[Pete Crane]

Standard Policar meeting results

First of all - big thanks to our meeting sponsors who added so much to the day

Copper Braid Products who are the long term sponsors of our club and provided all the great trophies

Policar in the form of Andi Rowland who supplied a brand new boxed Policar as a raffle prize

Pendle Slot Racing who also always support our meetings and sent some seriously good vouchers to use at the worlds best slot car one stop shop


For various reasons some of our expected racers had to miss the meeting, Pete Wright, Steve Hills (Mr Truspeed), Phil Clayton, Mike Broadbent and Mal Walker were all much missed....we hope to be racing with you again before too long.


Jeff Norton was the lucky winner of the new Policar raffle prize

Hawthorne Park club principle Ted Martin handing over the new Ferrari to Jeff


Pete Wright popped in to say hello - and won the Pendle Slot Racing gift voucher

Here are the results from qualifying


Pete Crane 88.482
M ick Kerr 86.373
Jon White 83.818
Paul Minnis 82.127
John Underwood 82.049
Ted Martin 81.344
Mike Guy 81.189
Rob Kerr 81.105
Phil Hayes 80.467
Rob Heseltine 79.911
Jeff Norton 79.910
Paul Cooper 79.428
Mark Webster 79.220
Geoff Taylor 79.092
Andi Rowland 74.450
Graham Edwards 73.903
Mick Langridge 71.956


Mention must be made of the great job done by Mike Guy on race control - he had been covid jabbed on the way to the meeting but still managed to run the race computer without any hiccup......which is more than can be said for the person who was meant to keep a record of the step up finals which as usual proved to deliver close and exciting racing all through....my excuse is that marshalling duties and the need to keep to timetable took priority.......


We had expected to see some Policar white kits completed with new livery....but that never happened....so club principle Ted Martin was given the tough job of deciding which standard Policar should win the concours trophy.....Rob Heseltine was his choice....

Which brings us to the final


Ted Martin, M ick Kerr, Rob Kerr and Pete Crane were all equally matched in terms of lap times and it looked like being a really tight race.....and it was....but Pete made a good start and as usual 'the metronome' stayed at the front until the race finished.


1st - Pete Crane 19.611
2nd- M ick Kerr 18.666
3rd - Ted Martin 18.532
4th - Rob Kerr 18.161

Modified Policar report to follow in a few days time.....

 

[Pete Crane]

Modified Policar Report

When the fantastic Policar models were released for general sale a few years ago, many slot car racers quickly worked out that the game changing 'gearbox' unit designed by Andi Rowland would be a natural choice for future slot car projects and was especially suitable for use in Formula 1 and Grand Prix type cars. The gearbox units are now on sale via the Pendle Slot Racing website with a choice of final drive ratios - along with various 3D printed chassis units and motors - enabling a whole new world of interesting, fast and scale cars to appear at various CSCRA (Classic Slot Car Racing Association) meetings over the last few years. What is interesting is that most builders find it really hard to put together a car that delivers a better lap time than a standard Policar - a testament to how 'right' the standard Policar is when it hits the track......

Note that I said 'most builders'.....but M ick Kerr is widely respected in all slot racing circles for his beautiful - but oh so fast ! - scale slot cars that he builds. M ick is also a top level slot car driver......but over the last few years son Rob Kerr has usually been able to squeeze even faster lap times than M ick out of the Kerr slot car collection. It soon became apparent when M ick and Rob Kerr started practicing the 'modified' Policars that they both had serious pace in the cars they ran - to the extent that Rob recorded a 7.2 lap in practice - the outright lap record for Hawthorne Park is held by Ted Martin with a 7.0 dead (although visitor Ben Lambourne from Pendle club once recorded a genuine 6.999 which has not been forgotten...) Ted and Ben were using 'full house' Flat 6 powered modern sports cars.... as light and fast as possible.....and Rob was circulating at this lap record pace for many laps at a time......astounding for a modified Policar.

Of course if you end up racing against M ick and Rob on a regular basis at the Rockingham slot car club.....you are by definition a really top slot car racer....and this was the background that saw both John Underwood and Jon White also setting the track alight in practice - they were both setting really fast times with consistent laps - which was pretty amazing considering that neither of them had ever driven the track at Hawthorne Park until the morning of the event !

Respect......

Here is a pic of Jon looking suitably happy with life after running so well at his first visit to Hawthorne Park..

