[woodcote]

Once our morning's times had been input into the Rally HQ laptop, we got started again - heading off to Nobby's Nightmare...

   

This was certainly the biggest of the stages and - at 3 laps of the end-to-end layout - the longest in terms of time taken. Nobby himself was first up...

   

John and Wayne both nudged below 80-seconds with some of their cars, so I was delighted when I got my Galant round in 80 seconds dead...

   

For the challenge - and tackling it cold for the first time - Nobby's Nightmare was my favourite stage of the day and the Galant my most enjoyable run.

We ended up on another fabulous stage, Colin's sheep stage ('Beware of the sheep' I think is its proper name?)...

   

Created during the pandemic, this L-shaped stage contains lots of driving challenges with the option (not used today) of different power and braking profiles on several different zones (eg no brakes on the green areas, lowered voltage on the textured grey areas etc). It's a brilliantly thought-out and delightfully executed slot rally stage...

       

       

The Avant Slot Galant looked a bit tight through the gate during the lunchtime photo-shoot. On its first time through of eight, there was a bang and the driver-side wing-mirror popped off. The Subaru was last through - my final run of a very enjoyable day. A big thank you to Nobby, John, Colin and Wayne for their companionship during the stages and giving me a priceless lesson in how to drive fast and accurately.

   

Mike, Terry and Phil were finishing up their final stage and all the data was being crunched at Slot Rally HQ. All apart from one group, who'd lagged behind all day and still had two stages to do. It did mean we had a chance to unwind, help pack away complete stages, clear up the kitchen and prepare the prize giving.

The results eventually arrived - the names Jeremy, Andy and Mike featuring regularly as the top tens of each class were read out. Mike did particularly well - bagging second place in both Classic and Modern...

   

A successful and very enjoyable day for the Worthing contingent.

Huge thanks to the Slot Rally GB crew and all the Oxford club members for putting on a top-rate event in a beautiful setting. Definitely food-for-thought for our WHO events...

The next Slot Rally GB rounds are in June - Farnborough on Sunday 1 June and St Albans on Sunday 22. If you want to join us on the road, give us a shout. Our WHO Slot Rally cars run to the same classes and regulations. The series visits the Barn on Saturday 19 July, before moving to Abergavenny for the championship finale on Sunday 7 September. All the details are here.