WHO Mod & Tuners - 1 April 2026

WHO Mod & Tuners - 1 April 2026 - Printable Version

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WHO Mod & Tuners - 1 April 2026 - woodcote - 3rd-Apr-26

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We were back on Wednesday for our second WHO Mod & WHO Tuners night of 2026, racing on an AFX version of Meadowdale International Raceway...

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Over to Gareth for his race report...

RE: WHO Mod & Tuners - 1 April 2026 - Gareth - 6th-Apr-26

Race Report

Q2 means the start of our second rotation through the classes starting with round 2 of Mod and Tuners.

We had 23 drivers with 16 in Mod and 7 in Tuners and 3 brand new drivers in Beth, Chas and Mike. Welcome to all 3 of you! It was also lovely to welcome back Alex who was on Easter holidays from university.

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The track was a sublime challenge with the start line heading straight into a hairpin and chicane before looping back on itself for a simply enormous back straight. A series of esses brought you back to the final fast 180 back to the start line. That chicane out of the hairpin was tricky for some drivers and caused real drama later in the evening.

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A good Mod heat score was over 20 laps with Terry, Gareth, Oliver, Isaac and Kev all smashing those results in. Kev was absolutely flying with his Bulldog on a track that on paper should have favoured the Vipers. Could we see a Bulldog in the A final for the second round running?

At the half way point, we had Terry on provisional pole from Oliver, Isaac and Kev. Andy was leading the charge in Tuners only 8 laps back from Terry which was very impressive and he was a long way clear of John who was struggling with his GT40 clad Bulldog.

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At the end of the heats, Terry had clinched pole position but Gareth had vaulted to 2nd ahead of Oliver, Isaac and Kev who would need to win the B Final to get that Bulldog A final spot.

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In Tuners Andy maintained that 8 lap lead over John, James, Chas, Kevin, Adam and Oliver the younger.

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RE: WHO Mod & Tuners - 1 April 2026 - Gareth - 6th-Apr-26

Tuners Final

With Adam and Oliver departing at 8 and Kevin not feeling well, we were left with 4 Tuners and a straight fight for the win.

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A messy and slow first two laps with doubles offs for Andy (red) allowed John (blue) to streak into the lead. Chas and James also had disastrous first laps with lengthy times off track. Andy was pushing hard but the dominant performance of the heats had disappeared while John was putting in a very consistent drive up front. Neither had an answer for James’ pace though who was absolutely flying in yellow lane and took the fastest lap. Unfortunately that pace was punctuated by several crashes but he showed what his car was capable of over 1 lap.

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At the end of the race, John had cruised to a great win with Andy in 2nd, James in 3rd and Chas bringing up the rear. Not a bad performance on debut and I’m sure he’ll be back.

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RE: WHO Mod & Tuners - 1 April 2026 - Gareth - 6th-Apr-26

Mod E Final

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It had been a tough night for Matthew and his Viper. Running a 3D printed wing with his purple Group C car certainly looked cool but it was proving tough to keep on track. He would be going from pole in yellow against Mike M (blue), Beth (red) and Mike (white).

Matthew rocketed into an early lead taking advantage of that fast yellow line around the hairpin with Beth in hot pursuit who jumped Mike M into 2nd place. Mike S had a tougher start with an early crash into that much trickier white lane hairpin.

Out front it was all one way traffic for Matthew although he did suffer a crash immediately after posting his fastest lap and it was immediately smashed by Beth who took the fastest lap of the race. Too many crashes dented her challenge and she had to settle for 2nd behind the dominant Matthew.

Behind these two the battle of the Mikes ebbed and flowed with one too many crashes for each before Mike S clinched the 3rd position at the flag.

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Hope Beth and Mike enjoyed their first visit and look forward to seeing you both soon.

RE: WHO Mod & Tuners - 1 April 2026 - Gareth - 6th-Apr-26

D Final

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Gary had pole position for this one and had picked blue lane. There had been some gremlins on the lane throughout the heats so the power supply was swapped out for the finals. Hopefully this would help Gary out. Alongside him, Daniel was in red lane battling his mum Tracy in yellow which left Matthew in the fast but tricky white lane.

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It was Daniel who led them away for the opening four laps leading Matthew, Gary and Tracy. Gary overtook Matthew on lap 2 and when Daniel crashed on lap 5 he was through into the lead. Matthew behind had a lengthy off on lap 4 which sent him to the back while Tracy after a cautious start was stringing fast laps together consistently and working her way up the field.

Gary’s lead was sadly brief as he had a big off on lap 8 and again on lap 9 which left him last. It was agonising considering how smooth and fast he was on every other lap. Gary’s downfall was Tracy’s windfall as she swept into the lead with a minute to run. Daniel was in hot pursuit but a crash-strewn final minute saw his challenge collapse with Matthew passing both Daniel and Gary into 2nd.

