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Nineteen racers joined us for our second Digital Saturday of the year and the climax of the 2026 WHO GT Championship.

   

Mike's version of Suzuka is a fixture on the WHO calendar. Not the easiest of tracks to put together, but most definitely worth it. A fast lap is a challenge and with not much between the drivers, it is difficult to overtake - a successful manoeuvre has to be planned and executed perfectly.

The highlight of the day is the Suzuka 1000 - a thousand lap race that takes around four hours (4 hours 12 minutes last year). Before that, we throw in a GT pairs race to help us all get up to speed and refresh our knowledge of the track...

   

Cars racing in the Suzuka 1000 are not permitted and models we wouldn't normally see in the WHO GT Championship are encouraged. This year we had two Carrera cars - a BMW Z4 and and McLaren 720S - plus a diverse mix of Scalextric models, including a Jaguar XKR, Aston Martin DBR9 and a Ford GTE.

The format was similar to the Goodwood St Mary's race - each driver races a 10 minute heat and the two scores for each pair are added to give the team total. There is the option for each driver to drive a different car, but most pairs chose to share the same car this year.

   

The early target was set by Jeremy and Andy who raced Jeremy's Bentley in the first two heats - their 75 laps was five ahead of Isaac and Kev, whose new model Aston Martin Vantage sat in second place. Birthday-boy Dean was a bit disappointed that his Carrera McLaren didn't go as well as in practice, Alex deciding to swap to his Scalextric Jaguar for his run in the fourth and final heat. The other Carrera runner got off to a disastrous start - the hastily-added ballast interfering with the front axle and wrecking Oliver's ten minutes. Terry set a respectable 32 laps in his heat, once the axle was freed.

Mike D was doing double duty in two of his cars, which was a good thing... The Ferrari F430's chip failed in Mike's heat, John faring much better after the car was repaired. Sharing a Porsche 911 RSR with Ash, Mike banged in a 37 lap heat to jump Isaac and Kev, but fell short of Jeremy and Andy's score by two laps...

   

That was the podium for the first action of the day...

   

After a short lunch break and some track tweaks, we were ready for the Suzuka 1000...

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Our six gold drivers led their Pro-Am teams into a final double-points-scoring round. Although four teams - AIM-9, Gearzilla, Laps in Concentration and Écurie Escargot - could mathematically win the title, in reality it would be which of Mike's AIM-9 and Oliver's Gearzilla finished ahead of the other after 1,000 laps of Suzuka.

A short 5 minute warm-up was followed by a two-minute Super Pole qualifying session - one driver per team and that driver would also complete the first 20-minute stint of the race. Qualifying ace Ollie had the AIM-9 Aston at the top of the timing charts from his first lap, with Simon driving the ASTCOM-One Aston in second. That looked to be it until Rob delivered a great lap with the Gearzilla Mercedes to jump from fifth to second, but a huge six tenths away from Ollie's scintillating pole lap...

   

That meant the two championship contenders started from the first row of the grid, the AIM-9 Aston of Ollie, Mike and Stephen leading off the field...

   

The RCS64 weather simulation is a feature of our GT Championship. Generating a random weather forecast with dice and the RCS64 program, we started with rain and a wet track, which would gradually dry through the four hours of the race - how dry and how quickly would be in the hands of the software. Faced with the challenge of long pit stops, teams would need to get their strategy correct or waste a minute in the pits for another change of tyres. Another challenge was success penalties of 120, 80 and 40 seconds for the top three from last time (Gearzilla, ASTCOM-One and Laps in Concentration) - to be taken in 40 second stop-go penalties after the first three driver change stops (i.e. during the first hour).

Hour One

The race started with one team making a costly error. Shift Happens! fitted Hard tyres and Dean struggled to control the 2Seas Motorsport Mercedes on the sopping wet track, his braking and acceleration hugely compromised. A pit stop for Wet tyres put the Mercedes to the back, seven laps off the lead after ten minutes. The opening stages had been incredibly close for the other five cars, Ollie gradually pulling away in the AIM-9 Aston. Two laps behind after ten minutes was Rob in Gearzilla Mercedes and Simon in the ASTCOM-One Aston. Ash had the Laps in Concentration Porsche in fourth, just ahead of the Écurie Escargot Aston with John at the wheel. Not having the fastest car out there, John was already in fuel conservation mode, seeing if a different strategy could upset those ahead.

