Fairways Racing Complex Forum

RACE REPORT #107 - JULY 26TH 2012

Eight drivers were on hand to compete in our Ferrari Team Challenge (FTC) and Rally Car (RC) classes, amongst them FRC first-timer Meagan. FTC is unique amongst FRC classes in that drivers are grouped into three teams and the focus is on the team rather than the individual driver. Its the only class where we see drivers helping and encouraging others (other than when we do multi-driver endurance events) and its good to see that kind of camaraderie amongst what would normally be rivals. We also hosted out second Rally Car stages event which proved as interesting and as much fun as ever.

For FTC we did the normal dice rolling to select cars for qualifying, however we added a second dice roll to randomly select chassis as opposed to the bodies which are allocated based on team qualifying results. In the future we plan to either balance the magnets on the cars as we've done or the Porsches or rotate the chassis when preparing the cars for the upcoming event. Nonetheless, qualifying resulted in the following teams:

• Scuderia Giallo (Yellow - car nos 1 and 2) - Steve and Luke
• Scuderia Blu (Blue - car nos 3 and 4) - Gordon, Kevin and Marcus
• Scuderia Rosso (Red - car nos 5 and 6) - Boo, Mike and Meagan

Once the races began, there was little separating the four veteran FRC drivers, Steve, Luke, Boo and myself, de-slotting (or not) being the determining factor in these on-track battles. For the less experienced newcomers, the main challenge was keeping their cars in the slot since coming out was a costly error for everyone who did, as we had just two marshals who were instructed to simply move de-slotted cars from the track for the drivers to retrieve themselves. Meagan decided that she'd prefer stay in the slot rather than have to run to retrieve her car and was pretty good at it, to the detriment of her pace. There were several instances during the six races where two, three or four Ferraris would run lap after lap nose to tail and alongside each other before slower traffic or a de-slot would end the high-speed traffic wave. Races were won by Steve, Luke and myself, but the important factor in the FTC class is the team results so the Scuderia Giallo team of veteran drivers would prove hard to beat.

Mike kicked off the rallying, being the first driver to hit the stages, followed one after another by the other five drivers who competed. As expected with magnet-less driving, going sideways was the rule rather than the exception. Once again the pace was set by Steve in his Citroen C4, although he never managed to match his previous event's best time of 51.189 sec. Luke's Impreza was blisteringly quick even managing sub-60 sec stage times when the car would not register a lap, causing him to complete six laps instead of the file-lap stage length. In the first stage he actually did more than six laps because of this problem. I managed to solve my Subaru's similar problem and improve its times a bit through some mods to the car since the last outing, but it could not compete with the fastest. Boo had some steady runs but several de-slots kept him back while first-time rally competitors Mike and grandson Marcus did very well, controlling their cars and keeping in the slot through focused driving.

We had a very enjoyable night of racing and rallying and although we finished before midnight, Luke, Steve and I limed on in the driveway, discussing the event and other FRC-related matters till after 1:00 AM.

New lap record

• Ferrari Team Challenge - 6.614 sec (Steve, Scalextric Ferrari F430)

The results





















Congratulations to the winners.

Next event's classes: Porsche Cup - 6 races @ 30 laps, Historic Saloon - 3 races @ 30 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

Great night's racing and race report as usual. I don't know where you find the inspiration for your columns (had some previous journalistic experience ? ) but they are always not just fact-filled but entertaining to read. Must say I'm proud to be now listed among the greats who have achieved 'Champion Driver Of The Event ' status .
Steve

Steve, congratulations to you. You deserve to be among the champions. You really dominated the rally class and were very competitive in FTC, as you always are with any cars that require some real driving skill.