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
