Round 1: Fast motoring

The first round of every Series throws up something unexpected. For this Series it was unexpected differences in performance even for the same car. Perhaps this should not have been a surprise because we allow any level of magnet downforce for this Series and the SCX cars can be dialled up to immense downforces. Another complication was the discovery, long after the event, that one car had non-standard tyres, which meant that the results needed to be adjusted (5% reduction in distances/lap times) to take account of this. Everything below reflects that adjustment.

Race 1 saw Chris win on Blue with Andy 2nd and Andy 2 third.

Les murdered all comers in Race 2 on Green with Andy's brand new Ferrari 550.

In Race 3 Chris did the same on Red.

Race 4 went to Andy on yellow with Andy 2 (green) and Gordon (red) close behind.

Chris (yellow) repeated his Race 3 performance in Race 5.

Les pulled off another great performance in Race 6, winning on Red

Chris (green) won a great race 7 from Les (blue), with mega fast laps from both (7.081 and 7.079, respectively)

In the last race Andy (blue) won a similarly massive tussle against Gordon (green) who was borrowing Chris's very rapid Ferrari 550.

Overall, Chris triumphed with 158.1 laps in 20 minutes driving (= 7.590 sec overall average), plus 4 race wins (RWs) and 2 fastest laps (FLs). Les was 2nd on 155.8 laps with 2 RWs and 2 FLs. Andy (153.4) placed 3rd with 2RWs/2FLs, Gordon (144.8) was 4th, Brian (144.2) 5th (1 FL), Andy 2 (139.8) 6th (1FL), Alastair (127.1) 7th and Evan (117.8) 8th.

Andy

 

Yeah Andy, it was almost as rapid as your hyper quick Morgan.

 

Oh, you noticed that, did you? Actually it only achieved 40 laps which is what you did on three out of four lanes, you fast person, you.

Andy

 

Round 2

Heat 1 Les flew with his new Aston Martin wining by 2 laps ahead of Alastair and 4 ahead of Chris.

Heat 2 Gordon drove well with his Morgan to beat Brian. Benjamin and Evan were close behind.

Heat 3 Alastair and his Ferrari were a lap ahead of Brian. Gordon used his Corvette but it was terrible.

Heat 4 Chris drove cleanly to just hang on ahead of the continuously closing Les.

Heat 5 Les and Alastair were very fast and were 5 laps ahead of the rest.

Heat 6 Gordon and Chris were not very fast but took the first two places.

Heat 7 Gordon won by a lap ahead of Brian.

Heat 8 Les had great pace but a few late mistakes let Chris finish right behind him with Alastair in 3rd.

SCX GT rd 2 by Chris Russell P.o.D., on Flickr

 

Les 161.1 laps plus 3 Wins and 3 Fastest Laps

Alastair 157.3 laps plus 1 win and 2 Fastest Laps

Chris 153.9 laps plus 1 win and 1 Fastest Lap

Gordon 149 laps plus 3 wins and 1 Fastest Lap

Brian 147.6 laps plus 1 Fastest Lap

Evan 136.2 laps

Andy2 135.6 laps

Benjamin 124.7 laps

Wee mistake in the previous posts table. Chris should only have 14pts for Rd2.

 

You can edit your own posts for a while after posting. Wish I was there!

Andy

 

A Very Strange Round 3:

Only five combatants showed up for last Wednesday's event, as it's holiday season. This forced us to limit the lanes to a max of three which strained the capabilities of Race Coordinator, leading to three virtual drivers being recruited. This was the beginning of a bizarre series of races!

In Race 1 Chris eased away to victory after Alastair started sulking - giving up around 7 laps which would have won him the entire Round if he had carried on!

In Race 2 Andy (red), Les (yellow) and Gordon were well matched until lap 9 when Andy's Morgan stopped on the back straight. After a controller swop Andy resumed about 5 laps down. Les carried on to win with 39 laps (same as Chris in Race 1).

In Race 3 Les was quick (38) but Alastair was awesome (41).

In Race 4 Andy was on top form, leading by nearly a couple of laps until . . . his car stopped again. This time it was quite near the end and he lost a further 6 laps, netting 34 laps. Chris went on to win with 38. A subsequent discussion with Chris highlighted the lighting system as the likely culprit so Andy disconnected it.

