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We're back at the Barn for our August Nascar race on Wednesday 7 August. We often use a 'tricky triangle' for the summer race, but this year Keith and Deborah have chosen a short track oval inspired by Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway...

   

At 37 feet, it's hardly a bullring - but the mayhem will come thick and fast.

Doors open at 6.15pm for practice, with the heats starting before 7 o'clock. We aim to wrap everything up by 9.30. Entry is £3 for adults and £2 for under-16s. We ask that all young racers aged 13 and below bring a responsible adult with them. Club cars and controllers are always available.

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Race report - qualifying heats

We welcomed 23 racers to the Barn for our August HO Nascar night. George came along for his first taste of action at the Barn...

   

The short-ish oval was always going to be a challenge - and it proved to be a very busy night for all the marshals!

   

Despite that, some good scores were logged - and this is what the leaderboard looked like after every racer had completed two heats...

   

With one dropped score, there was time to recover in the second half of qualifying...

   

At the top, Gareth was the only racer to break the 50 lap mark, although Pete came very close. Those were the top two qualifiers, Pete clinched pole position by just over two laps. Ryan grabbed the last automatic spot in the A Final, leaving a very strong group to fight for the step-up. In the absence of Keith and Deborah, Ash edged Kev in the Gen6 battle - they'd meet later in the E Final. Ollie was comfortably top junior and Steve top rookie...

   

The finals are next...

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And here's what happened...




A full report and results will follow...

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Finals - Part One

Twenty-three racers meant eight finals, the first being an H Final head-to-head between Tracy (blue) and Gary (white)...

   

Both had struggled in the heats, so this was an opportunity to salvage something from the evening. Tracy didn't help her chances by crashing on the opening lap, handing Gary a useful early lead...

   


There would be other crashes, but Gary's Super-G+ had the cleaner run to the chequered flag and won by just over five laps.

Gary stepped up into the dreaded yellow lane for the G Final and would face three Mega-G+ Gen 6 cars there...

   

Nathan had chosen red lane, George white and Ethan blue. The two youngsters' cars were stranded on the line, Ethan getting away with a push, but George needed the white club car to get going - already almost ten laps adrift. Gary had a few sighter laps in yellow, leaving Nathan out front by a country mile...

   

Nathan had a couple of offs, but the win was never in any doubt - the excitement was the battle for second. Ethan had recovered well from his nightmare start and Gary was putting a decent run together in yellow. Both had offs, a big one for Gary handing the place to Ethan with about half a minute to go. However, Ethan then had a late crash and Gary grabbed runner-up spot by just under a lap. George rolled home in fourth, ruing those lost laps at the start and wondering what might have been - he would have been a comfortable second, maybe even challenging Nathan for the win...

   

Nathan's reward was yellow lane in the F Final, up against Duncan's Life Like (blue), Isaac's Super-G+ (red) and Steve with the white club car...

   

It was a clean start, Duncan leading the way in the early stages, Isaac on a similar pace and the two Mega-G+ drivers holding formation a few feet behind. The first to slip up was Nathan on lap four and again on lap eight. Isaac was off on the following lap, allowing Duncan to get away and Steve to grab second...

   

Duncan wasn't entirely happy - although maintaining his lead, the middle of the race was a little ragged. Meanwhile, Isaac put together a sensational run, closing right up in the closing stages. Time ran out and Duncan crossed the line just a third of a lap ahead. Steve had managed the only clean run of the finals so far, but that was only enough for third.

Duncan would be in yellow for the E Final, where he'd face Mike's Super-G+ in white and the fight for Gen6 honours between Ash (red) and Kev (blue)...

   

Mike was first out of the blocks, with Kev in hot pursuit. Ash and Duncan were both off on lap two and then both again on lap eight. Duncan had a further excursion two laps later, but then the two of them ran well to the end, but very much in a race for third place. At the front, Mike and Kev were have a great battle, Mike just eking out a few hundredths of a second each lap. That was until he crashed on lap ten, handing Kev a lap lead...

   

Mike recovered well, getting back on the pace and taking a tenth out of the lead for a couple of laps, gradually hauling himself back into contention. However, just when it looked like Mike would grab the lead, he crashed again - only a quick off, rejoining just under a lap behind. In the remaining eight laps, Kev held his nerve, made no mistakes and finished three quarters of a lap ahead. Ash beat Duncan to third.

That gave Kev the Gen6 win and - remarkably - blue lane in the D Final. Ollie had chosen yellow, after a sensational clean run in the heats, Matthew was on white and Rob in red...

   

This was a cracking race - all four leading at some point. Ollie was brave off the line and was out front for the first two laps, before a quick off dropped him to the back. That handed the lead to Matthew, until he crashed on lap 8. Kev was the only driver not to crash, so he inherited first place - at least for five laps, when an off let Rob through and he led for six laps...

