[woodcote]

   

We return to the Barn tonight for our August HO Nascar race. Since August 2015, we have raced - more often than not -  on a version of the WHO Tricky Triangle, inspired by the Pocono tri-oval. This summer is no exception, returning to a layout with three quite different corners...

   

Sadly, WHO racer Steve Puttick will not be joining us tonight. His family informed us this week that Steve died suddenly at the end of June. Steve has been a part of the WHO family at the Barn since the start of last year, a popular member of the 'kitchen end' marshalling crew and a pretty handy racer. We will miss him.

[Gareth]

First I must start by saying rest in peace to Steve Puttick.  He was a lovely guy who always seemed to enjoy his racing.  As Andy says, Steve had quickly become part of the club and he will be missed.  

Race Report

August is here and at Worthing HO Racing, that meant round 3 of the 2025 Nascar Championship. After our May trip to Mexico City for the road track round, we were back in the USA to Pennsylvania to race on the most unique track in the Nascar oval calendar; Pocono. The 2.5 mile tri-oval was scaled down to a 47 foot track which fit nicely in the centre of the Barn. Turn 1 was the widest radius turn and flat while Turns 2 and 3 had some gentle banking to try and aid the track. Despite this, all of 3 corners would see a huge amount of crashes and Simon nicknamed Turn 3 “Deadman’s Corner” which seemed highly fitting.

   

There were 24 WHO regulars and 2 new faces on the grid in the shape of Adam and Oliver K. Welcome to WHO guys.

As we started the heats, there quickly emerged a gulf of performance between those who were in tune with the track and those who were not. Pete, John, Deborah, Terry and Jerome all achieved 40+ laps to start their qualifying. And so did Kev whose Bulldog looked astonishingly fast in his opening pair of races. Unfortunately, it was a Tuner Bulldog so Kev’s pace fell back to the 30s for his second runs!

   

Oliver was unhappy with his car throughout qualifying and yours truly helped with matching traction magnets and chassis but despite all this, Oliver remained around 5 laps per run behind the leading group.

Another one who looked in for a torrid night after his opening heat was Andy with a worrying (for him) 24.40 in white. He’d swiftly turn things around setting the highest score in red and two good runs in blue and yellow to put himself back in contention.

Behind this group was a tight group of Rob B, Gary, Keith, Matthew, Alex, John and Ash who were all putting in multiple 30+ lap runs.

A bit further back from this group were the people struggling with the track, their cars or in Dylan’s case forgetting his glasses! That group also included me, Mike, Simon, Isaac, Tracy and James. Adam and Oliver had to depart after the first two heats to get Oliver home in time for his bedtime but I hope they enjoyed their first taste of HO club racing.

After 26 gruelling heats, it was Jerome on pole with his astonishing 45.2 lap run in blue, following by Pete who fell from provisional pole at the midpoint and Andy. Terry would go from pole in the B and Keith from pole in yellow.

[Gareth]

Finals

   

   

H Final

   

Tracy was on pole for this one and went from blue lane in her Mega G+. James was in red and Dylan in yellow, both with Bulldogs. For the opening laps the competition was all James as he romped into a commanding lead over Tracy and Dylan whose torrid evening was continuing with multiple offs.
And then suddenly it was James who was experiencing difficulties as one crash led to another, both Bulldogs frequently together in the T1 barriers…and T2 and 3. Tracy
meanwhile kept it consistent and smooth as she gradually eroded James’ lead and swept through to take the victory.

G Final

   

Tracy advanced to the yellow lane in the G Final where she would face off against Kevin in blue, Simon in red and Isaac in white. Isaac often seems to be near the front or near the back and this was one of his near the back nights. His Super G seemed to come good in this one though as he blitzed his Mega G+ competitors with a 36.6 lap run and a very competitive 2.897 fastest lap. Kevin was his nearest challenger and despite a solid drive, he still finished 3 laps down on Isaac. Simon made the 30 mark which was a good drive in the club cars while Tracy struggled to find her blue form on the tight inside lane.

F Final

   

It was Isaac’s turn to take on the tight yellow lane as he and Mike McCann (Mega G+) became unwilling participants in the Battle of the Superdry glasses.  Poleman Gary’s Super G in blue vs Gareth’s Bulldog in red; who would be the fastest and most stylish Superdry man!  It was all super tight for the first few laps with Gareth nosing ahead and then collapsing with multiple crashes to end his challenge.  Isaac pumped in some quick sub 3 seconds laps but they were agonisingly punctuated by offs, preventing him getting up to Gary.  Mike in white was trying to be consistent but again the crashes were mounting up and he narrowly got pipped to 2nd by Isaac.  Meanwhile Gary had a sublime drive with no crashes at all as he hit 38 laps.  A brilliant drive and the worthy winner of the Superdry battle.

