[Kevan]

Global Touring Car Challenge Proxy Series - 11th July June 2026 - 

Manx Scalextric & Slot Car Club

• 36 cars
  
• 3 events
  
• 6 classes
  

The club doors were open by 9am, it was a glorious hot sunny day and we were fully organised… that was until the club computer didn’t want to load the pre-prepared drivers and special heats which took about an hour to do all over again!

• The track was freshly vacuumed removing dust and debris from previous weeks racing.  The track is covered in a plastic sheet between club meetings.
  

• The five padded boxes carefully storing the cars were removed from the impressive hard plastic storage container and cars were removed one at a time to be serviced, each having their braids and tyres cleaned.
  
• Cars were laid out in racing order starting with the slowest in Event 1, then Event 2 and finally Event 3.  This did mean most races were fairly even but as there are an odd number of cars in Events 2 & 3, this meant Modsports Audi (Event 2) was up against Fiery1 BMW 635 (Event 3).
  
• Track set at 12V
  
• Two lanes used, Yellow (middle lane) and Blue (outside lane)
  
• All cars raced in both lanes
  
• Andy racing Yellow lane cars, Kev racing Blue lane cars
  
• Two minute heats
  
• Race control pauses racing for a 'TRACK' call 
  
• Lunch break was half way through the race heats.
  

We did have some same-car races:

• The two little Abarths in Heat 1 & 2
  
• The two Honda Civics in Heat 17 & 18
  
• The two Alfa 155/6 in Heat 29 & 30
  

It never ceases to amaze us the diversity of car building seen in these proxies, carefully prepared standard basic cars, upgraded chassis, scratch built metal chassis, 3D printed chassis either bought or made…  Of course some go better than others and it’s always nice to see new ideas.

One thing that is great to see, and that’s thanks to Graham the proxy organiser, is a range of low mag motors with sensible performance.  I will admit to being a little sceptical about these low performance motors in the early days but have quickly adopted some of these for our usual club racing as you don’t need high revving motors to get round the track swiftly.

Another thing is the tyre width rule, no silly F1 wheels/tyres on these, 10mm is the limit on the wider cars and that’s not to say the lap times we are seeing is slow because some of these are rocket ships.  Low six second lap times are very competitive on our track (and we have a 30k motor limit on most of our club classes).

…It’s a shame when it’s all over as I’m sure you’d agree but the afternoon did finish with the best two races of all, Ade’s Opel and Bangers Peugeot, racing side-by-side for most of the two races, the chasing car not daring to try a daft overtaking manoeuvre for fear of a deslot, the final heat ending in a drivers handshake and round of applause!

There’s a two and a half hour video to enjoy.  Each race is listed in the video timeline so you can watch chosen cars rather than scroll through the video.

   
   
   
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• Post event notes…
  

I did think some cars were a little lightweight, this results in less confidence in corners and a reduction of rear grip.
I also thought a few cars were very stiff, with no body roll or chassis flex.  This meant those cars were generally unforgiving at racing speed in corners.
It’s only fair to highlight things that can affect performance as it’s in the car builders best interest to enjoy their hobby even more and improve future proxy entry results.
These are my own personal preferences though as they’re not my cars after all.

• So what’s next?
  

There’s going to be a car preview video, a close-up of each car so you can see what’s what.  I haven’t even had a good look at the cars myself even though we raced them (there wasn’t time).

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