So we had our three hundred and fifty-seventh event, this one for just our Clubman class and despite some hiccups, it turned out to be a very competitive and enjoyable event for everyone.
Here's a little background. The Clubman class has been around for a number of years and because of the popularity of the era and type of cars permitted, we as a group have accumulated quite a large number of eligible cars. The problem is that, in order to be competitive, we almost always race our fastest cars and a lot of really nice cars are seldom if ever raced.
The solution we came up with is to have a full race day dedicated to only the Clubman class, broken down into three separate sub-classes A, B and C (fastest to slowest) based on their qualifying times. These sub-class times are calculated by taking the fastest qualifying time of the day and adding 0.5 sec to it to make up class A, cars up to 0.5 sec slower than that going into class B and cars slower than that going into class C. We also set a fastest permissible time which is 0.2 seconds under the lowest time for each sub-class. Anyone going quicker in a race is immediately disqualified from that race. We actually had no disqualifications.
This being our first event using this structure of racing, we encountered some hiccups, the main one being the length of time it all took, the majority of this being because we qualified one car at a time over five laps. This was done twenty-eight times, once for each car present. We've already decided to change this going forward. At the end of the day however, it turned out to be a very enjoyable event for all. We got to race competitively and even win with cars we'd never normally race at all.
We ended up having four fully-subscribed races, with the two final ones having just Peter, Steve and myself compete. We finished racing and packing up at around 8:00 PM.
Pictures from the event. Thanks Luke!
Steve's lovely Corvette:
Some of Peter's cars:
O'Brie working on a car:
Cars in the paddock:
Liam and Peter look on as O'Brie works on a car:
Trackside activity:
Luke's latest rally car build:
Peter in his glee with his grands:
I attend to the computer:
Practice session in progress:
Steve qualifies one of his cars:
A view of the track:
Boardroom meeting:
The Results
Based on the above fastest qualifying time, these were our category parameters for our three sub-groups:
Clubman Time Bracket C
Clubman C race 1 grid - O'Brie/Jaguar E-Type; Peter/Ford Anglia; Liam/Ford Escort; Gordon/Corvette Sting Ray; Steve/BMW 2002; Luke/NSU TT:
Computer Clubman C race 1 results:
Clubman C race 2 grid - Steve/BMW 2002; O'Brie/Jaguar E-Type; Gordon/Ford Escort; Liam/Caterham; Peter/Ford Cortina:
Computer Clubman C race 2 results:
Clubman B race 1 grid - Steve/Ford Capri; Liam/Datsun 510; Peter/Ford Escort; Gordon/Ford Cortina; O'Brie/Datsun 510; Jonathan/VW Betle:
Computer Clubman B race 1 results:
Clubman B race 2 grid - Steve/Nisan Skyline; Gordon/NSU TT; Peter/Datsun 510:
Sorry, no grid pics.
Computer Clubman B race 2 results:
Clubman A race 1 grid - Steve/BMW 2800CS; Peter/Ford Escort; O'Brie/Opel Kadett; Gordon/Datsun 510; Liam/BMW 2002; NSU TT/Luke:
Sorry, no grid pics.
Computer Clubman A race 1 results:
Clubman A race 2 grid - Steve/Datsun 240Z; Gordon/BMC Mini Cooper; Peter/Opel Kadett:
Computer Clubman A race 2 results:
Clubman Race Action:
A race about to start. The grid stretches around the last corner:
All six cars visible during a race:
Four cars race up the hill in a blur:
NSU TT parked trackside near to washrooms. I guess the driver had an urgent call:
Race action around the pond:
Overall Results
(How this is computed: https://frcforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=393)
Diversity Award
The diversity award goes to me for driving six different cars
Total Championship Points for 2026 (total of each drivers top fifteen points-scoring days):
Congratulations to the winners.
Next event's classes: To be announced.
See you on the circuit...
Gordon
