Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the dreaded, 'You do not have permission to view this image', error is back, at least for me.

 

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Let's try another method. Feedback please MSM (and could you send me that image for your driver record in Race Coordinator?).

Ah yes, the famous sideways podium shot! If you can see these Michael, I'll correct the orientation.

 

Yes, all present and correct now, thank you. The inline images are full-sized already, so no need to click on them to see an enlarged version. To be clear, clicking on them does load the pop-up image, but that is no larger.

One further wrinkle, if I'm not logged in, then the inline images disappear and are replaced with text links. Clicking those text links leads to a no permission error, but that is an edge case of course.

(The reason I was logged out? Since the update the 'View New Content' link doesn't work for me when I'm signed in. What a mess.)

Michael

 

Micheal I had issues with new content . Go to the menu on the left and make sure it has not reset itself. I tick show new content since last visit and that seems to work OK

 

Same with me Chris - meant to reply earlier but was a little overwhelmed with work today.

 

That's much better Martyn

I didn't have the heart to say what Michael said, lol

Mike

 

Hi Martyn, any chance of posting the results from Round 1 mate? (Then I can nag you for Round 3 lol)

 

Yes, I'm writing R3 as we speak - will be a up tomorrow night probably. I'll stick R1 up today if I get a momnent - if not, I'll let R3 sink in for a few days and retro post R1 at the weekend. Time permitting, of course.

 

Here's a catchup of R1 - purely for continuity of course

It reminded me never to listen to fellow club members and run my lovely angle-winder car in in-line config!

Two men down to the dreaded colds tonight - wishing you a speedy return to health and hope those throttle fingers are ready for the big race on Sunday ;o) Visitor Michael turned up after a fair old drive from Woebley, so it's going to be heats of 3 and 3 tonight.

Quali in red was nothing spectacular in the lower orders, with 5th and 4th separated by a tenth, the next gaps being between 2/10ths and 5/10ths, but the top two were separated by 1/1000ths! The closest our timing system can record! Phew!

So the splits were fairly clear - the sidewinders being the top 3, the inlines being the bottom 3 - shock, horror! So the inline lads trundle out for heat 1 - Russ in Red and Michael in Blue had a great scrap, with just inches separating them until lap 21. A few offs from Russ allowed Michael to get away a little - Martyn had luckily just eased away in Green to take the heat without too much trouble, all the while keeping an eye on the titanic battle of the other two. Next time out, it was Martyn's turn to have a real ding-dong with Michael, with Michael in Green giving Martyn in Red the slip on lap 23. Russ had a bit of a difficult yellow, I think the hole in his rear tyre was giving him a bit of gyp! How on earth he manged to get those last 12 or 13 laps in so well is a testament to his skill and perseverance. The same two had a very similar heat straight after the break! Michael in Red this time, Martyn in Yellow. A poor outlap saw Martyn chasing Michael down, though the gap started to open back up soon after with Michael to lead by a good half a lap increasing to almost a whole lap at the end. The last heat for the inlines was a bit of an anti-climax - Michael shot off and had a great run in yellow, only having to worry about not getting tripped up as he lapped the other two!

The anglewinder gang, whilst very quick, was fairly uneventful for their first outing. Steve took a good win in Green, but Craig had an absolute screamer in Blue. The next time out, it was all but! Craig in Green, Steve in Red and Mike in Yellow weren't half giving it some. Steve and Mike had a pair of offs each, with Craig having three - his first on lap 18 dropping him from hero to zero, quickly fighting back past Mike and then setting off after Jones Sr - at the line, the old fella had kept his nerve and put in a great run to take the victory, with Craig chasing hard and Mike having a great run to get very close at the end. We all needed a sit down and a cuppa after that excitement!

Things calmed down once we got back to racing, Steve had a great Yellow - every lap apart from his outlap was sub-8 seconds. Craig didn't have his best Red for quite some time, with Mike having a very decent set of laps in Blue finishing with a highly respectable time. The last outing of the night saw Craig do 28 sub-8second laps, allowing him to just pip Steve's Yellow time from the previous heat by the narrowest of margins, with Steve getting balance by just pipping Craig's earlier Blue by a narrower margin! The heat itself was fairly well spaced out, with all three racers having a mostly trouble free run. Quite an entertaining night out, some having a new configuration from last season and it being a practice for the following Sunday's CTM round. It was purely a coincidence too - we didn't have to jiggle the rounds to have this luxury.

