17th-Dec-23, 08:53 AM
Race Report
Seventeen racers turned out for the last event at the Barn in 2023. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them - thanks to a last-minute hospital appointment. A very big thank you to everyone who ran the day, took pictures and jotted down results - which means I can write up a race report. It was particularly galling to miss out on Mike's magnificent NerdBarnRing and not to catch-up with Andy Phillips on a rare visit to the Barn...
That really is a great track - and looks great with all the Christmas decorations!
The action started with the Group A Sierra vs BMW team race. DeadNuts had the first BMW E30 of the year in the initial line-up...
However, after a poor qualifying, they decided to revert to the Labatt's Sierra that won last time out. A car change meant they'd start from the back... but they qualified last in any case! Meanwhile, Ollie banged in an absolutely stunning pole lap for Fundamentally Barley - the only driver to go sub-14 seconds.
The race was run in dry conditions, so each team had to use at least one set of the dry weather tyres - Softs and Hards. All sensibly chose to start on Softs. Coming up to the first driver change at 10 minutes, Smooth Ops and DeadNuts were together on 29 laps, Ardingly Aces on 27 and Race Control, WHAM! Racing and Fundamentally Barley on 25...
No-one quite knew where they were in the race as RCS64 was adding a lap after every pit stop (the setting not changed since last month), but that just added to the drama! Apart from Smooth Operators running into some mechanical issues, the other five teams remained locked together. The race win looked to between the Dadson-Bean trio of Fundamentally Barley, Alex, Andy and Dean's DeadNuts and the WHAM! Racing duo of Andrew Ridgeley and and George Michael. The all-bronze Race Control team saw Ash, Kev and Daniel in a great fight with the Ardingly Aces (Simon, Duncan and Isaac) for fourth - and ready to grab a podium place should anyone in front slip up...
However, as the 30 minutes ended and a lap was removed for each pit stop made, this is how things stood...
Click the image to make it bigger
Huge congrats to Alex, Andy and Dean on their win - and to everyone else for a great start to the day...
The rest of the day would be exclusively single-racer events, starting with BTCC qualifying and Race One...
Seventeen racers turned out for the last event at the Barn in 2023. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them - thanks to a last-minute hospital appointment. A very big thank you to everyone who ran the day, took pictures and jotted down results - which means I can write up a race report. It was particularly galling to miss out on Mike's magnificent NerdBarnRing and not to catch-up with Andy Phillips on a rare visit to the Barn...
That really is a great track - and looks great with all the Christmas decorations!
The action started with the Group A Sierra vs BMW team race. DeadNuts had the first BMW E30 of the year in the initial line-up...
However, after a poor qualifying, they decided to revert to the Labatt's Sierra that won last time out. A car change meant they'd start from the back... but they qualified last in any case! Meanwhile, Ollie banged in an absolutely stunning pole lap for Fundamentally Barley - the only driver to go sub-14 seconds.
The race was run in dry conditions, so each team had to use at least one set of the dry weather tyres - Softs and Hards. All sensibly chose to start on Softs. Coming up to the first driver change at 10 minutes, Smooth Ops and DeadNuts were together on 29 laps, Ardingly Aces on 27 and Race Control, WHAM! Racing and Fundamentally Barley on 25...
No-one quite knew where they were in the race as RCS64 was adding a lap after every pit stop (the setting not changed since last month), but that just added to the drama! Apart from Smooth Operators running into some mechanical issues, the other five teams remained locked together. The race win looked to between the Dadson-Bean trio of Fundamentally Barley, Alex, Andy and Dean's DeadNuts and the WHAM! Racing duo of Andrew Ridgeley and and George Michael. The all-bronze Race Control team saw Ash, Kev and Daniel in a great fight with the Ardingly Aces (Simon, Duncan and Isaac) for fourth - and ready to grab a podium place should anyone in front slip up...
However, as the 30 minutes ended and a lap was removed for each pit stop made, this is how things stood...
Click the image to make it bigger
Huge congrats to Alex, Andy and Dean on their win - and to everyone else for a great start to the day...
The rest of the day would be exclusively single-racer events, starting with BTCC qualifying and Race One...
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