We had the great turnout of ten drivers at event #326 for our Clubman, Slot.It Challenge and F1 classes and what a full afternoon of activity it was! Controller five was magically back online, allowing the regular six-car grids and there were many of them, despite two being for less. Peter had also managed to get the big monitor fixed, so all was in place for an action-filled afternoon.
To address the frequent first corner pile-ups we often seem to have, the first matter of business was an experiment in extending the grid positions, pole being the only one that remained put. We moved the grid-two location back 15" from pole and then for each lane, relocated the remaining grid positions 30" back from the one ahead, resulting in the final position being at the entrance to the last turn. But that's okay - there are many real circuits where this occurs, so FRC has now joined them. Best of all, it definitely did as we hoped and reduced those annoying first corner incidents.
The qualifying and racing were once again very close. In the case of Slot.It Challenge, we had so many drivers that we utilised the A and B subgroup option that we've used in the past to give all nine drivers with cars available an opportunity to participate. This basically treats these A and B sub-categories as independant classes where points are concerned, with the A group receiving an extra relative set of points to differentiate the results fairly. I thought I'd have to do some programming to institute this, but I had already built this into the points calculations many years ago when we used to often end up racing "subgroups". Here's the formula:
If(Date>=Date(5;7;2014)
and Subgroup="A";
Case(Starters=6;
9;
Starters=5;
6;
Starters=4;
4;
0);0)
It basically says that if the date is greater than or equal to 5/7/2014 and the subgroup is A, if there are 6 starters, everyone in the race will get an additional 9 points. If there are 5 starters, everyone gets an additional 6 points and if there 4 starters, everyone gets an additional 4 points. Otherwise, no additional points are added to their standard place points. This was clearly agreed on ten years ago and we most likely discussed it beforehand. You'll notice that for the four cars we had in the A group, we each got the standard points plus 4 points.
It was very generous of Stan to donate two bottles of his wonderful cider to the event, which was very much enjoyed by all. My only suggestion is that the next time that we're so lucky to get more, we save it for after the racing. My head was starting to buzz after just one cup, not a good thing for my driving!
Stan, you have to come by and join the fun soon.
Some pics to start things off courtesy Luke and Warren:
Thanks to Stan for donating his delicious home brewed cider:
Ian setting the ID for his brand new and fast Thunderslot Mustang GT350:
The expanded spacing of our new starting grid now extends around the final corner. All we have to do now is black out the old markings and paint on the new ones:
We had a great turnout of ten drivers for the event (including Luke who was behind the camera):
All smiles for the camera as we're about to start some Clubman practice:
Baby Lucas with gramps, while O'Brie looks on in the background:
Clubman race one grid from a neat perspective captured by Warren's phone:
The first of a few board room meetings with cider in the cups:
Drivers concentrating during an F1 session:
My McLaren and Peter's Aston Martin do battle in an F1 race
The results
Clubman
Clubman race 1 grid - Gordon/Mustang GT350, Ian/Mustang GT350, Steve/VW Beetle, Peter/Escort; Luke/Cortina; O'Brie/Escort:
Computer Clubman race 1 results:
Clubman race 2 grid - Gordon/Mustang GT350, Ian/Mustang GT350, Steve/Falcon, Peter/Escort; Warren/Cortina; Liam/Escort:
Computer Clubman race 2 results:
Ferrari Challenge IROC
Computer Ferrari Challenge IROC race results:
NOTE: Only novices get points for IROC races.
Slot.It Challenge
Slot.It Challenge race 1 grid (Subgroup A) - Ian/Jaguar XJR9, Gordon/Nissan R89C, Warren/Porsche 956, O'Brie/Mazda 787B:
Computer Slot.It Challenge race 1 results:
Slot.It Challenge race 2 grid (Subgroup B) - Steve/Nissan R89C, Pater/Audi R8C, Luke/Toyota 88C, Liam/Mazda 787B, Keith/Toyota 88C:
Computer Slot.It Challenge race 2 results:
Slot.It Challenge race 3 grid - Gordon/Nissan R89C, Ian/Jaguar XJR9, O'Brie/Mazda 787B, Warren/Porsche 956, Steve/Nissan R89C, Liam/Sauber Mercedes:
Computer Slot.It Challenge race 3 results:
NOTE: Each of these three races is treated as a different class by the software, even though they fall under the umbrella of "Slot.It Challenge" (the software automatically differentiates classes by their name and each one has a different name, hence three classes). The third result graphic with the class name "Slot.It Challenge" is not the total of the previous two, it is for its own race. The points for each of these three classes are added to the "Champion Driver of the Event" points like all the other races for the various classes.
F1
F1 race 1 grid - Gordon/McLaren, Peter/Aston Martin, Steve/Ferrari, Warren/Mercedes, Ian/Benneton, Liam/Lotus:
Computer F1 race 1 results:
F1 race 2 grid - Gordon/McLaren, Steve/Ferrari, Warren/Mercedes, O'Brie/Lotus:
Computer F1 race 2 results:
(How this is computed: https://frcforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=393)
Congratulations to the winners.
Total Championship Points for 2024:
Next event's classes: Historic Saloon, American Pony Car, Modified Production.
Don't forget to see the updated overall fastest times and the fastest no-magnet times by driver and class to know what the benchmarks are for your cars. Older stats can be found in the Archive area of the forum.
See you on the circuit...
Gordon
Who is the driver of that No.6 Car ... all the way to the back of grid 
