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Our final action of the year at the Barn is the second of a pair of Tin Top Saturdays on 16 December. By the end of the day, we'll have crowned our 2023 WHO BTCC champion and - hopefully - had a cracking six and a half hours of saloon car racing, mince pie eating and Christmas jumper wearing.

The plan for 2024 is to streamline the November and December Saturdays to make them a little more laid-back. After a hectic November, we've changed the schedule to something like this...

   

That's a full 90 minutes of free practice, no club car rotation and a Carrera Classic Nascar demonstration. The competitive action starts with the Group A team race. I suspect we'll all enjoy it and - fingers crossed - we will have our new Saturday format sorted.

Racing on  Mike's NerdBarnRing layout has become a bit of a pre-Christmas tradition. It's a great Scalextric digital track with lots of overtaking opportunities...

   

Shame we don't have room for the Nördschleife.

Anyone planning on a trip to the Barn for the first time, do let us know so we can get you up to speed. All the 2023 regs are in a pdf at: http://www.whoracing.org.uk/who_digital.html

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Race Report

Seventeen racers turned out for the last event at the Barn in 2023. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them - thanks to a last-minute hospital appointment. A very big thank you to everyone who ran the day, took pictures and jotted down results - which means I can write up a race report. It was particularly galling to miss out on Mike's magnificent NerdBarnRing and not to catch-up with Andy Phillips on a rare visit to the Barn...

   

That really is a great track - and looks great with all the Christmas decorations!

The action started with the Group A Sierra vs BMW team race. DeadNuts had the first BMW E30 of the year in the initial line-up...

   

However, after a poor qualifying, they decided to revert to the Labatt's Sierra that won last time out. A car change meant they'd start from the back... but they qualified last in any case! Meanwhile, Ollie banged in an absolutely stunning pole lap for Fundamentally Barley - the only driver to go sub-14 seconds.

   

The race was run in dry conditions, so each team had to use at least one set of the dry weather tyres - Softs and Hards. All sensibly chose to start on Softs. Coming up to the first driver change at 10 minutes, Smooth Ops and DeadNuts were together on 29 laps, Ardingly Aces on 27 and Race Control, WHAM! Racing and Fundamentally Barley on 25...

   

No-one quite knew where they were in the race as RCS64 was adding a lap after every pit stop (the setting not changed since last month), but that just added to the drama! Apart from Smooth Operators running into some mechanical issues, the other five teams remained locked together. The race win looked to between the Dadson-Bean trio of Fundamentally Barley, Alex, Andy and Dean's DeadNuts and the WHAM! Racing duo of Andrew Ridgeley and and George Michael. The all-bronze Race Control team saw Ash, Kev and Daniel in a great fight with the Ardingly Aces (Simon, Duncan and Isaac) for fourth - and ready to grab a podium place should anyone in front slip up...

   

However, as the 30 minutes ended and a lap was removed for each pit stop made, this is how things stood...

   
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Huge congrats to Alex, Andy and Dean on their win - and to everyone else for a great start to the day...

       

       

       

The rest of the day would be exclusively single-racer events, starting with BTCC qualifying and Race One...

[Kevan]

Good to see so many Christmas jumpers

[woodingboys]

Looks like a fantastic racing event, but I am surprised the Scalextric Jumpers were not a mandatory race overall ;-) They are sure to be flame proof after all 

Get well soon Andy and I hope you can enjoy a restful Christmas.

Do let me know if you are well enough to pay a visit to Bicester in the new year and I will organise a car pass for you.

[woodcote]

Yes, nine very fine festive  jumpers on the grid...

   

... but did they give a performance boost to their wearers?

BTCC Qualifying & Race One

Everyone had a BTCC car, so it was a busy three groups qualifying to set the Race One grid and a bonus championship point for the pole-sitter. The top 5 in the championship table - Alex, Ryan, Mike, Jeremy and Ash - had the added challenge of 'success ballast', limiting their top power by differing amounts. This certainly had an impact on the standings - championship leader Alex doing well to qualify fourth - but is was ballast-free Simon who set the pace with the new Civic FK8, just pipping Mike to pole by the smallest of margins...

   


   

Four step-up finals started with five racers in the D Final battling for the top two places to progress. Duncan and Andy put themselves out front at half distance and clinched those vital top spots. Behind, Daniel kept things smooth to grab the single championship point for 15th place, Isaac was next, setting the fastest lap and beating his dad.

   

Terry dominated the C Final, but it was Andy who grabbed second, just ahead of Rob and Stephen. Not bad for his first BTCC race in absolute ages. Those two stepped up to the B Final, where Round 3 winner Ryan was languishing after a tricky qualifying and a big power reduction. Although he couldn't match the ballast-free Dean, who won the final, Ryan did beat Jeremy for the second step-up spot, having trailed at half distance. Jeremy finished only just ahead of the impressive Andy, both on 15 laps. Terry and Matthew came home fifth and sixth, a further lap down...

