Hard Body Racing Nights

A good turn out for Hardbody racing yesterday. Tony B came along to watch, and has promised to come next time (Nov 12th) - hope to see you then Tony. Some great cars to admire as well : Hayden had a lovely Aston Martin in Martini colours, Ali had a 'tweaked saloon in Red Bull livery, and Ant had a new NSR Ford P68 done as a works Gulf entry. Alan had brought James along for a first visit, and he was learning the track very quickly. Mick set the early pace with a couple of NSR Ford MkIV's, but Ted's silver Slot-it Mosler was almost as quick, and qualified with Mick for the A final. Alan and Hayden were closely matched, but Alan's 2 15's were a lap quicker than he'd gone before and got him into the B final. James' lime green car found an extra step in performance as he switched to one of our club controllers with variable power and brakes, and he put 2 laps on his previous best to gain a middle lane in the C final. Mac was the most consistent, with 4 runs, all within 35 bits of one another (and only 2 laps down on the top qualifier). Ali's 4 runs got quicker and quicker, with his last run on blue being his best of the night.

In the C final, James found yet another 2 laps (16.45 would have put him straight into the A final), while Ali, Hayden and Mac were within about 20 ft of each other until the last few seconds, when a couple off's from the others left Mac clear to move on to the B final with James. Mac saved his best run for B final (14.40), but couldn't quite stay with James, Alan and Ant. This was the best race of the night, with James the quickest, but Alan and Ant keeping the pressure on all the way, and all leading at one point, only in the last 5 seconds did Alan and James have an off, letting Ant through into the A. The A final was much less exciting, with Mick getting and early lead from Ted, and holding on for a comfortable win. Mark and Ant couldn't match their qualifying times and finished down in 3rd and 4th.

Next Hardbody evening is in 5 weeks time, keep bringing those lovely cars to look at !!

Mark

A really good turnout for hardbody racing last Tuesday - 14 !
Neil brought along Peter and Tracey, and Alan had Lewie and James with him, to supplement our usual racers.

Jon got very close to breaking into the 10 lap group on the unfavoured black lane, and just missed out on the 2nd 'bump up' spot from the first final. Tracey got quicker and quicker setting her best time in her last heat, but was pipped by Peter who set 2 11's on his middle lanes, and won a good E final from Neil. Neil was running his Mini's until the finals (fun but unstable), but switched to one of the club cars, coming 2nd in the first final, and just missing a move up slot in the second. Mac suffered car damage in his 3rd heat, but was able to win the D final and challenge Alan closely in the C. Lewie started with 11's and a 12 in his early heats, but finished with a 13, and chased Mac well throughout the C final. James was very consistent, setting 4 14's, winning the C final, and coming 3rd in the B. Alan's first run (on red) was excellent, and only just missed a 15 by 5 bits. He was second to James in the C final, almost qualifying for the B. Ted qualified well from the heats, but had to take red lane for B final, and was narrowly beaten by Richard for the last A final spot. Ant and Mick had the A final sewn up with their 'Slot-it' Porsche 956's, but Clive put in a very quick run with a newly purchased (from Ant) Gulf liveried Mosler. He then got a clean start in the A final, and held off a recovering Ant (after a trip to the floor), Mick and Richard.

A good night's racing with all the newcomers getting to grips with the track and the cars pretty quickly. Hope to see you all again next time, which will be on Tues Dec 17th. As usual, all are welcome to come and join us on a Monday, when we race the metal chassied cars.

atb
Mark

I had a phone call today, from Mike in Winchester. He has been given a load of slot car track and cars 'Formula Tyco' it says on the box, though he can't get the cars to work. He wonders if anyone is interested in looking at it, as he'd like it to go to disadvantaged children (or something similar). Anyone who's interested, can contact Mike on 01962 885027.

Good to see some new faces last Tuesday. Ted's friend Shaun came with his son Jack, they brought some Scalextric cars to run, and also had a go with the club Slot-it Nissan. Jack does some Kart racing, so it was no surprise that he was learning his way round the track pretty quickly. Neil brought Tom and Lucy along, though they missed most of practice, and 'got thrown in at the deep end' when racing began. Ali's Dad Paul, came along too, though it's a bit far for him to travel for regular race nights !

