Race Report
Ever since Deborah and Keith visited Charlotte Motor Speedway to see the first race
on the Roval, we've wanted to build our own AFX version at the Barn. The climax of
the 2019 WHO Nascar season seemed a good time to do that. Eighteen racers took part
in the evening's action - sadly we were missing both John and Alex, both potential
race winners and championship contenders. That meant Andy was guaranteed his first
Nascar title and Oliver had to score 60 points (seventh place) to beat Alex to the
junior Nascar crown. The evening would end with the Gen6 Cup Championship Shoot-out
for the Mega-G+ runners - Keith in pole position after his three Gen6 wins so far
this season.
But before all that, we held a quick WHO Annual General Meeting to introduce our
2020 season, elect our Organising Team and Management Committee and accept last year's
accounts. Then we were ready to race.
Daniel was elsewhere this month, so Ryan and Ash were trained up on race control
and did an excellent job. The heats kept coming quick and fast, with the only mayhem
on the track. The Roval proved a challenge - especially going into Turn One on blue
and white lane. And on any lane through the chicane. Unusually, we needed a marshal
in the middle and that proved a busy job - almost as busy as marshalling the chicane.
After the first round of heats, Andy was three laps ahead of Keith and Terry - the
Mega-G+ cars were right on the pace. The Super-Gs of Mike, Matthew and Gareth were
fourth, fifth and sixth. There were decent scores - and pretty awful ones - in all
four lanes, but one things was certain... red lane was extremely nice and lane choice
in the finals would be advantageous.
The order was shaken up in the second run as some racers got better and others struggled.
Gareth put in two huge scores in blue and red that meant Andy would need 19.40 laps
in either white or yellow to keep pole position. He missed out by seven tenths of
a lap. Mike was two laps back, making it an all-Super-G top three. Terry, Keith and
Ryan were the top Mega-G+ runners and would battle it out for Gen6 Cup honours in
the B final. If either Ryan or Terry came top, they would qualify automatically for
the Championship Shoot-out.
Finals
Jack completed all four of his heats this month, but was back home before the F final
started. That meant it was a father and son battle between Simon and Max. Simon was
caught out by the tricky Turn One in blue, Max having a one lap lead after thirty
seconds. A big off in the infield delayed Simon even more, making the lead three
laps at halfway. At the end it was five laps and Max was truly delighted.
Max stepped up into white lane in the E final. That was most people's least favourite
lane and Max duly crashed in the infield on the first lap - he wasn't the first or
the last racer to do that tonight. Up front, it was very close between Oliver and
Mike's Super-Gs and Simon C's Mega-G+ - just 0.67 of a second covered all three at
quarter distance. Oliver had pulled out a 4.5 second lead over Mike by halfway, with
Simon dropping two laps behind, now neck-and-neck with Max. Oliver stretched his
lead and Simon and Max continued their battle - both had offs, including a big one
for Simon. At the end, it was Max who was super-delighted to beat another adult racer
and finish third.
Oliver had a better car than his qualifying position suggested. He now had a big
challenge of white lane in the D final to try and make up that points deficit to
Alex. Oliver led the early stages, a couple of second ahead of Ash and Steve in blue
and yellow. Andy had put his Like Like on the floor and was a lap back at quarter
distance. It stayed like that until just after halfway when Oliver crashed and Ash
moved through into the lead. A fabulous battle ensued - Oliver grabbed the lead back,
before Ash got past again with twenty seconds to go. Then, with just ten seconds
left, Ash crashed and Oliver breezed through to take the win - a third of a lap separating
them at the end. And Steve wasn't far behind in third. It was the most exciting final
so far.
Could Oliver grab another win in the C final and claim the Nascar junior crown? He
was in white lane again - up against Matthew's Super-G, Deborah's Mega-G+ and Duncan's
Life Like. It was a fast and clean first thirty seconds - all four drivers on the
same half lap, Deborah leading Matthew, Duncan and Oliver. Matthew recovered from
an off to lead Duncan at halfway - Deborah right behind, but Oliver having been lapped.
It was Deborah who moved into second place and chipped away at Matthew's lead. The
chequered flag fell with the top two less than half a lap apart, Duncan was third
and Oliver fourth.
Matthew joined the three Gen6 Cup racers in the B final. What could he do from white
lane? The answer was 'not much'. Matthew was playing catch up from the opening laps,
with Keith leading in the early stages. By thirty seconds in, Ryan was in the lead,
followed by Terry in red and Keith in blue. Gaps started to open up by halfway, but
the order stayed the same - it looked like Terry was heading for both the A final
and the Gen6 Shoot-out. Keith fought back, but Ryan beat him to the line, to win
his first ever HO individual junior medal.
Terry was the first Mega-G+ racer in a Nascar A final since January 2018. He held
third in the early stages after Mike D had crashed in the infield. Up front, Gareth
led Andy by 2.6 seconds at quarter distance - a gap that was out to 3.3 seconds at
halfway. Terry was two laps back, just ahead of Mike, who continued to be a bit crashy.
Trying to close the gap to the leader, Andy crashed in Turn One and Gareth had a
lap lead with thirty seconds to go. Another crash in the same spot and that was Gareth
home and dry... although a late off in Turn Twelve did spoil a perfect run for the
race winner. It was Gareth's first win of the year and his first WHO Nascar win ever.
He would have to wait a few minutes for his medal...
The Gen6 Cup Championship race saw reigning champion Keith have first pick of lane
and he took red. Terry - the only other Gen6 winner this year - had blue, Deborah
chose yellow and Simon - who'd pipped Ash by two points in the standings - was on
white. Terry had the advantage in the early stages of the winner-takes-all shoot-out.
Keith gradually caught up, registering a 0.04 lead after thirty seconds. Simon was
4.5 seconds behind and 1.7 seconds ahead of Deborah. Then all thoughts of championship
glory fell away for Terry - crashes in that tricky Turn One left him a lap down and
just ahead of Deborah. More crashes for Terry saw Deborah move up to second. Up front,
Keith was driving flawlessly - he had won this championship race twice before and
knew what to do. Although Terry fought hard, the chequered flag fell with Keith first,
Deborah second, Terry third and Simon fourth.
Huge congratulations to our race winners - Gareth for the race win, Ryan as top junior,
Terry for Gen6 and Max as top rookie. Big congratulations also to our 2019 Nascar
champions - Andy, Keith and Alex, who won his fourth successive Nascar junior title
even though he missed the final round. The Nascar results also mean that Jerome has
wrapped up a second WHO Junior Championship and Andy clinched his second WHO Club
Championship. Next month we'll have a very tight F1 championship battle between Deborah,
Terry and Keith - with Simon and Max also battling for the 2019 Rookie of the Year
title.
Massive thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a great night at the Barn.
Special thanks go to the set-up crew, to Ash and Ryan on race control and to all
those who stayed behind to pack away. We're back for a Scalextric Digital Saturday
on 23 November.
