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Our third Micro Scalextric Championship season is certainly one for the team racers - five of the six rounds are endurance events, all taking place on micro versions of classic tracks from around the world.

We had a very healthy August turn-out to kick off the new season - twenty six drivers were divided up into eight teams for the opening race on the Micro Monza layout. During practice, the track looked to be fast yet a little tricky and - at 48 feet long - just the right size for the Micro Scalextric Nissans.

As always, it was junior racers who captained the teams, each picking one of the top eight grown-ups from last year's championship and then drawing the rest of their team out of a hat. We had six teams of three and two of four.

Oscar was making his WHO debut as captain of Captain Britain Cars. Being son of a WHO champion (Andrew) and brother of a junior champion (Hannah), Oscar has a fine pedigree. Ned brought along Joe, another WHO newcomer. But had the Ned and Mike been training him back at Dadson HQ?

Segment 1

It was Ned's Team Name who set the pace in the first fifteen minutes. Ned was joined by Duncan, Andrew and Paul in what was a very strong team. Their score of 193 laps was five ahead of Need for Laps and Team Ploppy. Close behind were The Bangers and Bumper Trucks, but the other three teams had conceded serious laps. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and #einstein (that's Hashtag Einstein) had both got the tricky blue lane out of the way, but Captain Britain Cars had given the one-dot yellow car and bit of a hammering, which would end up losing the first group of teams around 10% (or 20 laps) over the second group in yellow lane...

Segment 2

One Flew Over and #einstein moved from blue to red lane for the second fifteen minutes and they really picked up the pace. It was Hannah, Stephen and Hayley who won the segment with the top score of the evening so far, just three quarters of a lap ahead of the One Flew Over crew of Joe, John and Jamie. But it was The Bangers who leapt into the race lead after a great run on yellow and with Team Name struggling a little in blue. Ned's boys were still in second place, just ahead of Aaron, Neil and Daniel, aka Need for Laps.

Segment 3

Team Name bounced back with an awesome score of 198 laps in red, winning the segment and pulling out a very useful twelve lap lead in the race over second placed #einstein. The Bangers - Callum, Tony and Neal were driving superbly to hold on to third place, having chalked off blue lane and would therefore finish in red. Need for Laps and Team Ploppy fared less well, both plummeting down the standing with dodgy runs on yellow and blue. Bumping around the mid-field were Bumper Trucks and One Flew Over, with Captain Britain Cars filling bottom place for the second segment in a row.

Segment 4

With only 36 laps between first and last place, anyone could still win the race in the last fifteen minutes. The first group went first and it was Team Ploppy who squeezed out a humongous 208 lap score on red lane to put themselves in pole position with a 738 lap total. With the last four teams to run, Team Name would need a solid 173 laps to win and The Bangers were sitting pretty should they slip up...

It was a fast and furious end to the race with Joe, John and Jamie setting the top score of the night on yellow lane - 203 laps - to put One Flew Over within a lap and a half of Team Ploppy. The Bangers managed to overtake the Ploppies, but their 197 laps was nowhere near enough to haul in Ned, Duncan, Andrew and Paul, who hit 199 laps in white and comfortably won the race by fourteen laps.

A great performance by Team Name - with a winning return to the Barn for Andrew plus Paul finally grabbing a WHO medal. Congrats to all! Well done to all the teams for an exciting and close race to kick off the new Micro Scalextric season.

Thanks to everyone for making it an excellent night at the Barn, particularly to Duncan, Daniel and Hayley who put in a great shift on race control, keeping us informed, amused and on our toes all evening.

Round two of the championship is on Wednesday 28 October and it’s another team race, this time on the Micro Spa-Francorchamps layout. I’ll have to look out some Belgian music for the video…

- Andy