We had eight attendees at our 2020 opening event for our fast classes, Modified Production (MP), Restricted GT (RGT), Restricted LMP (RLMP) and Formula 1 (F1), six of which took part in the races. We also welcomed Nigel, an old Scalextric fan who Peter brought along to check out digital slot racing at FRC. He even had a go, doing several fine laps in Steve's Audi RGT car. Before officially starting the night's proceedings, Ramesh said a very nice prayer and we followed this up by he and I doing several laps in Kyle's two self-built cars in his memory.
Instead of the full tech inspection usually done, we just confirmed that the cars were dropping away from the USD block and moved on the the qualifying and racing, running one 40-lap race for each class. There were some very fast times set in qualifying, the fastest all belonging to Team Bhola, something we've all come to expect. They did get some competition in the races, so there was a lot of close action as well as some collisions and de-slots as drivers pushed harder and harder to run at or near the front.
We managed to finish our last race a little after 11:00 PM, which wasn't bad considering that there were four classes run. Things will heat up again in a few week's time when we start back with our slowest classes (Group A) for Kitbash, Historic Saloon, American Pony Car and Vintage Sports.
The results
Modified Production starting grid. Luke B's Subaru Impreza lines up at the front, followed by Ramesh's similar car, Arden driving Ramesh's Alfa 155, my Zakspeed Capri, Steve's BMW 320i and Luke T driving Ramesh's Opel Calibra:
Contact between Steve's BMW and Luke T's Alfa leaves the former upside down and both cars off the track:
Close action with Luke B's Subaru running alongside Steve's BMW on the exit of Fosters while my Capri runs just ahead of them and Ramesh's Subaru heads towards the last two turns:
A meeting of three cars just before the final turn while one of the Subarus brakes hard to avoid getting involved:
Steve can't decide quite where to go, so he straddles his BMW on the fence:
Action at the infield hairpin exit when Luke B comes face to face with a spun Steve. My Capri gets away on the inside:
Restricted GT starting grid with Luke B's Honda HSV at the front, followed by Ramesh's similar car, my Porsche 911R, Luke T driving Ramesh's McLaren F1 GTR, Steve's Porsche 911 GT1 and Arden's BMW Z4:
Luke B spins his Honda along the side of Caiman Pond:
Accident involving the Hondas of Ramesh (upside down) and Luke B (against the wall) on the entrance to the pit straight. Luke T manages to stop his McLaren before getting involved:
Restricted LMP starting grid, with three Bhola Mazda 787s once again in the first three grid positions - Luke B on pole followed by Ramesh and Arden, my Lola Aston Martin, and Steve's Lancia LC2:
The field is fairly spread out between Arden's white Mazda, Luke B's and Ramesh's similar yellow and green cars and my blue and orange Lola-Aston:
Close action as Steve's Lancia, My Lola-Aston and Luke B's Mazda enter Fosters:
Formula 1 starting grid with Ramesh's Mercedes on pole, followed by my McLaren, Luke B's Ferrari, Steve's McLaren and Arden's McLaren:
Chaos on the final turn exit as my McLaren, Steve's similar car and Ramesh's Mercedes all get involved in a crash:
Luke B's Ferrari and Steve's McLaren end up against the Armco after making contact:
(How this is computed: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=393)
Congratulations to the winners.
Next event's classes: Class grouping A: Kitbash (KB - formerly called "Scratch Built") Historic Saloon (HS), American Pony Car (APC), Vintage Sports '60-'75 (VS6075).
Don't forget to see the updated overall fastest times and the fastest times by driver and class for 2019-2020 to know what the benchmarks are for your cars, the updated class average qualifying times and the updated fastest times for 2019. Older stats can be found in the Archive area of the forum.
See you on the circuit...
Gordon
