[Kevan]

Race reports - 10th November - Small Sports/Saloons + Group 5
 
Small Sport/Saloons

   
 
Six racers tonight.  After much testing and practice Heat #1 saw Chris lining up with an Alpine A110 against Paul’s Ferrari 356P2.  The Ferrari managed to get away in the early stages as the Alpine explored the scenery a couple of times, once he’d got used to his new car Chris slowly caught then passed Paul as the race ended with the Alpine ¾ of a lap ahead.
 
Kev and Gav lined up for Heat #2, Kev’s Chaparral not seen for a few months cleared off into the distance as Gav pushed the Cobra off track on lap 1.  The Chappy never looked back with a comfortable heat win but the Cobra did calm right down in the last third of the race with super consistent laps.
 
Heat #3 saw Andy’s King Cobra in Red on the start line with Chris’s Alpine in Blue…Andy opting to use a club controller after testing and said lap times were the same…5 deslots for the Cobra to a single deslot of the Alpine meant Chris comfortably won the heat to much satisfaction from Chris.  Andy more than made up for this heat in the next two though.
 
Paul managed a best lane score and quickest lap times in Yellow in Heat #4 with Kev’s Chappy managing his best lap times in Blue, the Ferrari not able to keep the pace of the Chaparral.
 
Gav’s Cobra went from consistent in Yellow to super inconsistent in Red, numerous deslots meant Andy’s King Cobra had the easiest win of the night in Heat #5
 
Heat #6 was interesting, both drivers managing their best single lane score, a 30 lapper for Kev in Yellow and 28 for Chris in Blue, the Alpine less than two laps behind at the end but a 6.6 sec hot lap is the quickest Chris has been round in this class.
 
The final heat #7 was a full grid, Paul vs Andy vs Gav.  Andy’s King Cobra was flying round in Yellow and wasn’t going to be caught, a 30 lapper was the second one managed all night and both in this lane, also achieving his fastest laps in this race.  Paul's Ferrari had one deslot but was super consistent the rest of the race to finish well clear in second place but not on the pace of the orange King Cobra.  Gav’s AC Cobra again deslotting numerous times struggled as much as the earlier run in Red.

Heat wins in heat order for Chris, Kev & Andy

   
 
Group 5

   
 
Some of the best racing was seen in Group 5 as we had two in Standard, two in Modified and two in Open classes.
Heat #1 was a great race, Chris racing a Nissan Skyline and Paul racing a BMW 320i, never far apart all race as both finished without needing marshals, the BMW pulled clear slightly then the Nissan caught up again and this happened all race, the 320i finishing just over one second ahead of the Skyline.
 
Ed joined in Heat #2 to race Pauls borrowed Porsche 935 in the Red lane against Andy’s very quick M1 in Blue.  Andy opting to use his race controller this time round didn’t give Ed a chance who drove well in his first Gr.5 event.
 
Chris vs Gav was Heat #3, the Skyline this time up against a very quick Ford Capri.  One deslot for Chris to Gav’s three meant a fairly comfortable win for the Nissan.
 
By Heat #4 Kev was wondering why he hadn’t been called up…a check on the heat list showed he wasn’t going to race even though his name was in the list of racers.  It was discovered after the last race that the special heat chosen was for 5 drivers not 6…so Kev opted to race in the ‘empty’ lanes as ‘Numpty’ and had to compare his scores to the nearest driver at the end of the races.  Unfortunately this meant having to race in Red twice and Yellow once.  So Heat #4 was Kev vs Paul vs Ed…Paul had one deslot but drove the rest of the race very consistently as we expect of him whilst Ed had a clean race and easily his best race tonight to finish less than two laps behind Paul’s 320i…meanwhile ‘Numpty’ finished three laps ahead of Paul.
 
Heat #5 was Andy in Red vs Kev in Yellow and Gav in Blue.  The two BMW M1’s were on the same lap all race, sometimes inches apart, Andy’s Open class car just too quick to catch down the straights by Kev’s Standard class car as they crossed the line with Andy marginally ahead.  Gav got off to a bad start, a deslot in the first few seconds meant he was never going to catch the other two cars that were flying round in formation.
 
Kev back in Red, Ed in Yellow and Chris in Blue was the penultimate race.  Chris has the big Nissan going very well tonight, only one deslot all night meant having to race hard to keep up or pass.  Whilst Chris had another clean deslot-free race Kev managed to drive the BMW slowly away from the Skyline ultimately finishing one and a half laps clear at the end. Ed obviously trying hard to race had a few off’s in Yellow but did well tonight.
 
Heat #7, the final race of the night, Paul (Red), Gav (Yellow) & Andy (Blue) was the quickest race tonight, Andy getting the best lane score of the night, Paul managing his best lane score tonight and Gav going miles quicker in Yellow than his other lanes.  Andy’s M1 finished two laps clear of Paul’s Ferrari who in turn was a lap ahead of Gav’s Capri.

Heat wins in heat order for Paul, Andy, Chris & Kev

   
 
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