[Kevan]

Race reports - 1st June - Small Sports/Saloons plus Group 5

TT practice week, not easy to get to the club with evening road closures and club members marshalling but four club members and a visitor made it tonight.

With numbers being short we ran two car heats with a full grid for the final heat.

Small Sports/Saloons

   

Compared to where this class was two or three years ago, these cars have come on leaps and bounds, if you could get round under 7 seconds you were quick, now we’re comfortably into the mid 6 second laps and a couple are quicker than that.

Alan borrowed a Jag XK120 from Andy, the same car seen a few times recently in Slot Rally and the Rally Proxy. Geoff also raced an XK120, these two raced in the final heat which was great racing.

Ed raced a Metro 6R4 which was the only Small Saloon raced tonight, he’s gone back to using his thumb for the throttle and has much better car control this way.

Kev’s Chaparral and Brian’s Ferrari 365 were both quick, Kev’s in the Modified Class, Brian’s in the Open Class.  Both cars racing each other in Heat #6, both setting their fastest scores and best hot laps of the night.

Heat wins in heat order for Kev, Brian, Alan & Geoff

   

Group 5

   

This class has probably been the most stable of all the classes we race, Racer Sideways being the cars of choice, some standard, some modified with SlotIt pods and NSR motors.

Brian spent ages before the racing, working on his Capri, changing wheels and tyres, trying to find the performance his Group 5 has enjoyed for months…in the end opting for the same set he took off then playing catch-up on tyre prep…one race too late.  In the end that poor start created the closest finish for final positions that was only noticeable when the scores were measured to thousandths of a lap as Alan equalled Brian's score of 98.05 laps but Brian’s Capri finished 0.003 of a lap ahead.

Geoff prefers racing his BMW 320i in standard format and it goes really well, in fact more than competitive with most of the quicker modified cars.

Kev’s BMW M1 seemed a little loose coming out of corners in the first two heats, tightening the body mounting screws that were loose calmed it down again for the final race.

Ed’s Porsche 935 never looked driveable, it was off the track every 5 seconds.  He was offered the chance to race one of the club BMW 320i’s but chose to ‘stick with it’...it’s currently back in the garage for a service.

Alan’s borrowed Capri was driven well, in his first race (Heat #2) against Kev’s BMW, a deslot each kept it even, the Capri set a quicker hot lap but couldn’t quite catch the BMW.  His other close race was Heat #7 racing Geoff & Ed with the Capri and BMW finishing within 4 seconds as Alan’s Capri crossed the finish line first. 

Heat wins in heat order for Geoff, Kev, Brian & Alan

   

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Next week is Le Manx…Classics for the first race, Group C and LMP’s for the second race.  Each car will have 5 qually laps and a target score will be given to every driver based on their best qually lap to try to match, the closest to that wins the handicap race.
…so far the fastest car has never won one of these handicap races, predictable and consistent usually wins - plus a pinch of luck!