At the first driver change - at 20 minutes - five teams chose to swap drivers, only Gearzilla going for a multiple stint option. Ollie handed over the leading Aston to Mike, having completed at huge 87 laps, two ahead of Rob in the Gearzilla Mercedes, with Simon another two laps back handing over to Kev for ASTCOM-One. Dean had driven hard to get the Shift Happens! Mercedes up to fourth - six laps off the lead - and handed the car over to Jeremy. Rob A took over the Écurie Escargot Aston and Ash handed the Porsche to Matthew in sixth place. The field was covered by eleven laps.

   

A half hour into the race and Mike had stretched the lead to four laps. Shift Happens! were now up to second place and the fuel-saving Escargot Aston up to third. A long scheduled stop had dropped Gearzilla to fourth, but Rob was sure to move back up as a full tank and new Wet tyres would last well into his third stint.

   

By the next driver change, the order at the top remained the same, Mike stretching his lead to seven laps. ASTCOM-One had gone off the back after a long pit stop, but as Mike handed the lead car over to Stephen and Alex took over the sixth-place Aston, sixteen laps covered the field.

As we headed towards the end of the first hour, it was still raining and the track was as wet as it could be. Everyone stuck to Wet tyres, which lasted for nearly 30 minutes, allowing some flexibility over refuelling strategy. Some teams let the tank run dry and refilled to 100%, others went for shorter top-ups to keep the 50-75% required for a 20-minute stint. Gearzilla and Laps in Concentration were heavy of fuel consumption, while Écurie Escargot deliberately saved fuel. Yet Andy matched Stephen's stint score of 77 laps to keep the Escargots in third place, putting a lap on Gearzilla (Rob B) and Shift Happens! (Daniel), but it was Alex who was the top driver with a big 81 laps to move ASTCOM-One back to fifth at the end of the first hour...

AIM-9 241 laps
Shift Happens! 233 laps (-8)
Écurie Escargot 231 laps (-10)
Gearzilla 230 laps (-11)
ASTCOM-One 229 laps (-12)
Laps in Concentration 225 laps (-16)

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Hour Two

All six teams had to divide the twelve stints equally between their drivers. Apart from Gearzilla, the teams changed drivers every twenty minutes and kept to the same rotation. Meanwhile, Rob was starting his fourth (and last) stint in the Gearzilla Mercedes. He still sat fourth, the car not as fast as AIM-9 and Shift Happens! - and heavier on the fuel consumption than the Escargot Aston. Going into the first stop of the hour, Ollie had a ten lap lead over John - Écurie Escargot's fuel saving strategy getting them up to second place. Right behind was Dean in the Shift Happens! Mercedes, Rob and Gearzilla seven laps adrift after another long pit stop. Simon and Ash were running neck and neck at the back.

Fifteen minutes into the stint, it stopped raining. The track was still wet and with overcast skies, track conditions wouldn't change very rapidly, if at all. Only Gearzilla took the gamble to change early to Intermediate tyres. Otherwise, the race continued, Ollie handing the lead car over to Mike...

   

Mike immediately had problems. Some rapid tweaks to the car off the track saw the lead evaporate, but the car seemed to be sorted and back at its previous best. Jeremy had closed to just a lap behind for Shift Happens! Both AIM-9 and ASTCOM-One went for Intermediate tyres as the track conditions started to move away from monsoon conditions. Was it too early?

   

By the end of the stint, Mike had stretched the lead back to 6 laps, thanks in part to an off-sequence pit stop for Jeremy, when Intermediates were added and fuel topped up to 75%. Gearzilla were up to third, Isaac's no-stop 80 laps way better than everyone else. Second to fourth (Écurie Escargot) was covered by just six laps - and this would continue to develop into a classic battle.

Écurie Escargot were last to change to Intermediates, letting the last set of Wets run out before pitting. The sun was out just before the end of the second hour, accelerating the track drying process and tempting ASTCOM-One to try a set of Soft tyres - which Alex would enjoy at the start of the next hour. The standings at the end of 120 minutes were...

