Race Report
Every two years, our Nascar championship switches to a road course for one night
only. This time the layout was based on the Watkins Glen Nascar circuit - pretty
quick and compact. We'd included the tricky AFX chicane pieces to mimic the 'inner
loop' section at the end of the longest straight. That would almost certainly lead
to the sort of mayhem seen at that corner during the annual Nascar races at the Glen.
A bigger-than-usual set-up team had the track running nice and early - providing
a extra few minutes of practice. Twenty-one racers came through the door by 7pm,
some regulars missing due to exam revision - but we welcomed Paul for his first WHO
race of the year.
Some of the early-birds made their extra practice count. Andy was top at halfway,
three and a half laps ahead of Gareth in second. Mike D followed right behind Gareth,
despite having to learn the track during those first two heats. John and Rick were
equal for fourth - Rick heading the Gen6 field. Ryan was top of the three juniors,
back in thirteenth.
Most people improved their scores through the second round of heats and we discovered
that we had four pretty even lanes. The outside yellow lane was particularly fast,
even though it was the longest way round. Jerome really liked the outside yellow
and white lanes and some great scores catapulted him up the qualifying list - top
rookie, top junior and ninth overall.
The Gen6 battle was intense. Fifth down to eleventh on the grid were Mega-G+ cars,
all seven covered by just a few laps. Rick was head of the Gen6 train, but the top
four qualifiers were Super-Gs. Mike had put in two big scores in the gutters, but
Andy just held on to pole by three-quarters of a lap. Gareth was third and John fourth.
Finals
Hayley, Daniel and Paul lined up for the G final - a Life Like T, a Super-G and a
Mega-G+ making up the most diverse final of the evening. Daniel was the early leader,
but Hayley had got out in front by the 30 second mark, stretching her lead to a lap
by halfway. Paul's Life Like was playing up and needed some mid-race attention. With
all three back in the race, Hayley was maintaining that lap lead... until a late
off at the chicane created a more than a little panic. Daniel un-lapped himself,
but then the chequered flag fell. Hayley was relieved and delighted.
Hayley would be the only Mega-G+ runner in the F final, joining the Super-Gs of Mike,
Steve and Oliver. Hayley crashed at the chicane on the first lap, Mike the early
leader and Oliver right behind him. At halfway, Mike was still just inches ahead
of Oliver, a scrappy first minute leaving Steve and Hayley further behind. Then it
all changed. Mike crashed, gifting Oliver the lead and Steve was on a charge. With
thirty seconds to go, the gap between first and third was two seconds. Steve passed
Mike and set about chasing down Oliver... but time ran out - the margin of victory
just a tenth of a lap and Mike just half a lap back in third.
The E final was a Mega-G+ and Super-G mix, Andy and Ryan running the Gen6 cars; Oliver
and Simon had the older AFX chassis. This time it was Oliver's turn to crash at the
first chicane - but he was soon back on the pace and ahead of his brother. Andy was
the early leader with his brand new Gen6 car - so new that it's still waiting to
go in the paint shop. He led Simon by three seconds at halfway, with Ryan having
got past Oliver for third - those were two good battles going on. Simon ate into
Andy's lead - three seconds slashed to one and half and then to just half a second.
Simon moved in for the kill, but both cars came off at the chicane with ten seconds
to go. Andy's car rejoined first and he held on to win by a quarter of a lap. Simon
was gutted. Ryan beat Oliver to third - both duels won by the Mega-G+.
Andy stepped up into white in the D final, joining two more Mega-G+ runners - Peter
and Terry - plus Ash with a Super-G borrowed from Gareth. Terry was the first lap
chicane victim, but he'd fought back to third after 30 seconds, ahead of Andy, but
behind Ash and Peter. Then disaster struck for Ash, a heavy crash dropping him to
the back and leaving Terry just behind the new leader, Peter. Stung by his error,
Ash drove brilliantly to get back to second at halfway - the order: Peter, Ash, Terry,
Andy. Peter was driving a great race and building up a decent lead, but behind him
things were very close. Another off saw Ash slip to the back again, with Andy having
passed Terry for what was now second. And that's exactly how it stayed until the
end - an excellent win for Peter.
That made the C final an all-Mega-G+ affair, Peter lining up against Deborah, Jerome
and Tony. There were no first lap crashes and the opening laps were fast, close and
thrilling. Deborah was the first to slip up, rejoining the length of the straight
behind the other three - Jerome leading Tony and Peter, covered by about three feet.
Tony moved into the lead and had pulled out a two second gap to Jerome at half distance,
Deborah was another couple of seconds back, now just ahead of Peter. The order was
the same with 30 seconds to go, the gaps having doubled. Then, with fifteen seconds
left, Tony crashed, Jerome got back on the same lap and pushed as hard as he could...
but there wasn't enough time. Tony, Jerome and Deborah were covered by half a lap,
with Peter two laps off the winner.
Tony was delighted to step up into red lane in the B final. John had chosen yellow,
Rick white and Keith blue. John had set the best score in yellow during the heats
and Rick had the top score in white - so those choices made sense. From the start,
John looked in a class of his own, relentlessly building his lead as the others all
had crashes. Rick was first to crash, falling to the back and then recovering to
third at halfway. Tony was making the most of red lane and had his eyes firmly on
the Gen6 win. Keith and Rick were in quite a battle for third and not too far away
from Tony, but then Rick crashed and took a trip to the floor, putting him out of
contention. Keith looked to be closing on Tony, but a late spin at the chicane ended
his charge.
That just left the A final - four fast Super-Gs, two Nascar champions, three Nascar
race winners and three 2018 WHO race winners... Andy had grabbed pole and chosen
red lane, but Mike looked pretty happy with yellow. Gareth was in blue and John had
stepped up to white. It was Mike who got away in the lead, putting immediate pressure
on the others. It was pretty close, but then the crashes started behind the leader.
Andy's first crash knocked his rhythm and dropped him to third behind John. Gareth
had a series of offs at the chicane, including two in successive laps. Andy fought
back to second by halfway, but was already two laps adrift.
It was Mike's turn to have a few offs in the second half of the race, but his lead
proved robust and his rivals failed to take advantage. More offs for Andy at the
end gave Mike a winning margin of just under three laps. John was two laps back in
third and Gareth fourth, a further two laps behind. The pace had been extreme - Mike
finishing on 29.50 laps, just half a lap off what we'd all decided was an impossible
score in two minutes. His fastest lap of 3.63 seconds was also stunning - only four
racers dipping under four seconds all night.
Huge congratulations to Mike on a brilliant A final drive for his thirty-second HO
win at the Barn. Jerome picked up his second junior medal after another very impressive
drive and now leads both the junior club championship and the rookie of the year
table. Tony's superb comeback to win Gen6 gives him a guaranteed spot in the end-of-season
Gen6 Championship Showdown - two places are still up for grabs...
A big thank you to everyone who came along and made it an especially fun and sociable
evening at the Barn. Massive thanks go to the sizeable set-up and tear-down teams
who made quick work of both tasks - it seems that many hands do make light work.
Special thanks goes to Hayley, Daniel and Simon for their excellent work on race
control. Daniel was feeling a bit under-the-weather, but still put on a great show.
We're back at the Barn in two weeks for more Nascar - this time the big Scalextric
digital cars.
- Andy P
