The Worthing HO Racing website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (except where otherwise noted) 2012-24

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Having got through Easter weekend and Storm Katie, twenty-one racers assembled on the Micro Scalextric grid, including the first Wednesday-night WHO appearances by Barry, Joe, Mike R and Aiden. It was also great to welcome Dave Peters back to the Barn for the first time in ages.

Twenty-one racers meant seven teams of three. The younger racers acted as captains, choosing one of the seven seeded drivers and picking a third team member's name from the hat. After team names were decided on, we were ready to race...

Segment one

We were back on the Micro Le Mans track, the layout we originally used for all the Micro team races. It's short, quick, but has a couple of tricky sections and getting the most from blue lane has always been the mark of a winning team...

The first group of three teams had our rookie captains - Joe, Aiden and Rachel - leading the way. They all got off to a good start. Best of that bunch were Aiden's "Too Many Easter Eggs Will Make You Sick", a name inspired by recent personal experience, perhaps? Aiden was ably assisted by Mike Mc and Neil and they hit 166 laps in that crucial blue lane.

And it was enough to put them third overall after fifteen minutes, with only Bat Bunny vs Super Rabbits in red lane and Lucha Dragons in yellow beating that score. Behind those three we had the other four teams all on 161 laps - in fact, all within half a lap of each other after fifteen minutes of intense competition.

Segment two

The second fifteen minutes saw a mixed bag of scores, with some team dropping below the 160 lap mark and one - Need for Speed - getting close to 200 laps. Their 195 laps on red would be the best of the night. That big score launched Aaron, Jamie and John into the lead, six laps ahead of the Little Eggs of Corey, Paul and Dave P. The rest of the field wasn't as close as last time, although we had Too Many Easter Eggs and Lucha Dragons tied for fourth place. Fizzy Heads matched their first round score of 161.75 laps, but they and the Creme Eggs had dropped off the back of the field.

Segment three

The lead changed again after 45 minutes. The Bat Bunnies (or were they Super Rabbits?) of Stephen, Keith and Mike R set the top score on yellow to leapfrog Need for Speed who'd set the top score of the night on white. These two teams were stamping their authority on the race. The gap between the two would be 11.4 laps going into the final fifteen minutes.

The gap back to Lucha Dragons - Alex, Simon and Barry - was 21 laps, highlighting how impressive our top two had been so far. The Little Eggs had slipped just a lap behind the Dragons after a wretched stint in blue. Fizzy Heads - Joe, Andy and Dave R - were just a lap back in fifth with a resurgent run in red. Too Many Easter Eggs had slipped to sixth, but just two laps behind fifth or three and a half behind third. That midfield has closed right up again. The Creme Eggs of Rachel, Mike D and Sharon were well back in last place - they were putting in solid scores, but just not quite enough to stay in touch with the pack...

Final segment

The first group of three went off for their final run and it was Too Many Easter Eggs who came out on top with a very decent fifteen minutes on yellow. Team captain Aiden was happy and ready to see whether their total would give his team third, fourth or fifth place. Behind them, Fizzy Heads and the Creme Eggs had run out of oomph and ended with disappointing scores on white and blue - but they'd definitely had a fun evening.

With Bat Bunnies on blue and Need for Speed on yellow, that eleven lap lead was looking a little vulnerable. Mike R did a great job to concede just three laps to Jamie in the first five minutes, but by halfway - with Aaron racing Stephen - the gap had halved. Aaron, Jamie and John were right on schedule to take the win.

When John and Keith took over for the final five minutes, the Bunnies still held a slender lead. However, John was driving like a man possessed. With a missed lap on blue, the required total on the scoreboard became twelve laps and at 2 minutes to go, yellow's lead was eleven.

Sadly for the Bunnies, yellow is a lane where you can really push, but blue is not. Keith knew he needed to fight back, yet that only meant more crashes and that meant he had to push harder. It was an impossible situation and very quickly the Bunnies found themselves going backwards. As the chequered flag fell, Need for Speed had a lead of just under sixteen laps, to win the race by four and a half laps.

Nonetheless, the Bunnies had set by far the biggest score of the night in blue lane, showing how well they had defended their lead, but it was not enough...

Focusing on the top two teams ignored an excellent battle between Need for Speed and Little Eggs for the final segment win - the race winners finished just one lap ahead, but the Little Eggs score put them into third place overall. Joe was delighted to see his team - Too Many Easter Eggs - finish fourth, ten laps ahead of the Lucha Dragons. Fizzy Heads were sixth and Creme Eggs seventh.

Huge congrats to Need for Speed, especially to team captain Aaron on his first ever WHO medal.

Big thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a good night of racing at the Barn, especially to Stephen for his help on race control and to all those who helped set up and pack away.

With just two rounds to go - both of them team races - the Micro Scalextric Championship is nicely set up, but John's lead is looking quite handy...

- Andy P