   

That left us with a six-way battle for the race win - Alex, Mike, Ash and Ryan still with power reductions. As expected it was a very tight race, everyone apart from Dean finishing on the same lap. At the front was Alex, ahead of Mike, Ryan, Ash and Simon...

   
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Congrats to Alex on a third win out of four, plus another podium for Ryan to keep the championship very much alive...

   

That was it for the morning session. The afternoon would feature two more BTCC races, a debut of the Carrera Classic Nascars and the Muscle Car Mondiale format.

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Afternoon - Part One

The afternoon began with BTCC Race Two - the grid determined by the results of Race One and the top 5 all carrying a 'success ballast' power reduction. That meant championship leader Alex was in pole position on maximum power reduction, followed by Mike, Ryan and Ash. The final two places in the A Final were up for grabs and any of the other 13 racers could have a shot at the overall race win. We started with the D Final...

   

Again, Duncan dominated the race, coming home a lap ahead of the rest. Daniel won a tight three-way battle for the second step-up spot, beating Ollie and Isaac, who were by far the quickest, but not consistent enough. Kev was a further lap adrift. The C Final saw Terry and Rob get away from the pack and secure their progression quite comfortably. Matthew was next, Duncan fourth and Stephen beat Daniel in the battle of the McCanns.

Simon and Dean were both A finalists in Race One and looked favourites to get back this time. However, Terry managed to get in amongst them and an exciting 3-way tussle went down to the wire - Terry prevailing and Simon getting the better of Dean for the second step-up. Rob was a good fourth, with both Andy and Jeremy not having the best of races.

That left us with the top six battling it out for the race win. And it came down to a familiar sight - the top two in the championship dropping the rest of the field, despite their power reduction success penalties. Mike was a little scrappy, Simon taking advantage to grab the third place on the podium. Terry beat Ash for fifth place. At the front, it was another win for Alex, but Ryan's second place meant they went into the final race of the championship separated by just nine points...

   

   
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Carrera Classic Nascar

This was a bit of festive fun and an opportunity to see some of these big cars on track before their official debut in Autumn 2024. Mike had prepared four of the five cars - including Terry's Torino - with Simon bright yellow Daytona Charger being the only non-Dadson Nascar on the grid...

   

The race results screen and paper sheet say rather different things - either Ash & Jeremy or Terry & Andy won the 25 lap race - but here are the results from the handwritten sheet...

1. Terry & Andy 25 laps (fastest 13:959 secs)
2. Ryan & Alex - 24 laps (13:450)
3. Ash & Jeremy - 24 laps (13:682)
4. Simon & Duncan - 23 laps (14:936)
5. Mike the car builder - 23 laps (13:500)

By all accounts, they looked pretty good.

BTCC Race Three - reverse grid

The all-important #5 ping pong ball was drawn to set the Race Three grid, giving Terry pole position and the A Final then populated by Mike, Simon and Ryan. Alex dropped to the B Final where he would definitely need to secure a step up to keep the 2023 WHO BTCC championship in his hands. Third in the B and Ryan winning the A would hand the trophy to Ryan. However, as always, we started with the D Final, where Isaac and Kev were desperate to register their first points of the day.

   

Ollie led Stephen and Isaac at half distance, Isaac gunning for that second spot. Despite setting a rapid 13:740 fastest lap, Isaac just fell short - Stephen taking the D Final win, followed by Ollie. Isaac did have the consolation of a single championship point for 15th overall. Could Ollie keep up his improved form in the C Final?

   

It was a magnificent race for the recently-crowned WHO junior champion, blitzing the other five drivers to take the win by a lap - and he got the fastest lap. In a tight scrap, Matthew pipped Duncan and Andy to the second step-up spot. Stephen rolled in fifth and Jeremy rounded off a below-par BTCC day with sixth.

All the pressure was on Alex in the B Final. However, it didn't show. A cool performance saw him cruise to victory ahead of Dean - and meant he needed fourth place or higher in the A Final to clinch the championship. Matthew put in a great performance to finish third, Rob was fourth, Ollie fifth and Ash sixth.

   

The final BTCC race of the year was fittingly the championship decider. Ryan absolutely needed the win - and a fastest lap would certainly be helpful. However, it was Dean who led at half distance, just ahead of Alex and Ryan. Pole man Terry followed in fourth, Simon was fifth and Mike sixth. Alex just needed to concentrate on Ryan, but when Dean fell out of contention, Alex was delighted to take the win - plus fastest lap - to complete a famous BTCC Saturday treble...

   

   
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Huge congratulations to Alex on a fabulous championship win - five victories out of six ain't bad...