E Final

   

Again it was the yellow lane waiting for Gary to step up into and he would be facing Alex in blue, Matthew in red and Daniel in white.  Alex and John had been hard at work tuning their Bulldog chassis throughout the heats and it was soon clear to see that they’d hit on a winning formula.  Alex’s car was so fast, he even ran quicker than Kev’s neo Bulldog from the opening couple of heats.  41.35 laps was a new high watermark in the finals so far and a signpost for what we can expect from the Bulldog next season as the tyre heights are refined.  


Behind Alex, Matthew’s Super G looked rapid but there always seems to be a hint of instability in the car which prevents Matthew from unlocking that pace every lap.  He crashed on lap 2 before pumping in a string of fast laps to reel Gary back in.  Daniel’s Mega G+ only lasted 3 laps before a lengthy off put paid to his challenge, his car even when it was on the track was no match for the other three sadly as he trailed in 4th.  Matthew’s crash count rose steadily but Gary also had a very lengthy off near the end of the race.  Too late for Matthew to capitalise as Gary took an excellent 2nd place.


D Final

   

It was only a few months ago that we saw Alex take 3 wins on the bounce in F1 to make an amazing comeback from a poor qualifying and naturally we all wondered if we were about to see something similar.  He’d be going from the so far unfavoured yellow lane which no one had managed to win in.   Poleman Kev had elected for white lane with his Bulldog leaving Stephen M and Ash to take red and blue respectively in their Mega G+s.  


Off the line and Alex was cautious as he felt out his new tighter lane, Kev took the lead and Stephen had a big crash on lap 2.  Next time round and it was Kev and Ash’s turn to crash as Alex stormed into p1.  Ash and Alex briefly diced for the lead before Alex established himself 30 seconds into the race.  


Kev’s race abruptly ended only 45 seconds in as another off saw his car stop and he was forced to retire.  A frustrating end for what had been looking like a good evening. 


Stephen’s challenge also faltered in the dying moments of the race too.  He’d been consistent in between the occasional off but his car had no answer for Alex’s pace.  Neither did Ash’s but crucially Ash kept his crash count down and kept pushing on.  Therefore he was in exactly the right place to take advantage of Alex crashing with just 30 seconds to go.  And it was a long off with John rushing to help the marshals get the car back in the race.  And it would have been enough if Alex hadn’t immediately fallen off again. Instead it was Ash who, despite a late race off of his own, took a brilliant win.


C Final

   

Once again, it was the yellow lane which awaited Ash and once again it was the pole man, Keith this time, in blue.  Keith would need to win this race if he wanted a chance of winning Gen6 for the evening as Deborah had out-qualified him and was in the B final.  Looking to spoil his chances was Ash also in Gen6 and a Mega G+, Oliver in red and Rob in white.  Both were racing Super Gs and both looking fast.  In qualifying, Rob had not had the raw pace of Oliver but he’d been excellent at racking up big runs.  He did the same thing here as laid down a super smooth, error free run to the flag.
  
Both Ash and Keith crashed on lap 2 while Oliver unleashed the full power of his now tuned and ready to battle car.  A relentless torrent of sub 3 second laps, only marred by a single off on lap 30 crescendoed with a spectacular 2.548 fastest lap.  It was a huge run of 42.35 laps and a new best of the finals.  Rob’s car couldn’t quite reach those heights but it was definitely good enough for a superb 2nd place.  Keith’s car was marginally quicker but a second off meant he couldn’t get at the front two cars.  Ash finished 4th but he’d done super well to achieve that. 


B Final 

   

The B Final at WHO is always very special race to run in.  For the victor, the chance to join the A final and fight for the ultimate prize but it is also where we often see some of the most spectacular racing heroics before the white hot heat of that all important A Final.  Tonight would be no exception.  


Terry’s Super G has been fast and reliable for years.  He tells me hasn’t changed it since I hosted a test and tune session at my house which was at least 7 years ago now so it is a mightily impressive car. Predictably, he would be going from blue lane.   Deborah had already sealed Gen6 victory for the night and would be racing from red.  That left John’s Bulldog in white and Oliver going from yellow.  


The cars all circulated together for just 3 laps before Oliver crashed and he fell to the back.  He immediately got his head down and put on a charge, consistently lapping in the 2.6 to 2.7 range, no mean feat from yellow lane. 


Ahead of him Terry, Deborah and John were all circulating very rapidly indeed but John’s Bulldog dipped into the 3 second laptimes a little more frequently than than the other two who were banging in the 2.7s and 2.8s almost every single lap.  This was some absolutely epic racing.  


