[Mr Modifier]

Fastest Lap:
RichP sets the pace with a 7.349 but there is less than a quarter of a second between the top 4.

Championship:
Much hope had been pinned on the Slot.It Group C cars living up to their reputation and they didn't disappoint. The racing was unbelievably close with the lead changing hands throughout individual heats. One deslot could see the leader dropping to the back and struggling to get back on terms and there were many, many laps with side-by-side racing. Keith suffered from a binding axle but this was rectified at half time when the problem was identified and the offending axle stopper eased by a few thou. This is going to be a season-long battle with lap times this close.

Heat 10 laps are down because there was a short on the track and we lost about a minute race time. Heat 8 saw zero laps from Gareth even though he was racing - his LED must not have been registering and we didn't notice. RichP and RichF were separated by 2 laps and Mike and Jason by one lap although neither Jason or RichF suffered the lower lap count from heat 10.

 

[Mr Modifier]

Fastest Lap:
Mike and Jason both improved their lap times and James recorded a good time on his first outing in this class. In this round there was only 0.158 seconds between all of the racers' best lap times - we said this was going to be tight...

Championship:
The Slot.It Group C cars continue to deliver. Again the racing was close with the lead changing hands frequently throughout individual heats. One deslot could see the leader dropping to the back and there were many, many laps with cut-and-thrust side-by-side racing. RichP and RichF ease away slightly from the pack but Mike and Jason are tweaking their turbo boost because we still have a long way to go.

We decided to run with 4 on track and a single marshal and it did work because crash frequency is a little less than other classes (despite the speed) mainly because Slot.It have delivered a very stable product. Running a single marshal meant every racer had 72 minutes of racing action - that's a lot of racing action for a 3 hour race night. No fuel simulation this round - which obviously delivers higher laps/min.

 

[Mr Modifier]

Fastest laps:
Clive debuts in round 3 and goes straight in at number 2 on the leaderboard (he was actually fastest on the night). Wayne is new to the class and the track and recorded a very respectable lap time with a borrowed car. Nobody improved on previous lap times but RichP, RichF and Jqason were very, very close.

Championship:
Clive's pre-season testing of his Group C showed huge speed and his Round 3 debut didn't disappoint. He was fastest on the night but didn't manage to stay on the track enough to challenge for the podium. James's new car had it's first outing and had balance issues that were sorted in the break with some tungsten putty and it became faster and better handling as a result.
Having 5 on track in such a fast class gave the marshals some headaches which was further compounded by some overenthusiastic driving. Side-by-side racing incidents are an accepted part of racing but rear ending cars that are still in the slot is not how we agreed to race - that's what the lane changers are for - so you can go around a car rather than through it. These are expensive cars and are easily damaged - as Jason found out when he had to switch to his spare car after sustaining damage from being driven through. If a car is crashed then you can push it out of the way but let's have a little respect and do it gently to minimise the risk of breakages.
On the plus side there was plenty of competitive racing with some heats having race leaders driving side by side for more than 10 laps with less than a car's length between them at all times. It was certainly exciting stuff. Having some slower traffic as new drivers or new cars were bedding-in also made it important to "read" the track and anticipate when to make a move and make it stick before having to back out of a challenge due to a back-marker. This is when good race craft comes to the fore and where fuel strategy can help to give you some clear track to exploit. RichP took the win with RichF pretty close behind. The rest of the field followed with Jason securing the remaining podium place and Clive picking up the non-podium fastest lap bonus point.

Big shout out to Jason's dad Keith - who turned up to marshal all night. This allowed us to put 5 of the 6 racers into each heat and meant we all had 75 minutes of track time which I believe is our highest figure for a long time, possibly ever. Clive had issues in heat 1 - his Slot.It chip worked loose and the LED wasn't registering. James was marshalling and was able to realign the chip on what is proving to be a very fast car. Some heats were very close (look at heat 9) and laps per minute very high despite interruptions for refuelling.

 

[Mr Modifier]

Fastest Lap:
Nobody improves their lap times this week but we are up there. This heat was an illustration where outright speed doesn't guarantee the win - tempering speed with stability (not crashing) is arguably more important.

Championship:
RichP eases further ahead and Jason takes second place as RichF dropped a round. Counting back RIchF is still 2nd but can't afford to drop more rounds. Clive certainly can't afford to drop any more rounds but is a real challenger if he can match his impressive pace with stability in the corners. Mike is suffering mechanical issues at the moment (his cars that is) but is always one to watch. Top spot is still within reach of many and the rest of the podium is definitely wide open.

Clive recorded more laps than Mike but not in the right place bacause Mike grabbed the final podium space but Clive scored the same points by virtue of fastest non-podium lap. Jason and RichP were a signficiant lap count further ahead - Mike started off right up there but tyre issues meant his lap count suffered in places. Keith was Mr Consistent but clearly hampered by the lift generated by his large rear wing. Clive was again fastest on the night but visited the barriers a few times too many - once he nails the tricky corners the rest of us won't be able to catch him.

What a handsome grid

 

[Mr Modifier]

Fastest lap:
Only RichF improves his lap time - he remains in 3rd but is now closer to Clive in 2nd. The spread of lap times between the top 4 in this round was only 0.153s.

Championship:
RichF pulls back a point from RichP and now lies just 3 points adrift taking dropped rounds into account. Jason consolidates his 3rd place but it still under threat from Mike and Clive but neither of them can afford to drop any more rounds.

Good consistency from RichF helped him to a comfortable win. RIchP was having what appeared to be braid adjustment issues but it finally became clear in heat 7 that it was his controller and when he swapped to a backup the performance was back up there. Pretty much everybody had a mixed bag of results - Clive had an impressive turn of speed but was let down with reliability issues. Jason had a slow start (LED issues mainly) but really started to put in the results in the second half when he switched cars.