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On Wednesday 26 August, we'll host our first WHO Dakar Rally Raid Fun Night, featuring two SCX and two Ninco off-road stages. One of the SCX stages will be reserved for vehicles with the longer drop arms (i.e. SCX, older Avant, Scaleauto Dakar, Mitoos etc.), the other three catering for all Rally Raid vehicles with drop arms and suspension. 

Suitable club cars and controllers will be ready for duty on each stage. So you don't have to have a vehicle to experience the fun. 

Although advertised as a 'fun night' there will be a competitive edge. The plan is to have at least some of the evening dedicated to timed runs.

If you fancy a trip to the south coast, let us know. Doors open at 6pm and we'll run through to 9-9.30pm. Entry is £3 for adults, £2 for under-16s.

We are at The Barn, English Martyrs Church Hall, Goring Way, Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex BN12 4UE. If you search 'Worthing HO Racing' in any navigation app, you'll find us. There's parking on the slip road outside the Barn and in the car park just next to the church. Goring-by-Sea railway station is 5 minutes walk away and various local buses (including Stagecoach 701 & 11) stop outside in both directions. The Barn is wheelchair accessible and has a disabled toilet cubicle.

[BAracer]

They are on their way... 
   

[Kevan]

"Looks like we got us a con-voy..." 

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Tonight is the night! Doors open at 6pm for an evening of extreme off-road slot car action. And before that, we'll have run the 25 proxy cars through (at least) two of the following stages...

• Under The Bridge - a Ninco-friendly SCX track
  
• The Dune of Doom - a big Ninco Dune
  
• Midnight at the Oasis - only for the long drop-arm cars
  
• Mercredi à Bamako - a long, twisty Ninco layout with obstacles inserted into the track
  

Big thanks to Benton Weatherstone who have provided some stones and chippings to decorate the stages.

There will be some timed runs this evening and we'll trial a fabulous system Kev has been working on where stage times can be entered at the end of each run via a smartphone or tablet. You can even enter your cars for this evening here.

Jeremy and myself have provided suitable 'club cars' for each stage. There are club controllers too.

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What a fabulous evening! Not many WHO racers have Raid vehicles, so we didn't know how many to expect. Twenty-six people (we think) raced, with another four coming along to see what was going on. Some travelled a fair distance, but it was mostly regular WHO racers. The club cars did put in a good shift, although there were a couple of big Raid collections...

         

... and they'd have to pick just three for the timed runs.

But lets go back to the beginning. Myself and Jeremy arrived with all the track and accessories at 1pm. Setting up a new format for the first time always needs more time, with a certain amount of standing around and looking perplexed. Scott joined us shortly after and he was tasked with building the Mercredi à Bamako stage.

Jeremy had started with the easiest layout - Under the Bridge...

   

Meanwhile, I put together The Dune of Doom...

   

The two biggest stages - one SCX, one Ninco - gradually took shape. Jeremy had constructed supports for the series of dunes on Midnight at the Oasis...

   

And Scott used all the space on the tables to create a superb Ninco off-road layout...

   

... to which I added a few clip-in obstacles near the driver and lots of scenic elements - stones supplied by Benton Weatherstone, cacti from Sainsbury's and cardboard mountains from an old Tyco HO off-road set...

         

Jeremy provided camels and a helicopter...

         

Graham joined us around 3pm - as we were putting the finishing touches to the stages. He'd brought twenty-five proxy cars (including two Dakar trucks) to run across two stages - The Dune of Doom and Midnight at the Oasis...

   

Scott, Jeremy and myself shared driving duties, taking a class each. And I took some shots of those trucks on the other stages...

         

The two hours it took us to run the proxy cars took us up to 6pm and the official start of the WHO event. Stages were open as people arrived, with timed runs starting about 7.15pm. Once I get the spreadsheet from Kev, I'll report back...

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Stage 1: Under the Bridge

Winner: Rob Bean - SCX VW Touareg club car

   

Just a simple oval? That ignored the jumps, the undulations and the eye-catching bridge.

   

Yes, this was a quick blast for most of the cars with longer drop arms. Those without needed to line-up as straight as possible into the jump and hope the guide landed in the slot!

   

Drivers could choose which of the two lanes they raced in for their ten laps.

   

The club car (my SCX Touareg) proved mighty fast, but all the vehicles looked great on this stage...

   

Here are the results...

   

Some Ninco drivers chose to sit this one out.

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Stage Two: The Dune of Doom

Winner: Scott Brownlee - Ninco VW Touareg 

   

This stage transferred quite well from home to the Barn. The crash mats certainly came in very useful!

