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We're back at the Barn next Wednesday for the second round of the WHO/digital GT Championship 2024. GT team endurance racing is an exciting part of our digital racing calendar and a big step-up from the Nascar & Legends nights in terms of speed, tactics and software simulations. It is important you have completed at least one Nascar & Legends event to qualify as a GT driver.

   

We’ll be racing on one of Mike’s classic WHO digital layouts, first used in February 2018. If you can help us build the track, we’ll be at the Barn from 4.30pm.

Our GT Championship comprises four events - three Wednesday evenings and a full-day Saturday in June. The six Gold-rated drivers - Alex, Mike, Ryan, Andy, Oliver & Jeremy - captain the Pro-Am teams and adopt a deputy (or two) to help prepare and run the cars. All other drivers are allocated at each event, with every team requiring at least one Bronze-rated driver...

   

The evenings start with half an hour of practice, followed by a 2-minute Super-Pole qualifying session and then a two-hour race featuring fuel, tyre and weather simulations. Driver change windows open every 20 minutes and last for 2 minutes - the driver change must take place in the pits. The 500 lap  race should last two hours and so has six stints - three-driver teams must race two stints each, four or five-driver teams must have at least three stints driven by Bronze-rated drivers. No driver may complete more than two stints in total.

   

Each team is responsible for a designated marshalling post on the circuit during qualifying and the race. Penalties may be awarded for desertion of the post. Rear wings must be fitted at all times. If a wing falls off, the team has five laps to repair or fix a new one via a pit stop, otherwise penalties may be awarded. Race Control may also penalise persistently poor driving standards.

From this race, success penalties also apply. The first, second and third place teams from the previous race have 60, 40 and 20 seconds added to their pit stops. So that's about a 5 lap penalty for Gearzilla Racing - which might be significant at the end of the 2 hours.

As always, we ask that all racers aged 13 or younger bring a responsible adult with them. Race fees are £3 for adults, £2 for under-16s. We now have cashless payment options.

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Twenty-six raced and another four spectated at our second GT endurance race of the year...

   

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed what Jeremy described as Mike's "cheeky little layout" - a little smaller than some of our tracks, but perfect for a Wednesday night race. Named 'Carousel' by Mike, it was also very photogenic...

   


As for the team line-ups, the most notable news was Dean taking over the reigns at Astone Mosdell, since Alex is unable to make the Wednesday races for now. The team was bolstered by the arrival of Pete and Scott - Steve C and Isaac were retained from last month. Most of the other teams stayed fairly static from Round One. The only changes were Mike Mc moving from Smooth Operators to WHAM! Racing, Aussie racer Mark taking over at Smooth Ops. Stephen moved from Écurie Escargot to Gearzilla Racing. We were missing Alex, Russell and Andy Phillips from last time out...

   

Sidewinder shifted to a Corvette C6R this month, with Astone Mosdell suitably running an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 - the older sidewinder version. The other four teams stayed with their regular machinery.

After half an hour of practice, a slight layout tweak and the introduction of new race timing hardware (essentially a gym timer to give time to the next driver change window) we were ready to go. First up was the 2 minute Super Pole session - the drivers taking part would start the race. Five of the drivers gave it a good go, but Écurie Escargot were immediately off track to sort out a slow car. This is how the session ended...

   

Huge congrats to Ollie for his pole position lap - he gets an extra championship point for himself and for the team.

   

We were now ready to race...

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And this is what happened...



Thanks to Rob for the footage of stint #4.

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Our new WHO random weather algorithm served up a race that started Wet and would gradually turn to Damp by the end of the scheduled 500 laps. It was not a good start for Écurie Escargot. The power issue that cut short Alex's Super Pole run persisted. An early pit stop cycled through all possible issues - and it turned out to simply require the controller to be turned off and on... but that was six laps lost before the race had really begun...

   

Locked at the front after ten minutes were Gearzilla, Smooth Ops and WHAM! - Oliver, Ryan and Ash really enjoying the track in wet conditions. Pole-sitter Ollie was a lap behind, with Dean three off the front-runners. Things went from bad to worse for Écurie Escargot - the red & white Aston lost all power after 15 minutes. It was a repeat of last month's broken wire to the front ferrite man - this time the other wire... Mike stepped in with his soldering iron, but repairs ran into the second stint, with the team losing nearly 50 laps in the pits...

   

Meanwhile, Gearzilla led into the first driver change - Oliver rattling up a massive 101 laps. Ollie had fought back to put Sidewinder second on 99 laps, equal with Smooth Ops. Fourth were Astone Modsell, Dean handing over to Steve for stint two. They were equal with WHAM! on 97 laps.

The second stint continued in the rain, everyone staying on Wet tyres, although Mike inexplicably fitted Hards to the WHAM! Bentley. Écurie Escargot were back in the game and Stuart drove hard to end the stint 45 laps behind fifth place and 54 laps off the lead...

