EAHORC National Championship: HOGP Chatham 29 April 2012
Walter Plinge, as ever, presents the alternative view.

Walter is back, finally cajoled into action by woodcotes’ nagging egg timer that has been running since the end of April…..

We’re (almost) in Chatham, home of the ‘fun for all the family’ historic naval dockyard.
Chatham as mentioned in my October blog is less posh than our last outing in Marlborough country. Unlike Marlborough wraps are sold here quite openly on the street rather than in trendy takeout eateries, Pain au Chocolate is breaking a tooth on a bar of 99p Lidl finest Bellarom Milk Chocolate while croissant is a quick crossword answer for ‘annoyed relative, 5,4’.

To those of us who attended the inaugural meet here finding the place again was relatively easy, but crikey wasn’t the weather bad this time (a new EAHORC trend?) , first the baked on frost at Ipswich, now howling wind and rain lashing down like a trawlermans’ worst nightmare. Inside it was, despite motherhen1s SF ‘wear a scarf’ temperature warning, plenty warm enough. The rain had however made a dramatic entrance in a couple of places, but thankfully, unlike Malaysia, the track stayed dry.

It was only October when we were (first and) last here, but walking in through the warehouse I found it reminiscent of being in a time warp: at first glance nothing in the track room seemed to have moved or changed since it was last used and the faint whiff of solvent cement was still present. I half imagined that there could have been a half drunk cup of tea, still warm, left untouched after that most thrilling of thrilling ProMod finals….. The memories came flooding back.

On closer inspection there was some great news. New barriers had been added to the previously unguarded accident black spots, in particular in front of the rostrum where from memory errant cars were scooped up by a cardboard box. An even better improvement were toilets we could access all by ourselves! At least I’m assuming they were toilets or were we just soiling mission65’s sanitary fittings showroom?

Most of the usual suspects and some of the not so usual (different to unusual) turned up for EAHORCs biggest day out yet. Great to see Bulian_Joolean there and in such good form, always good value on and off the track. It would be fantastic if he could find the left hand pages in his road atlas and join us more often, subject of course to family commitments and his electrical missionary work in Dar Es Salaam. (It’ll be cool if he can do Edmo too…)

Marctownsend, eloquent spokesman for the political wing of FLBT was with us again after missing Marlborough, now suitably hirsute in the style of Captain Haddock.

Regular WHO attender Diesel made his somewhat mixed first EAHORC meeting of the season and we had the debut of Karl Cooper.

Svelte aesthete (judging by his glam pit box) woodcote was here again hoping to maintain momentum in ProMod while sonofroll1later was obviously adrenalined-up and keen to get his winning ways back.

Before I forget BIG thanks need to go to trenchtownbilly for making sure everything was shipshape and Chatham fashion and mission65 for hosting us again.

Last October would have been most been most people’s first weekend on a proper, sorted, permanent four lane track (we only raced on four of the lanes last time). Those four lanes really were ‘gutter’ free but would using the two outer slots bring us back to the more often than not reality of having a nightmare colour that, like the fat kid in the school playground, never gets picked from choice? Well, er, no, or rather ‘not really’. Several of the, not necessarily outer lanes, had their own, minor idiosyncrasies and I stress the word minor. The outer lanes could certainly hold their heads high although black seemed a little shy of volts on the straight. At least there would be an opportunity to move up a final from any lane although it would mean beating four other drivers instead of the usual three.

Six lanes was also a new venture in respect of spreadsheets and the electronic mctrickery of lap timing. I bet it was andyslots who sorted Trackmate, and it worked flawlessly…


So what about the racing?

AM open wheel : The HO:GP
Qualifying should have resulted in andyslots getting ‘pole with a stroll’ with stupidly quick lap times in three of the six lanes. But it wasn’t to be as we all noticed that he had a couple of bad heats, one of which would count in the total. Cliveharland and sonofroll1later were much more consistent, the former more so, with not a bad lane between them and a lowest lap score of 10.37, they filled the top two slots on the grid with andyslots only slightly behind in third, a testament to his best pace.