Jon finished third in the 'A' final of the standard Policar event - after also qualifying third overall in the heats - a terrific result for the first visit to the 'old school' Hawthorne Park Slot Car Club



John Underwood also made an impressive debut at Hawthorne Park by qualifying third overall in the 'modified' class

Here are the final qualifying scores for the 'modified' Policar class


M ick Kerr 90.132
Pete Crane 89.246
John Underwood 86.721
Rob Kerr 86.437
Ted Martin 83.260
Mark Webster 82.921
Jeff Norton 82.134
Rob Heseltine 81.863
Jon White 81.829
Geoff Taylor 80.451
Phil Hayes 80.097
Mike Guy 79.813
Paul Minnis 79.179
Graham Edwards 77.555
M ick Langridge 71.671
Paul Cooper 69.047
Andi Rowland 68.034

The race control was once again managed and delivered by Mike Guy who did an excellent job - he could only make the Saturday events and was really missed on the Sunday......here he is in a characteristic chirpy pose before venturing into the race control seat....nobody argues with Mike when he is race director.......

All joking aside.....both Mike and Paul Minnis are regular overall winners at Hawthorne Park club nights.....they both drove well all day and had good cars......just to try and share with you how close and hard the racing was and how good some of our visitors were......perhaps go back to the qualifying scores with that information in mind....

The concours event had real meaning this time - apart from a couple of standard cars all entries were scratch built and as already mentioned M ick Kerr and M ick Langridge were here - both acknowledged top class slot car builders in the national CSCRA open meeting scene - while Hawthorne Park club members Ted Martin, Geoff Taylor and Phil Hayes are also well known for putting together beautiful, detailed and very scale looking cars......but Andi Rowland takes this competition to another level with the quality and integrity of the models he produces.....and quite rightly took the concours prize with this amazing model,

Perhaps Andi could tell us more about the build and the real car which was I think driven by Lella Lombardi...but what car is it ?

Here are some of the other competing cars in the modified Policar class

All brilliant cars but on close inspection no one could fault the workmanship that Andi had put into his car

Champion slot car builder Andi Rowland receives his winners trophy from champion rail racer and Hawthorne Park club member Geoff Taylor.......


And so to the 'A' Final.....this time it was M ick Kerr who was the best driver in the final - he was fast, smooth and consistent and never made any mistake to take a well deserved win from Pete Crane, John Underwood and Rob Kerr who all raced hard to finish in that order.....here is M ick receiving the winners trophy from Hawthorne Park club principle Phil Hayes

A little aside here.....notice the picture of the Porsche 917 behind M ick on the wall......M ick used to mechanic the real Porsche 917 's in his younger days....

Here is M ick at his celebratory slap up meal following his big win at Hawthorne Park

All that was left was to award the 'Spirit of the meeting award' to Jon White - always smiling, always ready to marshal when asked, and always very competitive on his first visit to the club...... he was a deserving winner......well done Jon.

(I did try to add the pic of Jon getting his award but computer says no.........ran out of space...sorry !

The next Policar meeting is January 15th 2022 at Rockingham Slot Car Club - hope to see you there

 

[Filipinetti]

Thanks Pete, I loved reading your reports. I really wanted to be there for the Saturday racing but as you know that just wasn't possible, however your writings have given me cheer and it was good to know that the day was such a success.
The photos just made it better
Congrats to all those that took part, I hope you enjoyed yourselves

 

[tangerinedream]

Would be great if m I c k could write a few stories about his spannering on 917s methinks.

 

[conti_rowland]

Great write up Pete, thanks for that.

My modified entry was a FW04 run by Williams in 1975. It wasn't a great car but got a second place finish in Germany that year.
Patrick Head joined Williams that year and although he had nothing to do with the car design he improved several systems during the year to help with results.
The same car was used by Walter Wolf Racing in 1976.
The resin body is by DNQ. Chassis is one of my standard 3D printed adjustable ones. The rear and front wings, driver and all other detail is scratchbuilt. I had to make my own decals for this one too.
I chose Lella Lombardi as the driver. She qualified on the back row for the British GP but broke down on the warm up lap and never took the start.
I felt it was time to have a woman on my grid.
My car suffered from lack of set up time in the races and I had terrible pick up issues in one heat which remain unexplained.
Still Lella is happy with the trophy...
Best wishes
Andi