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Race report

Twenty-four attendees made the maths very easy for our February Nascar club car team race. And we welcomed three new digital racers - Kevin, Stephen and James all going through our WHO Digital Driving School, after varying degrees of experience at our HO Wednesdays.

   

Simon's track design went together very nicely and filled the room with a perfect Wednesday night layout - lots of flowing curves with overtaking opportunities and enough challenging sections to keep us on our toes...

   

Five of the WHO Pontiac Grand Prix got an outing this month, giving a slightly different drive to the Tauruses. However, one Taurus snuck in - the white Herbie UPS car made up the set of six. And we were off - the six teams captained by our younger drivers... although at 41, Dean is the oldest 'jadult' to captain at a WHO team race so far. It did make his day...

   

The first of three 20-minute segments saw teams having to tackle just a fuel simulation, keeping the strategy and pit stop complexity to a minimum. Team Three - Isaac, Terry, Duncan & Rob A - took full advantage and banged in a big score of 95 laps, four ahead of Team Two (Oliver, Rob B, John & Steve P) and Team Six (Dean, Simon, Pete & Stephen A). The other three teams were well adrift of the leaders, with Team Five (Daniel, Mike, Mike & James) having a horrible start with the yellow car...

   

One of those struggling teams bounced back in the second segment after cars were swapped around. Team One - Ash, Jeremy, Matthew & Steve C - wrung a sensational 99 laps out of the red Pontiac... and that was with the extra challenge of tyre wear. Their closest challengers were Team Four - Stephen Mc, Andy, Kev & Kevin - who thoroughly enjoyed the blue car, finishing six laps back and five ahead of everyone else. That meant a very close race after 40 minutes... Team One led Team Three by a lap. Teams Two and Four were tied for third, just five laps adrift of the leader. Team Six were another 5 laps behind, with Team Five dead last, 18 laps off the lead...

   
 
It was the last-place team who redeemed themselves with a stunning last segment. They took the blue STP Pontiac into the lead and pulled away from the rest of the field. Their 99 laps was equal best of the race. However, the overall race win was still very much between Teams One (Ash) and Three (Isaac), who also had Team Four (Stephen) in the mix. After a really exciting 20 minutes and lots of position changes, it was Stephen, Andy, Kev & Kevin who rolled in second, ten laps behind Team Four. On the same lap were Isaac, Terry, Duncan & Rob A. Crucially they were a lap ahead of Ash, Jeremy, Matthew & Steve C. That tied the two teams on 272 laps after 60 minutes - the tie-break advantage going to the chasers, they finished ahead on the road in the final segment...

   

Team Four finished comfortably in third, but the big movers were Daniel, Mike, Mike & James, whose final segment performance saw them leap from sixth to fourth and just seven laps off the winners. Congratulations to all our teams and especially to the three first-time digital racers...

       

       

       

Of those first-time racers, James headed home before the Legends race, but Kevin and Stephen would stay on for another taste of digital action.