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WHO Mod - 7 January 2015

Race Report


The start of our sixth season saw a fresh-looking driver line-up at the Barn with many of our 2014 regulars confined to barracks. However, we were joined by a sizeable new intake of WHO recruits, all having heard about the club thanks to the Scalextric World Championship event in December.


All in all, we had twenty seven racers on the grid, with nine rookies. A couple of the rookies blagged a WHO Mod car to share, but most used club cars giving a WHO Tuners grid of ten.


Simon has designed us some great tracks for the new year and the season opener was a cracker - long and fast, with plenty to think about in every lane. The verdict was a double thumbs-up.


Stephen did a great job giving all the new-comers driving lessons during practice and, after a brief certificate presentation for last year's top-dogs, we headed into the heats.


Tony - our last WHO Mod winner - was the early pace-setter with his very rapid Super-G+. Both John and Mike kept pace with the Bognor bolide and that was our top three at the half-way point. Simon was top Tuner.


Not much changed in the second run-through, except everyone got faster. Mike took pole, followed by Tony and John, and all three seemed happy with their lanes for the A final.


Finals


It was the first time in a while we had an I final. Ewan, Brad and Ryan battled it out with the Life Like club cars. All three had driven very well on their debuts, but it was Ryan who was the class act and he made full use of blue lane to win by two and a half laps ahead of Brad and Ewan.


Ryan stepped up to face Matthew in the H final, with Timmy and Val having had to head home early. Again, it was blue lane that seemed to offer the smoothest drive and Matthew bagged the win.


The G final was our first glimpse of some WHO Mod cars, Alan showing the rest of the field a clean pair of heels as he finally clicked with his on-loan Audi Mega-G Mod car. Deborah's GT40 Turbo Mod took second by a whisker from Barry, who'd squeezed everything he could out of his club car. Matthew made do with fourth after his step-up.


Alan put on a good show in the F final, eventually taking third ahead of Bob. Bob will be running his Nascar in the Tuners championship for his first full year at WHO. The battle for the win was the fastest of the night so far, with Corey's determined drive leaving Daniel stunned.


Corey was oh-so-close to repeating his win in the E final, this time taking on the other McCann twin, Stephen. This was a four-car full-on Mod race and included two A finalists from last time - Stephen and Aaron - together with Keith and, of course, Corey. The final split into two exciting battles, Aaron pipping Keith to third and Stephen just about holding off Corey for the win.


Up in the D, Duncan's WHO Tuner Super-G+ was up against two McCann Turbo Mods and rookie Richard's Audi Mega-G Mod. A McCann show-down is always a race to savour and this one didn't disappoint, despite both drivers being walking bio-hazards, infected as they were (and the rest of us will be) by a particularly unpleasant man and boy 'flu.


After two minutes of high speed thrills and spills, it was Mike who prevailed. Stephen wasn't far behind, Duncan took third with an excellent drive and Richard fourth and top rookie by a long distance.


Mike was truly in the groove and he went on to win his second final in a row, the C final. Trailing behind the Grande Vitesse of Goring were a dazed Neil, Jamie and Simon who all set scores that might normally have been enough to progress. Simon took top points for the Tuners championship with his very impressive GT40 Super-G+.


The B final saw Andy pull away, control the race and take the win. The battle behind was intense. Mike had a quicker car, but was caught out too many times by the trickier bits of yellow lane. In the end, Darren took second by a lap, with Mike third and Callum picking up the junior medal with a smooth drive to fourth in the final and seventh overall.


The top three - Mike, Tony and John - had been in a class of their own all night. They treated us to an exciting finale. The start was bizarre, John getting away, Mike's BRP controller breaking its wiper arm and Andy's car losing the ability to go round corners. That left Tony hunting down John, eventually overtaking him, but John holding the gap to just around half a lap.


Behind them Mike was on a charge, having plugged in a club controller. But he has several laps to make up. Meanwhile, Andy had retired after diagnosing the problem with his car - the front of the body was catching on the track.


As we moved into the closing stages, John refused to let Tony get away. However, try as he might, he couldn't pull more than a few hundredths out of Tony's lead. Tony wasn't letting the pressure get to him and his race to the flag was faultless.


Nonetheless, Mike was driving like a man possessed, taking seconds a lap off the leading pair. Had the final been another 30 seconds long or Mike had got going quicker at the start, he would have been right up in the mix. Ifs and buts are all very well, but at the chequered flag Tony took the win, John was just over half a lap down and Mike about the same distance back in third.


Massive congratulations to Tony on his second WHO Mod win, showing that last October's victory was no flash in the pan. Our 2014 Rookie of the Year is now a championship contender. Congrats also to Callum on an incredible nineteenth junior medal.


Thanks to everyone for their help in making it such a good opening race to the season. Round two is Nascar - but before that we have some Scalextric digital racing in two weeks time.


- Andy

Heats

Finals

Race Results

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