Race 5 was a repeat of Race 3 - Alastair 41, Les 37.

Race 6 finally saw an uninterrupted run by Andy (41) who easily beat Chris (39) and Gordon (36).

Race 7 involved Les (red) and Andy (yellow). Les had a bonza run (40) but Andy suffered a bit on yellow (38).

Race 8 was a close finale with Chris triumphing on red (39) from Alastair (yellow - 38) and Gordon (green - 38).

That all added up to a Round win for Chris (155 laps), from Les (152), Gordon, (149.7) Alastair (149.5) and Andy (145). Bearing in mind that Alastair handed over 7 laps in a fit of pique and Andy lost 11 laps staring at a stationary Morgan, this was a very strange evening!

Chris 3RW, 1FL

Les 1RW 2FL

Alastair 2RW 3FL

Gordon 1 RW

Andy 1RW 2FL

It's close between Chris and Les at the top at this early point in the Series

 

Splendid night!

Good team work trying to sort out the computer.

Good chat, great racing, few toys being thrown out the pram which is a shame because the toy thrower would have won.

Some strangeness on the yellow lane or was that just me.

But hey diddling me out of a massive 2pts

Looking forward to bigger grids next time.

 

Sorry about the error Gordon. - corrected now. With Alastair scoring 2 fewer also, that places you two neck and neck.

Andy

 

Round 4

"No taste of food, no feel of water, no sound of wind, no memory of tree or grass or flower, no image of moon or star are left to me. I am naked in the dark . . . "

Andy

 

Long may he reign.

 

Round 5: The Les Show

Wednesday's Round was dominated by Les, who won all his races, setting fastest lap time in three of them. If Les wasn't there, Chris or Andy won and set FL but Andy made the error of facing Les 3 times whereas the canny Chris only raced him once! Strangely, Alastair set the fastest time of the evening (6.636 on the not-that-fast blue lane). This is a cumulative distance formula and Les won by nearly 6 laps with 166.5, with Andy second on 160.9, Chris third (159.6) then Alastair (153.8), Andy 2 (138.4), Brian (136.7), Evan (136.4) and Benjamin (130.2).

Les is now the clear leader in the Series with only Chris challenging.

Andy

 

Wow & the Aston is "straight out of the box' impressive stuff Les.

 

I'm trying...but not challenging. :-(

 

I wonder if Les has made a pact with the Devil. He's getting quicker and quicker - or the rest of us are getting slower and slower . . . .

Andy

 

I think I have just been lucky with the car, it’s a good one I was going to adjust the magnet, but I don’t want to change anything as it’s going so good

 

If my experience is anything to go by, your car will adjust itself one day, perhaps after an off!

Andy

 

Round 6: Andy finally gets going

Andy did a Les on Wednesday, winning three out of his four races, setting fastest lap in all races and winning by 3 laps from Chris. 42 lap stints used to be the class act but now it's 43 laps, set twice by Andy and Alastair and once by Chris.

Chris was fast and steady but could not find the 6.3 - 6.5 sec pace of Andy and Alastair, which was a first for this Series. Alastair set 2 FLs and had 2 RWs but had a very poor stint on Red which scuppered his challenge. Les had an off-night, winning just a single race and setting no FLs. Brian set one FL.

Yes, the pace is hotting up. The top four drivers in this Round would all have won the first three races of the Series by a mile

Les is still the clear leader from Chris but Andy has shot up the rankings. This may turn out to be another close one!

Andy

 

Round 7: A clean sweep

Andy scored the first clean sweep of this Series, winning all his heats, setting fastest laps throughout and winning on total distance with 171.8 laps, a new Series record. Les battled hard and fast, scaring Andy silly in both Heats 5 and 7 where they both finished on the same lap. Les always faced either Andy or Alastair, who have slightly faster machinery at the moment so he ended up with no RWs or FLs, despite netting second place overall with 166.3 laps. Alastair was just behind him (165.8) with his nailed-down Ferrari 360, grabbing all the rest of the RWs and FLs in the process (3+3). Chris was 4th on 161.3, suffering from cars that can't really compete with the three leaders, Evan was 5th (140.3) with occasional very fast driving but too many offs, Andy 2 was 6th (136.3) and Brian 7th (134.8).