   

Getting up the dune from a standing start does require a decent power-to-weight ratio and suitable gearing. The Nincos and SCX cars get over the top in the their different ways.

   

Remarkably, the Ninco Pajero club car seems no more bashed up than it was at the start of the evening! And there were a few rather valuable cars that got driven hard...

   


Here are the results...

   

A couple of vehicles struggled, but there were mostly oooos and ahhhhs plus big grins on this stage!

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Stage 3: Midnight at the Oasis

Winner: Mike Dadson - SCX VW Touareg club car

   

Another stage that drew spectators and delivered lots of excitement! The combination of dunes was brilliant fun to drive and to watch...

   

The extreme SCX obstacles were a bit too much for those vehicles with the shorter drop arms and most sat this stage out...

   

Just two laps, but they took 60-90 seconds to complete.

   

Here are the results...

   

Not sure about Terry's Ninco time (it is what was recorded on his time card). I strongly suspect he swapped to Jeremy's SCX Touareg club car, which was truly mighty on this stage.

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Stage 4: Mercredi à Bamako

Winner: Scott Brownlee - Ninco VW Touareg

   

This was another fast stage with more modest elevations...

   

There were twisty bits, tight corners and absolutely no run-off...

   

Plus some extra track obstacles in two patches either side of the driver - let them marshal their own car!

   

Most cars were pretty quick round this stage - the Nincos, SCX and Mitoos cars all having their strengths and weaknesses, but delivering similar times...

   

It was a stage to push with full-on concentration.

   

Here are the results...

   

Remarkably, that gave us four stage wins for VW Touaregs - two for Scott's Ninco and one each for the two SCX Touareg club cars.

   

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2026 WHO Dakar Results

   

One of the many exciting things about the evening was a first proper trial run of Kev's fabulous new spreadsheet, which allows individual stage times to be sent via mobile phone to the laptop from the stage. Kev kept a close eye all evening and I've poured over the spreadsheet and compared entries with the physical time cards - it appeared to have worked flawlessly. Bravo to Kev for developing this!

The spreadsheet also outputs class podiums, so there was no waiting around...

Congrats to Rob for winning the Dakar class with his SCX Nissan Patrol, ahead of Scott's SCX Touareg and my Mitoos Bowler Nemesis...

   


The club car competition saw me set the fastest time of the evening, followed by Rob and then Ash...

   

Here are those results, first the overall...

   

And then split into the two classes - Dakar and Club Car...

   

This competitive side of our fun night brought up the issue with running Rally-Raid events - what to do with cars that don't have the drop-arm length to successfully overcome the extremes of the SCX off-road track system? Only run Ninco-friendly stages - and so miss out on the best of SCX? Or remove the obstacles for the short-arm cars - and penalise the more capable cars? Or do as we did, focus on each individual stage as it is - where the Ninco cars can battle for some stage wins, but won't win overall? We'll keep looking at that...

For Jeremy and me it was brilliant to set these stages up in the Barn - and we thank everyone for coming along, having a lot of fun, whilst treating the track with respect. It was a long day for Jeremy, Scott and me - but definitely worth it. Next year (without a proxy to worry about) we're pretty confident we can set up in the usual 2-ish hour window. A 2027 date is pencilled in for Wednesday 25 August.

   


If you're thinking of buying a car for next year, don't look at eBay - prices are mostly eye-wateringly expensive. Do check out swap meets, Weevils and Phil Smith's site - Ninco and SCX Rally-Raid cars do appear for £40-60 boxed and sometimes unboxed for as little as £30. These are all old cars, so need a good lube, running in and often the tyres are rock-hard. Replacement tyres are produced by Mitoos and these are stocked by Pendles.

For our events, getting one Ninco and one SCX gives you two quite different cars in terms of speed and capability over obstacles (Ninco are faster, SCX more capable). If you fancy something more esoteric (and expensive), the Mitoos metal chassis is another completely different driving experience. Pendles no longer stock these, but they can be bought direct from Mitoos in Spain. Chat to Jeremy if you're interested. Another expensive option is the MSC / Scaleauto cars with the Dakar chassis - this plastic chassis is very nicely engineered, but sadly really difficult to find.

The only manufacturer currently making complete Ready-to-run Rally-Raid vehicles is Avant Slot. Their Dakar Mitsubishi Lancer is similar to a Ninco in performance, but £75+ to buy. Personally, I'd go for a Ninco and/or SCX. They won all the stages at the Barn.