Looking at the heat times, you can see Steve and Craig did both Blue and Yellow withing a second of each other, as did Michael and Martyn in Green. Good to see such consistency amongst people battling for placings! Steve was quite magnanimous in victory, as you can see from his subtle reaction to being presented with the winners trophy on the podium ;o)

 

Only 6 of us racing tonight, should have been seven, but Russ had a very troublesome motor that all but seized on him. He kindly joined in and marshalled for the rest of us, much as Craig did on the previous weekend at the DiSCA 24hr. It's a shame DTM isn't as popular as some other classes, as we all agree (at least those who support it) that it is a very good class to race.

Quali in Yellow saw Craig and Steve separated by 2/10ths in the top slots, Mike and Martyn a similar gap in 3rd and 4th, then Seb and Alan half that distance apart in 5th and 6th. Craig Steve and Seb had clear runs, whereas the other three had at least one fluffed lap. The offshoot of this was Craig, Steve and Mike were off in a group of anglewinders, whereas Martyn was the sole anglewinder in with the inline Scuderia Birchmore. One was campaigning a Scalextric RS500, the other a BMW 3 series - both on 3D chassis sporting Slot.It inline pods.

H1 got underway with Martyn in Blue showing the a/w config with the wider chassis under an SCX was a different beastie to the much narrower inline Scalex BTCC cars. Physically, the Scaley cars are narrower, shorter and higher than the SCX DTM. Realistically, Martyn was racing the other racers in the other group, with Alan in Red and Seb in Green were really duking it out amongst themselves. So Martyn duly cleared off, with Alan getting to grips with these new cars on their first run much more easily than junior. In H3, Martyn did the same in Green, with Seb (Red) and Allan (Yellow) having a great dice for the first 7 laps, with Alan then easing away for 2nd place. After tea, Martyn cleared off in Red, while Seb in yellow and Alan in Blue swapped places a few times in the opening laps. Seb was getting more comfortable with his new car, so he managed to show Red's supremacy over Blue by showing dad the way home. For the last heat for this group, Seb ended up in Blue, so Alan turned the tables from the previous heat by showing Green's better qualities to take 2nd.

The all a/w group saw Steve in Green and Craig in Blue go hammer and tongues (how unusual!) with Mike chasing in Red. After a very fast heat, that's how it ended. H4 had a lead change on lap 7, with Steve edging ahead in Red of Craig in Green - this is how it stayed to the flag with the guys bare inches apart - Mike had a far better run in Yellow, finishing on the same lap as the leading pair. After tea, Steve and Craig (Y and R respectively) went at it like knives, with Steve coming out on top by a whisker. Mike had a steady run in Blue, but the nature of that lane meant he had a bit of a lonely run out there. For the last heat of the night, it was Craig's turn to be lonely infield in Yellow, as he cleared off and almost broke the outright lap record - heck of a run with a lot of sub-7.5 laps. Mike and Steve (G and

were having a right old ding-dong until a poor lap on lap 13 let Mike ease away. He kept his head and took a well-earned second at the flag.

So once again, Mike gets on the podium in his favourite class with a very fast set of heats. Well done. The usual suspects took the top two steps, with Craig turning the tables on dad from the last time out. Shame Russ' car let him down, as this is a cracking class to race normally. Group C next week and a look at the website for club shirts!

 

I could have posted these after I wrote them Thursday evening, but had a family emergency to attend to and promptly forgot, D'OH! Holiday season is upon us, so R4 of DTM only had 6 drivers last night. The group was split into two camps, as shown by the quali times. Scuderia Birchmore were running in-line narrower cars, whilst Russ had a combination of a badly behaving car (swapped out with a loaner before quali started) but also with the dreaded aching finger. I had the same earlier in the year and it is a bugger.

The Jonesies were close in quali, with Jr just getting the edge, whilst the Scuderia did something similar with Sr just getting the edge. Alan sandbagged his first two laps - teetering just above Seb's best time, then put in a scorching last lap to pip Jr by 5/100ths. Alan's little smile as he left the stage was one of those little comedy cameos that help make the club what it is. As for the rest, Martyn and Russ were not particularly close to the guy in front of them, but seemed happy enough with their lot of being last in top group and first in the second group.