AIM-9 472 laps 
Écurie Escargot 464 laps (-8)
Gearzilla 461 laps (-11)
Shift Happens! 461 laps (-11)
Laps in Concentration 449 (-23)
ASTCOM-One 442 (-30)

Hour Three

   

Ollie was back in the leading AIM-9 Aston Martin and putting in another blistering stint. Behind, the three-way battle for second was tightening as Dean clawed back some laps to lead John and Isaac. Alex didn't enjoy the Soft tyres as much as he hoped and dropped back from Ash's Porsche. Nonetheless, the track was drying and two teams - ASTCOM-One and Shift Happens! gambled with a change to Hard tyres.

   

Oilver was now on a four stint run for Gearzilla. His first stint had the same impact as Isaac's - making up time on his rival with a no-stop twenty minutes. That saw Gearzilla leapfrog up to second place, twelve laps behind Mike in the leading AIM-9 Aston Martin Vantage. Jeremy followed three laps behind, with Rob steering a rough-sounding Écurie Escargot Aston to fourth, another four laps back. 

That three-way battle for second became a head-to-head between Shift Happens! and Gearzilla when Andy brought the Escargot's Aston to the pits for a lengthy stop to re-seat the motor. Returned to its super-smooth best, the Aston rejoined in fifth, having lost nearly 20 laps and any hope of a podium position.

The race situation going into the final hour was...

AIM-9 713 laps
Gearzilla 697 laps (-16)
Shift Happens! 694 laps (-19)
Laps in Concentration 677 (-36)
Écurie Escargot 674 laps (-39)
ASTCOM-One 650 laps (-63)

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Hour Four+

There would be slightly more than a final hour, it was an extra 15 minutes last year. The sixteen lap lead for AIM-9 wasn't going to be chased down on pace alone, but a car issue for the Aston could see both Gearzilla and Shift Happens! back in contention for the win and - for Gearzilla - the championship. Oliver was into his fourth and final stint, Kev was driving for ASTCOM-One, but otherwise the other four three-driver teams were back to their racing-opening schedule: Ollie, Dean, Ash and John...

   

There were a mix of Hard, Soft and Intermediate tyres on the cars. The track was still damp, but only just. The Hard tyres were good enough and lasted the longest. By the end of the first twenty minutes, Ollie had added another three laps to the lead and Dean had closed the gap to Oliver right down to one lap. Ash had kept the Porsche ahead of John's Escargot Aston. The driver change saw Mike on for AIM-9, Isaac for Gearzilla and Jeremy for Shift Happens! A long stop for Gearzilla put Jeremy up to second, but any hope of car troubles for AIM-9 looked slim. Mike kept the Aston right on the pace and the lead edged out to over twenty laps for the first time. There were just 125 laps to run.

Stephen took the twelfth stint for AIM-9, although it looked now we'd have another ten minutes to run. Pit stops would be vital now for the chasing teams. Shift Happens! had about enough fuel in the tank to last them to the end of the race, but were running Soft tyres. Gearzilla would need another fuel stop, but had longer-lasting Hard tyres on. As the leaders hit 45 laps to go and pitted for a final set of Softs, the four hour standings look like this...

AIM-9 955 laps
Shift Happens! 933 (-22)
Gearzilla 932 (-23)
Laps in Concentration 903 (-52)
Écurie Escargot 896 (-59)
ASTCOM-One 854 (-101)

Ollie came back on to see out the final 45 laps for the leaders. Dean took over from Daniel in the first of the Mercedes and Isaac stayed on for Gearzilla - as did Terry in fourth-placed Porsche. John and Simon swapped in for the Escargots and ASTCOM-One...

   

And there were no late race dramas, no-one running out of fuel or tyres - although a couple of teams ran things a bit fine. Ollie took the AIM-9 Aston across the line for the thousandth time and the race was over...

   

Here's the official result and some interesting stats...

   
You'll want to click on the image to make it bigger.

Huge congratulations to Mike, Ollie and Stephen for a near-perfect race and beating last year's race time by five minutes.

         

         

         

Thank you to Slot Car Magazine for the prizes!

These are the stint stats...

   

The double points haul also gave AIM-9 victory in the championship...

   

Congratulations to Mike, Ollie and Stephen - and to regular team member Steve, who was unable to make this one...

   

That's it for our GT racing for another year - although GT cars may well feature at the Birkett Six-Hour Relay in October.

A big thank you to everyone who made this year's championship so enjoyable - to Mike and Simon for the track designs, the set-up and race control teams, everyone who stayed behind to pack away and to all the racers across all four races.