Jimb0 did sterling work to take fourth, the last automatic A-final ticket with mikefi fifth and marctownsend trailing in, for him, a disappointing sixth place and thereby consigned to the still likely to be pacy ‘B’.

Below them the dice was rolled a little more…

When it came to the finals there was bound to be a titanic struggle to do well, go up a final and just as importantly not get pushed into last place. There was even more than usual to play for!

All in all it went pretty much according to qualifying in the lower finals but the big surprise was marctownsend. Perhaps race rusty after being forced to miss out on Marlborough due to a commitment in Malaysia he moved from a creditable sixth place in qualifying to an incredible ninth spot in the race with a nine lapper. Not what we would expect from a man of his calibre. Up and coming and still (at the moment) main grade racers mikefi and palros snatched the final two seats in the last race of the morning leaving marctownsend trampled underfoot to worry where it all went wrong. The scene was set for a real stonker, and being the GP, a five minute stonker!

Andyslots, keen to put his qualifying woes behind him streaked off into the lead as soon as the lights went out. Sonofroll1later and cliveharland determined not to let him get away as well as getting the better of each other carelessly came together on the first lap in the downhill bus stop section gifting a larger lead to andyslots. After this I’m not sure whether either of them would be able to get back in touch with the leader and so it turned out. After the crash, which both will no doubt always remember, sonof pulled out a lead over cliveharland who seemed quicker on the track but kept tripping over in his quest to close the gap and never got to see the gearbox of the car in front. Fortunately he managed to avoid dropping into the clutches of jimb0 behind who himself led mikefi and palros back to the dressing room.

A well-deserved win by the man who held it all together when it really mattered and boy, didn’t his expression when the power went off say it all?
Definitely an Übermensch performance from the now definitely come of age confirmed ex wunderkind, andyslots. Even greater things are, of course, now expected……


Lunchtime interlude.

EAHORC had celebrated its tenth birthday earlier in the week and I expect motherhen1’s mantelpiece was awash with greetings cards from places almost as far afield as Derbyshire. And they said it wouldn’t last….. There was little mention of that big day until cliveharland sneaked a two-tone twin cake arrangement in the form of a ‘10’ into the pit area. It seems as if mrscliveharland is a bit of a hochkuchenfrau on the side unless the (until now perhaps) Slottech devotee has hidden talents. A big Walter and other cake scoffers thanks to you, and can we have another….. please.


PM classes

The way it panned out was that with six lanes and the choice of classes there would be only one final per class. This meant that, combined with the lack of any real gutter lane, qualifying was less crucial than usual.


Nascar
Trenchtownbilly was out to confirm the Nascar championship. A pretty much foregone conclusion but the fat lady needed to sing and she did just that, long and hard. How he does it is beyond my comprehension but once again trenchers was easily top dog in both qualifying and the race with only a minor blip in yellow, handing best there to a non too shabby (and possibly chic but it’s not for me to say) jimb0. Perhaps he’s been programmed with Joe90 specs?

While the ‘billy is totally, and that’s not said lightly, dominant in Nascar his open wheel performance is usually less than perfect. Not his canon. Today was no exception with a fifteenth place albeit with partial Tyco involvement.

It’s no criticism, more of a comment, that almost all drivers can only do well in one class at a time. We have woodcote exchanging his rise in open wheel for a good strike rate in Promod now that his Wizzard has found it’s feet and cliveharland who has done the opposite, trading edge of success Slottech appearances for consistent A-final appearances in the mornings, albeit still waiting for that elusive coconut. I suppose it’s only the real greats that can do it all, mbr almost every time and andyslots is getting back into that groove.

Back to Nascar and without mentioning trenchtownbilly again, regular class participant andyslotsbropaul could only manage fourth place in a stronger than usual field but he confirms his number two slot in the table. On the day however jimb0 showed his versatility with a convincing and well deserved runner up spot ahead of slowly on the rise LeeH.