Ass an added bonus, we debuted the new bridge we have put on the start straight - stop people putting daft wings etc on their cars and all will now have to adhere to the strict new height regulations we have introduced. So to the racing - H1 had Russ take a good early lead in Blue - the anglewinder showing it's considerable competitive edge over the inlines. It was all going very well until the finger trouble starting giving the leader a bit of gyp - a few stops and experiments using different fingers and the left hand saw Seb (Red) and Alan (Green) sneak past on lap 25. Alan spent the last few laps reeling Seb in, but an off in lap 28 looked like he'd blown it - only for Jr to do the same on the next lap taking them both off. A bit of fair marshalling saw them resloted almost side by side with Seb getting the win by a matter of millimetres! H3 saw lots and lots of overtaking, some again caused by Russ struggling with his dicky finger. Seb in Yellow was in the mix for the first handful of laps, but the gap opened leaving Russ in Green and Alan in Red to fight amongst themselves a little further up the track. Alan chased and passed Russ as and when he could, but Russ held it together long enough to take the win by a second. After tea and a good yap, H5 saw a similar pattern with Russ taking the heat in Red, Alan coming in a little behind in Yellow (some of that down to Russ showboating by stopping a ¼ straight before the finish line) and Seb battling Blue to brin up the rear. For their last outing, Russ was getting the better of his finger woes with a very good run in Yellow to take a flag to flag victory, with Alan in Blue and Seb in Red having a glorious battle, swapping places no fewer than 8 times, with Alan getting 2nd place over Seb.

The other group saw Steve take a comfortable win in Green with Craig putting in a screamer in Blue to finish four seconds back. Martyn gamefuly plodded around in Red to take the predictable third spot. The last heat before tea had no position changes and the Joneses swapping places, Craig taking the win in Green, with Steve close behind in Red and Martyn again trundling home a distant third in Yellow, although much slower, managing to get in a fairly consistent set of laps with no offs. He just couldn't live with the speed of the other two. Craig and Steve had a titanic battle for the first 15 laps, laughing and giggling as their cars ran side by side for lap after lap. A wobble by Steve allowed Craig to open up a 2 second gap, which stayed pretty constant to the flag. Very good racing. H6 after the break saw the lead change a few times with Steve in Yellow and Craig in Red again running side by side till lap 17 when an off allowed Craig to create a gap. Staying like this for the next ten laps looked like a comfortable win for Craig, but an off in lap 27 made for a nervous few seconds - luckily the marshalls were paying attention and it didn't adversely affect the result. This off and the out lap were the only two laps Craig did above the 8 second barrier - all others were well under 8 secs! As a side note, Martyn had a lonely trundle around the outside in Blue - needed to keep his wits about him in case Russ could claw back some time on him. For the last heat of the night, in Yellow, Craig again had an outlap and an off on lap 28 being the only laps that broke the 8s barrier - the times were significantly lower in the 7s range. Steve had an untroubled run in Blue for second whilst Martyn had some very good laps in Green, with 3 offs spoiling his total.

As for the rabbit, we couldn't decide who earned it the most, but the final decision had to be between Russ who jumped the start in H5, Alan who instantaneously followed him, or Seb, whohad a few second thinking about it before jumping the start! These live starts are great, and we have all fallen for following a jump at some point - must be something to do with all the adrenaline pumping as the countdown reaches a crescendo and we react to any stimulus - even though our minds are screaming "DON'T FOLLOW HIM!!!!!!". Always a good laugh when it happens, but a bugger if it soils your night. I've thoroughly missed racing during my two week holidays, and I hope Russ' finger recovers soon so he wouldn't be uncomfortable in the coming weeks races. Group C next week, so should see a rise in racers - see you then!

 

An einem sehr warmen und feuchten Mittwoch Abend kommen 5 Rennfaher in die sehr schnelle DTM Klasse.

Sorry, got carried away there - A very warm and humid Wednesday evening saw five racers arrive to race the very fast DTM class. Once more, we were split between the wider tracked, lower c of g anglewinder SCX bodies on 3d chassis, and the smaller tracked and wheelbase Scaley inlines on 3d chassis. Both types look awesome with some superb body details, and both types can be made to be very competitive with each other. Sadly, there is a bit of a gulf in performance between them.

Quali was in Green lane this week, and there was a rather predictable Jones 1-2, separated by 11/1000ths of a second, with Martyn third, whilst the inlines saw Seb beat Dad on view of him Alanbagging ;o)

Things turned out differently in the races, with Dad making it a clean sweep in all four heats. I have no idea what junior had in his tea at the break, because he certainly gave Alan a far tighter run for his money in the second brace of heats. The outcome was Alan fourth, 1st inline, with Seb 5th overall, 2nd in class.

