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WHO Racing Nascar August 2023 Race Report

Nineteen racers - our best HO attendance of the year so far - gathered at the Barn for our traditional August Nascar race. Matthew P was making his debut at the Barn and there were welcome returns for Duncan, Laurence and Andy. Probably our most used layout for the August races is a Pocono-style 'Tricky Triangle' - and that's what we went for this time, with 18/15" corners all round and no banking...

   

Of the nineteen cars on the grid, thirteen were on Tomy Super-G+ chassis, five were the Gen6 class Mega-G+ Fords and Chevys, plus there was Duncan's sole Life Like T...

   

Qualifying was as frantic and intriguing as ever - 2 minutes on each of the four lanes and the combined scores of the best 3 three lanes counting. After ten of the twenty heats, everyone had completed two of their four laps. Oliver led the way on 89.60 laps, followed by his younger brother Ryan on 87.45. Then came Andy with 84.60, Terry with 81.05 and Jerome with 76.45 laps.

   

The second pair of heats for each driver saw faster times, but some costly crashes. Oliver hit misfortune in red lane, handing both Ryan and Andy a chance to grab pole position. In the penultimate heat, Andy followed up a huge 46.4 in blue with a big 45.25 in yellow to go half a lap ahead of Oliver. Running in the final heat, Ryan needed to set the best score of qualifying to take pole - his 45.10 in red not quite enough. The top three ended less than two laps apart - Andy, Oliver and Ryan all guaranteed a place in the A Final...

   

Behind them, Terry and Jerome looked favourites to battle for the step-up to the A Final - and all of the four lanes had the potential to deliver a race winner. Kev pipped Ash to Gen6 qualifying honours, Ollie was ahead of Isaac in the battle of the juniors - as well as leading the rookies. Matthew P didn't quite manage to get on the pace during his heats, but it looked like he was having fun and was getting important racing experience under his belt.

The finals are next...

[KensRedZed]

Too bad my canoe is not ocean worthy. You guys are having way too much fun. 

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The F Final saw Matthew P's Gen6 Mega-G+ line up against Gary, Tracy and Isaac - all driving Super-Gs. This was a great race to start the finals, Gary leading the first half of the race, before Isaac overtook him in some mid-race carnage. Tracy had paced her 2-minutes perfectly, overhauling Isaac to take the lead with just five laps left. As the clocked ticked down, she led through the line on the last lap, but Isaac was just half a second behind and pushing hard. As the clock stopped and the cars rolled to a halt, Isaac had stolen victory by just a few feet! Tough luck for Tracy, but it was Isaac who'd step up to the E Final.

   

There could have been three McCanns in the E Final, but Isaac's last-gasp win meant he faced Daniel and Mike, plus Laurence in the only Gen6 car. It was Laurence who led the first three laps, until Mike got into his stride, overtook the Brighton man and gradually eked out a lead of a lap by half way. Daniel was third and Isaac fourth after a minute of the race...

   

Laurence continued to push his Mega-G+ as hard as he could, his one off to Mike's clean run giving the McCann senior an advantage of 0.45 laps at the end of the race. Uneventful, but utterly enthralling. Daniel would claim third, another lap and a half behind.

The D Final was a demolition job from start to finish. Pete was quickest off the line and then banged in some great lap times in near-perfect run, just one off in the second half of the race. Ollie was second best, a very solid error-free run with a Super-G+ that's not the quickest...

   

Mike was just 0.15 of a lap behind at the end, with Rob back in fourth and five laps off Pete's winning score of 40.20 - the first 40+ lap score of the finals so far.

Pete stepped up to white lane in the C Final, alongside Matthew E's rapid but sometimes erratic Super-G and the two top Gen6 cars of Kev and Ash...

   

This final quickly settled into two fierce battles - Pete and Matthew for the step-up, with Ash and Kev brawling over the evening's Gen6 honours. Matthew led the way, but Pete never gave up. Matthew nearly threw the race away with a late off, but swift marshalling meant he led through the line by 1.119 seconds - but then Pete was off on the final lap, giving a slightly flattering gap at the end of just over a lap. It didn't reflect the tension on the drivers' podium and in the room!

   

In the Gen6 battle, Ash handed Kev the upper hand after crashing on the opening lap. However, the battle ebbed and flowed with crashes for both drivers closing the gap. A late off for Ash ended the contest - Kev winning by a lap and a half.

The B Final looked tasty - Matthew joined fellow-Super-G racers Jerome and Terry alongside sole Life Like runner Duncan in his favoured yellow lane. The Life Like was no match for the Super-Gs in the early stages, but moved up to third when Matthew had some trouble. At the front, Jerome had too much pace for Terry and quickly teased out a lap lead. Terry had three offs - each costing him a lap - whereas Jerome banged in some rapid times without error. The winning margin was four laps. Terry was second and Duncan third...

   

It looked to be a genuine four-way battle in the A-Final...

   

Ryan led the first couple of laps, Andy making a slow start and sat a few metres off the back of a tightly-packed trio. Oliver took the lead on lap 4 - but a crash on lap 8 dropped him to the back... where he was joined by Andy after his own off. That left Ryan in yellow leading Jerome in white, the other two driving hard to catch up lost ground - which they did. Oliver crashed again at half distance, Andy swiftly following and taking out Jerome's car in the outside lane. Ryan was now out front on his own, almost two laps ahead and with the clock ticking down.

Andy had finally got into a rhythm and started to hunt the leader down in a 24-lap run to the chequered flag. Taking two or three tenths a lap out of Ryan's lead almost every lap, Andy un-lapped himself with about 20 seconds to go - it was going to be close! Ryan held his nerve, keeping his pace steady and not taking any unnecessary risks. He judged the gap to perfection - when the power was cut at the end of the race, Ryan's car was exactly five feet ahead of Andy's...

   

Huge congratulations to Ryan on what we all think is his first HO A Final victory - an honour he had the earn in the most competitive of circumstances. Plans to repaint his 'difficult to see' black car have been put on hold. Ollie picked up the junior medal and finished top rookie - and Kev took the Gen6 Cup win...

   

Here are the results and fastest laps from all the finals - click to make the image bigger...
   

A big thank you to everyone who came along for such a fun evening of racing at the Barn. Special thanks goes to all those who set-up and stayed behind to pack away - and to Ash for such a great job on Race Control. On a personal note, it was great to be back racing HO at the Barn!

The next HO race is Formula One on Wednesday 6 September. I aim to publish the January to July results before then.