Astonishingly it was Terry who was the first to blink as he crashed with just 45 seconds left to race.  And as we all know, once you have a crash things can often go from bad to worse and he crashed a further 2 times to blunt his challenge and collapse to 4th place. Once again we are left to commiserate with a driver who perhaps should have had so much more.  


I hope you hadn’t forgotten about Oliver though because he was not done with this race by a long chalk as he overtook John on the 50 second mark and then Deborah who had inherited the lead from Terry’s first crash. It was a fairytale recovery drive as he had fought back from 4th to the lead but could he hang onto it? No!  Was the answer as just 3 laps later, Oliver crashed and Deborah swept back through.  It looked Oliver hadn’t finished his fight but a third and final crash sealed the win for Deborah and 2nd place for John who had compiled an impressive 39 lap run.  Not the best Bulldog run of the night but 5th overall was highly impressive.  


A Final

   

There are two facts about oval racing on a slot car track.  The inside lane is the shortest but has the tightest corners.  The outside lane is much longer but the wider corners means that the right car can still win from there.  Meanwhile the inside two lanes are always coveted for being the Goldilocks zone.  Not too long, not too tight, just right.  


Pete has had probably the fastest Super G in the club for a long time now and from second on the grid, he had elected to go for the yellow lane.  We all know he’s capable of some mind bendingly fast races but would he be able to turn the form book of the whole evening on its head by winning not just any final but the A final from yellow?  This was an epic gamble.  


Jerome had picked blue lane for his pole position and had probably influenced everyone else right the way down the field!  Andy meanwhile had picked red as you might expect.  That left Deborah in white lane but would her Mega G+ be a match for the Super Gs she was facing?  We all know Keith can prep an insanely fast Mega G+ but this would be a tall order.  Sadly the answer was no as Pete, Andy and Jerome attacked the track with astonishing times.  We’d seen the odd 2.5 and plenty of 2.6s and 2.7s before but Pete hit a 2.3 second lap on just lap 3 of the race!  Deborah wasn’t slow by any means, she got 40 error free laps but like Rob in the C final, it just wasn’t quite enough.  


Jerome blinked first on lap 2, falling to the back but that would be his only mistake for the entire race.  His average laptime from here to the flag was an astonishing 2.61 seconds!  


Pete’s gamble failed after just 5 laps as he crashed twice in two laps followed by another lengthy off on lap 15 which saw him lose a whole 8 seconds on his rivals.  Despite this he continued his relentless assault on what is humanly possible around Pocono achieving a mind bending best lap of 2.24 seconds.  I’m honestly surprised the track didn’t catch fire!  


All of this action though had left a window open for Andy in red lane and he is absolutely ruthless when you give him an opportunity like that.  Lap after lap, the Taco Bell 34 car ripped round the track in the lead of the race but the pressure of the Burley Boys behind, in particular Jerome who was back in second place in surprisingly quick order, saw Andy’s pace ease slightly.  You couldn’t see it with your eyes but every now again, Andy would lose 2/10ths of a second and every time he did Jerome would inch closer to the back of his car.  As the clock ticked down to the dying seconds of the race, there was no doubt about it.  Jerome could sense the win and he wanted to atone for that lap 2 crash.   Jerome reeled Andy in by a full 1.1 seconds in those final 5 laps and as the power cut at the end of 2 minutes, we had to look at the track to see who had won.  Jerome had fallen short by the tiniest of margins, the nose of his Monte Carlo, just behind the Taco Bell machine.  It had been a thrilling, breathtaking race.

   

So Andy took the overall victory, Deborah claimed Gen6 for her own and Isaac scooped top junior.  

   

A huge thank you as always to the drivers, race control, those who packed away and everyone who took their turn marshalling the races.  One more round of Nascar 2025 to go!    
  

[woodcote]

Great report Gareth! That A Final finish was a lot closer than I had planned... 

Here are all stats from Wednesday night, starting with the heats...

   

And all the finals...

   

The result leaves a tantalising Nascar championship finale in November...

   

And with Keith, Deborah and Daniel automatically through to the Gen6 showdown race, there is one space up for grabs - either more a fourth race winner or top points finisher...

   

And the club championship is looking tasty too...

   

Probably a two-horse race, but still four rounds and 640 points for someone else to muscle in.

Finally, James had edged ahead of Stephen in the race to become 2025 Rookie of the Year...

   

Our next HO race is AFX Formula One on Wednesday 3 September - we'll be racing on layout inspired by Suzuka.

[woodcote]

Adam has raced with us before - four events in the summer of 2010 with his son Cameron (Oliver's uncle). I remembered that Cameron won two junior medals, but forgot that Adam won the F1 race in June...



That was back when we all ran the Tyco club cars!

[Gareth]

Wow that really is digging into the archives to get find that one.  Very good video editing I must say!