[Kevan]

Targa Florio - 4th September 2025

   
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One car, three minutes on each of the three Rally stages plus a three lane round robin of three minute heats on BallaYorkley… all the three’s
…and not long after 7pm three seemed to be the number of the counting, and the number of the counting seemed as though it would be three…(people that is! )
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Thankfully Brian, Chris & Gav turned up to make two groups of three drivers…
…then a sudden influx of club members and visitors as Mike (who we thought was away in Ireland)  turned up with Dave (who hasn’t raced at the club for a long time)... shortly followed by Ian and his wife who were invited a couple of weeks ago after a chat whilst at their home to see the remarkable outdoor G-gauge railway that goes round the outside of their house in Bride.
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As it turned out we had two groups of four drivers on the Rally stages as Ian rekindled his youth racing Slot cars in England…and he can drive perfectly well! (you obviously never lose it) driving some of Andy’s cars on BallaYorkley whilst the rest of us were on the Rally stages.
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“There’s a problem with the track!”... as Andy’s car refused to get through one of the crossovers on Little Druidale… moving the car across the junction from different directions was puzzling for a short while… “there’s a screw!”... dig it out with a knife, a short M2 machine screw and panic over, no problems with the track.
…”who’s lost a screw?”... no reply… Mister Nobody then.  Gav’s Ferrari did OK with three screws missing from the rear end… Mister Nobody maybe?
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There was a good mix of cars, small sports, classics, prostocks, upgraded basic cars so between the eight of us there were actually seven winners of one sort or another.  All will be revealed in the results sheets.
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Brian’s Ford GT40 broke down early in the evening and was swapped for a Ferrari 275/330/365 P2, normally raced in our Small Sport/Saloons races, went really well tonight.
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Gav’s Ferrari broke down after a couple of laps on TT Grandstand stage, (broken guide wire) Chris kindly fixed it whilst the next driver took over.
…it broke down again on BallaYorkley when the other wire on the guide snapped off.
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Dave’s GT40 was finding grip a little hard to come by but was assured that a few more visits would see the tyres polish to a shine on the painted track surface and have more than sufficient grip.  To be fair, a snapped chassis wasn’t helping matters but Dave managed to win a heat on BallaYorkley.
The other GT40 that made it through the evening was Mike’s, it’s been in our Targa Florio events before so was expected to go well and didn’t disappoint. 
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Ed was racing a proxy XK120 Jag (out of the box of course…club joke!), Chris also raced one, this was much closer to out-of-the-box spec and was the sole Back2Basics car tonight.
There wasn’t a great deal of time between these two cars but this may change in the near future as Chris has commissioned a K3D chassis for one!
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Kev raced an SRC Alfa 33TT12, first time on the Rally stages but forgetting to bring his Rally controller was a personal annoyance, made do with his normal racing controller and he seemed to enjoy driving it.
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Andy raced a Porsche 908/3, another car new to the Rally stages, set up like the car Kev prefers for Targa Florio nights so was expected to do well…and it did!
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At the end of the long evenings racing (and we certainly got full value for money) there were winners galore and some pleased club members as some cars hadn’t been in competition before.
We’re here to help each other, there’s always more than one winner and the evening ended with us wanting to do this again.
…which we can do, the Christmas Turkey Targa is the next one!
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Results by MSCC classes:

   

Results by Targa Florio car type:

   

Car comparisons

   
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Next week is ‘Battle of Britain’ 1 & 2 - this was a great event first time round so it should be great fun next week.  Think Mini Cooper vs Porsche 911, Jaguar mk7 vs Audi LMP, Cortina vs BMW M3.
…bring one of each, one Brit, one German (no open wheelers).