   

It was incredibly close on the road at this point, but Rob's crash on lap 19 was race-ending for him. That left us with three drivers battling for the win and still half the race to go. Ollie was going great in yellow, but a scrappy few laps dropped him back. Kev was out front, his Mega-G+ having the consistency if not the outright speed. It was déjà vu for the Gen6 runner - being chased down by a faster Super-G+ car. Matthew was taking big chunks of time each lap and was eventually through into the lead - but then crashed. Could Kev stay ahead? No - he was off on the following lap, another crash coming soon after to give Matthew a lap's breathing space at the end. What an end to the race - disappointment for Kev and joy for Matthew.


The A, B & C finals will follow...

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Finals - Part Two

Matthew stepped up into yellow lane for the C Final, which featured Alex in blue, John (white) and Jerome (red)...

   

Matthew and John were neck-and-neck first time round, with Matthew given the benefit of the doubt by Race Coordinator. John had a small gap after lap 2, followed closely by Matthew, Jerome and Alex - it had all the makings of a classic. On such an unforgiving track, incident-free runs are rare - and Jerome had a couple of mishaps to put him at the back. Alex joined him on lap 8, leaving John and Matthew in a race of the two gutter lanes...

   

Matthew was driving superbly and look the lead when John crashed on lap 9. That lead would last just 5 laps, until the first of a string of crashes put Matthew out of contention.  Jerome was now John's closest challenger, having recovered well, but was nowhere near John's relentless pace - he would need more errors from the leader to stand any chance of the win. John did have a brief off-track excursion, losing less than a lap, but his pace meant he retained the lead and could pull away again - crossing the line 1.3 laps ahead of Jerome. Not a comfortable win by any means. Alex could have been in the mix too, but five offs in the two minutes left him six laps behind his dad.

Of course, John stepped up to yellow in the B Final, and would be up against Andy (white), Oliver (blue) and Terry (red)...

   

Terry was quickest off the line and led the first three laps, before a big crash let the rest of the field through. Oliver took over for one lap and then crashed himself, leaving Andy and John in another battle of the gutter lanes. John is one of the few WHO racers capable of a challenging from the inside lane on a track like this. He concentrated on his own rhythm, attacking the race at his own pace - he was losing a few hundredths and occasionally a tenth to Andy, but stayed on the same lap and ahead of Terry and Oliver, whose races were littered with more crashes...

   

John slipped up just before half way, losing ten seconds after a big impact. Oliver was through into second, but three laps behind the leader - that would be nearly four by the end. John finished third and Terry fourth, Andy having a error-free run to the line...

   

Yellow awaited Andy in the A Final, giving us the top four qualifiers from the heats...

   

Pole man Pete had chosen blue lane, Gareth the outside white and Ryan red. Was this going to be a clean run to the chequered flag or another adrenalin-fuelled crash-fest? We'd soon find out...

   

Pete was fastest of the line, his slammed Super-G+ leading the first seven laps. By that time, Gareth and Ryan had both crashed - Ryan's a big one - and when Pete came off, it was Andy who took the lead. Concentrating on his own race, the 2.5-second laps in yellow were a couple of tenths slower than the times of the others, but Andy's lead lengthened as the chasing pack all crashed again...

   

A pause for a track break with 30 seconds to go showed Andy's lead at exactly 2 laps over Pete. However, Andy's rhythm was broken by the interruption - re-starting just before Turn 2, he binned it at Turn 3. Three and a half seconds were lost, meaning Pete was now just half a lap behind. With Andy still rediscovering his rhythm, the lead changed with seven laps to go. The gap at the end was two thirds of a lap or 1.695 seconds...

   

Here are the full results...

   

Congratulations to Pete on his win, to Ollie on another dominant junior medal performance, Kev on his Gen6 win (and an automatic place in November's Championship shootout), plus Steve on finishing top rookie...

   

That leaves another showdown between Pete and Andy in November's championship-decider on our Watkins Glen Nascar layout. A win for either gives them the title, although Oliver and Terry are not completely out of the picture...

   

And there are now only two places up for grabs in the Gen6 showdown - a winner-takes-all two minutes at the end of night. Gen6 winners get an automatic place, any vacant spots filled on Gen6 points scored. Nathan and Keith have those two spots as things stand...

   

Up-to-date Club and Rookie tables will follow once the July results have been added.

That's it for now. A very big thank you goes to everyone who came along on Wednesday for another excellent night of racing. Special thanks to the set-up and race control teams and to everyone who stayed behind to pack away - most of us will have been home by 10.

The next HO action is an AFX F1 race on Wednesday 4 September - we'll be using a new track design inspired by an Australian circuit, West Bend. Before that, we have two digital Wednesdays - a test night next week and a final Nascar & Legends double-header on the 21st.