Slot Rally GB 2026 - Round One - Oxford

There's been a lot of rain so far this year and our 260-mile round trip from Goring-by-Sea was suitably wet and pot-holed. We made good time, despite some less-than-perfect human navigation at the Oxfordshire end. We arrived at a packed Ramsden Memorial Hall. Thirty people signed-on to compete, including twenty paying the extra fiver to enter the championship. It was going to be a long day...

   

After snaffling a bacon roll and two cups of tea, I was ready to hit the first of our seven stages. The four of us from WHO - Phil, Terry, Mike & me - were in the same group, together with Colin and the two Steves...

         

         

Colin is the creator of 'Mind the Lambs' stage which was going to be our group's first. This was run in the reverse direction to last year...

   

A very neat routed stage across two boards, those cones and gates require some caution - particularly for larger vehicles. I didn't have a bad start - my road-opening SCX Fiat 124 followed by three Nincos - a Porsche 911SC for Classic, Lancia Rallye 037 for 80s/90s and Subaru Impreza for Modern...

         

I decided not to run the new Targo Florio class. Much as I love the real-world event and the cars, I do slot rallying to run rally cars. But I did enjoy watching some very fast Italian machinery - Terry and Phil shared Phil's NSR Lola, Colin ran an NSR GT40, one Steve had an NSR Porsche 908 and the other a rapid Policar Ferrari 312PB.

Nicely warmed up (and my Subaru a bit bashed by the gates), we moved on to the Ninco Raid track. This should have been a favourite for the WHO racers - we always have a stage with off-road track at our slot rally club nights...

   

Not surprisingly, some of the Targa cars did not enjoy this stage - the exception being the Policar Ferrari, which set the fastest time of any car in our group. Of my four, it was the Porsche that was quickest - the only time it would beat both the Lancia and the Subaru.

Another stage completed and we were back to the other end of the hall for Wayne's World - a compact routed stage fitted to a paste table. Mike was making notes for a possible future WHO track...

   

This one's all about rhythm and not bashing the grassy banks. I was happy with my runs - getting quicker with each car.

Some of the groups were breaking for lunch after three stages, but we continued with a fourth - the Ninco Snow stage, which proved trickier than it looks...

   

Going first, I wasn't 100% satisfied by my performance, the Lancia going quickest - a tenth of a second faster than the Subaru. The Targa cars were blisteringly fast on this stage, with Steve's Ferrari quickest of them all.

Time for lunch and to catch up with some of the other groups. Marc and Martin from St Albans Slot Car Club were enjoying the big Ninco 'Stage 7'...

   

And the Whitchurch Slot Rally Club guys deserved a prize for their sharp new polo shirts...

   

For our group, it was time for a well-earned rest before we tackled the two big Ninco stages and the routed Ramsden Green.

hi 
I'm  new to this hobby so apologies (if like on most hobby forums) this question has been asked many many  times...
anyhow  bought a scalextric digital set recently , that has the 4 channel  silver digital powerbase 
done the usual thing  and already doubled the size of the track  only to find its now lacking in even power and has little chance of powering 3 or 4 digital cars at once .it doesnt..
So have attached  three sets of powertaps to the track , and while this has helped , its still lacking in even consistent power. 
two questions 
1 should the powertaps be connected pretty much one to the next , till you've got all the way around the circuit , or can they be randomnly connected from a strong spot to a weak spot thus strenghtening the weak power area
2 with the sort of power base set up i have is it and (how) possible to connect a second power supply  to the track ?
thks in advance

It's less than three weeks away. I'll be at my usual spot. First table on the left. 

   

Nascot Wood (as a venue) is no more!

We have moved to St Albans – due to lack of maintenance by the school (no toilet paper sometimes!!!!)

Anyway, our details are as follows:


Our club is located at:


ST ALBANS SLOT CAR CLUB
Margaret Wix Primary School,
High Oaks, St Albans AL3 6EL

What3Words: wished.assest.plots

Our website address:

www.stalbansslotcarclub.co.uk

A question for our friends across the pond ?
I believe that muscle cars of the 60's and 70's used 3litre or higher capacity engines, but is it a characteristic of ALL muscle cars ?
Were there any under 3litre capacity motor muscle cars ?

   

Our 2026 Scalextric digital season continues on Wednesday with another Nascar club car team race and Trans-Am pairs race - a perfect introduction to our digital racing formats and RCS64 race management software.

We do ask that new racers complete at least one (and preferably two) Nascar & Trans-Am evening to progress to our GT Championship and the Saturday events. During the evening we gradually introduce the tyre wear, fuel consumption and weather features of the RCS64 software. Team captains will get you up to speed with the nuts and bolts of digital racing - and to the subtleties of race strategy.

Doors open at 6.30pm for practice and digital driving school. Teams are allocated and we start racing with evenly-matched club cars as near to 7pm as possible. An hour of action is divided into three or four segments of either 15 or 20 minutes, including driver changes every five minutes. Teams swap cars at each break - winners with last place, second with fifth etc. After an hour of racing, total laps are added up and prizes awarded at around 8.30.

Trans-Am cars are back for the pairs race for 2026-8. Scalextric and Pioneer models of cars that raced in the Trans-Am series between 1966 and 1972 are eligible. The usual Trans-Am format is two 8-minute qualifying heats, with a driver change at half-distance. The cars completing the most laps in their 8-minute heat automatically qualify for a the feature race, the other six battle it out for the remaining places in an 8-minute ‘B-Final’. And that usually takes us up to around 9.30pm - or sometimes a little later.

The whole evening costs just £3 for adults and £2 for under-16s. All equipment is provided for the team race. Those without a Trans-Am car will need to negotiate to share a ride. We do ask that racers aged 13 and under bring a responsible adult with them.

Having already posted about my experience this year in regard to a very late retuned proxy cars from the US, it was a little amusing to have another late arrival from USPS this week.

This time it was an order placed on the 23rd December 2024 with Slot Car Corner for some Paul Guage tyres

They just arrived !!! 

First Class Postal service 

Is this really the first 1/24 purchase of the year?

A banana yellow BRM 911.

   
   
   

Hi,

This year we have 3 rounds.

The classes are the same as last year :-

Group B Peugeot 205 & Lancia S4.

Group 2 Porsche 914/2 Inline 

Group 4 Ford Capri and BMW 2.8CS

Best 2 rounds to count. 

Basic rules

SRC Unglued tyres only
SRC motors & gears only
SRC parts only except braid, wire and screws. 

Dates 
22nd March Wye Valley Abergavenny 
14th June Whitchurch slot rally club
11th October Wye Valley Abergavenny 

SRC are providing lots of prizes again. 

Any questions please ask. 
Phil.