Race Report
After a four week break from racing, the WHO faithful returned to the Barn to start
the busy final three months of the season.
There were twenty-three of us at the start of the evening to wish Stephen well on
his last WHO appearance before heading off to university on Saturday. We presented
him with a certificate and mug to bestow the unique title of Worthing HO Racing Honorary
Grand Marshall to celebrate eight seasons of racing, with the final few as our main
man on race control.
The pre-race ceremonials completed and traditional cake and Haribos served, it was
down to business with twenty-one on the grid - Neal (who we hadn't seen so far this
year) was on non-driving dog duties and Terry unfortunately had to depart, feeling
unwell. Mike's F1 track was a big one, with plenty of sweeping esses and switchbacks.
It was a challenge, but incredibly rewarding when you got it right, which a lot of
racers seemed to be doing.
After everyone had completed two heats, it was Andy's Mega-G+ leading the pack on
36.50 laps, Ned's Mega-G right behind on 36.45 and Mike D's Mega-G on 36.15. Another
half a lap back in fourth, Rick was having an excellent night with his Mega-G+, ahead
of Aiden, Daniel, Keith, Stephen and Tony. With the gaps so small and much of field
covered by three or four laps, small errors, mechanical issues or a bit of bad luck
might be disastrous - and that's what happened to some racers in the second round
of heats.
Most prominent was Andy, who dropped from top spot in the A to bottom of the C final.
Aiden also plummeted rather than moving up to challenge Ned for the junior medal.
Indeed, Ned looked nailed on for his first ever WHO pole, until Mr Competitive-Dad
Dadson pulled off an immense final heat to finish top of the pile. Both Keith and
Mike McCann had found some form and finished third and fourth, with Rick holding
on for an impressive fifth. Stephen took a solid sixth.
Finals
The G final was an all-Mega-G grid. Despite being a scrappy couple of minutes, it
looked like Corey had the win in the bag ahead of Jamie and Aaron. However, it was
Jamie who held it together to capitalise on late drama for Corey and it finished
Jamie - Corey - Aaron.
Jamie stepped up into yellow in the F final, where he was up against Neil and John's
Mega-Gs and Hayley's Mega-G+. This turned into quite a humdinger of a battle between
Hayley and Neil for the win. John was finally getting his Mega-G to behave itself,
held second early on and he stayed close behind the leading battle in third. We were
all set for late drama, but everyone stayed in the groove and it finished Neil -
Hayley - John - Jamie.
The E final was another good, fast final. Duncan's Tyco was the only Classic Cup
car on show tonight and he looked - at least on paper - to be outclassed by the two
Mega-G+s and Mega-G he was up against. However, it was the Tyco that held the early
lead, with Simon, Ash and Neil not far behind. At half way, all four cars were on
the same lap. An uncharacteristic crash dropped the Tyco back and Simon took the
lead, but Duncan fought back hard. As the clock ticked down, the gap was just a second,
but Simon was holding firm and Duncan could just not squeeze any more speed from
the Tyco. In the end, it was that one off that cost Duncan a famous win. Ash came
in third, just ahead of Neil.
Aiden was disappointed to be down in the D final, but he came out of the traps like
a rocket, setting a rapid early pace that Deborah, Daniel and Simon struggled to
match. Daniel reacted best in red lane and kept the youngster in his sights, with
Deborah fast, but struggling with the final hairpin in white. Simon was struggling
pretty much everywhere in yellow. It was an excellent run by Aiden and his winning
score of 18.30 laps was the best of the finals so far.
Aiden stepped up to white lane in the C final and carried on his excellent form.
Alex and Andy both crashed on the first lap, leaving Aiden to battle with Tony. It
was close, but Tony was driving blue lane fast and consistently and finished just
over a lap ahead. Alex recovered superbly to finish close to Aiden and well ahead
of Andy, who had a woeful two minutes in yellow.
Like the previous two finals, the B final was an all Mega-G+ affair. Rick's car has
been going better and better across all three WHO classes and he had a very good
chance of making it to his first A final. But first he needed to beat Mike McCann,
Stephen and Tony. Stephen joined the esteemed bunch of drivers who'd binned it on
their first lap, leaving the other three to fight amongst themselves. Mike had the
lead, with Tony and Rick right close behind. That's how it stayed - a fast, clean
race - until Rick just moved ahead of Tony at the end, but a lap back on Mike's winning
car.
So it was two Mikes in the A final, joined by Ned and Keith - two Mega-Gs and two
Mega-G+s. Mike D was the man to crash on the first lap, getting the power on a fraction
too quick out of the esses. Sensing an opportunity to put Mike under pressure, the
other three pushed hard. Unfortunately they all had offs on the next lap - and then
Mike D returned the favour a lap later. The scrap-fest settled down with Keith in
the lead, followed by Mike McCann, Ned and Mike D. By half way, Mike D had muscled
himself through the field and into the lead, just ahead of Ned.
The top two continued to pull away, leaving Mike McCann and Keith in an intense battle
for third. With about ten seconds to go, Ned had cut his dad's lead down to less
than two seconds and was closing in. The last time through the line and the gap was
1.27 seconds, but Mike D held his nerve to take another WHO win. Keith won the battle
for third after a late off from Mike gave Keith a final margin of just a third of
a lap.
Huge congratulations to Mike D - winning his twenty-eighth WHO A final and to Ned,
who is the first WHO racer to win thirty WHO junior medals. One of those two will
win the 2018 WHO F1 championship, but to find out which, we'll have to wait until
December. Two championship were decided tonight - Duncan clinched his second F1 Classic
Cup title and Terry became the 2018 Rookie of the Year. Congratulations to both!
We ended the evening the same way we started it - saying thank you, farewell and
good luck to Stephen. Thank you to everyone who came along and made it another great
evening at the Barn - especially to those who came early to set up and stayed late
to pack away. Next up is an all-day digital Saturday in ten days time, Saturday 23
September.
- Andy P
