Race report #105 - Thursday 12th July, 2012
Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2012 10:54 am
RACE REPORT #105 - JULY 12TH 2012
Well it seems that our "IROC" classes (Porsche Cup, Ferrari Team Challenge and Lambo Series) have become very popular. We had the largest turnout in a while - some twelve drivers, one of which was a surprise visit by an old acquaintance Mike who brought along his enthusiastic 11-year old grandson Marcus. Two other very welcome FRC newcomers were Model Car Association president Neverson and his wife Jerrilyn, both of whom tested the waters in our Lambo Series races and from the south, Ramesh, another long-time slot car racer made his FRC debut.
Scheduled classes were Lambo Series (LS), F1 and Modified Production (MP) and with the large turnout for LS, the class was split into two subgroups based on qualifying times. It was only after the computer crunched the numbers that I realised that we had made a mistake with the LS times and grid positions which put the 7th place qualifier in 5th place in error. This is reflected in the official qualifying results listed below. Perhaps we should have these entered into the computer on race night as we used to do to eliminate these type of errors in the future.
Nevertheless, racing went on in a very action-packed manner for the two LS classes, with Luke starting from pole in LS (A) and Arden doing likewise in LS (B). We ran five races in each class with the drivers changing to a different car for each race. This system ensures that the playing field is as even as possible and the mix of results confirmed this. By the end of the night, with four different drivers sharing the wins we hadn't a clue who had won the LS (A) championship. LS (B) was a bit more chaotic with several newcomers having to go through the inevitable six-cars-in-two-lanes learning curve on the 18-bend undulating FRC circuit. In the end it was the experienced FRC racers who dominated, however we saw some good performances by the newcomers as well, with second places by Mark and Mike and third places by Mark, Jerrilyn and young Marcus.
After the excitement of the LS races we moved on to the F1 class. Arden's McLaren blew everyone away to take pole 0.23 sec ahead of the next car, but with four cars posting sub-5-sec times, it looked to be an exciting three races. As the races progressed, it became a fight between Arden, Luke and myself and the final result came down to every vital point gained.
Late in the night the last four drivers present made up the grid for our final class, MP. Luke got his second pole of the event driving Zoë's fast little Audi TT, followed by myself, Steve and Boo, all driving Mustangs of one flavour or another. In the first race Steve kept his usual cool self to win over faster competition by staying in the slot, while Boo's Mustang began to experience problems. In the end I was able to get two wins over Steve's one to settle the class championship.
New lap record
The results
Congratulations to the winners.
Next event's classes: American Muscle - 3 races @ 40 laps, GT - 3 races @ 40 laps, LMP - 3 races @ 40 laps. 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
Well it seems that our "IROC" classes (Porsche Cup, Ferrari Team Challenge and Lambo Series) have become very popular. We had the largest turnout in a while - some twelve drivers, one of which was a surprise visit by an old acquaintance Mike who brought along his enthusiastic 11-year old grandson Marcus. Two other very welcome FRC newcomers were Model Car Association president Neverson and his wife Jerrilyn, both of whom tested the waters in our Lambo Series races and from the south, Ramesh, another long-time slot car racer made his FRC debut.
Scheduled classes were Lambo Series (LS), F1 and Modified Production (MP) and with the large turnout for LS, the class was split into two subgroups based on qualifying times. It was only after the computer crunched the numbers that I realised that we had made a mistake with the LS times and grid positions which put the 7th place qualifier in 5th place in error. This is reflected in the official qualifying results listed below. Perhaps we should have these entered into the computer on race night as we used to do to eliminate these type of errors in the future.
Nevertheless, racing went on in a very action-packed manner for the two LS classes, with Luke starting from pole in LS (A) and Arden doing likewise in LS (B). We ran five races in each class with the drivers changing to a different car for each race. This system ensures that the playing field is as even as possible and the mix of results confirmed this. By the end of the night, with four different drivers sharing the wins we hadn't a clue who had won the LS (A) championship. LS (B) was a bit more chaotic with several newcomers having to go through the inevitable six-cars-in-two-lanes learning curve on the 18-bend undulating FRC circuit. In the end it was the experienced FRC racers who dominated, however we saw some good performances by the newcomers as well, with second places by Mark and Mike and third places by Mark, Jerrilyn and young Marcus.
After the excitement of the LS races we moved on to the F1 class. Arden's McLaren blew everyone away to take pole 0.23 sec ahead of the next car, but with four cars posting sub-5-sec times, it looked to be an exciting three races. As the races progressed, it became a fight between Arden, Luke and myself and the final result came down to every vital point gained.
Late in the night the last four drivers present made up the grid for our final class, MP. Luke got his second pole of the event driving Zoë's fast little Audi TT, followed by myself, Steve and Boo, all driving Mustangs of one flavour or another. In the first race Steve kept his usual cool self to win over faster competition by staying in the slot, while Boo's Mustang began to experience problems. In the end I was able to get two wins over Steve's one to settle the class championship.
New lap record
- Modified Production - 5.718 sec (Luke, Scalextric Audi TT)
The results
Congratulations to the winners.
Next event's classes: American Muscle - 3 races @ 40 laps, GT - 3 races @ 40 laps, LMP - 3 races @ 40 laps. 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
