[Graham]

So having gathered my thoughts around me and having checked the scrutineering report, we have....

Pitlane Review
The portable assembly Rally type tracks like the Hillclimb are always potentially problematic, plastic tracks like the scalextric or SCX often form " pinch points" at the connections between sections because of the way the track pieces are coming together, and other deformations come into play as well. My own Scalextric Sport mixed with SCX has suffered many of these issues since I had to move the track last winter to relocate the Track room. The Carrera track is much better but even this forms some pinch points due to disconnection and reconnection.

So my point is that even when you test a car out on a straight piece of SCX track during the scrutineering process, it is not the same as running these cars on a long twisty circuit with inclinations and depressions made up on the day for the event.

However during the scrutineering process I did need to trim a couple of the cars guides, even to be able to run them along a isolated SCX straight length. All the others I left as they were as long as they "appeared runnable" . Some car guides of 1.9mm thickness, or length of 23mm, or depth of 7.5mm did indeed still appear to be "runnable" in the SCX straight, probable because the actual braid thickness or guide position in relation to the front wheels enabled it to do so. Thickness is the biggest issue as they guides cannot be easily reduced without dismantling the cars and certainly this was the case in at least 2 of the eight non-runner cars.

Having said all of that, I can see there were one or two anomalies if you refer back to the scrutineer reports. On a positive side Ruscillos Megane ran very well although the guide was deemed out of spec on the scrutineering report. And conversely the Mustang of Team Tatters appeared to be well within the guide requirements yet was found be a problem running. And as Team Cube already commented their Ford GT ran OK last year on much the same type of circuit. So I think there is some food for thought, perhaps only specific guides should be allowed (like the recommended NSR shallow guide) when running this type of multiple track type proxy ?

However both Andy and myself are very disappointed that we could not run all the cars on this stage, but it would have been impractical to have fixed all the car issues on the day. Andy was able to rescue two cars ( RNLI team- TR8 & Rokers Roar -Monte Carlo) with other unrelated running problems from the previous round which he took time out to correct and which enabled them to make the Hillclimb run.

Luckily at least this year there is no more of this type of SCX portable tracks in the series, but they would be used again in the Winter Rally series in many of the stages, so beware.

Just taking a short break......