We had a good turnout of nine drivers which included O'Brie for the first time on a weeknight! It was also good to see Dougie back at FRC after a bit of a sojourn, even though he did not arrive in time for qualifying. Classes run were Slot.It Challenge, F1 and our inaugural Modified Production ("ModProd") class. For the first time, to accomodate those who may not have been able to stay to the end, we ran the class races one after another before moving on to the next class.
Kyle took the pole in F1 driving my Brawn while I managed to get it in SC and MP. Just under one second covered all five F1 qualifiers and just over one second the seven SC and six MP qualifiers, so it was clear that racing would be close and it was, with lots of frantic action.
Despite its speed, my quick Toyota 88C was unable to repeat its last performance of winning all three SC races, being beaten by both Dougie' Lancia and Boo's Sauber in the final race. Boo went extremely well, placing second in all three races while Dougie showed that he has lost none of his speed.
In F1, Luke showed he meant business by taking his Renault to the top spot in the first and second races, only to be foiled by mechanical issues in the third. O'Brie, Dougie and I were the best of the rest and in the end there was just a single point separating second place from the winner in the F1 class championship.
For the first time, ModProd cars took to the track in competition against each other. Kyle and I had some close battles with my Mustang Notchback and Zoë's Audi TT respectively, as I also did against Boo with his neat-looking Subaru Impreza. I'm sure thers were having exciting battles too (its hard to notice everything when trying to drive!), however Steve outdid everyone in the first race for the class by taking my BMW Mini to a win. In the end the battle for the class championship was between Kyle and I, but this did not prevent Luke from clearly having a ton of fun as he struggled to get around almost any corner as the races progressed, laughing as uncontrollably as he was driving!
One of the best parts of the evening was the break for BBQ beef ribs generously provided and cooked by Aaron. It took the focus away from the competition and gave everyone a chance to cool out, have a snack and drink and shoot the bull before getting back to business. Thanks Aaron!
We eventually finished the races at around 10:30 PM however Luke, Boo and Aaron stayed on and did some more laps with various cars before helping me pack up everything. My head finally hit the sack somwhere aroind 12:15 AM after what was a night of fun for everyone.
Congratulations to the winners.
Next event's classes: American Muscle, GT, LMP (3 races each @ 40 laps - 360 total for all classes). Don't forget to see the updated fastest times for the FRC classes to know what the benchmarks are for your cars. Also of interest are the updated class average qualifying times.
See you on the circuit...
Gordon