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Race Report Part 3 - Gen6 Cup Shoot-Out

When we introduced the Gen6 Cup class in 2016 - to celebrate the release of AFX's Mega-G+ Gen-6 Nascars - we made the bold decision to give the contenders an end-of-season, winner-takes-all race - an homage to the Nascar Chase for the Cup, or the Championship-4 race as it's now known. The four racers to qualify are winners of Gen6 races during the season, with any gaps filled by the top points scorers. Obviously, you have to turn up in November to be in the race!

   

Like in the real thing, the season points leader doesn't always win the title. I have painful memories of 2017, when after four wins and a comfortable early lead in the shoot-out, Keith unleashed one of the greatest come-back drives we've ever seen at the Barn to take the win by a couple of feet and grab the first of his three Gen6 Cup titles. Of our four 2022 shoot-out competitors, Ryan and Ash were at the Barn that day, but for Ollie and Isaac, this was their first experience of the shoot-out...

   

Ash had won two races, Ryan and Isaac one each, with Ollie finishing sixth in points, filling the final shoot-out place as Kevin and Laurence couldn't make it. Ash chose blue lane, Ryan white, Isaac red and Ollie was left with that dreaded yellow lane. The opening laps were very tense and exciting - Ash and Isaac swapping the lead. Ollie dropped back after a crash on lap 3, the others continuing on in close formation. Ryan crashed on lap 5, Ash following him two laps later - and that gave Isaac the advantage, the others with the task to hunt him down and win that Gen6 Cup title...

Ollie's challenge ended with mechanical issues, so it was a three-way battle to the line... Isaac was driving a mature race, not over-doing things in the tricky red lane. Ash and Ryan were half a second a lap quicker, Ryan closing in, but Ash dropped away with a crash in the closing stages. A healthy lead had evaporated - the gap less than a second through the line at the start of the last lap, but Isaac still had control of the race...

   

Then disaster struck for Isaac - a crash letting Ryan through for a famous last-ditch victory... But no! Ryan crashed at the last corner... Isaac's car cruised past, stopping about six feet ahead on the main straight!

   
   

That was quite a race - a first final win of the night for red lane - and a dramatic end to the 2020-22 Gen6 Cup competition...

   

Huge congratulations to our 2020-22 Nascar & Gen6 Cup champions...

   

And tough luck to both Jerome and Ryan - they were so close to adding their names again to  the WHO Hall of Fame.

And with that... a very big thank you to everyone who came along and made our Nascar finale so much fun. Special thanks go to the set-up crew, the race control team and to everyone who stayed behind to pack away.

There's one more HO race this year - on Wednesday 7 December - and we have a rather stunning track in store for our F1 championship decider. To give you a clue, it's an Italian seaside circuit used for the 1957 Formula One season, a race won by Stirling Moss.