Martyn, seeing as 3rd was fairly safe, experimented with some new driving techniques - egged on by Steve. The Jones boys on the other hand, saw Craig sweep up before tea, then Steve return the compliment after tea. It was going to be tense to see who came out on top! Their Green times were almost identical, but the other three lanes were 10+ seconds apart! On tallying up, Craig took the night win by about 13 seconds. Great driving both! A special mention to Scuderia Birchmore - marshalling the track when there is just two of you is quite a challenge - you did very well, amongst all the laughing and shouting.

 

R6 DTM
This is a bit of a marmite class. It has several staunch supporters two of whom enjoy exploring and pushing the boundaries of the smaller BTCC models, one avowed no likey and a few mehs. Seven intrepid souls rocked up for Round 6.
Practice saw a bit of a performance from our usual car bunger it got a good drop kick at one stage, before everyone convinced him to get his beautiful little Scaley Honda sorted for racing. During this time, Birchmore the Younger had a major gear issue which he fervently set about correcting. All the while, Lee was getting to grips with a new car in another new to him class. I think surprise and awe best describes his first few laps as he found out just how quick these things shift! They dont look as if they can go that fast. All was sorted in time for quali, although a set off flappy rear tyres needed a frantic gluing on Martyns car. Looked good with a line of thread off his bar towel working surface trailing behind the car.
Yellow was the lane of choice, thank you guest picker Mum B for doing the honours, with Craig a few hundredths ahead of Pater, with Martyn over half a second back. The two leaders have the Slot.It oblong pods, whereas 3rd place has the Sloting Plus with NSR triangular pod. There is a marked difference in performance, but who am I kidding in this case? 4th was Russ in his silent Honda it was like a stealth bomber whispering around the track, followed by Seb then Lee with his best quali to date.

No faux-pas with the relays this week, so H1 ran perfectly. Russ took the holeshot in Blue with Seb chasing in Green and Lee having a cautious launch in Red (were going to get you to work on that in coming weeks). Seb was struggling after the first few laps the car deslotting in unlikely places frustrating. More about this after H3. Lap3 saw Lee move up to second. Everyone was having a fairly interesting few laps, Russ taking a tumble on L4 allowing Lee to hit the front (first time to date?). We were all egging him on to keep it calm and just drive the track. After another off lap, Russ got his head and trigger finger in synch and started the chase. 5 great laps followed as he closed in on the lead, all the while Lee keeping his cool. Then it went wrong for three poor laps and Russ was through. Meanwhile, Seb had cooled his pace a few tenths and was having far fewer unexpected excursions into the bunker and saving himself a bagful of time into the bargain. Russ then showed us just how well this Honda could get around an impressive little motor. H3 had Russ (Green) first out of the blocks, followed by Seb (Red) and Lee (Yellow) with his customary cautious start. By the end of L2, russ and Seb had dropped it allowing Lee to get to the front for the second time in two heats. Calm down lads, he might get a taste for this! Lee racked up some very good 9s laps until he had an off on L12 the guys crossing the line Russ/Seb/Lee with less than a second gap between each driver. Seb and Lee then had a dingdong for a few laps the temptation to push a poor handling car was supressed by Seb, he was getting the best out of a car with front wheels that were too big and rears that were fouling the arches. L24 saw lee just edge passed again, with Seb keeping a holding brief just behind. An off 2 laps from home spoiled Lees run, so Seb took the opportunity to grab 2nd with little time remaining. At the end of the heat, Seb was off like a scalded cat to rectify his wheel woes. So by tea, Lee had led each heat, Seb had driven well to nurse an evil handling alfa home in respectable time, and we still couldnt hear Russ car. Hopefully the tea break would allow our tinnitus to abate and Russ could put some oil on that mesh.

Tea and choccy dispensed with and time for Lee to do his penance in Blue. Meanwhile, Russ and Seb were giving it what for in the opening laps in Red and Yellow. The tyre work did the trick, as Seb was now able to pace Russ as they enjoyed a battle up until L9, at which point Seb managed to give Russ the slip and motor on for the win. We even managed to get him laughing in this heat as he edged away from Russ in second. Lee looked pooped after his ordeal in Blue, but at least he could relax for his last heat. Of which, H7 was a bit of procession in comparison! Russ had a flag to flag win in Yellow, with Seb having a steady run in Blue, the R1s taking their toll on the slightly top-heavy Alfa, whilst a few offs in Green for Lee spoilt an otherwise excellent run for him.