The Mods were rockin’
Mod now and something went wrong here. Diesel was sporting an Artin. Yes you heard it right. An Artin. Why for goodness sake? Because it was flippin’ fast as it turned out against the views of most. I didn’t get a look but I guess the chassis was far from ‘out of the packet’ and fair play to diesel for having the cojones to give it a chance. Top in qualifying showed it’s true pace but in the final it was the mistakes that let the side down and thanks to an unusually tight grouping was relegated to a measly fourth. He was less than a lap behind the winner, but even with such a long lap that was close. BooHoo for diesel; had the race been run again it could have been a great win. Still, a confidence booster after a less than cheerful morning methinks.

Taking the spotlight off diesel for a moment the class was won, as said before, by a narrow margin by asjwood that must have made up a little for his less than optimum eleventh in the morning. Redlineracersdad and the ever cheerful Leet managed to squeeze between them to claim second and third.

While it would have been nice to become champion with a win I guess the dominant this season redlineracersdad would still have gone home happy having been declared champion (just stop going on about it dad, I’ll get Promod, you’ll see). Asjwood must now be favourite for second in class having put a little space between him and Leet in the table.


That new class.
LMP1 has been pretty much dominated by andyslots and roblees this year although the pendulum has been swinging towards the ‘mensch of late. Today andyslots was totally dominant in the heats taking all the reds and purples on offer and finishing nearly eight laps ahead of, improving all the time, mikefi. Of course andyslots was going to walk the final while holding the HO:GP trophy in his other hand wasn’t he. Well, actually, no. I’ve been watching Mikefi recently and he has found that lovely balance of ‘not so flat out it causes crashes but fast enough to make lots of laps’. That sweet spot puts him in the position of ‘just behind’ and ready to capitalise on any mistake on the track ahead, and that’s what happened here.

Andyslots had a couple of crisis moments (again) that enabled mikefi to drift through with politely raised cap mumbling ‘hard luck squire’ and take a well deserved win. The win by Mikefi, following a fifth in the morning probably made him a joy to work with on the Monday.

Roblees trailed badly in third (an out of sorts day for him all round unfortunately, but we all get those) but kept a fair distance in front of palros with KarlCooper bringing up the rear.


It’s showtime!
ProMod has become the real spectacle at the end of the day especially for those who have not seen them run before. A lot has happened since we were last here when sonofroll1later and cliveharland had the battle of battles over the last part of the race with the former taking the glory by a matter of inches. That was a real race of attrition with reliability playing a large part. Back then the mbr prepped G3-R was pretty much dominant, the FLBT Slottechs were on the ascendency, montoya1 was cooking BSRT arms and woodcote was nursing a dog that Rolf Harris, kind as he is, would have put down. Since then in relative terms the Slottechs are on the back, polymer shod, foot while sonofrolllater seems to have lost a little momentum.

Montoya1 is always difficult to judge but the man with it all hooked up at the moment is woodcote, with a new breed of Wizzard that so far cuts the mustard just great. We have learnt that heat is the ProMods worst enemy and most car builders and drivers have sussed how to do it, but not on all occasions. Last time here, perhaps due to the long straight, was a real car breaker. So what happened today?

In terms of reliability it looked fairly cool under the collar and the hood for sonofroll1later, woodcote and marctownsend who was using an ex cryer-non-evo Wizzard Storm and it’s worth a mention that all the ProMods ran together in the heats so we could see them all at the same time. The Montoya1 car seemed fine while cliveharland was clearly struggling with, as we found out on Slotforum later, a hot and bothered Slottech alternating with an almost out of packet Wizzard Storm, neither of which was anywhere near the pace of the rest of the field.

Looking at pace the woodcote car dominated qualifying, nearly seven laps ahead of sonofroll1later with Montoya1 a surprisingly close third. Marctownsend was a distant fourth with cliveharland bringing up the rear, eventually.

