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Rally HQ Report

I have to say, the past few hours are a complete blur. However, the feedback from the 31 racers who took part in our first slot rally event suggests it was a most enjoyable evening... It all started at 4pm with setting up three and a half of the four stages and then from around 6.15pm booking in 49 cars...

   

With nine club car runners, that was a total of 58 cars on the race sheet - just two shy of our maximum of sixty. Eleven racers entered the full quota of three cars, five entered a pair of cars and six just the one. Sixteen cars were entered into each of Classic and Modern classes, but 80s / 90s was the most popular with seventeen.

The racers were divided into four groups to circulate round the stages. Groups A and B each had 15 cars and nine drivers. Group C had six racers and 14 cars, Group D seven racers and 14 cars. Having so many cars on the race sheet and a few teething issues, we decided to run a 'no practice' format and drivers went straight into their timed runs.

As it was our first event like this, it would take time for each group to settle into a rhythm and organise their racing. It was brilliant to see the groups gel nice and quickly. However, one fly in the ointment was that the Sea Lane & Ilex stage was incomplete and untested, giving Group C a frustrating start, but they eventually got going and by the time everyone was on their second stage of the evening, things seemed to be running well and I had a few minutes to take some pictures...

       

I was a little too busy checking in on all the groups to have too long with my camera - but Scott's Citroën DS just had to be captured in all its glory...

   

Racers seemed to be enjoying the big Titnore Lane layout with its mix of grippy Ninco tarmac and alarmingly slippery ice sections...

   

The Sea Lane & Ilex stage also had its fans, particularly enjoying Oli's fabulous donut loops that we fitted to each end...

   

Due to the backlog behind Group C, the other groups had time to enter their stage times on the race spreadsheet during the evening. Every cloud has a silver lining...

   

If Titnore Lane was most racers' favourite stage, then the Ford Ice Rink came a close second. Its 5 x 2 foot footprint packs in a lot of fun and it took centre-stage in the room...

   

And the bumpy surface on Jupp's Farm was something completely different - although all groups had to follow Group A in just recording each car's fastest 'lap' time. Oops...

   

The two hours of racing sped by and when we sorted the data on the spreadsheet, I was most surprised to find that I'd done more than alright - my focus for the night really hadn't been my cars or my racing...

   
You'll definitely want to click on the image to make it readable.

And here's the data sorted into classes...

   
Click on the image to access a bigger version.

Congratulations to all our winners, starting with the top three Club Car runners, John, Alex and Oli...

   

Next were the top three racing stock Scalextric models - Scott, Jerome & Pete...

   

There were more standard SCX cars on the grid and a podium of Ryan, Andy and Andy...

   

Now we are into the official Rally GB classes, starting with Classic. Congrats to Mike, Terry and Jeremy...

   

80s / 90s saw Andy, Darren and Andy come out on top...

   

The Modern finishing order was Andy, Jeremy and Ryan...

   

And finally the overall result - Andy first, Jeremy second, Mike D third and Ethan top junior...

   

Everyone who stayed to the end went home with a WHO Slot Rally 2024 sticker and a copy of Slot Car Magazine (thanks to Ric and Marc).

Data from each of the stages will follow tomorrow, but the winners of each are...

1. Jupp's Farm: Mike Dadson - SRC Porsche 914/6 GT
2. Titnore Lane: Mike Dadson - SRC Porsche 914/6 GT
3. Sea Lane & Ilex: Jeremy Belcher - SRC Lancia Delta S4 & Andy Player - Ninco Subaru Impreza
4. Ford Ice Rink: Jeremy Belcher - Scaleauto Peugeot 208

And hopefully there'll be a bit of video footage too...

Until then, a huge thank you to everyone who came along and made it such an exciting start to the club's slot rally journey. Everyone expressed a desire to do more - so that will be taken into account when we start to plan the 2025 WHO calendar over the next couple of months.