[Kevan]

The round robin circuit racing which followed the three Rally stages

[Kevan]

Targa Florio - 5th February 2025

   
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Even with what seems a lot of regulars off working/ill/injured/holiday it was another great turnout this week as eight of us got to drive our favourite car round all four club tracks.  For the Rally stages this meant two groups of four.
…we’re getting good at being organised as we started just after 7:30 and finished by 9:30 with everything put away, tracks covered etc.
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The two groups for the Rally stages were:

• Jamie, Andy, Terry, Macaulay
  
• Kev, Brian, Jake, T.J.
  

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Everyone drove one car all night, three minutes on each of the three Rally stages followed by three rounds of racing on BallaYorkley circuit.
The number of completed laps on the three Rally stages were added to the race total on BallaYorkley.
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Six different classes were entered varying between Standard cars to scratch built Open Class cars.
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Class wins for:

• Jamie’s Jaguar XK120
  
• Brian’s Ferrari 275 P2
  
• Macaulay’s Porsche 908/2
  
• Kev’s Alfa Romeo 33 TT12
  
• T.J’s Ford GT40
  
• Andy’s Ford GT40
  

   

Car comparisons

   
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It seems some of our newer club regulars really enjoyed tonights racing and look forward to the next one in May (there’s three more this year).
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…if you liked the Rally side of things, there’s six of those to come in 2026, the first one is the 12th March
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There’s a video of the racing on BallaYorkley.
Once we get a bit more organised and the newer regular club members get used to what happens, we’ll get some video of the Rally stages also.
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Next week is Sports & small Sports followed by Grand Prix & F1

[Kevan]

[Kevan]

Targa Florio - 21st May 2026 - 

   
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In the past we’ve run the Targa Florio with one car each on all four tracks.  Tonight we had the option to use up to four different cars each, a different car on each track.
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Two of us opted to run four different cars:

• Andy - AC Cobra, Ford GT40 and a pair of Porsche 908/3’s
  
• Kev - Alfa Romeo 33 TT/12, Porsche 908/3, Mini Cooper, Ford GT40
  

Two of us opted to run three cars:

• Geoff - Ferrari 312PB, Ford GT40, Jaguar XK120
  
• Brian - Austin Healey, Ferrari 275P, Ford GT40
  

One of us opted for two cars:

• Paul - a pair of Porsche 356’s
  

The other two chose to run one car only:

• Mike - Alfa Romeo 33/3
  
• Gav - Ferrari 412P
  

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We saw a good range of classes and cars, Standard Class (two cars), Modified Class (two cars), Prostock Class (eight cars) and Open Class (six cars).
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• One Small Saloon
  
• Six Small Sports
  
• Eleven Sports
  

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Although we split into two groups, it was really enjoyable watching the different cars tackle our Rally stages.
Nearly half of the cars seen tonight wouldn’t get the chance to be in an ‘official’ race on these tight twisty tracks and yet they are so enjoyable to drive, so a Targa Florio night gives you this opportunity.
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To add a bit of Sicilian feel to the results sheet, each ‘team’ has an appropriate name, just to add a bit of fun to the proceedings.
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The circuit racing on BallaYorkley is covered in the video.

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Next week is Club Revoslots followed by F1 (including Grand Prix, Prewing F1 and Classic F1).
…we may well see the inaugural F1 Sidecar race if three or more turn up…two are promised so far!

[Kevan]

[Kevan]

Race report and results - 3rd Sep 2026 - 

• Targa Florio Rally stages
  
• Targa Florio circuit races
  
• SRF F1 Sidecars
  

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Targa Florio Rally stages - 3 minutes on each Rally stage (only complete laps count)

   
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It was great to see Gav back again, he said he felt guilty not being able to help marshaling but we don’t mind at all, it’s more important that he gets to the club to enjoy driving his cars.
Jamie was also back this week with a Porsche 908 that he’d never raced before and finally got the chance to use his new Truspeed Apex controller.  I’ve watched a brilliant video on adjusting and using the Apex so hopefully I can help him with it.
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With all four tracks open for use, we saw loads of different cars during practice with the difficult decision to choose only one car each…
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The cars used (in score sheet order):

