[Kevan]

Race report and results - 4th December 2025 - Le Manx

   
.
Six club regulars tonight with cars covering over 60 years of Le Mans racing from the 50’s right through to the 21st Century.
.
Le Manx - ‘Classic’
.
Jaguar, AC, Ford & Ferrari started the evenings racing with Andy & Kev doing their best to keep their little open top sports cars amongst the larger Ford vs Ferrari GT battles.
.
We already knew how well Brian’s GT40 and Ed’s Ferrari 412P would go but what about Gav’s Ferrari 512M and Jamie’s GT40?  As it turned out Jamie did well with his borrowed GT40 although had a bit of trouble in Yellow lane, whilst Gav’s Ferrari went well in Blue lane but best in Yellow lane.

   
.
Le Manx - ‘Group C/LMP’
.

• Five Germans and a Brit - (a pair of Group C’s and four LMP’s)
  
• Five of these were SlotIt cars with either SlotIt or NSR motors, some inline, some with a sidewinder pod.
  
• Audi LMP’s were in every race, Jamie, Ed, Andy & Gav whilst Brian’s Porsche and Kev’s Jaguar mingled with the Audis.
  

.
Compared to the classic cars we’d just raced, the leap in performance was huge for Andy’s Audi R18 and Kev’s XJR12, the Jag having an engine upgrade for this event.
…both cars flying round in the 5.6-5.8 second bracket.
.
Ed & Gav were very close at the end of racing, about 7 seconds between them as Gav had a much better time with these cars, his best lane score beating Ed’s best lane score.
…Ed’s pit crew were told to ‘make it snappy’ during a race incident, an instruction used a few times tonight! (he certainly knows how to look after his crew). 
.
Brian’s Porsche raced well to keep comfortably clear of Jamie’s chasing Audi, nearly getting 38 laps in Blue lane.

   
.
Results:

• There’s three results charts, Le Manx Classic, Le Manx Modern and Le Manx Teams
  
• We’ve tried different ways of making teams but tonight it was simply add your two scores together for the teams result.
  

   


 ----------------------------------------


Next week is Small Sports/Saloons followed by Saloons

• Please take time to look at the proposed racing calendar for 2026.  It’s basically the same as 2025 with an extra Targa Florio night in place of a Rally night and an open ‘proxy’ type night for the last Thursday of the year.
  

[Kevan]

[Kevan]

[Kevan]

Race report and results - 11th December 2025 - Small Sports/Saloons followed by Saloons - 
.
Small Sports/Saloons

   

Always a good mixed bunch as there’s no dominant car you can buy.  Lots of cars out there that can run nicely but most of the quick cars we see on track are modified or built from specialist parts.
…we’ve all got our favourites, Ed’s Porsche 904, Mike’s ‘Moggy Racer’, Brian’s Ferrari 275P2 while Andy & Kev usually have a few options.
Andy decided on a AC Cobra with one of his brass chassis whilst Kev brought an Anglia to debut for its first event.
.
This is one class that’s a bit awkward for newcomers, the other is Grand Prix & Prewing F1.
…after a discussion about classes we thought of a way round this, newcomers with cars not strictly within the class description for the night can race cars as ‘Formula Libre’ cars.  These will be shown separately from the night's class cars but it’s more important to have newcomers and prospective club members joining in with what they have.
.
…and to the racing:

• Ed’s Modified Class Porsche 904 would seem on the face of it to be leaving a lot of performance behind as it’s so narrow.  Maybe it’s time to go back to the old 8mm wide tyre rule.
  
• Mike’s ‘Moggy Racer’ is always a great car to watch, it’s unique (apart from the car behind which is exactly the same) haha! Who said that Murray?
  
• Another unique car tonight was Kev’s Anglia Racer, he had a lot of teething problems with it during practice and eventually realised the rear axle tube was loose on one side whilst practicing on TT Grandstand Rally stage.  Once the axle tube was secured the Anglia was very quick indeed! (with no deslots - that’s always worth at least a lap).
  
• …not quite as quick as Andy’s AC Cobra during practice though, how on earth did he get into the 6.2’s with it?  A few too many deslots in the last heat whilst he was ‘TRYING!!!’ (in vain as it turned out) still comfortably won the Open Class.
  
• Brian’s Ferrari 275P2 (yes it’s a 365P2 but who can tell the difference) has been known to get round our track in the 6.6 second bracket, there’s nothing obviously wrong with it, Andy & Kev had a look at it and nothing is binding but it would deslot for apparently no reason… It's fair to say Brian unfortunately didn’t enjoy this class tonight.
  
• Jamie hasn’t got a competitive car for this class yet so Andy kindly leant him a rather nice Ferrari 250LM which he managed third best overall result with and second in Open Class.
  

It’s fair to say this class has evolved the most out of all classes over the last 5 years and it’s also one of the best to race in (and watch, when you should be marshalling).


   

Saloons

   

It always takes a couple of laps to get up to speed after racing slower cars and almost a relief to not have to drive so carefully as these bigger cars are really stable.
.
A much easier class to find competitive cars, if you want to be competitive, get a SlotIt Saloon
…and yet there were only a couple of them tonight, Brian & Kev both racing Opel Calibras.  Both went as well as you’d expect them to, which is a great advert for these cars.
.
Ed’s favourite Ninco Opel Calibra is also a great option if you prefer the slower Modified Class cars… but that’s still a class to win!
.
The other three cars were all Open Class cars, original bodyshells but steel or brass chassis nearly always see these as the fast guys.
Andy (Spirit Peugeot 406 on a Falcon powered Mack chassis), Jamie (colour changing SlotIt Alfa 155 on a NSR Shark 22 powered brass chassis) and Mike (resin cast Jaguar Mk7 on a NSR Shark 30 powered steel chassis… and a proud smile from the driver as it’s a cracking looking car which Jamie absolutely loved)

   
.
On the whole there were some great races tonight, racing your favourite cars always adds to the enjoyment factor.
.
 ----------------------------------------


Next week is the final nights racing in 2025 - the Christmas ‘Turkey Targa (Florio)’ on all four club tracks… this is for cars that raced in the Targa Florio up to 1973.  Club Ford GT40’s are available if you don’t have a suitable car (a GT40 raced in the Targa Florio in 1968).
…Christmas jumpers are mandatory (christmas goodies always welcome)

 ----------------------------------------

• Please take time to look at the proposed racing calendar for 2026.  It’s basically the same as 2025 with an extra Targa Florio night in place of a Rally night and an open ‘proxy’ type night for the last Thursday of the year.
  

[Kevan]

[Kevan]