SlotForum banner

EAHORC 2011/12 National series - 3/6

7K views 65 replies 15 participants last post by  marctownsend 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)


This will serve as the thread for Round 9 of the EAHORC 2011/12 National HO championship. A race report will appear here as well as links to Photos and result sheets, for now the thread will serve as an advert for the race.

When: June 3rd- 10:00am start, doors open 9:00am
Where: London HO Racing Club, Churchfields Play & Resource Centre, Churchfields, Great Cambridge Road (southbound A10), near Harrow Drive, London, N9 9NQ

Full directions and links to local hotels etc are on www.eahorc.com in the schedule section. Come down the A10 heading south and turn into the unmarked road immediately after Harrow Drive

Inital entry:

Lee Henderson
Lee Taylor
Paul Homewood
David Hannington
Andy Player
Deane Walpole
Craig Homewood
Al Wood
Clive Harland
Marc Townsend
Jim Easton
Rob Lees
John Ovens
Andy Whorton
Paul Whorton
Tony Molloy
Mike Dadson
Julian Allard
Roy Masters
Paul Roach

Please let me know if you intend to attend. Bear in mind it is the Jubilee holiday weekend.
 
See less See more
1
#54 · (Edited by Moderator)
Great vids Andy well done


Another cracking day both me and Craig really enjoyed it. Great company on the journey there and home, good banter throughout the day and a real surprise
to see Mart and Matty again, and also to see Roy as well it t'was good to see you looking so well bud.

Thanks to John, Deane and Dave for setting up the track and another thank you to John for the refreshments.

O what to do next season we are both thinking? maybe pancakes!!!

Cheers
roll

Only downside was the debacle of the F1/Open wheel final, hopefully lessons learned. O yea and Paul R what was you thinking when you bought that T Shirt? as a father of a daughter that was probably the most offensive 1 I've seen, perhaps it's a sign I'm getting old but I would strongly suggest you don't wear it on your up and coming wedding day!
 
#55 · (Edited by Moderator)
Paul - Lesson learned indeed. From now on if a driver feels their lane is down on power, it will be case of looking for a track break by eye and consulting with the previous user of that lane to see how it felt for them. Unless this happens in the first 2 laps the race will not be re-started. The track call rules sort of cover this but it is hard to write something that covers every eventuality.

As for Andy's other incident, it turns out under the current rules as well as the one for next season he could of called track as soon as he was riding the wrong lane.
 
#56 · (Edited by Moderator)
OW incident - forget the track call, should it have been a restart? That was a handy 6 second lead I had in the bag after the other 3 had a poor start to the race.

In my afternoon final, it was other cars riding in my lane, twice. I was riding the lane I had chosen.

Two neo pro-mods on one lane with 1.2amps and both stop dead. At pro-mod speeds, it takes me quite a few moments to realise my car is not where it should be and quite a few more to locate it. Again, in a pro-mod race, that's a fair distance lost in a close race. The marshals, to give them credit, sorted things as quickly as they could. As a driver, I tend not to make track calls and, after some of the races on Sunday, I can appreciate why marshals preferred to keep the race flowing.

On the other hand, the two subsequent offs I had were entirely my fault. Without them it would have been even closer. I did enjoy the chase in that last 60 seconds and I really thought I'd pipped Mart at the end
 
#60 ·
Consistency is the key, I was on the reverse end of a somewhat similar incident at HONK, although it wasn't a track fault, I was taken off at turn 2 (there was 3 of us I believe, which I always thought was a restart, this followed by some slow marshalling put me almost 1/2 a lap down) I requested a restart and some were very verbal that it wasn't a restart. It shouldn't be a case of he who shouts loudest gets the outcome he wants.

QUOTE (montoya1 @ 5 Jun 2012, 09:15) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Paul - Lesson learned indeed. From now on if a driver feels their lane is down on power, it will be case of looking for a track break by eye and consulting with the previous user of that lane to see how it felt for them. Unless this happens in the first 2 laps the race will not be re-started. The track call rules sort of cover this but it is hard to write something that covers every eventuality.

Writing rules must be an impossible task to allow for all incidents, but credit where credit is due it's the way issues are addressed and acted upon that counts and you can't be faulted in this respect Deane


Cheers
Paul
 
#61 ·
Roll1 - I am working on the basis that when somebody calls track for a power loss, real or imagined, in the first two laps that it was probably there from the start. In that instance starting the race again would be the right course of action, but if it happens on lap 3 or 23 then that is a different matter.

Obviously some are not going to like this procedure, but at least there is one, that is the main thing. Track calls are a necessary evil, Martin called one that was right on the money, which saved both our cars from ending up as scrap I suspect, but there are times we get it wrong in the heat of the moment. Equally, there are times we hesitate when it would perhaps be better to play safe.

