[Gareth]

First I must start by saying rest in peace to Steve Puttick.  He was a lovely guy who always seemed to enjoy his racing.  As Andy says, Steve had quickly become part of the club and he will be missed.  

Race Report

August is here and at Worthing HO Racing, that meant round 3 of the 2025 Nascar Championship. After our May trip to Mexico City for the road track round, we were back in the USA to Pennsylvania to race on the most unique track in the Nascar oval calendar; Pocono. The 2.5 mile tri-oval was scaled down to a 47 foot track which fit nicely in the centre of the Barn. Turn 1 was the widest radius turn and flat while Turns 2 and 3 had some gentle banking to try and aid the track. Despite this, all of 3 corners would see a huge amount of crashes and Simon nicknamed Turn 3 “Deadman’s Corner” which seemed highly fitting.

   

There were 24 WHO regulars and 2 new faces on the grid in the shape of Adam and Oliver K. Welcome to WHO guys.

As we started the heats, there quickly emerged a gulf of performance between those who were in tune with the track and those who were not. Pete, John, Deborah, Terry and Jerome all achieved 40+ laps to start their qualifying. And so did Kev whose Bulldog looked astonishingly fast in his opening pair of races. Unfortunately, it was a Tuner Bulldog so Kev’s pace fell back to the 30s for his second runs!

   

Oliver was unhappy with his car throughout qualifying and yours truly helped with matching traction magnets and chassis but despite all this, Oliver remained around 5 laps per run behind the leading group.

Another one who looked in for a torrid night after his opening heat was Andy with a worrying (for him) 24.40 in white. He’d swiftly turn things around setting the highest score in red and two good runs in blue and yellow to put himself back in contention.

Behind this group was a tight group of Rob B, Gary, Keith, Matthew, Alex, John and Ash who were all putting in multiple 30+ lap runs.

A bit further back from this group were the people struggling with the track, their cars or in Dylan’s case forgetting his glasses! That group also included me, Mike, Simon, Isaac, Tracy and James. Adam and Oliver had to depart after the first two heats to get Oliver home in time for his bedtime but I hope they enjoyed their first taste of HO club racing.

After 26 gruelling heats, it was Jerome on pole with his astonishing 45.2 lap run in blue, following by Pete who fell from provisional pole at the midpoint and Andy. Terry would go from pole in the B and Keith from pole in yellow.