Heat 1 started off with a good win for Tom, from Paul, Jon and Lucy. Jon was running a Scalex NASCAR which looked a bit 'top heavy', but set his best run with it on red. James won heat 2 with an excellent 14.43, with Ali piping Neil for 2nd by less than 10 bits. Ted and Ant had a close battle in heat 3, Ted just beating Ant, with Alan in 3rd. A dominant run by Clive gave him heat 4, while James won again in heat 5, with Neil setting an 11+ score, and Tom and Paul both getting into the 10's. Alan held off a close challenge from Mac and Ali in heat 6, but none could get close to a 17.44 from Clive. Ant moved up to second place overall in heat 7, while Lucy cracked the 10 barrier in heat 8 behind Clive and Mac. James won again in heat 9 with Tom's best run of the night (11.13) netting him 3rd (just behind Neil). There were more good runs for the newcomers, with another 10 for Lucy in heat 10, and a 10.96 for Tom and an 11 for Paul in heat 11. Heat 12 saw another Ted / Mac battle, with Ted coming out on top with another 15, while Ant stormed the last heat to win with 18.01 (our first Hardbody 18). Ant was running a steel / brass homebuilt sidewinder, under a Slot-it body - it looked very quick, but a bit of a handful.

The first final (with only 1 to go up) had Jon, Lucy, Paul and Tom in it, and quickly separated into 2 races. Tom hung on to beat Paul by just 20 bits, and Lucy had a very steady final minute to clinch 3rd by just under a lap. Tom went up to join Neil, Mac and Ali in the C final. his was anyone's race until the last half minute when Ali and Neil pulled away, with Neil always having a slight advantage, and finally winning by the length of the straight. Neil went onto red lane in the B final, alongside James, Mark and Alan, though the race was always going to be between Alan and James' lime green Mosler. Just in the last 10 seconds Alan got taken out by a backmarker, and James was away to win and clinch the last A final spot. Ant led away, with each of his first 6 laps being under 9 seconds (18 pace), but then had an off, and was unluckily wrong laned. The resultant meeting with the barrier ended his race, leaving a dominant Clive to win his second Hardbody evening on the trot. James pushed Ted very close for second, but Ted was always a bit too steady, as James' car was liable to de-slot under the bridge on the return straight (needs some work on the front end before next time James ?).

A great evening's racing, have a good Christmas everyone, and hope to se you all next time in 2014.

Mark

12 of us for Hardbody racing last Tuesday. Graham from the Richardsons Club came along with Ant, and James B came with Ali. Both learned the track quickly and were putting in good runs by the end of the evening - hope to see you both again.

James won the first heat from Ted and Jon, while Mac won heat 2 with a good 14.36 as Graham just held off a fast finishing James B. Ant, Clive and Mick set the standard in heat 3, a 17 and 2 16's took the provisional first 3 spots. Ted improved to a 15.43 in winning heat 4 from Jon and Ali. Ant ran an 18 ! in heat 6 from Mick, Clive and Alan who set the first 3 consistent 14's. James, Ted and Ali had a great battle in heat 7, Ted just beating James, with Ali 3rd on an excellent 14.26. Alan had his best run of the night on red in heat 9 finishing just shy of 15, while James set his first 16 chasing Mick in heat 10. Alan won heat 11 from Mark, with Graham just behind, having his best run of 12.39 on the difficult black lane.

James B, Ali, Jon and Graham lined up for the first final, with 2 to up go up. Ali lead away and was never headed, but Jon and Graham traded places all the way to the line - Graham just holding on to set his first 13. James B set his fastest lap of the night early on, but an 'off' deranged a braid, and he had to ease off to the finish. Mac won the C final comfortably, with Ali and Graham just behind Mark. Mac couldn't repeat his earlier pace in the B final, but battled with Alan and Ted behind a flying James who recorded another 16+ and moved into the A final with Mick, Ant and Clive. Ant lead away, and unlike the last evening had no problems, winning comfortably by just over a lap. 2nd was up for grabs until the last 30 secs, when James had a couple of off's, and Mick held Clive off by just 8 bits.

Final positions were :
Ant
Mick
Clive
James
Ted
Mac
Alan
Mark
Ali
Graham
Jon
James B.

Hope to see you all for the next round on March 11th

Mark

2014 Hard Body racing nights for your diaries. All Tuesdays.

15th April, 20th May, 24th June: 29th July: 2nd September, 7th October, 11th November, 22nd December.

