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Twenty-two racers assembled at the Barn for a memorable end-of-season Tin Top Saturday. We welcomed back Jean (of Johnny's Workshop fame) and Simon M joined us for his first Tin Top action.

After 45 minutes of practice, it was time for the first race of the day...

Group A Team Race

Twenty-one drivers (James arrived too late) were divided into six teams for this 30-minute race. Five of our Gold-rated drivers led the teams, with Jeremy stepping up to fill the sixth spot with his WHAM! Racing. Four Sierras were joined by Dean's Aston Mosdell VL Commodore and the WHAM! BMW E30 M3.

   

This race is all about track familiarisation and ironing out any technical glitches. Sadly Gearzilla had a rough time with a less-than-perfect controller and they dropped to the back, eighteen laps in arrears at half distance. The Commodore was leading, thanks to a great opening stint by Ash, the blue AST One Sierra was two laps behind, with the red MFI Sierra in third and the WHAM! BMW not far adrift in fourth.

   

Alex had hoped to push hard in the final stint, but had to manage a loose rear wheel instead. He successfully defended second spot from a hard-charging Mike, who had pulled away from the BMW in fourth. Ash, Stephen and Dean scored a great win for the Commodore...

   
   

A perfect way to start the day!

         

         

         

Straight on to our BTCC weekend simulation - and qualifying for 22 cars...

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BTCC Qualifying

   

With James joining us, we had 22 cars for a huge WHO BTCC grid. They'd be four qualifying groups and then five step-up finals for each of the three races. Thankfully we have a well-oiled mechanism in place to get the cars ready, ID-ed and on the start line without losing too much time.

Each qualifying group included one of the top four in the championship - Alex taking a big 11-point lead over Andy into the second trio of races. Oliver was six points behind Andy and one ahead of Mike - and all four drivers would have a significant power reduction in qualifying and Race One to act as success ballast.

   

Despite the power disadvantage, Alex grabbed pole with a rapid 13:099 second lap, Mike was second, Andy third and Oliver fourth - and they would be the automatic qualifiers for the A Final...

   

Some drivers had qualifying sessions to forget, but two step-ups from each final would give opportunities to move up the field and into the points.

BTCC Race One

The twenty-two cars were sorted into their five finals...

   

Pete and Stephen moved up from a close E Final - Duncan and Daniel missing out, with Simon finding his feet in the WHO BTCC field and Kev's Civic retiring with engine issues. The first championship point goes to fifteenth place - third in the D Final - and it was John who bagged it on his return to the BTCC grid. He missed out on the step-up - Rob and Matthew finishing first and second...

   

Rob continued his move up the field with second place in the C Final, just behind Terry. Five cars finished on the lead lap. There was no stopping Rob in the B Final and he followed Jeremy to the line and secure a third successive step-up. The two of them lapped all the others...

   

Rob was best of the rest in the A Final, getting ahead of Jeremy early on and tailing the four championship leaders as they pulled away in close formation. Alex had the early lead before Mike muscled ahead - a clean race for the white BMW meant no-one got near him. Alex cruised home in second, while Andy had to fight to get ahead of Oliver and clinch the final spot on the podium...

   

Here are the full results from Race One...

   

Alex stretched his lead in the championship to 15 points, but Mike was now just two points behind in third...

Alex - 77 points
Andy - 62 points
Mike - 60 points
Oliver - 54 points

That was lunch and some welcome downtime before the afternoon session.

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BTCC Race Two

The result of the first BTCC race determines the starting line-up for Race Two. So Mike would start in pole position. However, we had four more step-up finals before that fight for the race win...

   

Pete again won the E Final, this time Duncan stepping up with him. Kev's Civic was sounding a bit more perky and he just missed out. The D Final saw another close battle - absolutely nothing in it at half distance - with Jean and John hanging on for the step-ups.

   

Those two did it again in the C Final, working their way through the field and beating the likes of Ash and Dean to the line. It was John who dominated this one with his Passat, Jean had to fight his way past Ollie and Ash to grab the second step-up spot. 

   

Jean's progress was halted in the B Final, but John battled on. He was behind Jeremy and Rob at half way, but managed to grab second place, with Jeremy cruising to top spot. Terry and Simon had a very close finish for fifth place...

   

The A Final was another tense affair with some close racing. Mike had an early error, leaving Alex and Andy to escape and circulate line-astern. Just before half distance, two errors in one lap dropped Andy to third behind Oliver and gave Alex some breathing space. Andy responded, setting the fastest lap of the race to get back past Oliver, but Alex closed out an error-free race to take another win and all but seal the championship.

   

Here are the full results from Race Two...

   

Alex had stretched his championship lead again, to 17 points - and it would take an utterly disastrous Reverse Grid draw and performance to throw that away...

