Race report #258 - Thursday Sep 6th 2018 (RC, SC, F1)

[gordon]

RACE REPORT #258 - Sep 6th 2018 (RC, SC, F1)

A nice turnout of eight drivers arrived at FRC to compete in our Rally, Slot.It Challenge and F1 classes. The rally stages were hotly contested and some very quick times were set. The fastest ever FRC stage time of 36.548 sec was set by Arden in September 2013 with his Renault Clio, using a high-magnetic downforce motor which was subsequently banned for not keeping the spirit of the no-magnet rules. Although this will probably never be beaten, we are actually now starting to see stage times approaching this without the benefit of strong motor magnetic downforce, the fastest time since then being recorded last night.

Slot.It Challenge was also very competitive, the top six qualifiers being separated by just 0.5 sec, fastest to slowest. Arden's brand new canary-yellow Nissan R89C had a great debut, pulling off two second places and a third against more race-developed cars. The man to beat once again was Ramesh. Unfortunately Luke B had some de-slots which diminished potential results.

Like Slot.It Challenge, F1 saw a lot of close racing, although the same two drivers took the two top places on the podium in all the races.

All in all, it was another great night of racing and fun for everyone, with just three points separating the top three drivers in the total points for the event.



The results



The rally competitors:








Slot.It Challenge drivers. L to R are Steve, O'Brie, myself, Luke B, Arden and pole-sitter Ramesh:


Slot.It Challenge starting grid: Ramesh's Nissan R89C, Arden's R89C, Luke B's Toyota 88C, my R89C, O'Brie's Mazda 787 and Steve's R89C:


Chaos at Fosters corner as Luke B's Toyota and Steve's Nissan face the traffic after a multi-car pile-up. My Nissan is caught in the middle while Arden's yellow Nissan get's away unscathed. O'Brie's Mazda and Ramesh's Nissan head off in the background:






Formula 1 starting grid: Luke B's McLaren, Ramesh's Williams, my McLaren, Ramesh's McLaren driven by Arden, Steve's Dallara and Richard's McLaren:










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

[RameshB]

Thanks a lot guys for again a great night of racing by all, i must comment on the outstanding work from Gordon and Steve putting down some blistering times in Rally , all i can say is wow, would you have taught that you could have done those times a year ago?It was a late night but enjoyed every moment, especially that no one was hurry to go home, the late fellowship was appreciated. What three south boys doing in Maraval after 12 midnight?. Richard i know you might feel a little bit behind in the chase but your game will improve , just stick with it, right now you are improving your driving . Obre , we now have to do a lot more to catch those boys. Cheers

[steveaca]

Great night of racing as usual at FRC. It was good to see such a driver turnout . Unfortunate though, that with such a turnout, not everyone may get to race as evidenced by the fact that there were eight qualifiers in SC but only six got to race. Maybe we should revert to the old method of dealing with such situations.Seems like some of the development I've been doing on the Impreza is paying off in terms of lap times achievable (sub-8 second best lap in each of the three stages). Just need to drive it a bit better now ! In F1, my Dallara also showed promise in terms of its excellent handling but the car lacks speed. (Maybe it appeared to have excellent handling due to its lacking speed !) Congrats to Gordon on winning the Rally Class, in terms of both total time and points , to Ram for winning both Slot.it Challenge and F1 as well as taking the night's overall win and to Luke B. on his joint victory in Index Of Performance. Special mention must be made of Gordon's best ever rally stage time in the modern era.
Looking forward to the next event.
Steve

[arden100]

Enjoy the night of racing as well.
Congrats to Gordon on achieving a fantastic time in rally. The work is finally bearing fruit. Your car worked excellent and your driving was flawless!
Great Job.

With regards to my rally time back in the day I do agree with the motor and it’s high magnetic downforce. I don’t think it was an achievement but worked within your rules. I was not the only one using that motor and you were asked about it and said it was ok to use. Only your times were better than that motor until I bought my Clio.
If you allow a 40k motor in a class why run an 18k?
I believe when we work within the rules, one should not be shown up for gaining an advantage. The advantage was there for everyone. The option was there for all and I was not the only one using that advantage.
Racing is gaining every advantage to get to the top of podium within the rules.

I always work within the Rules of FRC.

Arden

[gordon]

Enjoy the night of racing as well.
Congrats to Gordon on achieving a fantastic time in rally. The work is finally bearing fruit. Your car worked excellent and your driving was flawless!
Great Job.

Thanks Arden.

With regards to my rally time back in the day I do agree with the motor and it’s high magnetic downforce. I don’t think it was an achievement but worked within your rules. I was not the only one using that motor and you were asked about it and said it was ok to use. Only your times were better than that motor until I bought my Clio.
If you allow a 40k motor in a class why run an 18k?
I believe when we work within the rules, one should not be shown up for gaining an advantage. The advantage was there for everyone. The option was there for all and I was not the only one using that advantage.
Racing is gaining every advantage to get to the top of podium within the rules.

I always work within the Rules of FRC.

Arden

Please don't take my wording in the race report wrong. I should have worded it differently, maybe something like "... using a then legal high-magnetic downforce motor which was subsequently banned because high-downforce motors were not in keeping with the spirit of the no-magnet rules."

Your car was perfectly legal and I totally agree that it's important to be innovative and try everything that is not outlawed by the class rules.