[Kevan]

Race reports - 11th January 2024 - Small Sports/Saloons plus Classic F1/F1
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An opportunity to race two more classes of cars for the first time on the new track surface, what will the F1’s be like with even more grip!...that is if you brought the right cars for the nights racing as Gav found out when he took a 1956 Lancia Ferrari D50 out of his box…that was last week Gav! and found himself well off the pace of the much faster F1’s
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Heats tonight were 200 seconds, 2 drivers per race.
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Small Sports/Saloons

   
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The usual favourites were brought out to race, Gav’s Cobra & Bri’s Ferrari whilst Mike’s DBR1 made an appearance in class after a couple of Le Manx outings and a return to racing for Kev’s Big Healey after a few years gathering dust.
Ed intended racing his recently setup car, Ninco Jag XK120 but the rear jitters not only made it sound awful but making it difficult to drive…a loose rear tyre was found to be the (probable) problem…pit crew to the rescue once more! That meant the trusty Metro 6R4 got a run.
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Things didn’t get competitive on track until Heat #4 as Mike & Brian were difficult to separate until Brian’s Ferrari left the track, he slowly clawed back the loss of track time but chucked it away again half way through the race which Mike’s Aston Martin DBR1 won by only half a lap.
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Ed & Gav showed how to have a close race in the very next heat, steady Eddie’s Metro 6R4 stayed on track whilst the very quick AC Cobra went on sightseeing detours a few times too many but did make for the closest race of the night as the Metro won by a mere 1.7 seconds.
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Kev’s black Healey with swept back Le Mans windscreen isn’t as quick as some of his cars in this class but went round nicely enough, his closest race was Heat #6 against Brian’s Ferrari 365P2.
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Heat wins in heat order for Kev, Brian, Mike B & Ed

   


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Classic F1/F1

   
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As previously mentioned Gav brought a knife to a gun fight, the Lancia Ferrari totally outgunned by the modern era F1’s and strangely his best run was in the difficult Red lane.
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Heat #1, how would Kev’s Black Bull handle the high grip track…it was flying round! and flew round on all three lanes lowering the track record to 5.41 which sounds ludicrously fast but this car hasn’t had any changes for years and those back tyres feel like soft bubblegum.
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Mike B started the night with a Scaley Brabham BT49 on a Mack chassis, tyres not glued to the wheels made it a handful as Ed found out with the XK120, a change to his tried & tested Merced’ish was even worse as that also had tyre issues…the club Proslot Ferrari was resurrected which went OK after a rear axle bearing was popped back in place but sounded like something was scraping on the track.  A loose screw under the chassis and one that was missing was sorted for his last race and that car was transformed, OK not particularly fast but planted in the corners.  Mike said ‘note to self, wheels and tyres for next time’.
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The other two cars, Brian & Ed both racing NSR F1’s had no problems, Brian’s looked like it had a magnet as the car was planted and went faster each race, a 6.0 second fast lap is easily the fastest that car has gone.
Ed’s NSR went best in Yellow lane and a hot lap of 6.6 seconds but when his controller comes back we can expect a large jump in performance with all his cars…apparently it’s in the post on it’s way back!
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Heat wins in heat order for Kev, Brian & Mike B

   



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Next week is Group 5 and Saloon/DTM