Alex - 97 points
Andy - 80
Mike - 73
Oliver - 69

Before the final BTCC race, we'd take a look at the Carrera Classic Nascars...

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Carrera Classic Nascar

   

Our grid of these big Carrera Nascars has swelled to fourteen cars - they are such fun to drive and completely different to anything else we run. Twelve are early-70s Torinos, Superbirds, Roadrunners and Chargers, plus two 50s cars - Jeremy's Plymouth Fury joining Andy's Chevy BelAir this month. Three qualifying heats determined the starting order for three step-up finals, with two step-ups from each...

   

The ten-lap C Final saw Jeremy and Rob start from the front row. Jeremy fell back, but this was very close at half distance - Rob leading Terry, Kev, Jeremy, Isaac and Simon, all still on the same lap. Rob continued at the front through to the chequered flag, with Terry holding off Jeremy for the second step-up. Simon fought his way through to fourth.

   

Dean and Jean started at the front for the second ten-lap race and they held those positions at halfway, followed by Rob, Andy, Terry and Ollie. Andy had fallen right to the back after an early off, but last month's winner gradually worked his way through the field, snatching second spot on the last lap when Dean crashed his Torino. Jean comfortably won the heat.

   

The feature race was extended to 20 laps, meaning that most cars would need to pit for fuel. Pole-sitter Mike was soon at the back, just like last month, his Roadrunner quick but a real handful. Alex has a good lead over Jean, Oliver and Andy at 5 laps, before taking a strategic mid-race pit stop and dropping behind Jean. Andy got ahead of Oliver and was in fuel-saving mode, confident he could get to the end without stopping and jumping those ahead of him when they pitted. That worked with Jean's Charger, but Alex's Superbird was fuelled to the end. It finished Alex, Andy and Oliver on the podium...

   

Here are the full results...

   

While that was going on, Jean was given responsibility of drawing the pole-sitter for the BTCC Reverse Grid race. He pulled out the #5 ball - the lowest number available. That meant John (fifth in Race Two) would start from pole, with fourth placed Mike beside him and only race-winner Alex demoted to the B Final. That gave Alex all the championship points to win the 2025 WHO BTCC title.

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BTCC Race Three

Despite Alex being uncatchable at the top of the championship table, there was still plenty to play for in the final WHO BTCC race of the year. Second and third were still up for grabs, plus their were plenty of duels further down the table and some racers were desperate to score their first points of the season.

   

There were no points on offer in the E Final, but Pete stepped up for the third time in a row - this time finishing second to Kev's much-improved Halfords Civic. Their chances of a points score were dashed by strong performances by Ollie and Isaac in the D Final. Racing for the final time as juniors, the two BMW 330i drivers blitzed the rest of the grid and Ollie banged in a rapid 13:085-second lap on his way to victory.

   

Ollie held back slightly in the C Final and that helped him to another race win. This time Dean filled the second step-up spot, the other four finishing a lap down. Could Ollie make it to the A Final? He certainly had the pace (a 12:799 lap was quicker than Alex) and sat nicely in third at half distance. However, an over-exuberant final 8 laps dropped the youngster out of contention - Alex comfortably won by a lap ahead of Jean, Dean and Jeremy.

   

So we reached the final sixteen laps of our WHO BTCC season. The reverse grid had been very kind to the front runners and Alex had negotiated the B Final step-up with no issues. Could he grab a fourth win? Would Mike or Andy add a second - or would we see a first-time BTCC winner?

   

A slightly scrappy opening saw Andy and Alex move to the front, as they have for much of the past two seasons. Carrying plenty of success ballast for first and second in Race Two, the pair couldn't push as hard as they might have liked, but they increased the gap to the other four racers. There was nothing in it for the first six laps, with Alex starting to look for a way past. Back markers came into play and it was Andy who negotiated the moving chicanes with better fortune. Alex dropped back a few metres and just didn't have the power to close back up. An off for the champion-elect briefly dropped him behind Oliver, although he responded like a true champ and retook second spot. Andy's clean run from start to finish gave him a fine consolation victory...

   

Here are the full results for Race Three...

   

Jeremy added up the scores to confirm the championship podium - a thumping 15 point win for Alex, with Mike a further 14 points back, just two ahead of Oliver in fourth. Dean was best of the rest in fifth...

   

Here are the nineteen racers who picked up points in 2025, five drivers out of 24 missing out...

   

Huge congrats to Alex on his championship win, after just missing out last year. And a big thank you to everyone who has made our 2025 WHO BTCC season so enthralling with some great racing and exemplary sporting behaviour, including the loan of cars to our newer and visiting racers.