In H2, Steve got off to a great start in Green, easing away from Craig in Blue and Martyn in Red. An off on L4 left Martyn trailing way back, but a few problems for Craig saw him get within sniffing distance of second. Towards the end though, it was hammer time for Craig and he eased away for a comfortable second. H4 had Craig (Green) chasing Steve (Red) for most of the heat you could barely separate them! The marshals really didnt want to have to pick them up if it went wrong! At the end, Steve had opened up enough of a gap to take the heat, Craig following him home and Martyn having a fairly unspectacular Yellow. After refreshments had been taken on, screens wiped and rip-offs discarded, H6 was again fairly unspectacular in Blue, whilst Steve hit the front on L2 and typed there to the end in Yellow, while Craig chased hard in Red. The final heat of the night was time for Craig to scoot off in Yellow, leaving Martyn in Green to fend of Steve in Blue. He managed for the first nine laps, but the canny lad got in front of him and stayed in second. An off on the first and last but one laps for Steve, allied to an absolute blistering set of laps in Yellow for Craig suggested the fight for 1st and 2nd would be tight. Have a look at the scores.

I'll miss Group C as I am off visiting mates who live quite near Mike H's daughter - I found an awesome Road for the MX-5 today Mike, and also that there are TWO viaducts in town!!!!!!

 

Electricity is funny old stuff, innit? Can't see it, can't smell it, but by jiminy you can feel it - when it's there. And that's where it wasn't for Yellow lane last night. We didn't notice any smoke anywhere, which an electrical engineer colleague assures me is electricity escaping a circuit, and we prodded, probed and Multi-metered all the usual suspects. But it didn't want to play. Ah well, lets' run on three lanes. Wasn't too much of a hassle as we were 7 drivers, and thus ran a group of three and a group of four. Race Coordinator is such a slick race management system that (after some thinking - ouch - and drawing a mental flow diagram) we managed to create 7 heats. Three lanes racing and one group using a black lane (sit out the heat). It was all drag and drop from the GUI and you were able to actually watch the heats develop as you did it. At the moment of saving the setup it has a very handy automatic "validation" routine, so you are made aware of any possible mistakes or deviations. Well done Dave for writing such a superb package. If you or your club has not had a dabble with Race Coordinator yet, do so. It's the future!

After all that kerfuffle, Quali was a bit pedestrian. We enjoyed barracking each other on the track, but none of us got excitingly close to the racer in front, to be honest. We did enjoy Lee getting punted onto the floor in Free Practice as Mike came scuttling around first corner, until Steve realised it was his car Lee was using! Later in the event, Steve realised Lee was suffering from a bent hub. Another quick change and back to business.

Heat 1 was a rather frenzied affair - this seems to be the norm at the moment. All racers getting a bit frantic after a week off! Martyn went from hero to zero by lap 2 in Blue, followed by hero status again by L4. Meanwhile, Seb in Green transcribed the opposite arc. Lee got off in 2nd place in red, then took the lead on L3, back again for L5&6, then again in L8, holding a healthy lead for 5 more laps. The guy is getting a taste for being out front. As Lee hit the front for his last stint, Martyn dragged himself off the tail to get into 2nd, then swapping places with Lee for the lead as Lee was demoted to 2nd. By the flag, there was a bit of separation between all three, but all still really enjoyed the excitement of the heat. Remember, Seb was driving inline Slot.IT (An Alfa) whilst the other two had the lower wider SCX Audi's on a mixture of Slot.IT and 3D running gear, although by L20, Martyn's 3D chassis had a split near the gears, causing massive hopping. H3 saw Alan leave Black lane and enter the fray via Blue lane, with Lee going from Red to Black. Although the stats show the race starting and finishing in the order Martyn(G), Seb(R) and Allan(Bl), it was a lot more interesting than that. Alan was running his M3, which again is inline but narrower and shorter wheelbase than Seb's Alfa, but boy, where these things buzzing along. H5 Saw Martyn get away in Red - despite having several stops to have his bearing popped back into the pod - caused by the chassis failure, leaving Alan (G) and Lee (Bl) to have a titanic scrap. These two were at it all heat long easing ahead, then getting drawn back in. Alan got past Lee on L3, but Lee just pipped him on L28, holding 2nd for the last two (very long, it felt to Lee) laps. H7, unusually the last heat of the night, Saw Seb (Bl) and Lee (G) have a good dice for the first 10 laps, with Alan chasing in Red. On Lpa 10, Lee managed to give Seb the slip and kept calm to run the remaining 20 laps at the front and take his first ever heat win! Well done mate, now you've broken the duck you'll get a feeling for it. So a big round of applause from your heat competitors and the rest of the club for this landmark slot "coming of age". A fitting way to end your evening.

