[woodcote]

Jerome blasted off the line, was a foot ahead of Oliver going into the first corner and had a good three yards on the rest at the end of the first lap. Pete struggled to get the better of Oliver and their super-close battle would be a highlight of the race. Rob took his time to settle in to a fast pace and Jerome was so quick he was soon closing in to lap the fourth-place man...

   

This was a great track for the Vipers to strut their stuff and it was lap 11 before we had our first crash - a quick off for Rob. The battle for second was more or less decided in Pete's favour when Oliver had a big one on lap 19, losing three laps. Oliver's car would also leave the track at the end, finishing the race on the floor...

   

But this was a magnificent win for Jerome after a below-par qualifying. Pete finished second, Rob third and Oliver stranded in fourth.

Jerome stepped up to yellow for the first  A Final of 2025. Pole-sitter Andy had chosen blue, Ryan red and Terry white...

   

Ryan had a sensational opening lap, leading Jerome, Terry and Andy through the line. The first six laps were absolutely cracking. Andy responded to Ryan's opening move with a 4.063 on lap three, a 3.981 on lap four and a 3.965 on lap five to take him past Terry and Jerome and put him just a few feet behind Ryan. However, the leader certainly wasn't backing off and banged in a 4-second dead lap five and then a 3.968 on lap six...

   

So intense was the pace, something had to give. Lap seven saw Jerome, Terry and Ryan all crash in the switchbacks - although Ryan just managed to stay on the lead lap. Andy sensibly backed off by a quarter of a second a lap, controlling his lead. However, Ryan was still in contention thanks to some great marshalling and quickly getting back on his 4.0 to 4.1 second pace. Andy soon had to respond to keep Ryan at bay and it was a full-on final 30 second run to the line - Andy dipping into the 3.9s on two occasions. At the end of the race, Andy stopped at 28.80 laps, Ryan just crossing the line for 28.00. Jerome was four laps back, Terry five adrift after a big late-race crash...

   

Jerome secured fastest lap with a 3.895 - one of a trio of mid-race sub-four-second laps.

   

Here are the full results from all the finals...

   
click on the image to make it bigger

   

Congrats to our winners - Andy for the race win, Ollie as top junior, Steve for the WHO Tuners win, with James and Fay sharing top rookie honours in the absence of Ryan and Frankie. Championship tables are as per the results, so we don't have to worry about that this month.

A very big thank you to everyone who turned out for a snowy start to the season. Special thanks - as always - go to the set-up and race control crews and to everyone who stayed to help pack away. We couldn't do it without you.

Our next HO race is on Wednesday 5 February - the opening round of the WHO Nascar championship and a chance to celebrate the club's 15th birthday. There will be cake! And here's a preview of the four Nascar layouts we'll be using this year, starting with a big one...