[Kevan]

Mosler 'Club Challenge' #4 - Handicap Race 

   

Five 'Club Challenge' entrants plus Nigel made it tonight.

Nigel has been to the club quite often this year and tonight turned up with a superb looking Revoslot BMW 2002 Jagermeister and spent quite a bit of time driving Rally cars on TT Grandstand.  After a little body screw adjustment it was driving really nicely...out of the box with no magnet these are unbeatable.

The other five of us cleaned the crud out of the cars from the last club challenge in May then spent a few minutes running test laps and final tweaking.

Andy worked out handicaps for everyone based on the averages of club challenge #3.

Kev - minus 20 laps
Brian - minus 16 laps
Andy - minus 8 laps
Geoff - minus 6 laps
Chris - minus 2 laps
Mike B - minus 1 lap
Ed - plus 14 laps
Mike H - plus 16 laps
Gav - plus 20 laps

Special heats were used, 5 drivers with 3 marshals, this works most of the time.

Round #1

Ed (Red lane) and Geoff (Blue lane) started the nights racing in Round 1 Heat 1.

Round 1 Heat 4 was a close race as Geoff & Mike were never far apart, in the end Geoff finished about the length of the main straight ahead.

Round 2 Heat 5 was the closest race of the evening, Kev (Red lane) and Brian (Blue lane) both playing cat & mouse, not wanting to push too hard, not wanting to play too safe...Kev finished 3/4 of a second clear at the end.

The final heat was going to be a challenge with only one experienced marshal available as Geoff, Brian & Kev kept them busy at times.

Tyre problems started to appear towards the end of the races, tyre management was going to be needed to reduce balling-up...but it's so easy to get carried away thrashing the car round corners early on when grip is so good...would we learn for Round 2?

Round #2

The heats were rearranged so that Ed would be in the last heat (three drivers) which would mean three mobile marshals...but we found a perfect marshal post for Ed, the end of the track where the bridge crossover is was easily reachable for Ed and he was kept busy at times...and got a hell of a shock when Kev's car shot off at top speed into the wall and round the corner.  This marshal spot is now officially 'Ed's Corner', no doubt he'll enjoy being able to get properly involved with racing instead of being a bystander.

Heat 1 was Kev (Red lane) vs Geoff (Blue lane), both managing sub 6 second hot laps but did they remember the tyre management...sort of...at the end of the race.

Heat 2 was Brian (Red) vs Ed (Yellow).  Brian was hoping to get nearer the overall win tonight but wasn't fully 'on it' tonight especially as Geoff's Mosler is now one of the quickest cars round the track and 'pressure banter' being used to psychological effect.  Ed was going quicker than ever tonight, a 6.385 hot lap is easily his fastest lap around BallaYorkley.

Mike & Geoff suffered with tyre issues most, then again neither are afraid to give their cars maximum welly, they met again in the final heat and finally remembered about tyre management and strangely didn't go any slower.

We had some great racing tonight, it was good to get Ed marshalling and he was kept busy. 

The tyres seem to gain traction through the evening, lifting the guide under hard acceleration causing a lot of deslots, trying to back off to prevent it is difficult in racing conditions as the red mist descends accidents happen...but that's racing as they say!

The two charts show the Handicap Race results and a series data chart showing total laps and finishing positions overall on the night.

   

Series Data