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With Tracy taking the win and Matthew recovering to 2nd, it was Gary who regained more composure than Daniel as he retook 3rd in the dying seconds of the race.

RE: WHO Mod & Tuners - 1 April 2026 - Gareth - 6th-Apr-26

C Final

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We had a minor reprisal of the Battle of the Bean Can in the C Final with Rob (red) and Ollie (yellow) taking on Tracy (white) and Alex in blue. Tracy led them away but an off on lap 2 saw Rob straight into the lead. Alex meanwhile had a particularly torrid opening few laps with a string of crashes before finding some pace. Ollie was having one of his off nights too. Blisteringly quick over one lap but really struggling to keep the car in the slot for the whole 2 minutes. Ollie and Alex may also have collected each other in a collision out of the chicane as both lost a lot of time on lap 8. Even with that accident, they had the pace to overhaul Tracy and leave her in 4th place.

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Rob meanwhile kept it steady and on track as he eased to a comfortable win, two laps clear of Alex and three ahead of Ollie.

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RE: WHO Mod & Tuners - 1 April 2026 - Gareth - 6th-Apr-26

B Final

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Isaac’s Viper was sitting on pole for the B final in the red lane while Rob’s Viper moved up into white. That left Kev’s insanely fast Bulldog in yellow and Pete’s similarly quick Bulldog in blue.

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Kev’s rocketship immediately took the lead, Isaac easing past Pete for 2nd on lap 2 and Rob in 4th which became 3rd as Pete came off on lap 3. The pace was fast with all 4 cars looking capable of the win.

Isaac and Kev both came off on lap 8, just as Isaac was taking the lead. That promoted Rob to the front with Kev charging behind him and trying to close him down. Isaac and Pete were trading blows behind them as well as several times we saw Isaac pass, crash and then chase down and pass the reigning club champion again.

Kev’s relentless pace saw him ease past Rob and back into the lead on lap 13, the Bulldog was absolutely flying and it seemed almost certain that we’d see a second A final appearance for Kev and car in this championship. But then disaster in the last few seconds of the race, Kev flew off out of the chicane and across the start finish straight which Rob was barrelling down and heading for the lead. Suddenly the Viper was off the road as well. Kev got back on the track for a 10 second final lap but the damage was done as Isaac had snuck through and stole the win from under his nose! Kev and Rob looked suitably bemused, confused and perhaps regretful, good job they’re such good friends! That left Pete to bring up the rear as his car seemed to lack those last few tenths that the others had.

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RE: WHO Mod & Tuners - 1 April 2026 - Gareth - 6th-Apr-26

A Final

If Terry didn’t have bad luck, he would have no luck at all. We’ve seen some absolute howlers over the past couple of seasons with gears stripping for the A final, controller not plugged in properly and the odd bit of bad marshalling or tripping over other cars ruining what should have been a very competitive night. But the absolute Achilles Heel of Terry’s racing is his bodyshells. He has the same green Nascar as Matthew, the same F1 cars as several other drivers and in Mod, he is 1 of 4 drivers racing a Gulf liveried car along with Rob and perhaps more importantly, Isaac who was now lining his version up in blue lane right alongside Terry’s car in red.

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Gareth’s Goldie would be going from yellow and Oliver had chosen white lane, perhaps fearful of the electrical gremlins popping up again on blue lane.

All 4 cars were locked together in the opening laps and were absolutely flying, straight down into the sub 5.5 second lap times, this is why these cars were in the A final. Isaac crashed on lap 5 and the Gulf livery confusion immediately reared his head as Terry thought he had crashed meaning he lost a valuable 4 seconds. His cry of agony at realising his mistake was genuinely gut wrenching! 3 laps later and he crashed properly before unleashing 6 blistering laps where the slowest was a 5.0 and the best was a 4.826. No one else had anything close to this pace and it sadly ended with further crashes on laps 15 and 16 to completely ruin Terry’s race. He and Isaac exchanged places several times but that big lap 15 crash meant it was the youngster in 3rd and Terry who finished 4th.

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Out front Gareth was in control but Oliver was shadowing him just a few tenths behind, the difference almost entirely down to the relative difficulty of white versus yellow. As the seconds ticked down, Oliver sensed Gareth was easing up and piled on the pressure only to have a late off on the final lap to seal the win for Gareth.

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So a win for me (I find it easier to write in the third person for narrative!) and my first in 8 years apparently! Feels good. Isaac picked up the junior win and John the Tuners victory.

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Congratulations to all three, commiserations to Terry and thanks as always to the setup crew, race control and the strike down team.

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See you at Watkins Glen for Nascar.

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