A good turnout of nine drivers came out for our Rally, Slot.It Challenge and F1 classes event. Although threatened being cancelled by projected islandwide rain and some flooding, the competition went on and it was a good thing too, as the rally runs and the races were very competitive and enjoyed by all.
Eight of the nine attendees took part in the rally stages which were very close, with some surprises and sub-eight second fastest lap times being recorded in each of the three stages. Newcomers David and Anthony seemed to enjoy the challenge of driving magnetless cars against the clock to see who would be fastest and they did a pretty good job as FRC digital rally novices.
The Slot.It races were also very close and all drivers but Steve were able to enjoy some good racing action. Steve's Nissan R89C unfortunately developed chip issues in the first race which continued in the second, so he had to retire it at that point. It was good to have Alex driving again, sharing Ramesh's quick Nissan R90CK with Luke. In F1, the races were also quite close, especially in mid-field. My Scalextric McLaren again developed an old problem where it would understeer straight off the middle of the hairpin into the outer barrier, so I retired it after finishing last in race one, replacing it with my slower but more stable McLaren "F1 prototype" with which I had some good scraps with Richard.
At the end of the night's competition, it was a toss-up about who would take the overall rally win and even the event's Champion Driver.
A packed paddock of rally, Group C and F1 cars:
The results
The rally competitors:
Slot.It Challenge starting grid. Ramesh's Nissan R89C, his Nissan Nissan R90CK driven by Alex (and Luke in the final race), my Nissan R89C, O'Brie's Mazda 787, Steves Toyota 88C driven by Richard and Steve's Nissan R89C:
Drivers prepare to do battle in Slot.It Challenge. L to R are Steve, Richard, O'Brie, myself, Alex and pole-sitter Ramesh:
Formula 1 starting grid. Ramesh's McLaren, followed by my McLaren, another of Ramesh's McLarens driven by Richard, Steve's McLaren and Ramesh's Williams driven by Luke:
Race action with all F1 cars visible in this shot:
Steve's McLaren hangs precariously after leaving the track and going through the fencing:
Close racing action between my McLaren, Ramesh's McLaren and Luke's Williams:
Congratulations to the winners.
Next event's classes: Class grouping C: Modified Production (MP), Restricted GT (RGT), Restricted LMP (RLMP).
Don't forget to see the updated overall fastest times and the fastest times by driver and class for 2018 to know what the benchmarks are for your cars, the updated class average qualifying times and the updated fastest times for 2018.
See you on the circuit...
Gordon
