Reg Church Trophy (Club Production) - 19th July

Hot stuff in the Clubroom last night - unfortunately that was the weather and not the racing!

Just 14 drivers turned up to race and another couple arrived later to socialise. A slightly different race format for this class with each driver having a pair of qualifying heats before the more open style segmented 'finals', which gives plenty of racing. This class is always close and qualifying produced a tie for TQ between Ian K and Jody - Ian taking the number one spot by virtue of a better second run. No real surprises behind them with Ian B, Phil H, Stuart and Roland separated by little over a lap. The 'Finals' conveniently divided into 3 grades and were another case of drivers versus marshalls - or drivers versus marshalling drivers in some cases! Perhaps it was the hot, stormy weather?

The track was perhaps a bit too grippy for falcons, but times did improve a bit as the evening went on and Ian K maintained his consistancy to beat Phil H into second spot, Phil just managing to keep ahead of Stuart, who finally got going in tonight's second grade.

Our Falcon specialist Jody was not at the top this week but successfully beat of the challenge of Ian B, who did set the best time of the evening on White. With Roland not far behind, the top 6 positions were filled by the top 6 qualifiers. Behind them, the field was strung out with various tales of woe, although Chris B put in a good run on Yellow and jumped from 12th qualifying to 7th overall.

Racing was unsettled by complaints about the counters and a number of totals were disputed. The problem seems to stem from the fact that some falcon motors - for whatever techy reason, simply don't make the necessary circuit across the dead strip. Sadly, those that complain most don't make a lot of effort to sort the problem out. I guess that banning falcons would solve it!

Sports Championship Round 4 - 12th July 2007

Another excellent turnout of EIGHTEEN drivers (all our own too!) for the 4th Round of this year's Sports Championship. The quality of racing was not quite as good as the last round but was none-the-less closely fought throughout the qualifying heats. Lap times were generally a bit slower than they should have been, with Stuart setting the best time of 54.48, the first time out with his new Mack chassis, although Ian B was a bit more consistant and just managed to TQ. Phil H was also going well in the heats to set a Personal Best and qualify 3rd.

The 'B' Final was run first as Ben had to leave early to go to work (!),- and he easily ran out winner ahead of a good dice between Ian K and Jody (and that damn Falcon!) with Chris C struggling along behind.

Back to normality and the 2 man 'E' Final, which Chris M comfortably won with his best time of the evening ahead of Michael.

Chairman Bill was the easy winner of the 'D' Final, with Graham R finishing second ahead of Simon WT - Simon setting a personal best and still improving, and Robin having motor problems and bringing up the rear.

The 'C' Final looked like being very close but Chris B with another quick Falcon finished a lap ahead of Terry - who was going well tonight, with Graham H struggling with his Falcon but keeping ahead of Simon J.

So, all the excitement was left to the 'A' Final! Ian B had TQ'd and was expected to win - but that was not to be! It would be fair to say it was a ragged race and some slow marshalling didn't help keep at all. Not a quick race but Stuart, once again on his favoured Yellow lane, did
the business to win nearly 2 laps ahead of Malcolm who was over 2 laps ahead of Phil H. Ian B had the worst of the marshalling and decided 4th place was more than enough.

The complicated points system meant that Ian B and Stuart tied on points tonight but, overall in the Sports Championship, Ian is comfortably leading with 3 wins. Mathematically, Phil H is the only other driver in with a chance to beat him - but is that likely??

The end of an era........

........ or the end of an armature at least.

In anticipation of a spot of racing tomorrow I thought I'd strip the motor and give the arm a true to get top performance ( over the last couple of years I've generally done this before each championship round ).

Sadly, on this occasion, once I had stripped the motor it was clear that there was nothing left to true on this arm with little lines in the comm where you could see the material underneath the copper showing through.

This arm was a Proslot 26/26 and has been in my Sports car since I built it in October 2004, using it to win the Sports Championship in 2005 & 2006, it also currently holds the track record.

Alas it is no more.......

RIP........

maybe a new era dawns.......

Oh, and my soldering iron died after I'd removed the motor so right now I can't even fit a different motor, maybe I won't be racing tomorrow after all !!

Good Racing,
Phil.

1/24th Production Championship Round 4 - 5th July 2007

Our Club 1/24 racing usually ends up more like stock car racing but this week was an exception with just 15 drivers turning up for some good, close racing for Round 4 of this year's Production Championship.

There were no real surprises in qualifying with Jody TQ'ing ahead of Ian B, Stuart and Chris C. Behind them, the next half dozen or so drivers were very close and the four Finals promised some good racing.

In an attempt to stop Members disappearing before the end of racing and leaving us with no marshalls, the order of running the finals was reversed - the A and B finalists are normally the ones who do stay until the end!

The 'A' Final was a very good race with Stuart coming good on his favourite Yellow lane to win a lap ahead of Jody who was only 5 parts ahead of Ian B at the finish with Chris C following on behind.

In the 'B' Final, Roland saved his best time for last and easily won from Ian K, who had a good dice to finish just 8 parts ahead of 'Team Animal' team-mate Simon J who was comfortably clear of 4th place man Bill.

Young Michael did his usual disappearing trick in the 'C' Final which left Chris B an easy win ahead of Terry and Chris M.

The 3 man 'D' Final saw our newest member Stephen set his best time (with a borrowed car) to win a well spread out race from Simon WT and Robin.

Click image to enlarge

National Team Race

Results from the Nats weekend are very slow to appear but I have heard that our Club Team finished 6th in the National Team Race.
While 1st place would have been nice, 6th best Club Team in the Country isn't bad at all.
Congratulations to the Team of Ian B, Stuart, Ben and Phil H.
No doubt, the full gruesome story will appear soon..............................!