As for HONK, it is 5 cars crashing together that triggers a re-start. A unlikely scenario, and one I would not mind seeing so long as my car was not one of the five
 
#62 ·
Great meeting Sunday, thanks to John and Deane and Dave.

I've had a look at the EAHORC site for rules on restarts reruns and track calls and there don't seem to be any written down? I may be wrong here (I'm not perfect), but I clicked on the rules highlight for WHO and got a page called 'procedures for 2011/2012 meetings' which all seems very clear and brief.

There's loads of stuff in the BSCRA handbook (on the BSCRA website)...e.g.

12. If, when a race is started, all the cars do not leave the starting grid, the Race Controller shall declare a false start and order a restart. Power to the lanes shall be checked and if on the restart, all cars do not leave the grid, those cars shall be presumed faulty and the race shall continue.

13. If, at the first corner, half or more of the cars are deslotted, the Race Controller shall stop the race and order a restart.

19. If a track fault has caused a race to be stopped, the repair takes more than thirty seconds and the race has completed less than one minute duration, the race shall be declared void and restarted. When the race has run for a minute or more prior to the race being stopped (and some competitors were not affected by the fault) the race will be completed and any necessary re-runs arranged.

Might be useful to state EAHORC rules for restarts/reruns in the same style? There's also a chunk of stuff on track calls which might be worth having a look at - BSCRA is also struggling with this area and is trying to cut down.

I can'tr see any justification for limiiting track calls for a track fault to the first two laps- they can and do happen at any point in a race (eg when clumsy marshals like me accidentally break the track!)

Again if they are already written down for EAHORC and I didn't find them mea culpa.
 
#63 ·
Rob - If you go to those procedure rules, 3.3 has a link to the track call section.

With the track fault calls, what I am trying to convey is that if the call comes early enough, in this case before the leader has crossed the line for the second time - it will trigger a re-start, after that the cars will remain in place whilst the track break/power loss is investigated....
 
#64 · (Edited by Moderator)
AM race report:

Just how robust the national racing scene is nowadays was amply proved as 20 racers rocked up to LHORC's 'famous' Edmo venue during the biggest bank holiday weekend for a decade. in a personal highlight for me the surname of two of the racers was Hill. Last month I had wrote that Martin had retired from magnet racing, switching instead to the delights of slow pancake racing with slowracer , but he came down to Edmo with son Matty to return his 2011 trophies, and scare everyone silly. Unfortunately he arrived too late to do Open Wheel, but confirmed before lunch he would be racing in the afternoon.

The Jubilee Grand Prix was therefore contested by 18 drivers, as the rain outside sloughed down on those watching for the royal boats not far away on the Thames. The battle many of us have been expecting between Andys Whorton and Player finally happened, although they did not have it all their own way. The OW points leader only took best score in white lane, and his Brighton rival only joint best in blue, with Clive Harland and Mike Dadson also getting in on that action. Craig Homewood and Deane Walpole had powered into the top six somewhat under the radar, through consistency.

Finals commenced with the F final, contested by the returning Roy Masters, Lee Henderson and Paul Whorton (who took the win comfortably). The E final saw Lee Taylor recover somewhat from a troubled qualifying after a good scrap with Dave Hannington, moving up to face Paul Rose, Rob Lees and a struggling Marc Townsend in the D final. Lee progressed no further, but now has one hand on the Rookie title. Paul, by contrast, was 0.35 laps away from the points needed to be almost certain to get promoted to Prem grade next season. That honour looks likely to go to absent Jim Easton, unless Rob makes the top five at the final round.

With Marc taking the win Paul needed, the C final consisted of Marc, Al Wood, and Paul Homewood. These were joined by host John Ovens, who yet again reminded people just how handy a racer he is, lining up 8th on the grid despite having not touched an HO car in months. He would go on to beat the others, and make the top 7. He still maintained he was 'making up the numbers', one has to wonder if he did a full season in full focused mode just how well he would do. His win limited Paul H to 8th, Al 9th and Marc a disconsolate 10th.

The B final saw the pace upped considerably. Craig had chosen white, but it was not working out for him. Mike, in the 'ideal' blue lane held the early lead, but after a slip Deane (in a red lane mostly benign, but containing the outer lane of two 6'' bends) sailed into a lead he was not to lose. All three drivers pulled away from John, the gaps waxing and waning but the cars never really close. In the end Deane posted a score of 20.65, easily the best for that lane at the time, despite a lap time 2/3 tenths of the ultimate pace. Mike scored 20 dead, which one would normally expect to be enough for the win, to finish the morning 5th and 0.7 laps ahead of a closing Craig.

