December 28th - the final Thursday of 2017 saw the running of our end of year endurance event. This is where the final championship standings decide the team pairings - highest place teamed with lowest etc, etc.
With Will and Tim away on Christmas family duties and Chris back for a one-off visit, 9 were in attendance. This was good news for me as I don't particularly like marshalled racing, so I could sit out and do the "admin".
This meant the teams were sorted into 4 pairs.
Peter & Dave (P/D)
Keith & Trigger (K/T)
Wes & Steve (W/S)
Reuben & Chris (R/C)
Peter had once again bravely offered to supply all the cars for the event, Slot-it Group C Porsche, and with 4 teams running it was decided to use the middle 4 lanes. This had added benefit in that there would be no "fence running" of Peter's cars. 28 minute stints with driver changes decided by the teams was the format, with the cars staying on the lanes so everybody had a go with every one. Two stints either side of tea break.
First stint saw a very smooth drive from Wes with no de-slots and he pulled out a good lead over the returning Chris. Dave was doing well considering this was his first go at marshalled racing and Trigger was doing his usual thing of getting faster and faster until coming off with the usual expletive. He was the first to hand over (to Keith) at about one quarter of the time. The other three teams all changed drivers around about the halfway mark, with Steve instructed by Wes to take it steady and defend the lead. Reuben took over from Chris and set about closing down Steve and Peter looked to chase down Keith for third place.
End of first session results;
W/S (Red lane) 151.7
R/C (Yellow lane) 151.6
K/T (Green lane) 147.8
P/D (Blue lane) 146.7
Very close at either end of the leader board.
For the second stint all teams moved along to their next lane and the cars were reset at the start line.
As is often the case at these events the lap count tends to go up for every team in each session. Not so with Reuben and Chris, they dropped over 5 laps with the blue car, while every other team increased by two or three laps. This could have been even more for Keith and Trigger, but they suffered a broken guide on the red lane car. After a couple of laps of random de-slots and breakdowns it was decided to change the car for one of the ones that would have been used in the outer lanes if there had been more teams.
Results of the second session;
W/S ( Yellow lane) 154.5 (306.2)
K/T (Red lane) 150.9 (298.7)
P/D (Green lane) 148.7 (295.4)
R/C (Blue lane) 146 (297.6)
(Running totals in brackets)
After tea break the teams all resumed at their next lane. This was the session with the largest variance of lap totals with the highest, and lowest, of the night being recorded. Reuben and Chris made most of the very quick green lane car while Peter and Dave were very unlucky to suffer suspected motor problems on the already replaced red lane car. It would vary randomly between no-go, slow pace and full pace. Not easy for Dave to get to grips with, so eventually another replacement was used in the red lane.
Third session results;
R/C (Green lane) 159.3 (456.9)
W/S (Blue lane) 156.7 (462.9)
K/T (Yellow lane) 150.1 (438.8)
P/D (Red lane) 145.4 (440.8)
So going into the last session Wes and Steve had a 6 lap lead over Reuben and Chris, but with them using the rapid green lane car the result looked inevitable. Peter and Dave were 16 laps behind 2nd place but only two laps ahead of Keith and Trigger. Trigger started and the blue lane car seemed to inspire him, most of the evening it had shown itself to be, perhaps not the quickest, but the smoothest and easiest to drive car of the field. Often a good trait for an endurance car, for the first time of the event Trigger did a greater than 10 minute stint, actually driving up to literally a few seconds before the 14-minute halfway mark.
Results for the final session;
W/S (Green lane) 157.3
K/T (Blue lane) 150.7
P/D (Yellow lane) 147.7
R/C (Red lane) 147.1
Which gives a final result of;
Wes/Steve 620.2
Reuben/Chris 604
Keith/Trigger 589.5
Peter/Dave 588.5
Well done to Wes and Steve for a strong and steady performance.
Many thanks to Peter for supplying the cars yet again and I hope the various failures aren't too serious to rectify.
With Will and Tim away on Christmas family duties and Chris back for a one-off visit, 9 were in attendance. This was good news for me as I don't particularly like marshalled racing, so I could sit out and do the "admin".
This meant the teams were sorted into 4 pairs.
Peter & Dave (P/D)
Keith & Trigger (K/T)
Wes & Steve (W/S)
Reuben & Chris (R/C)
Peter had once again bravely offered to supply all the cars for the event, Slot-it Group C Porsche, and with 4 teams running it was decided to use the middle 4 lanes. This had added benefit in that there would be no "fence running" of Peter's cars. 28 minute stints with driver changes decided by the teams was the format, with the cars staying on the lanes so everybody had a go with every one. Two stints either side of tea break.
First stint saw a very smooth drive from Wes with no de-slots and he pulled out a good lead over the returning Chris. Dave was doing well considering this was his first go at marshalled racing and Trigger was doing his usual thing of getting faster and faster until coming off with the usual expletive. He was the first to hand over (to Keith) at about one quarter of the time. The other three teams all changed drivers around about the halfway mark, with Steve instructed by Wes to take it steady and defend the lead. Reuben took over from Chris and set about closing down Steve and Peter looked to chase down Keith for third place.
End of first session results;
W/S (Red lane) 151.7
R/C (Yellow lane) 151.6
K/T (Green lane) 147.8
P/D (Blue lane) 146.7
Very close at either end of the leader board.
For the second stint all teams moved along to their next lane and the cars were reset at the start line.
As is often the case at these events the lap count tends to go up for every team in each session. Not so with Reuben and Chris, they dropped over 5 laps with the blue car, while every other team increased by two or three laps. This could have been even more for Keith and Trigger, but they suffered a broken guide on the red lane car. After a couple of laps of random de-slots and breakdowns it was decided to change the car for one of the ones that would have been used in the outer lanes if there had been more teams.
Results of the second session;
W/S ( Yellow lane) 154.5 (306.2)
K/T (Red lane) 150.9 (298.7)
P/D (Green lane) 148.7 (295.4)
R/C (Blue lane) 146 (297.6)
(Running totals in brackets)
After tea break the teams all resumed at their next lane. This was the session with the largest variance of lap totals with the highest, and lowest, of the night being recorded. Reuben and Chris made most of the very quick green lane car while Peter and Dave were very unlucky to suffer suspected motor problems on the already replaced red lane car. It would vary randomly between no-go, slow pace and full pace. Not easy for Dave to get to grips with, so eventually another replacement was used in the red lane.
Third session results;
R/C (Green lane) 159.3 (456.9)
W/S (Blue lane) 156.7 (462.9)
K/T (Yellow lane) 150.1 (438.8)
P/D (Red lane) 145.4 (440.8)
So going into the last session Wes and Steve had a 6 lap lead over Reuben and Chris, but with them using the rapid green lane car the result looked inevitable. Peter and Dave were 16 laps behind 2nd place but only two laps ahead of Keith and Trigger. Trigger started and the blue lane car seemed to inspire him, most of the evening it had shown itself to be, perhaps not the quickest, but the smoothest and easiest to drive car of the field. Often a good trait for an endurance car, for the first time of the event Trigger did a greater than 10 minute stint, actually driving up to literally a few seconds before the 14-minute halfway mark.
Results for the final session;
W/S (Green lane) 157.3
K/T (Blue lane) 150.7
P/D (Yellow lane) 147.7
R/C (Red lane) 147.1
Which gives a final result of;
Wes/Steve 620.2
Reuben/Chris 604
Keith/Trigger 589.5
Peter/Dave 588.5
Well done to Wes and Steve for a strong and steady performance.
Many thanks to Peter for supplying the cars yet again and I hope the various failures aren't too serious to rectify.