Craig (Bl) and Steve (G) had their usual game of cat and mouse with Mike going very well in Red just behind them. Steve got past Craig on L5, and despite Craig shadowing him for most of the heat, managed to hold on for the win. Their next heat saw far more place changes, with Craig getting the lead in Green early on, closely followed by Steve in red. On L16, Craig missed the sensors and even though his lap was20.257, taking his last lap off meant Steve took the lead. Which he held to the end. Mike then enjoyed 8 laps in 2nd after this incident, but Craig got his act back together and retook the spot 6 laps from the end. After tea, Craig decided he had had enough sandbagging and decided to go flag to flag in Red. Meanwhile, Steve (Bl) and Mike (G) were having a good battle for 2nd and 3rd, with Mike eventually getting by with 10 laps to go to take 2nd.

So a night of challenges and firsts - the challenge of yellow lane dying and us learning how to re-arrange heats on the fly, a first for us running without a lane and a first heat win for Lee. The last one being the happier first! See you all next Wednesday for Group C.

 

A bit of track maintenance before we start the final round of the DTM class tonight. Several power connectors had become strained and a few taps had come away from the rails. What with the upcoming Welsh Grand Prix on Sunday 26th November, we thought it best to sort out any issues in good time. All the resoldering and making good of connections was done in plenty of time, with a good bit of strain relief thrown in for good measure. As an added bonus, the relay issue was sorted very easily - it was a broken wire in the loom within the Arduino enclosure. Simples!

Lee couldn't make it tonight, and Russ turned up carless - he thought we were just doing banging, sawing and soldering. Fair play, Russ hung around and marshalled for us - good sport that he is. So it was three SCX Mercs and an Audi running on Scaleauto chassis with Slot.IT gubbins, Seb running the lovely Slot.IT Alfa, and Alan with his variation of slot beauty, the Scaley BMW 3 series. The scores were likely therefore to fall into two categories, the faster Scaleauto anglewinders, followed by the s inline cars. But a lot could happen in 120 laps for each car……..

Quali was a bit of fun as ever, a good chance to barrack your fellow racers without having to worry too much about marshalling duties. Seb was first up and built consistently lap on lap to crack the 9seconds mark. Craig followed and did his usual ego-buster for the rest of us with a 7.8 out of the blocks, besting on a 7.4! Alan followed with a flawless run of his inline car, but not quite enough speed to pip junior. Mike had a screaming sub 8s lap 2, and was looking good to top it on L3, but just pushed a smidge too hard. Steve set the scene with a 7.6 outlap, built on it in succeeding laps, but the tiniest of tail slides on L3 meant he was unable to get under 7.5 to beat Craig. Martyn went last and just failed to get into the top 3 by 8/100ths. So Craig, Steve, Mike, then Martyn, Seb, Alan for the grid.

