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Formula One - 6 March 2019

Race Report


Our first F1 race of 2019 saw the return of the Suzuka layout, which we used for the final Micro Scalextric team race in October 2016. We liked it then and it proved very enjoyable with the F1 cars - no super-long straights, but plenty of fast corners, tighter esses, a flyover and the hairpin. Sixteen racers joined us for the evening.

 

After a sedate first pair of heats, the second group ramped up the pace - Terry, Duncan and Daniel all scoring over 18 laps and Peter scoring a nineteen. Mike and Andy also got into the 19s, leaving Mike in pole position at halfway. Last year's F1 champion was followed by Peter, Keith, Terry, Andy and Daniel. Oliver and Ryan were neck-and-neck in the junior battle, separated by just a tenth of a lap in eighth and ninth places. It was all very close - the top ten were covered by just four and a half laps.

 

The second set of heats was incredibly exciting. Terry briefly took pole - having set top scores in red and white - before Mike managed to snatch back top spot by a mere three tenths of a lap. That left Peter in third, Daniel in fourth and Andy in fifth - all five covered by a lap and a half. Keith was in sixth, but still had his final two heats to run. An 18.75 in yellow moved him up to fifth and then a 19.65 in blue gave him pole position!

 

Oliver beat Ryan to be top junior qualifier, both ending up in the C final. Duncan finished top of the Classic Cup runners, comfortably ahead of Simon and with Gareth having abandoned his Micro Scalextric early on.

 

Finals

 

There were three different chassis in the E Final - Simon's Tyco, Matthew's Super-G and Gareth and Rick both had a Mega-G+. On what had been a frustrating evening for him, Gareth crashed in the esses on the first lap, letting the other three get away. Simon was the early leader, but an off dropped him behind Rick and Matthew - they were the top two at half distance. Matthew's Super-G had been super-quick all night through the fast sections of the circuit, but was hard work to get round the tricky bits. Simon got past Matthew into second and looked to chase down the lead. However, Rick kept everything together and came home the winner by a third of a lap, with Matthew three-quarters of a lap behind Simon. Gareth was two laps off the winner.

 

Duncan was the only non-Mega-G+ runner in the D final and his Tyco was first off the line, chased by Ash, Mike and Rick. It was very close early on, Mike moving past Ash for second place - the gap between Duncan and Mike was three seconds at half distance. The race settled down with Duncan stretching his lead and Ash dropping back from Mike and into the sights of Rick in fourth. But there were no more passes before the chequered flag, Duncan wrapping up another final and Classic Cup win for his trusty Tyco.

 

The start of the C final was extremely close, the Mega-G+ cars of Oliver, Deborah and Ryan running side-by-side with Duncan's Tyco. That all ended with Ryan and Duncan taking each other out on lap four, letting Deborah and Oliver get away - Deborah leading at half distance and seemingly having the race under control. Behind them, Duncan and Ryan were having an excellent scrap, swapping positions and running close right up to the end. Deborah came home exactly a lap ahead of Oliver, Ryan beating Duncan by four tenths of a lap. That result gave Oliver his second junior medal in succession.

 

Deborah was delighted to remain in blue lane for the B final. However, she was momentarily left stranded on the line with Peter, letting Andy and Daniel get away. Andy stayed in the lead, with Peter moving into second and Daniel battling Deborah for third. That's how it stayed past half distance, until Andy had an off at the hairpin. Peter slipped through into the lead and would stay there - Andy couldn't close the gap. Peter drove a faultless race to finish half a lap ahead, with Deborah finishing a lap behind Andy and a lap ahead of Daniel.

 

Peter stayed in white for the A final, up against pole-sitter Keith in red, Mike in yellow and Terry in blue. Mike had run three heats with his trusty Mega-G, but had run yellow with a Mega-G+. For the final, he stayed with the Mega-G, which proved costly with a crash on the first lap and countless problems at the hairpin. That left the race down to Keith, Peter and Terry. Keith was rapidly away from the line and lead at half distance - Peter was two seconds back, with Terry clocked a mere 0.04 seconds behind. Keith very slowly stretched his lead, but Peter and Terry remained locked in battle - Terry finally getting past with around twenty seconds to go. As the chequered flag fell, Keith's advantage over Terry was seven tenths of a lap - or about four and a half seconds - with Peter a further second back in third. That was quite a race!

 

Huge congratulations to Keith on a clean sweep of pole-position, race win and fastest lap. Oliver picked up his second junior medal in a row, denying Ryan that elusive first medal. I am sure Ryan's time will come soon... Duncan picked up yet another Classic Cup win, making his Tyco-tuning secrets much in demand!

 

A big thank you to everyone who came along and made it such a fun evening of racing, especially the set-up and tear-down crews and to Daniel for such a good job on race control. Until next time...



- Andy P

Heats

Finals

Race Results

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