The Series is tightening up at the top, with three contenders who have won all of the Rounds between them. Chris made a solid start but has wilted as first Les then Andy got their cars in shape. Les was totally dominant a few Rounds ago after getting his gorgeous Gulf Aston DBR9 but Andy is now the fastest of the pack with his sorted Morgan. Alastair is also mega fast but hasn't put 4 good heats together to win a Round yet. The Series will almost certainly go to one of the top three but it's very unsure who that's going to be, with three Rounds still undecided.

Andy

 

171.8 we need to get Andy a part time job clearly too much time to settle cars awesome job.

 

Round 8: Close at the top

The result of Wednesday's heat was much the same as other recent heats but it was a much tighter contest for the victory between Andy and Chris. In Heat 1 Andy made the silly error of selecting a 45 ohm controller to go with his mega-magnet RX42b Morgan Aero, resulting in a (relatively) poor 40 lap score on Red. Later, Chris matched this with 41 on the same lane and the chase was on.

Meanwhile, Les was quick but not as rapid as recently, eventually finishing 3rd (161.0 laps total, 2 race wins, 2 fastest laps), Gordon was also quick (158, 1RW), Alastair was lightning fast but suffering from Marvin the Robot syndrome (144.3, 1RW, 3FL), Brian (143.2), Andy2 (139.0; 1FL) and Evan (137.5) all had their moments and novice youngster Trai (136.2) was ridiculously fast but had a huge amount to learn about endurance racing.

The huge surprise was Benjamin who tied with Alastair for 5th position with 144.3 laps. This was a stunning performance improvement, bearing in mind his previous distance totals of 124, 129, 130 and 129 laps in this Series - Respect!

Chris and Andy diced against each other flat out for the whole time and in the end Andy just prevailed with 168.3 (3RW 4FL) vs 167.2 (3RW). Chris' fastest laps were again in the 7.7's and Andy's in the 7.4-5 range, so Andy retains a slight performance margin, with little room for error.

Two Rounds to go and three contenders. We ditch our two worst scores and right now Les is the leader but his margin is shrinking. Andy has inched ahead of Chris for the first time in the Series. Nobody can afford a bad score so the final two Rounds are gonna be tense!

Andy

 

Round 9: And then there were two . . .

There was no let up in the penultimate Round of this Series. Three drivers posted lap counts above 165 - we didn't see one of these until Round 4. Unfortunately, the fourth Premier League driver in this Series, Chris, suffered a random technical failure in the first Heat which ruined his evening. A de-slot partially dislodged the guide on his Morgan Aero, leading to intermittent poor performance and a loss of at least 4 laps before diagnosis and rectification (159 laps, 1 race win, 2 fastest laps). Alastair was on great form with his regular Red Bull Ferrari 360, with 165.8 laps, two RWs and 2 FLs. Les finished just 0.3 laps ahead of Alastair with a revitalized Gulf Aston DBR9 after some discreet shaving of his rear wheel arches to remove drag on the corners (1RW 2FLs) and Andy topped the leader board again with by just 1.1 laps with his Morgan Aero that seemed a tiny bit weary after seven Rounds of this Series (167.2 laps, 3RW, 3FL).

Elsewhere, Gordon was on excellent form too (158.8, 3RW, 1FL), Benjamin continued his growth as a slot racer with 142.8 laps and 6th place overall, Evan (140.1) and Andy 2 (136.6) were fast but too error-prone. Trai upped his pace by 3 laps from last time to 139,7 and newcomer Gordon 2 did a good job for his first showing with 122.2 laps.

Going into the final Round Andy now holds a wafer-thin lead from Les and Chris is effectively out of contention. This Series has been a game of three halves, first Chris, then Les then Andy. The top two are pretty much perfectly matched so it's anybody's guess who will walk away with the silverware this time.

 

Superb nights racing another series we could just run and run.

It's so close at the top for the win, so I'm going to stay neutral and say COME ON LES

and best of luck Andy

 

For me it's a win-win situation! Now where did I put that SCX Super Pro X Turbo motor?

Andy

 

I think you could be right Andy, your car is going great just now, and winning the last 4 rounds in a row my car is running good, but just not good enough lol. But you never know what might happen in the last round !!! I will just have to try my hardest, but it’s been a great series and this weeks round has been one of the best, my race I had with Chris must be one of the closest races I have had, crossing the finish line lap after lap with just half a car length between us