The final was, as ever, spectacular to watch. Montoya1 dropped out before half way with a suspected cooking arm which enabled cliveharland to opportunistically claim fourth spot with the rest going to form with woodcote taking another win from sonofroll1later and third placed marctownsend.

Woodcote’s winning margin was about seven seconds, almost twice his advantage at Marlborough. I believe that woodcote, like sonofroll1later a while ago, is not just on the top step of the podium temporarily but has dropped anchor for the foreseeable future, unless…..


Summary of the day..

Yes there was the usual minor petulance when things didn’t go quite so well, the odd quickly regretted growl at a marshal and of course the occasional jocularly disputed track or refused track call (it’s not fair mum, he’s in front of me).

Having said that it was probably the best day ever, but not for a tangible reason, just one of those days, and I’m not saying that just because I’ve got a can of Carlsberg on the go.

As always with EAHORC meets it’s extremely good natured and fun while having some serious racing at the same time. It’s why we keep coming back. The bar of quality is now being raised with every meeting and this was no exception. Somebody is doing something extremely right.


Other news.

Slotforum posts have recently let the proverbial cat out of the proverbial bag about what happens between race meetings. In the old days many took the ‘it was running when I chucked it in the box so it will be running when I take it out next month’ approach and this combined with a modicum of talent and determination was good enough to have a less than shabby result at the next meeting. You just can’t do that anymore. We are now blessed with many participants that have nouse and engineering ability as well as access to tools and tech kit, or at least who are part of a circle, that as a group, do.

Everyone seems to have upped their game. There is much more talk of tweaks and engineering than ever there was. It’s great.

We have, thanks to the wonders of Slotforum, seen the inside of the Sawston technical centre that supports SCHORC. See the excellent post http://www.slotforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=62203 .Having a couple of test tracks is one up on Ferrari, but having them inside your gaff isn’t, even if it has a Dunlop bridge. Can’t imagine Luca Montegorgonzola tarmaccing his hallway, or indeed drying shirts on a hall radiator. While Fiorano it’s not, it’s surely a great (and at the moment unique to HO) asset in assessing handling and pure grunt. And I thought the ‘hall effect’ asjwood bangs on about related to magnetic sensors….

We hear that LeeH is getting a technical centre and hardly a week goes by without FLBT mentioning theirs but has anyone got test arrangements like this? I can see the Sawston Techie putting a wind tunnel together (it’ll dry the washing dear and keep the clothes off the radiators)……


Driver of the day?

Common sense and to go with the flow would be to give the gong to the driver with the HO:GP laurels round their neck. After all that’s what the day was all about, but it’s not that straight forward.

Trenchtownbilly put in another peerless performance to get the job done, again, but this time guaranteed to head the table at season end. Alternatively woodcote for taking the promod win, for the second time in a row, in a no fluke fashion from some classy opposition.

Mikefi probably had his best outing since his schoolboy trip to the Science Museum and on a different day could have got the Plinge plaudit.

Nah, it’s got to go to the morning winner, andyslots, for although the whole morning was not without the odd wobble the final was absolutely flawless with a blindingly fastest lap to boot. Double plus awesome™.


And finally…

We are now getting to the stage in the season when chicken counting champions elect are clearing space for the expected chromeware. Maybe at Edmo(nton) more certainty will emerge but let’s not forget that some scores will be dropped under the special ‘buy ten, only score with nine’ deal. Some drivers who have always turned up and played a blinder could be losing a chunky score and that will be the case for most handily placed drivers. But (I love starting sentences with ‘but’ and now I’ve now left school I can) let’s not forget that one or two will have their scores unchanged due to dropping a ‘no show’ zero who could then sneak up a place… Some drivers have a lot to play for.

As a final thought, don’t forget, when it all gets all shouty on SF that “The one human freedom that cannot be taken from you is the capacity to choose your attitude in any given set of circumstances--to choose one's own way." --Viktor Frankl

Or as I’d like to say ‘keep calm and stay reem’.

Until the next time

Walter Plinge

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