• Brian H - Ferrari 250 GTO (Open Small Sport)
  
• Jamie - Porsche 908/3 (Prostock Sport)
  
• Gav - Ferrari 412P (Prostock Sport)
  
• Chris - Corvette C1 (Open Small Sport)
  
• Kev - Porsche 914/6 GT (Prostock Small Sport)
  
• Andy - Porsche 908/3 (Prostock Sport)
  
• Brian L - Ford GT40 (Prostock Sport)
  
• Geoff - Ford GT40 (Prostock Sport)
  

As only completed laps count, sometimes you can get within inches of the lap timer just as the 3 minutes lapses…which did happen at least once tonight.
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Targa Florio circuit races
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Three classes of cars were represented tonight.

• Kev in ‘Prostock Small Sport’
  
• Brian H & Chris ‘Open Small Sport’
  
• Andy, Brian L, Jamie, Geoff & Gav in ‘Prostock Sport’
  

   

Car comparisons:

   
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Enjoy watching the mix of cars in the video, it was certainly enjoyable racing each other as it was also enjoyable sat watching the cars as marshal on the Rally stages.
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SRF F1 SIDECARS

   
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• Four SRF F1 Sidecars
  

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It was a really busy night, after the Targa Florio was over, four club members left as it was getting late, but we still had four willing to race Sidecars.
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Now it was an accident (honest) that the races were set at 5 minutes, this wasn’t noticed until about 30 laps into the first heat, ah well, too late to change it now so this meant tyre management (quickly forgotten once racing starts! )
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The usual incidents and jeopardy applied… we thought we were going to get away with it this week, with over 3 minutes left in the last heat, Kev said “there’s plenty of time left for it to go t*ts up! “... sure enough as Brian H’s outfit ground to a halt and a yellow flag called, it was found both spur gears had slid up the axle and out of gearmesh… that’s Sidecar racing!
…then upon commencing the last heat, lo and behold Brian was a tenth quicker… but it was to no avail as Geoff had a couple of laps in hand.
Talking of Geoff’s Sidecar, during practice Kev said “that looks like you’ve geared it up”... with Geoff replying “I might have!”... he said he thought he’d fitted a 12T pinion but turns out it was an 11T, it’s now up to speed proper.
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A mention for the other outfits:

• After last week’s guide mount failure, Brian L has managed to chase the gremlins out and said he can finally trust it to be consistent.
  

   
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Here’s a reminder of the setups that seem to work well:

• Gearing - 3:1 or thereabouts, i.e. 11/34, 12/34 or 12/36.  This gives plenty of acceleration and brakes and more than enough top speed.
  
• 10mm wide tyres gives a great selection of tyre choices, tried and tested compounds in this size on BallaYorkley are NSR Alan Mann Untragrips, Thunderslot 002 or 004’s
  
• A good chunk of ballast down the centre of the chassis seems to work well.
  
• A small diameter front tyre so it doesn’t foul the chassis or touch the bodywork.
  
• How tight the bodyshell fixing screws are seems to have a big effect on handling, trial & error here.
  
• N.B. control in corners, trying to keep both rear tyres either side of the slot/braid to prevent tyre degradation on the drivers side wheel.
  

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A ‘gentleman's agreement’ formulated after a discussion with the SRF design team to keep the racing close for everyone:

• Slotcarmann Harrier 26k handout motors
  
• 10mm wide tyres
  
• No tyre treatment once Sidecar racing starts
  
• Ballast inside the outfit only please
  
• TAPE OVER THE SCREWS UNDER THE CHASSIS PLEASE
  

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Two videos this week…enjoy!

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Next week at the Manx Scalextric & Slot Car Club…

• British & German cars (double bill) - ‘The Battle of Britain’
  
• SRF F1 Sidecars
  

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[Kevan]

Targa (circuit)



SRF Sidecars