[Kevan]

Race report and results - 10th Sep 2026 - 

• British & German cars night (Battle of Britain)
  
• SRF F1 Sidecars
  

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British & German cars night (Battle of Britain)…double session

   
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We had a great turnout tonight as nine club members brought many and varied cars for tonight.
Scalextric, Ninco, Racer, Thunderslot, SlotIt, NSR plus a couple of resin body cars.
Classes entered were Small Saloon, Small Sport, Saloon, Group 5 (Saloon and Sport) and of course Sport.
Amongst these were Modified, Prostock and Open Class cars.
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Needless to say the racing was varied with lots of class winners, some ding dong races, a few spills but a very enjoyable night's racing.
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George stayed long enough to enter his first race, he’s had lots of practice over the last couple of months, I think he was itching to join in racing and he did very well racing a club Ford Capri Group 5, focussing on his own car and not getting drawn into trying to catch faster cars.
Geoff turned up with the car he wanted to bring a couple of weeks ago, his Racer Ford Capri Group 5 which was comfortably quicker than his gold leaf Lola.
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Brian H was really pleased that his Scalextric Jaguar XKRS managed three heats without breakdown, it’s pretty quick too!
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Paul brought a Scalextric Ford Sierra RS500, the sole Small Saloon entry was guaranteed a class win.
Other guaranteed class winners were Ed with his Ninco Opel Calibra in Modified Saloon class and Kev with his Ninco Healey in Prostock Small Sports class.
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A pair of resin Jaguar XJ12C’s raced by Brian L & Mike with only half a lap between them at the end.
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Andy turned up with an interesting car, a Scaleauto BMW M1 Group 5 with a NSR Mosler chassis which looks like it was made to fit, a really nice runner it is too.

   

Car Comparisons

   
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Enjoy watching the mix of cars in the two videos, it was certainly enjoyable racing each other at the end of which I thought we should do these mixed class nights far more often.




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SRF F1 SIDECARS

   
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• Seven SRF F1 Sidecars
  

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…can I whisper it but we had seven jeopardy-free races
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The closest race of the night was Heat #4 as Kev, Mike & Geoff all crossed the line on the same lap.
Kev’s best run was in Blue lane in his first race.
Mike was the most consistent Sidecar with three lane scores almost identical.
Geoff had the best Yellow lane score of the night.
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Brian L said he was now fully confident in his sidecar after having a guide mount come loose two weeks ago and was one of three who were very close at the end as he, Geoff & Mike all finished half a lap apart overall.
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Brian H drifted down the pecking order this week, what we’re finding is brand new tyres once treated, perform great and lap times are best then over the weeks as tyres wear the lap times get a bit slower until they settle down to a consistent level as we saw with his three very closely matching lane results.
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Ed & Paul were pretty close together at the end, the biggest difference between them was Blue lane where Ed traditionally struggles but not tonight.
Both having their best lane scores in Yellow lane.

   


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Here’s a reminder of the setups that seem to work well:

• Gearing - 3:1 or thereabouts, i.e. 11/34, 12/34 or 12/36.  This gives plenty of acceleration and brakes and more than enough top speed.
  
• 10mm wide tyres gives a great selection of tyre choices, tried and tested compounds in this size on BallaYorkley are NSR Alan Mann Untragrips, Thunderslot 002 or 004’s
  
• A good chunk of ballast down the centre of the chassis seems to work well.
  
• A small diameter front tyre so it doesn’t foul the chassis or touch the bodywork.
  
• How tight the bodyshell fixing screws are seems to have a big effect on handling, trial & error here.
  
• N.B. control in corners, trying to keep both rear tyres either side of the slot/braid to prevent tyre degradation on the drivers side wheel.
  

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A ‘gentleman's agreement’ formulated after a discussion with the SRF design team to keep the racing close for everyone:

• Slotcarmann Harrier 26k handout motors
  
• 10mm wide tyres
  
• No tyre treatment once Sidecar racing starts
  
• Ballast inside the outfit only please
  
• TAPE OVER THE SCREWS UNDER THE CHASSIS PLEASE
  

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Two videos this week…enjoy!

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Next week at the Manx Scalextric & Slot Car Club…

• Club BMW 320i
  
• Sports + Small Sports + Group 5 Sports
  
• SRF F1 Sidecars