[woodcote]

   

Twelve of us met up at the Barn for our annual test & fun night. With some not insignificant changes to our HO classes next year, it was a good opportunity to test new cars and raid the club shop. There were certainly some fast Bulldogs on show and not too many takers for the down-graded Viper traction magnets...

   

The drag strip came into its own towards the end of the evening, with four elimination races and a winners' shoot-out to decide who'd go home with the medal. With no timing, we ran 'best-of-three' match-races...

   

We started with a WHO Nascar-spec Bulldog & Mega-G+ ladder, with four racers getting a bye through round one. Ash managed to get to round two with his Mega-G+, but this race was dominated by Bulldogs...

   

Kevin and Andy got through to the final, where Andy's California Flash Camaro took a 2-0 victory...

         

The second race was a Mega-G+ only class - and most of the bodies were F1. James' McLaren and Andy's red Camaro were the class acts on the strip, meeting in the final...

   

It was another 2-0 win for Andy, but very close...

         

We opened things up to any WHO-eligible car for race three. A lot of Vipers, although our race two finalists chose a Mega-G+ (James) and a Tuners Bulldog (Andy) - both were quickly knocked out...

   

Rob and Isaac met in the final, Rob winning 2-0...

         

Next, we matched up two Auto World Top Fuel dragsters - one of Pete's and one of Andy's...

   

The yellow dragster started out the car to have - we swapped them for each race, with drivers drawing lots of over which they started with. As the races progressed, the purple dragster became quicker- and then evened out again. Plus there was the lottery of whether the purple car would start... There was a lot going on in this race!

   

Ollie and Andy got through to the final, with Ollie taking the win on a tense and exciting deciding run...

   

The last race was a shoot-out between the winners - Rob and Ollie's Vipers facing off before meeting Andy's Nascar Bulldog in the winner-takes-all final...

   

In the final, Andy took the first run, but Rob was too strong and took the medal with a 2-1 victory...

         

And that was the end of an excellent night. A big thank you to the set-up crew and to everyone who stayed behind to pack away. We'll do it again next November - but we are back at the Barn next Wednesday for the climax of our 2025 HO season.