But that's not it for our December Tin Top Saturday - there's still Muscle Car Mondiale to go...

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Muscle Car Mondiale

   

This was another 22-car field for what is the last outing for this eclectic class for Scalextric classic touring cars. In 2026, the 1966-72 Trans-Am cars will split away and replace the Pioneer Legends as our Wednesday night pairs race class. Next year's Tin Top Saturdays will end with the same format, but only European-made saloon cars will be eligible, although the time-frame will be stretched to include the new SuperTouring BMW and Volvo. This was the last run (for now) for the Camaro IROC, Z28 and Chevy Monte Carlos.

   

For this final race, there was plenty of American Muscle on show - fifteen cars. Two Aussie Ford Falcons joined a Cortina, an Escort and a Capri, plus a Rover SD1 and an Aston Martin V8. The cars were separated into four ten-minute heats, the winners of each going into a five-minute shoot-out together with the two best-scoring runners-up.

   

Heat One was an all American affair. Mike's Chevy Monte Carlo was up against Terry's Hemicuda, Rob's Javelin, Kev's Cougar and James' borrowed '69 Camaro. Rob managed some fine fuel economy to get to half way without pitting. An excellent drive and just the one stop gave Rob the race win - Mike coming second and having to see if any of the other runners-up could beat his 36 laps and 13:343 fastest lap.

   

Alex's Bastos Camaro Z28 lined up on the front row alongside Ollie's '71 Chevy. Also in the heat were Ash's rapid Mk1 Escort, Daniel's Cougar and Isaac's IROC Camaro. Alex blitzed this one from the start, pulling out a nice lead by half distance, although faltering towards the end. Behind, it was a frantic battle for second place - Ash's Escort would only need one short fuel stop, but the others were quicker. Ollie put together a strong second five minutes, finishing on 36 laps and with a sub-13-second fast lap to put him in pole position for best runner-up.

   

Heat Three saw the Australian contingent - Simon's Falcon XC and Dean's XB - take on Oliver's Monte Carlo, Simon M's Gerry Marshall Capri, Stephen's Corvette L88 and Jean's borrowed IROC Camaro. Jean led Simon C after 5 minutes, with Stephen, Dean and Oliver close behind. That's how it stayed - Jean equalling Alex's score of 38 laps and Simon jumping Ollie and Mike by clocking up 37 laps on his way to runner-up spot.

   

Two Bastos-sponsored cars led the field in Heat Four - Andy's Rover SD1 and Jeremy's Camaro Z28. A brief side-by-side battle saw Jeremy prevail and Andy drop back into his own race. Behind, John's Aston Martin V8 was going nicely and proved economical on fuel - as was Duncan's Cortina. Pete's Javelin and Matthew's '71 Camaro were racing hard to make up time lost in the pits. At half way, Jeremy led John, Andy, Pete, Matthew and Duncan. With just one stop and the fastest car, Jeremy was a comfortable winner - and setting a best score of the heats with 39 laps. The battle for second went to Andy's Rover, but his 36 laps and 13:843 was not enough to qualify for the Winners' Shoot-out. Pete muscled the Javelin to third, with John's Aston fourth.

The five-minute shoot out looked like a three-way battle between the two Bastos Camaros and Jean's IROC car. However, Rob, Simon and Ollie were all in with a shout, especially if they could avoid a fuel stop. Jean, Alex and Jeremy did lead the early stages and at halfway only Rob looked likely to make it to the end with fuel in the tank...

   

It would all come down to pit stop strategy. Jean decided to take a generous glug of fuel early, dropping him to third but with a clear run to the chequered flag. Jeremy eased off to conserve fuel and took the lead when Alex made a late stop for a splash and dash...

   

Jean closed in on Jeremy, who would run out of fuel if he upped his pace and would be caught and passed if he didn't. In the end, an off on the penultimate lap for the Bastos Camaro decided an enthralling race - Jean speeding through and taking a well-deserved WHO winners medal...

   

Here are the full results for the heats and the shoot-out...

   

There is some video of this shoot-out, plus the team race and some BTCC action on Facebook and Instagram.

And that was it for the day! Huge thanks to everyone who came along and contributed to a most enjoyable end to 2025 at the Barn. Special thanks goes to the set-up crew, race control team and everyone who stayed to pack away. Despite the large grids and extra races, the doors were locked just after 5pm.

It all starts again in January, with HO, Digital and Slot Rally events to cheer up those dark months. Expect an update soon about our new American SpeedFest Saturday on 21 February. Here are all the 2026 WHO dates...

   

There are full details of all the formats here.

[BAracer]

How did I manage to snatch 2nd place from the jaws of victory in the Muscle Car race? When you finish infront of Alex you need to make the most of that rare opportunity!