[Kevan]

Race reports - 24th August - Club GT40 followed by Club BMW 320i - club controllers

Despite club members working, marshalling in the Manx GP, away on a cruise or otherwise occupied, there was a remarkably good turnout and six of us raced with some super close and fun on track action.

Now before I go further, I made a faux pas and forgot to save the full results for the BMW race as I was distracted (or some other lame excuse) but do have the overall result for the BMW’s 

Gav was back with a bang tonight, jokes aplenty, it was good to see him on top form again.

Club GT40

• Geoff, Brian & Gav raced each other in all three heats whilst Nigel, Kev & Ed raced the other three heats.
  
• Geoff, Brian & Gav provided the closest racing, although the overall results look like Gav was way off the pace, he wasn’t, finishing on the same lap as Geoff in Heat 1 and Brian in Heat 5…but struggled big time in Red lane - it’s those pesky sharp corners which were highlighted numerous times through the night in both lots of racing…but quickly forgotten with the inevitable marshal intervention.
  
• Brian, Kev & Geoff all won in Yellow lane, the easiest of the three cars to race, with Gav, Ed & Nigel also getting their best lane scores with that car.
  
• Geoff & Brian up for the ‘50p Trophy’ tonight, nip and tuck all night and very little between them all night.
  
• Gav & Ed didn’t race each other but next to nothing between them, Ed setting the 3rd best time in Yellow lane but that red car sure hurt his overall result, how close it could have been without those (many) costly deslots.
  
• Nigel is still getting used to adjusting his controller to suit each car, a reminder just before each race helped somewhat. Red lane was his downfall, like the others but 2nd place in Heat 4 in Yellow lane was his best result.
  
• Kev’s first race (Yellow lane) with Nigel in Red and Ed in Blue…what could go wrong!...take it easy and stay in the slot.  There were a few times his lane was blocked but a gentle push of the offending car to get going again keeping both eyes peeled all night got him the best score overall.
  
• …meanwhile, Geoff got the fastest lap of the night with Brian, Gav & Ed in the 6.6’s
  

   

Club BMW 320i

A bit of a swap round of drivers but the same drivers in the heats, the cars weren’t expected to drive very nicely as the rear tyres that were brand new at the start of the year and have only had two lots of racing before, looked chewed to death.  NSR Evo Supergrips…what a pile of ****!  We need to find something more useable, Thunderslot stock tyres are probably the answer as these are very close to the original NSR Supers in performance.

As I said, apologies for the lack of full results but the action on track was just as good as the GT40’s earlier in the evening.

   

Despite the shocking state of the tyres on the BMW’s this only added to the overall experience as we had to drive to suit not only the other drivers in the race but the cars handling, nevertheless these can drive so much nicer and with that means less crashing and less car damage.

Brian & myself came to the conclusion we need a second ‘Trophy’ to award some nights as there were great close races all night.

After the racing, Brian was coaching Nigel on his driving, most of us take it for granted that you eventually learn how to race so hopefully Nigel can reprogram his throttle finger as suggested and with time and practice should start catching the guys ahead.



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Next week is Mosler ‘Club Challenge #5’ with club controllers

Reminder - The AGM is slowly but surely creeping up on us (end of October) if you have any proposals, take note of them because I’ll be asking for them to be included in the agenda in a week or so’s time.
The race calendar for 2024 will be discussed in the weeks after the AGM as we have plenty of time to tweak it if necessary.