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Fourteen of us gathered at the Barn for a night of super-fast WHO Mod action. We welcomed Keith and Deborah for the first time in 2023 - and we had a complete set of McCanns as part of Tracy's birthday week celebrations. Absent were our joint championship leaders - Jerome is now at University and Pete was sunning himself on some Greek island (as you do when the kids leave home...). However, they could still win the championship, depending on tonight's results... third-placed Terry needed at least second place and both Oliver and Ryan needed a win.

   

We raced on Simon's track that had marked our post-Covid return to racing back in April 2022. It's a quick track, but with enough tricky stuff to make each race a hair-raising two minutes. For the first time in a while, the whole field was made up of lexan-clad WHO Mod cars - all of them Vipers... and many of them chassis Tony Morris kindly donated to the club.

   

The heats were fast and furious, the track catching most racers out at some point. One incident that I'd prefer to forget, but everyone else insisted made the race report, was my first heat... Three cars fired off the start line towards the first corner - but the car in yellow lane ambled backwards down the straight. The lesson is to make sure you do at least one lap of practice. And I would regret that 30-second interlude swapping round the rear axle.

At the halfway point of the heats, Ryan topped the table with 75.55 laps from two races. Oliver was very close behind on 75.45 and Terry slightly adrift on 74.30. However, Terry's total included the un-fancied inside white lane - and both the Walkers still had that to come. Keith was fourth and I was somehow fifth, having redeemed myself in red lane.

   

The second round of heats were good for some, disappointing for others. At the front, the pressure was on - lane choice in the A Final would be crucial for the championship outcome. Terry raced perfectly on the outer two lanes, finishing in red with the only 40+ lap score of the heats. Ryan and Oliver both did more-than-okay on blue, but bailed from white after scrappy starts - that would be their dropped score. Terry had the all-important pole position - ending up two and half laps ahead of Oliver, who was 0.15 of a lap ahead of Ryan.

The only hope for Jerome and Pete was whoever stepped-up from the B Final causing an upset. The line-up was decided in the last of the heats. At the start of that 2-minutes I was sitting fourth in the standings, with Deborah fifth and Matthew sixth. However, Mike was having a great race in red lane - and we all watched his name rise up the overall standings as the end of the heat approached... First he leapfrogged Matthew, then two laps later he was ahead of Deborah. And then - on the final lap - Mike's name passed mine to finish fourth give him first pick of lane in the B Final.

Further down, Ollie was top junior qualifier - putting him in a very strong position for the junior WHO Mod title...

   
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Five finals tonight - and we started with a head-to-head E Final between Isaac and Rob...

   

Rob led through the line at the end of the first lap, but Isaac got in front next time round. Four laps in and a lengthy off for Rob dropped him three laps back. All Isaac had to do was keep things clean - which he did. There was no way back for Rob, the margin of victory nearly six and a half laps - Isaac getting by far his best score of the night...

   

Isaac stepped up to white lane in the D Final. There he met Ollie, who had at least one hand on the Junior Mod trophy - Isaac needing to win a couple more finals tonight to threaten his championship lead. Also on the line were Tracy and Daniel...

   

Isaac had a 'mare of a first lap, Tracy blasting her way into an early lead - Ollie and Daniel trying to stay in touch. Tracy was on great form, stretching out a significant gap, although a brief off on lap 15 did bunch the top 3 right back together. With the end of the race in sight, disaster struck for the race leader - both hers and Isaac's car left the track, Isaac's was retrieved, but Tracy's nestled against a pillar out of the marshal's sight. What seemed an age was only 10 seconds, but it was enough to let Ollie and Daniel through...

   

Ollie had the advantage, but lap times ebbed and flowed between the two - Ollie banging in the quickest and most consistent times over the final half-dozen laps. He won by just 0.45 of a lap - and was confirmed our 2023 Junior Mod champion!

   

The C Final saw Ollie stay in yellow lane - Stephen having chosen white. The other two racers will have been disappointed to not to have qualified higher - both Matthew and Keith showing awesome pace in the heats, but missing out due to car issues and plain bad luck. Yet it was Stephen who led the early stages, finding the inside lane the fastest way round. However, that lane is also the most tricky - and an off on lap 4 dropped him behind Matthew, both Keith and Ollie already losing time with off-road excursions...

   

Matthew got his head down and eased away from the others - he's a difficult man to beat when things go right. Behind, Keith was still a little ring-rusty after ten months away from racing. He had a great battle with Stephen, Keith eventually coming out on top by 0.2 of a lap. Matthew was long gone - the margin of victory five laps.

   

Mike had qualified top of the B Final, but faced Matthew, 2020-2 champion Deborah and 2019 champion Andy for a crack at tonight's feature race. This was an incredibly close two-minutes! Mike took the lead from the start and kept his nose in front from red lane. Andy sat just a couple of feet away, unable to close the gap in the outside yellow lane. Inside them, Deborah and Matthew were in their own battle about a quarter of a lap back. The pace was relentless - and no-one was crashing. That was until Mike had a brief off on lap 21 - letting Andy through, but still in front of Deborah, who'd managed to drop Matthew...

   

With the pace barely dropping, that's how the final part of the race panned out - Andy finishing two laps clear with the second 40+ lap score of the night, Mike second and just 0.15 of a lap ahead of Deborah after a late off. Matthew came in fourth after a scrappy end to his race.


   

The A final lined up with three possible champions and one potential disruptor - if Andy won and Ryan came second, Jerome and Pete could still end the night as joint champions! The pre-race smiles didn't tell the whole story...

   

It was Ryan who took the race by the scruff of its neck in the early stages, leading the championship trio by the smallest of margins, Oliver second and Terry in third. Andy was immediately fiddling with his brake settings and dropped back half a lap. Terry gradually cranked up the pace, passing Oliver on lap 8 and taking the lead from Ryan on lap 11...

   

All four cars were lapping on exactly the same pace - 2.9s - until Terry cranked things up and got into the 2.8s and then the 2.7s. He'd stretched out a decent lead over Oliver and Ryan, when Andy had an off and popped his rear axle. Any chance of a surprise win was gone. Ryan found some extra pace in the second half of the race, overtaking Oliver for second, but still losing a couple of tenths a lap to Terry. It would all be down to any late race nerves and crashes... but there were none. 

   

As the chequered flag fell, Terry had passed the 41 lap mark for the biggest score of the night. Disaster struck for Ryan on his final lap when his pinion stripped - letting Oliver through for runner-up spot in the race and the championship...

   

Huge congratulations to Terry on his race win and to Ollie for his junior medal...

   

Here are all the finals results...

   
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Tonight's results meant this year's truncated 3-race WHO Mod championship table looks like this...

   

That's a first WHO championship for Terry and a first WHO junior championship for Ollie!

   

Congratulations to our new champions and a very big thank you to everyone who came along for another excellent night's racing at the Barn. Special thanks go to the set-up and tear-down crews, Ollie for A & B Final photos, plus all those who mucked in on race control. Ash will be back next time, so things should be back to normal. The next HO race is Nascar on Wednesday 1 November - we're planning a big homage to the original Daytona Beach circuit, where Nascar racing was born.