The A final looked to have plenty of promise. Andy W had taken pole by just 0.15 laps, with Clive and Andy dead-heating on 58.25. Initially it did not pan out that way, with the three cars quickly spread apart. Andy W had shot off like a scalded cat, but on the cusp of lapping the field was finding he could not keep the rhythm that had got him there. Clive was now flying, but the gap seemed just a bit too much. The two rivals traded fastest laps, eventually dropping the lap record from 8.03 to 7.86. Andy had a couple of wobbles late on, as both extended the most laps scored into the high twenties. In the end he just managed to cross the line to start lap 21 after the power had been cut, with Clive just the other side of the line and about 4' back. Andy was over the moon, the OW championship now in the bag for one thing, Clive took his defeat well and that first win must come soon one would think. Anyway, a cracking end to a cracking session of open-wheel racing.
 
#65 ·
PM report:

After a 45 minute lunch the business of sorting out who would run what for the afternoon session commenced. LMP1 had looked 'iffy' in the week, but HONK winner Mike's decision to come racing rather than be down on the Thames, coupled with John O decided to fit an LMP1 to his quick car from the OW races meant the class would have a full final. Paul R, with one eye on the LMP1 Minor points and the other on next season, decided to give Mod a go, this combined with Matty and Julian choosing the class resulted in it's biggest following of the season with six. There would also be six ProMods, the core five being joined by Martin, and four Nascars.

The Nascars got the finals underway. Dave had once again blitzed everyone during qualifying, taking seven of the eight available fastest laps and most laps on the way to pole by 5.1 laps. Lee H had shown his potential by taking fastest lap in blue lane, but Dave's strength lies in consistency as well as speed, his efficiency is that lane at 90% compared to 80-85% for his rivals. The win was less straight forward, Lee and Paul W both heading him early on before offs of their own. Once in the lead, the double champion set about building a big gap and lowering the lap record for the class by several tenths, on the way to win number 12.

LMP1 was next up. Mike, fresh from that mighty win at HONK, had been running sweetly all afternoon, taking pole from Andy W by 1.15 laps mostly due to storming score in red lane. February and March winner Rob was some way back from these two, and only half a lap up on John. Andy seemed very relaxed though, Mike a little tense, and in the end the former was able to take a comfortable win, as well as the EAHORC cup to go with his OW title. He is very close to taking the LMP1 title too, to complete the clean sweep. The only way Rob can prevent that is to finish 16 or so places ahead at Worthing! He did manage to keep Mike on his toes in this round, getting to within half a lap come the finish, but there is no doubt the star of the day was one Andy Whorton.

Next up was Modified, where Paul Rose had used his experience of the class at SCHORC to take pole from Champion Paul H by just 0.15 laps. PH had built up an advantage of 0.8 laps across red and blue lanes, but PR had blitzed every one in white, and that is where pole had been won. Worryingly for those who may have to face Paul in this class next season his fastest lap was nearly half a second better than anyone else could manage. This was translated into a one lap win come the A final, with Paul W content with second ahead of Al, having a quiet time of it due to chassis issues. Lee T was fourth, after a straightforward B final win over Julian Allard and Matty.

The day was completed by two Pro-Mod finals. The first of these was bizarre to say the least. Craig had missed out on the A final due to not completing his yellow lane run and then having an axle go awol after a big crash in white lane. Marc had been going pretty well considering his switch to a WHP chassis is still a recent one, but on past form Craig would be favourite to make the A. However, Marc got into an early lead from Clive, and by the time Craig got into second place he had quite a gap. The Wiltshire racer had really decked his car, and the arm did not like it. It seemed to slow somewhat and Marc was then able to run around flat out and error free to the finish! His lap times were pretty quick and the gap was not coming down fast enough, and so Marc was able to take one of the oddest final wins ever.

If the B final was not a great advert for the fastest class, the A certainly was. Andy Player had taken pole very comfortably, but one could see that Martin was still getting rid of the rustiness. He was further assisted by Deane mistakenly choosing white lane over red in the belief it was the multiple champions best, and handing him what actually was. Nonetheless Andy had blue lane, where he had been mighty, and following his recent dominance was feeling confident in his beautifully turned out car. He was to be undone by three incidents where cars were riding his lane, and will know in future to track call such occurrences instantly, and race flow be damned. Martin had also picked up his pace, finding well over two laps since his heat in the same lane, to take a popular win. He thus has a 100% record in class this season, and I for one hope against hope we see him before December.

Thus ended a top-notch day of racing I was not even sure would go ahead a few months ago. Thank you to everyone who gave up a day of their bank holiday to ensure a large, quality field descended on the capital as HRH celebrated a truly amazing feat. The series now moves to WHO for the end of season bash, with several titles still up for grabs.

DW
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top