   

Star of this 20 minutes was Rob, who set the top score of 95 laps and put Sidewinder into a 5-lap lead over Astone Mosdell in second - Steve had a cracking stint in the black Vantage GT3. Smooth Operators held third, just a lap behind, after a strong drive by Duncan. Gearzilla dropped from first to fourth, Stephen having a tough 20-minutes. WHAM! Racing were just behind, Mike gaining ground with the Bentley.

At the second driver change, Rob handed over the 'Vette to Matthew, Isaac took over the second-placed Aston, Nathan was up for Smooth Ops, Ethan for Gearzilla, Steve for WHAM! and John took control of the last-placed Écurie Escargot Aston.

The fastest car on track for this third 20-minutes was that troubled red & white Vantage. John drove it beautifully to set a race record equalling 101 laps and cut the deficit to fifth place from 45 laps to just 25 - now 45 laps off the lead. The rain stopped after 52 minutes, but the track remained wet. With cloud cover, conditions wouldn't improve very quickly...

   

At the front, Matthew maintained Siderwinder's lead - although Isaac had taken two laps off their advantage by scoring 94 laps to Matthew's 92. That battle was shaping up nicely. WHAM! sat in third, eleven laps back thanks to Steve's 88 score - an excellent rookie performance. Smooth Ops were in fourth after Nathan's stint and Gearzilla dropped another place despite a solid 20-minutes by Ethan.

An hour gone and the drivers changed again - Mike D was driving for Sidewinder and Pete for Astone Mosdell, Mike Mc back on for WHAM!, Mark for Smooth Ops, Stephen for Gearzilla and Andy for Écurie Escargot...

   

The track had dried just a tad - but that was enough for Sidewinder, Gearzilla and Smooth Ops to try the Intermediate tyres. However, top score for this stint went to WHAM! Racing - Mike banging in 98 laps and driving the Bentley beautifully. That closed the gap to Astone Mosdell significantly - now just two laps. Pete's steady 89 laps was eclipsed by both Mikes, Mike D adding eight laps to Siderwinder's lead. In the midfield, Gearzilla jumped ahead of Smooth Ops and Écurie Escargot stayed 25 laps back.

The driving so far had been great and the track quicker than expected, so the 2-hour estimate for the 500-laps was a little off. The fifth stint looked like it would be the last full 20-minutes, with Ollie in particularly good form for Sidewinder...

   

It was blisteringly fast stint - Ollie leading the way with the Sidewinder Corvette. His 99 laps was sensational, a string of sub-10 laps punctuated by the occasional crash. John was again on top form for Écurie Escargot, managing 98 laps and regularly getting close to the 10-second mark. If that wire had remained intact, the Aston might well  have run Sidewinder close for the win.

   

Instead, it was WHAM! Racing who moved up to second place - Steve's 94 laps beating Scott's 85 for Astone Mosdell, whose flimsy rear wing was becoming a liability. Smooth Ops also had wing issues in this stint, Simon dropping four laps to Terry, who moved Gearzilla to within one lap of the podium places. John's heroics had Écurie Escargot just 19 laps behind fifth, but the team's recovery had pretty much run out of time.

The final driver change took place with Sidewinder needing less than 20 laps for victory. Rob made quick work of it...

   

Jeremy finally hung up his team manager hat and took the Bentley for a spin - very satisfied with runner-up spot. Oliver went all guns blazing and was just too quick for Isaac - Gearzilla Racing stealing third spot in those final minutes. It was mildly disappointing for Astone Mosdell, who'd run in second for much of the race. However, as team captain Dean said, after last months litany of mechanical woes, it was great to get through the race without any major issues. Ryan was disappointed with fifth and the Écurie Escargot had mixed feelings - devastated by the early stop, but exhilarated by the pace of the car and the recovery to 23 laps off fifth, 55 of the winners...

   

   
click image to make it bigger.

Congrats to the winners and all the teams on a great evening of racing...

       

       

       

And here are all the stint stats...

   

That leaves the GT Championship table looking like this after two of the four races...

   

Don't forget it's double points for the final round - a 4-hour race in June!

As always, big thanks to everyone who came along and contributed to a most enjoyable evening at the Barn. Special thanks goes to the set-up crew, the race control team and all those who stayed behind to pack away.

We're back for Round Three on Wednesday 15 May, a few days after the UK Slot Car Festival at Gaydon - where you can race your St Mary's Trophy and RAC TT Celebration cars to WHO rules on a 100-foot replica of Goodwood Motor Circuit. More details here.

   

[BAracer]

Lovely evening, lovely team, lovely result for WHAM! Racing 

Really pleased to have nailed our pit stops...we spent more time racing than refuelling this time!

[Scott]

"Steve's 94 laps beating Scott's 85 for Astone Mosdell, whose flimsy rear wing was becoming a liability."

The wing wasn't the liability, it was me!  Sorry, team.

Still had a fun great evening, thanks to everyone who runs it.