[Gareth]

Race Report

Round 1 of 2026 HO racing at WHO was a very important night.  After the biggest rules shake up in perhaps the history of the club, we would see Mod restricted to Vipers and Bulldogs only.  The Vipers would have their stock Pro4 traction magnets (and motor!) while the Bulldogs could run upgraded N42 mags.  Why can’t these companies make their strength numbers be on the same scale! 

The other big shake up saw Tuners restricted to the N35 Bulldog SRTs and Mega G+ cars with hard bodies.  Tuners would also be competing for full club championship points for the first time as well and racing in their own finals. Of the 20 drivers on the grid, 5 would be in Tuners and 15 in Mod.  Maybe those numbers will shift around later in the season.  

Rattlesnake Raceway would be the battlefield for the night; a dogleg main straight feeding into a series of esses and a double right to complete the lap.  It was short, fast and required a bit of thought on which corners to ease up on depending on the lane you were in.  Perhaps more importantly, it was a very even track across all 4 lanes. 

   

Early scores in the heats suggested 28 laps was a good Mod score (courtesy of Ollie B) while Andy was eye-catching in his GT40 bodied Tuner Bulldog.  26.5 laps was impressive indeed.  

   

Terry’s qualifying was composed and excellent, his 30 lap run on blue was a high water mark but Dylan matching him in yellow was even more impressive!  Ultimately it was Ollie once again who managed the best run of all with a scorching 31.35.  

We thought that the new rules might mix up the pecking order and that proved to be the case.  Terry might have had pole but it was Kev and Isaac joining him in the A final with a Bulldog and Viper respectively that made things really spicy.  

The scores were remarkably tight from Pete in 6th down to Mike in 16th place with Andy being right up there in 10th in his Tuner.