[Kevan]

Race reports - 24th Feb - Italiano Handicap Race

   
 
This was originally to be a team race but 5 entries made that difficult so we decided to run the races as a handicap.
5 lap qually (on Red lane which everyone struggled with), the handicaps were quickly selected from the handicap chart created for such events.
The handicap is the figure the drivers totals were multiplied by so the fastest qualifier has a handicap of 1.00 i.e. no adjustment.
 
Brian turned up with a great looking SlotIt Maserati received earlier in the day and did well to get it ready for racing.  A little extra ballast tuning before qually and it was going round the track really well.
 
Gavin’s ferrari 512 BB LM was sadly lacking in rear grip, standard Racer Sideways tyres just aren’t good enough, thankfully Chris kindly offered to let Gav borrow a set of NSR’s, with a couple of tweaks of the chassis by Chris, damping tape by Kev and that made a huge difference, 1.5 seconds improvement.
 
Chris, Geoff & Kev raced familiar cars, Kev’s Ferrari was the only car not running in Standard class.
 
Racing was 5 minute heats with everyone having to do a solo run in Yellow, this is harder than you think as you don’t have anyone to chase or evade.
 
Heat #2 was the first head-to-head, Chris vs Brian, both going really well, Brian making the Maserati look so easy to drive (in Blue) whilst the Lambo Huracan had a clean run in Red unlike most of the other guys tonight.
 
Next head-to-head was heat #4, Kev vs Chris, the Huracan suffering two deslots really late in the race and Kevs Ferrari needing marshalls help once.  The 550 Maranello a little too fast for the Lambo.
 
Heat #6 was Geoff (in Red) vs Kev (in Blue).  Geoff’s Group 5 Ferrari a victim of the Red lane curse, a deslot gave Kevs Ferrari the chance to get a comfortable lead it wasn’t likely to lose in the favoured Blue lane.
 
Heat #8 saw Geoff (in Blue) vs Gav (in Red), the pair of Group 5’s going head-to-head and to be fair the way Geoff’s black JPS Ferrari was going, Gav wasn’t going to keep up.
 
Heat #10 saw the return of Brian’s Maserati (in Red) vs Gav’s 512 BBLM (in Blue).  Gav managed three consistent results tonight and Brian’s new GT3 finished the night unbeaten on the track…

   
 
…let’s see how the handicaps changed things:

• Both Kev & Geoff went better than their predicted scores
  
• Everyone went much quicker than their qually times (not forgetting qually was in the Red lane)
  
• 3rd, 4th & 5th places were really close 
  
• Heat wins in heat order for Brian, Chris, Kev, Geoff & Gav - (including solo runs)
  
• Italians make exceedingly good looking cars
  
• Brian's madeira cake is fantastic!
  
  

   

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Next week is the first Club Car race, Club BMW 320i.  Andy is away down-under for another 5 weeks, Mike B is away for another week and Chris is working