Heat 1 saw Martyn (Bl), Seb (Gr) and Alan (Red) have good runs without any drama to finish in that order. H2 saw Steve scamper from flag to flag for the win in Green, with Craig (Bl) and Mike (Red) having a tussle in the early stages, though an off for Mike allowed Craig to edge away for 2nd place. Mike's car had started beaching or grounding on the rails in the last three laps - a quick fettle would be required between heats. The slowcoaches came out again for H3, Seb and Martyn tussling in the early laps in Red and Green respectively, with Alan chasing along in Yellow. Martyn managed to edge away a little , with Alan gamely chasing Seb. Alan managed to slip by on L21, but Seb fought back bravely to retake 2nd a lap and a bit later. Meanwhile, Martyn was romping away for the win, remarking to Alan "ooooh, your car sounds like its got a slipping gear!". Eat you words boyo! It's your car!!!!!!! On L27 the leader started to lose power out of bends, as the marshalls shouted "less acceleration out of the bends", "take it smooth" and "stroke it home" (queue infantile giggles from all assembled). Seb started playing the Jaws tune under his breath as he could sniff blood. In the last 3 laps, Seb managed to cut a 25 second deficit down to 6 seconds at the line. If it had been 31 laps, the lad would have taken the win. So that seemed to have sown 3rd place up nicely for Mike. Or had it?????????? H4 - Craig in Green, Steve in Red, Mike in Yellow. Craig and Steve were loving it, all bar 3 of each's first 25 laps were in the 7 seconds - what a race! Sadly for Mike, his first three laps were a mare - the car was bottoming and sticking on the R1s - theres 3 or 4 a lap in yellow. Tyres that were superb last time out and really great in quali had sadly just passed the rubicon- they were too low for our rails on the Llany track. A retirement from the heat was a sad end for Mike. Meanwhile, Craig benefitted from Steve coming off on lap 25, allowing Craig to cruise to the win. What a frantic race that heat had been. Time for tea, said Zebedee.

Duly refreshed, our gladiators took up their weapons and mounted the rostrum. Martyn set off like a scalded cat in Red, with Seb hot on his tail in Yellow. Alan meanwhile was playing the long game and racing the lane (Blue) not the other cars. Martyn had 21 pretty good laps, then DISASTER! His gear grub screw came loose on his gear - even the second one he added to the contrite! A bit of grub screwing by the pit crew made a good fit and the lucky boy was off to race once more - chasing the new leader Seb. Seb grabbed the opportunity with both hands (throttle hand, actually), and determined not to miss an open goal kept his cool and held on for the win. He was over the moon, whilst Martyn was sick as a parrot. Sorry about all the metaphors, been watching "Ron Manager" on YouTube again. H6 saw Mike's break-time fettle do the trick, as his run in Blue was far more driveable than his previous heat. Life was a bit more complicated in the other two lanes - it was level pegging for the first 8 laps with Craig in Red and Steve next to him in Yellow. After a string of laps sub 8secs and being almost headlamp to taillight with Craig, Steve had an off on L8. Craig kept his rhythm to maintain a gap, but 6 laps later, the same fate befell Craig - Steve was just the proverbial 2/10ths behind again! By lap 18, Steve was a fraction ahead, and easing away by the hundredths per lap. On L27, both were off in a simultaneous crash - Craig getting his braids on the rail s a split second ahead of Steve - and boy did they go for it on the remaining 3 and a bit laps. You should have seen their faces! Concentrating very very hard as they put in three very fast laps each - the outcome? Steve had it by 0.28 secs. Phew! For their last spin of the night in H7, Martyn was in Yellow, Alan in Green and Seb in Blue - would this lane allocation even things out for the two inline racers? All three fumbled their first lap - Seb getting the better of it and getting ahead of Martyn with Alan a little further back. Seb came adrift on L2, allowing Martyn to nose ahead, and by getting a load of low 8s high 7s laps in managed to edge away. Seb and Alan meanwhile were playing cat and Mouse. Alan would get away a little, only for Seb to reel him in - this went on for 28 laps, with Seb get tantalisingly close, only to drop back again. The chase was on. A cool head from Alan proved the old adage, and at the flag, Alan took a well fought second place by a little over 2 seconds. OK, time for the last heat of the DTM 2018 season. There wasn't too much excitement in this one, to be honest, Steve (BL) managed a brief lap at the front when Craig had an issue in Yellow, but he was soon back past. Mike's charge was cut short by a few offs on lap 5, but in fairness, everyone drove hard to get their times. At the end of play, the first two and last two places were pretty much as we would have expected them, both Alan and Seb's cars had acquitted themselves very well this season and added a little variety to the scene. Both originals of those cars harked back to the halcyon days of BTCC when we were all glued to both rounds on Grandstand, on a Saturday. The others are lovely looking cars and go like stink, though the Scaleauto chassis proved tougher over the season than the 3d printed ones. As a bonus, they take the Slot.IT pods! Had Martyn and Mike not suffered their individual problems, then it would probably have been a tough and tight scrap for the bottom step of the podium. As it was, the severity of one problem outranked the other and the decision was made for them. Lets see a stronger field next year gang, these things fly!

 

Good write up as usual Martyn, shame about our mechanical gremlins though, it would have been close again. Still, one day you're up, the next you're down I guess......!