Updated dates:

3rd September

8th October

12th November

17th December

On Tuesday 15th April Clive and James led qualifying with their NSR Moslers, turning in low 10 second lap times.

The D Final saw a win for Andy with Shaun joining him for the remaining C Final spot. Jack (able to race for the first time as it was the school holidays) pipped Jon for third.

RichardS won the "C" Final win with his scratch built Ferrari Tessa Rosa from Andy, Ali and Shaun.

He again won the "B" Final from Alan, Chase (making a welcome visit) and Mac who lost a tyre from a rear hub after only 5 laps.

Mick was the third qualify by right for the A Final using a variety of his scratch built cars. It was a very close fought race among the first three with Clive beating James by just 0.43 laps and James holding off Mick by 0.19 laps

Just a reminder that we have an extra Hard Body night on Tuesday 22nd April with Production GT following on Wednesday 23rd April.

Since we started the Tuesday sessions we have had 27 people racing Hard Body cars, some more than once!

The prospect of two consecutive weeks of Hard Body Racing had not dulled the enthusiasm as 10 racers arrived armed with the knowledge of their personal best performances in this type of racing. Every heat saw somebody improving their PB with Alan being the most successful improving his overall PB and on every lane.

Clive and Mick tied for best qualifying distance, Clive with his NSR Mosler and Mick with his scratch-built McLaren. James was only 2 /100 behind in third, again with a Mosler.

Jon, Mac, RichardS and Andy lined up for the D Final with RichardS leading until 11 laps when a wheel fell off.

Mac moved up to the B Final to join Alan Chase and Ali. Alan and Chase had a close battle all the way through with Alan having the lead for most of the time, but letting Chase through with an "off" only for Chase to fall off himself and let Alan back through, making it a Mosler's v Mick A Final

Clive and Mick upped the pace a bit in the A Final with 17's, Clive taking first. Alan drove smoothly to take third from James who was rather less consistent than he was in his heats.

The next Hard Body night is on 20th May with another extra Hard Body night on 27th May again due to the Bank Holiday

Good luck to Richard this coming weekend, as he's Retro racing at Gainsborough. The new Merc 300SL looked pretty impressive.

Only 6 of us for the racing on Wednesday, and it was good to see Jeff Norton over for the evening. Hope to see him again at one of our
Classic Meetings.

Mick, Clive and Richard were the pace setters. Mick and Richard tried a variety of cars, with Richard settling on his '77 Wolf F1, and Mick
on his CanAm Porsche 917/30 (which is awaiting a Penske repaint).
Jeff's NSR Corvette was very quick, but he didn't get a clean run, and he lined up in the B final with Mark and Mac. They swapped places throughout
and both finished about a lap down on Jeff, who set an impressive 16.93 in his first segment. Clive was second qualifier for the A final and chose
yellow, but never got his car running cleanly, and finished a couple of laps back. Mick's Porsche was untouchable, and only an off in the last 10 secs
of the first segment stopped him recording an '18', while Richard set another 17 with his Wolf.

Next Hardbody night is Wednesday 30th July.

atb
Mark

Wed 6th - Hardbody
Another new face was Steve Hills of Truespeed - good to see you Steve. He was running a Honda NSX body, with a Slot-it HRS sidewinder chassis and 21k Slot-it motor. Steve was up to speed very quickly and set FTD (17.86) with his first run on blue. Clive and James were close behind with several 16's, while Hayden and Alan traded times after Hayden got wrong laned and suffered car damage. Hayden finally came out on top of this little battle with a 15.44 on red to Alan's 15.26 on blue, to claim first choice for the B final. Mac had been having having problems with a broken lead wire, but produced 2 excellent runs to lead away the B final, and then consolidate it in the second half. Alan and Hayden again traded places, with Alan finishing ahead this time (both setting final runs of 28+). Into the A final, and Steve lead away from James as Clive had a brief off. Steve edged away, but dropped it near the end of the first half, and there were only 20 bits in it as they started their second segment. Clive held on well, but Steve was always in front and held on to win by half a lap from Clive, with James just over a lap further back. Mac had 2 more good runs, and another final total of 30+ but was never quite on the same pace as the other 3. Photo's of Steve's winning car attached.

See you all soon
atb
Mark