2017 Topics/Results etc

Flip - Forgot to say = The track behaved itself TOTALLY last-night hey

It was my driver errors in yellow, cuz the rest of you guys managed it Fine

A Tad more weight in my Matra & i think she's Good'2'Go

Monday evening brought the return of Classic GTs. First off, I need to apologise for lack of data as the files for Qualifying and the Race were hastily downloaded by moi and I found they were .JLON suffix files......... Don't ask, I Ddon't know either but I haven't been able to convert them to MS Excel

Mike took first run at qualifying in his Thunderslot Lola with a mid 5 second laps followed by Sandra running an NSR Ford GT40 on a similar time and Rick with his indecently quick Slot.it Matra who was a couple of 1/10s faster.

The first race started with a blip from Sandra as she picked up a 3 second false start penalty while Mike got a flyer. So it was Mike from Rick from Sandra but not for long. A couple of mistakes from Mike and a tyre peeling off a rear rim meant he was doing the chasing and never quite caught up on the short lap so the result was a flying Rick in front from Sandra and Mike.

Next up Mike got a good start again and led from flag to flag even though that troublesome rear tyre peeled off again in the latter part of the race while Rick had an absolute nightmare in yellow from which he failed to recover. In his efforts to get back in contention, he found that a Slot.it Matra on Slot.it F15 tyres had perhaps more grip than he could handle........ Sandra drove a steady race to take another solid second place.

A short break gave Mike the opportunity to swap his rear wheels for a set with properly glued on tyres before battle recommenced..........

Another cracking start saw Mike pull out several car lengths before the first corner while Sandra gave herself another 3 second penalty at the start. However, cue the "Jaws" theme tune as Sandra started clawing back her disadvantage on Rick and Mike who were fighting over first place with Mike in Red and Rick taking full advantage of Blue lane's sweeping curves. A couple of mistakes from Mike and Rick perfecting his wheelies meant that Sandra eased pass for a good win while Mike took second from Rick who consistently posted fastest laps when he managed to keep his Matra in the sloy vowing to add more weight in future!

Last race of the night saw Mike in the dreaded yellow lane with yet another great start and not only gaining the lead but staying in the lead too! This was a real close race right from the start with the lead changing hands several times and Rick popping power on wheelies down the straights resulting in another win by Sandra from Mike and Rick.

Now the results........ We hit the button and much to our surprise we had Rick in 3rd with 962 seconds, Sandra in 2nd with 952 seconds and Mike taking Top Slot on the podium with a 943 second total. After 160 laps of close, action-packed racing, there were only a few seconds separating each driver. Rick was by far the fastest driver on the night and would have taken top spot on the night, Great racing guys!

Monday 9th. October DTM

Well we had a smallish turnout tonight, just 4 racers which meant 2 heats of 2, still, the racing was as close, fast and furious, (in a well controlled way of course) as usual.

Qualifying was in Red lane with Sandra first to run with a 5.623 seconds as a marker. Rick followed running the only inline car, a fairly stock SCX Audi with a long can motor and he posted a 6.117 second run. Steve was next up with his first visit to Abertawe and he was fast and flawless with his 5.447 second effort. Mike took the stage for the last run and posted a 5.355 second run to take pole.

On to the racing and as we are not fully up to speed with RC just yet, we let it do it's thing which meant Mike and Steve were first up. Steve led from the start and was never passed by Mike. At the flag, they were just 3 seconds apart after 40 hard fought laps. Their next heat saw quite a few changes in the lead with Steve finally coming to terms with the quicker Green lane leaving Mike pushing hard in the slower Yellow lane with honours going to Steve. Their third heat saw Mike with a flag-to-flag drive to take the victory from Steve by 8 seconds. The final heat of the night for these two saw Mike lead from the start again and build up a lead of a lap from Steve until a series of mistakes by Mike 14 laps from the finish saw Steve knuckle down and claw back and take the win by just 2 seconds! It ain't over until the flag drops!

Next up were Sandra and Rick. Sandra led from the start with Rick wrestling with a very fast car that wanted to lift it's guide out of the slot at every opportunity resulting in a very smooth drive with no de-slots and nice fast time. Second heat for this pair saw quite a few changes in the lead early on before Sandra pulled away and took the lead from Rick who fought the car all night long. Third heat for Sandra and Rick saw Sandra take the lead from the start while Rick's handling woes increased as the track "rubbered in" with a Red lane that wasn't doing him any favours. There was worse to come for Rick in Yellow lane in the last race of the evening. Yellow lane has a few tight and nadgery corners and the stock SCX guide simply did not want to maintain a long term relationship with the slot and boy, did Rick struggle! The result was a forth win of the evening for Sandra.

Over all results were a well deserved win for Sandra who put together some well controlled fast and smooth drives from Steve in 2nd and Mike in 3rd from Rick who was without doubt the hardest working slot car driver of the night!

Here's a couple of pictures from last night.