   

He gets the new WHO BTCC trophy to keep until this time next year. Congrats also go to Ryan, who kept the championship alive with a string of podiums, including an excellent Race Three win last month. Ollie finished top junior after scoring points in all six rounds. Here's the full championship table, including everyone who raced, but only the top 15 in each of the rounds scored points...

   
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After the excitement of the BTCC finale, we stepped things down slightly for the final race of the year - the Muscle Car Mondiale heats & shoot-out format. The report will follow soon...

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Muscle Car Mondiale

Sixteen racers remained, after Duncan headed home - giving us three ten-minute heats and the top two from each going through to a five-minute shoot-out. Amongst a field heavy on Camaros (four varieties of), there were also two AMC Javelins, two Mercury Cougars, Mike's new Chrysler Hemicuda, Simon's Aston Martin V8 and Isaac's Dodge Challenger. A nice innovation was the driver name for the windscreen of each...

   

Heat One was a full six-car line-up. Alex's low and lush Camaro IROC-Z unsurprisingly pulled away from the rest of the field, although Stephen's recently Dadsoned Cougar and Dean's Trans-Am Camaro kept as close as they could. Behind the top three, Matthew, Ash and Isaac gradually lost ground. The battle for the second spot was fierce, but in the end it was Stephen who grabbed the place, finishing just a lap behind Alex.

   

Mike's new Hemicuda is a thing of beauty, but he was raced hard by Daniel, Rob and Ryan in the second heat. Daniel - doing double-duty in the McCann Cougar - had the better of the rest from the early stages, Kev dropping off the back of the chasing pack. As Daniel closed out the win and Ryan lost time, Mike and Rob were locked in a very tight scrap for second place - a sweaty Mike just making the cut and taking the yellow Chrysler to the shoot-out at the expense of the Javelin.

   

Heat Three was exciting, but the top two were clear from the start. Ollie and Jeremy were neck and neck through the early stages, but it was the fast and consistent Ollie who pulled away to win with a lap total equalling Alex's Heat One score. A very impressive performance indeed. Jeremy came through the chequered flag a lap adrift, with Andy third, Terry fourth and Simon fifth.

   

That gave us six cars for the short & sharp shoot-out to finish the day. The McCanns had to fight over the Cougar and Mike's loaner Capri, but otherwise everyone was in the same machinery as the heats. Alex stepped up a gear in the IROC-Z, annihilating the opposition with super-fast driving and a perfect pit stop. Man and machine were simply unbeatable. Jeremy was best of the rest, finishing two laps behind. A further lap adrift, Mike just beat Stephen to third and Ollie beat Daniel to fifth. A nice race to end the season - and a soft-focus podium picture in front of the Christmas tree...

   

   
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And that was 2023 at the Barn wrapped up, ready to go again in January. Huge thanks goes to everyone who came along on Saturday - and during the rest of the year. Special thanks - as always - goes to the set-up crew, to Ash and Ryan for awesome work on Race Control, Mike and Simon for steering the day and to everyone who stayed behind to pack away. We couldn't do it without you.

We start our 2024 Scalextric digital racing with two Nascar & Legends Wednesday evenings on 17 January and 21 February. These are the perfect introduction to digital racing and our RCS64 software - including fuel and tyre simulations. All equipment is provided.

All our 2024 HO, Slot Rally and Scalextric digital dates are here:

   

Expect the full guide to WHO/digital 2024 pdf document to be updated in January. Any amendments will be to the autumn Saturdays and also reflect new cars available in the 2024 Scalextric catalogue. You can find the Guide here: https://slotracer.online/community/showt...9#pid34539

Wishing all our racers and followers a merry Christmas and a happy & healthy 2024!

   

[eToad]

Sadly the both rear wheels split on the BMW for the Group A. It must have been running as one wheel drive before completing stopping. So had to change to the Sierra.

I guess the software doesn't show that Ollie was leading the MCM final for about 5 laps. I only passed him after he made a mistake. Very fast again.

Alex

[mikefi]

Massive thanks for assembling that race report Andy,you couldn"t believe you weren"t there!

Fantastic seasonal end to another cracking digital year at the barn...

Competition is hot these days and it only take a minor mistake to be out of contention...

Great bunch of easy chaps,dads and lads to make a tip top day of racing...

much thanks to Ash and Ryan for making the software interface run smoothly as I dealt with the more anologue side...

Superb team effort by all to make a very satisfying days racing

[BAracer]

And the same sentiment from me...

Well done Mike for hosting the event, and for Ash and Ryan for taming the race software.

Well done to Mr A.I. who has the unique ability to analyse all the data given to him and come up with a 'genuine' race day report.

Well done Alex for setting the bar for performance driving that gives me something to aspire to.

Looking forward to an exciting 2024 at WHO!