5th-Dec-24, 08:15 AM
Race Report - Qualifying Heats
We had eighteen racers on the F1 grid for our end-of-season HO race. The Christmas decorations were freshly installed in the Barn, Ash kindly brought us some festive chocolates and there were three Christmas jumpers in attendance. Stephen joined us for his first taste of HO racing and hoped some decades-old muscle memory of Scalextric home racing would help him out...
The Rattlesnake Raceway inspired circuit proved to be bigger than expected when built. It was fast and flowing, but seemed to give equally to both the Super-G and Mega-G+ runners. With Darren a no-show, Pete was F1 champion without turning a wheel. He decided to give his Super-G a rest and ran one of his rather quick Mega-G+ chassis. Next season, the Super-G+ must have a minimum wheel & tyre height of 11mm - Andy decided to try that 2025 set-up and gather some useful data.
However, Isaac and Ollie were still fully focused on this season and the junior F1 and club championships. Ollie led Isaac by 13 points for the 2024 WHO Junior title and by 14 points for the F1 Junior championship. It would be a highly-competitive evening for the juniors, with Ethan and Dylan also gunning for memorable end-of-year performances.
The start of the heats proved the hunch from practice that the track was perfectly balanced for the two main chassis types. The Super-Gs had the legs along the two long straights, but the Mega-G+ cars caught up round the back section of the layout. Two-minute heat scores and fastest lap times were very similar. After nine heats - with everyone completing their first pair - the two Mega-G+ cars of Pete and Ollie led the Super-Gs of Andy and Oliver, with Isaac's Mega-G+ fifth. Pete's provisional pole position was just over two laps better than Ollie, who was a lap and a half ahead of his junior championship rival. Steve was top rookie in eighth, just ahead of Ethan in ninth.
The second half of the heats saw some exciting scores. Pete and Andy went head-to-head in Heat 16 - their fastest laps separated by just 0.001 of a second, 4.298 to 4.299. That heat summed up the Mega-G+ vs Super-G+ battle with Pete going clean through the two-minutes, whereas the usually crash-free Andy had two offs and finished three-quarters of a lap behind. It was those two who stood first and second going into the final pair of heats, yet neither were safely in the A Final line-up. Gareth, Oliver, Isaac and Ollie all had one last chance to leapfrog into the top places. Heat 17 saw Isaac and Gareth have disappointing runs and miss out. Oliver and Ollie did much better in Heat 18, but when the parts were added and the final order sorted, Pete was comfortably in pole by 2 and a half laps, Andy had shaded Oliver by a third of a lap - Ollie missing out by a mere 0.05 of a lap!
click the image to make it bigger
Other notable performances were Kevin's exceptional seventh place - by far the best of his rookie year - and Stephen's 14th on debut with the club cars. Ethan had managed a pretty good evening so far, qualifying 11th and seven laps ahead of his dad.
We had eighteen racers on the F1 grid for our end-of-season HO race. The Christmas decorations were freshly installed in the Barn, Ash kindly brought us some festive chocolates and there were three Christmas jumpers in attendance. Stephen joined us for his first taste of HO racing and hoped some decades-old muscle memory of Scalextric home racing would help him out...
The Rattlesnake Raceway inspired circuit proved to be bigger than expected when built. It was fast and flowing, but seemed to give equally to both the Super-G and Mega-G+ runners. With Darren a no-show, Pete was F1 champion without turning a wheel. He decided to give his Super-G a rest and ran one of his rather quick Mega-G+ chassis. Next season, the Super-G+ must have a minimum wheel & tyre height of 11mm - Andy decided to try that 2025 set-up and gather some useful data.
However, Isaac and Ollie were still fully focused on this season and the junior F1 and club championships. Ollie led Isaac by 13 points for the 2024 WHO Junior title and by 14 points for the F1 Junior championship. It would be a highly-competitive evening for the juniors, with Ethan and Dylan also gunning for memorable end-of-year performances.
The start of the heats proved the hunch from practice that the track was perfectly balanced for the two main chassis types. The Super-Gs had the legs along the two long straights, but the Mega-G+ cars caught up round the back section of the layout. Two-minute heat scores and fastest lap times were very similar. After nine heats - with everyone completing their first pair - the two Mega-G+ cars of Pete and Ollie led the Super-Gs of Andy and Oliver, with Isaac's Mega-G+ fifth. Pete's provisional pole position was just over two laps better than Ollie, who was a lap and a half ahead of his junior championship rival. Steve was top rookie in eighth, just ahead of Ethan in ninth.
The second half of the heats saw some exciting scores. Pete and Andy went head-to-head in Heat 16 - their fastest laps separated by just 0.001 of a second, 4.298 to 4.299. That heat summed up the Mega-G+ vs Super-G+ battle with Pete going clean through the two-minutes, whereas the usually crash-free Andy had two offs and finished three-quarters of a lap behind. It was those two who stood first and second going into the final pair of heats, yet neither were safely in the A Final line-up. Gareth, Oliver, Isaac and Ollie all had one last chance to leapfrog into the top places. Heat 17 saw Isaac and Gareth have disappointing runs and miss out. Oliver and Ollie did much better in Heat 18, but when the parts were added and the final order sorted, Pete was comfortably in pole by 2 and a half laps, Andy had shaded Oliver by a third of a lap - Ollie missing out by a mere 0.05 of a lap!
click the image to make it bigger
Other notable performances were Kevin's exceptional seventh place - by far the best of his rookie year - and Stephen's 14th on debut with the club cars. Ethan had managed a pretty good evening so far, qualifying 11th and seven laps ahead of his dad.
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