Race report #168 - Thursday 26th June, 2014

[gordon]

RACE REPORT #168 - June 26th 2014

A good turnout of ten drivers competed in our 168th event, five of which drove in Slot.It Challenge (SC), with everyone driving in Mixed GT (MGT). The latter was split into two sub-groups, "A" for the more experienced and "B" for the others. We qualified the SC class with Luke B taking pole in his Toyota 88C and just rolled a dice for starting order in MGT. Whenever we run qualifying for a class, the pole winner gets a single championship point for the effort, but not so when we draw for starting positions and so it was for this event.

The SC races were close, but Luke B and Ramesh had the edge on the competition, taking the five wins between themselves. In the end, when Luke Bs pole point was taken into account, they tied for first place in the class.

In MGT(B), Jon was the dominant driver, taking four wins in the six races, quite an accomplishment considering the performance difference between the various MGT cars which everyone had to drive. Almost as good was Keith A with a first and three second places. Young Jonathan did well to be the only other driver to win a race.

The MGT(A) wins were shared by four drivers and once again if your name was Luke you did it more than once. As with the B group, the racing was extremely competitive, each driver having to adjust to the car he'd chosen for each race. In the end we again had a tie for first place, with third being just one point down and the last two not far behind.

As is always the case, MGT provided the biggest challenge and most enjoyment as everyone is on equal footing, their results depending on wise car choices and controlled but quick driving.

The results





















Congratulations to the winners. At the end of the event while everyone was chatting and having a drink, Marlon packed up the eighteen cars and six controllers and laid them out neatly, something I thought worthy of a picture:



Thanks Marlon!

2014 Overall Class Points Update





Next event's classes: Class grouping B: Modified Production - 5 races @ 35 laps, American Muscle - 5 races @ 40 laps. As usual, don't forget to see the updated fastest times for the FRC classes to know what the benchmarks are for your cars, the updated class average qualifying times and the updated 2014 Class Points Standings.

See you on the circuit...
Gordon

[Luke]

Personally Fellas - If I had to sum up the night of racing using one word, it will be: SUPERB

Thanks to GG for all his efforts and posting the race reports. I think with all the racing activity, all racers (myself included) in their respective groups outdid themselves competing in the MGT event. In addition to Ramesh & Luke B. pulling off the same amount of points in SC, MGT, Champ/Driver and IP results. I think its something worth seeing ~ knowing how they're Father & Son

Anyway - the MGT racing competition is definitely here to stay ... Its like Rock & Roll

It was also quite noticeable how all persons had a great time (thought and consideration) selecting a car for the best racing strategies with every one of their 6 races . All in all - this is what its all about racing at FRC events - having a great time whether you WIN or LOSE and this event was SPOT ON!

Take for example me, in the SC class - I know my car was off the pace "big time" and it was pointless competing. At the time I thought it was the wrong type of tyre compound and thanks to Gordon's loan of another set of tyres, my car did some better times but still off the pace nonetheless. I decided to race anyway but I knew I wasn't going to be on the front row and probably would finish last in all my 5 races.

Although, I didnt do well in this (SC) class ... I did have a good time all the same and figured out (during the races) what needs to be done with my Lancia LC2 doing 7 sec. per lap and getting it down to maybe 5 seconds for the next event

Luke

BTW - I also remembered Ramesh giving us some strange but neat jokes like:

What you call a bear without teeth?
A gummy bear.

Here's a next good one (Ramesh) finishing off my reply

What is the same size and shape of an elephant and weighs nothing?
His shadow.

[steveaca]

Great night of racing at FRC. The driver turnout was very encouraging and the racing tight. Don't think I've ever seen a night where there were ties in two classes ! Thanks as usual to Gordon for hosting and for the race report.
Looking forward to the next event.
Steve

[RameshB]

HI guys i must say o what a night ,most enjoyable for me thanks to Gordon for preparation and an excellent race report , we did have fun , thanks to all of the guys that came out especially Mark and Keith you guys made our event great , all new guys did not have to race with group a racers which is the way we will like to encourage new people to join in the fun every race night , like this wk new guys out can race an iroc race together. Luke T your reply on last wk race was so encouraging and spot on was SPOT ON , the ole talk and lime was also not too late just enough to take us through the next wk, i liked the aspect of telling clean jokes which all can enjoy,nice one about the elephant and lancia doing 5 sec. have a laugh ,see you all on thur , bye Ramesh