slot car club

Back to the re-arranged 1/32nd Sports round and again Charlie Gooding and Kevin Coleman joined us to make 9 drivers. In qualy, Bob was first up and set a very quick time of 4.316 and he was followed by Corky who very nearly matched him with a 4.380. Kevin was next and proved he was beginning to get to grips with the track and posted a very creditable 4.789. Trev followed and just got under Kevin’s time with a 4.648 and then it was Chris’s turn. With his experimental gear ratio of 13/40 (72 pitch) his car looked very smooth and he posted what was to be pole with a 4.287, maybe that’s the way to go. Kev then posted a 4.499, Mick 4.512, Roger a 4.898 and then Charlie’s first run with the smaller scale saw him set 4.845.

The B final was a 5 man affair with Mick, Trev, Kevin and Roger lining up and Charlie on sit out. Trev was setting the pace in this race doing 37s on all lanes and finishing off with a 37.92 on Red to give him a finishing total of 148.92. Mick was closest to staying with Trev posting 36/37/35 and finishing with a big 38 to finish just a couple of laps down on Trev with 146.85. Just behind were Kevin, Charlie and Roger, Kevin and Charlie in particular were having some great racing, seemingly joined by the proverbial piece of string for long periods. Charlie’s car suddenly slowed dramatically, though, with a dying motor and he had to switch cars at the end of his segment 2. Roger was driving very consistently but couldn’t quite match the pace of these two. Going in to the last segment Kevin had a 2 lap lead over Charlie for third place in the race, but he couldn’t hang on to it though. Charlie was getting to know the track now, and finishing on White he got the 2 laps back, plus a bit more and took third place by just 15 bits. His finishing total was 142.36 to Kevin’s 142.11. Roger just missed topping 140 laps with a total of 139.30 and fifth place.

On to the A and Chris, Bob, Corky and Kev lined up. A disatrous starting segment for both Bob and Kev. Bob’s car just wouldn’t handle despite looking good in qualy and despite a few tweaks could only post 18 laps! Kev’s car then jumped lanes and smashed into the barrier, re-aligning the back axle and bending the guide tab and his race was over after struggling in segment 2. Bob struggled on and his car got a bit better but with subsequent runs of 36/36/34 he was never in it and finished up with a total of 124.49 and 8th place overall. Meanwhile, Corky and Chris were having a battle Royal. Corky was having a great run and got ahead of Chris by half a lap in segment 3. In the final segment Corky looked comfortable, holding off Chris easily - until lap 23 !! Corky came off at the elbow and some poor marshalling meant that his lap time for that lap was 11 1/2 seconds, so from being half a lap up and comfortable he was now a lap down on Chris. Chris then consolidated his lead while Corky stormed off in pursuit, Chris had an off on lap 31 which got Corky half a lap back, but no more mis-haps saw Chris come home first with a total of 152.84, just that half a lap ahead of Corky’s 152.30.

So, Chris took a rather fortunate win overall from Corky in second, Trev took third and Mick fourth, both from the B final. As far as the Championship goes, despite Bob’s poor result tonight, he takes it with 438 points, just 4 points ahead of Chris with 434 and Mick finishing off a good series in 3rd place on 391.

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