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Our December Tin Top Saturday is the final event of the year at the Barn. Expect lots of great action, plus a festive vibe with decorations, Christmas jumpers, mince pies and plenty of chocolate.

Approximate timings are:

10.00 - Doors open + practice
10.45 - Group A team race - Gold drivers lead the six teams
11.30 - BTCC Qualifying and Race One - success ballast based on championship positions
13.00 - Lunch + practice
13.30 - BTCC Race Two - grid & success ballast based on Race One result
14.15 - Carrera Classic Nascar
14.45 - BTCC Race Three - partially reversed grid will pole-sitter picked by random
15.30 - Muscle Car Mondiale - heats & shoot-out races
16.30 - Prizegiving

If we have time, the plan is to try a variation with the Muscle Car Mondiale shoot-outs - having two or even three 5-minute races to end the day.

As is becoming a tradition, we end the season on Mike's NerdBarnRing...

   


Entry is £6 adults, £4 under-16s for the full day of racing. This is not a suitable event for Digital newbies and we do ask that racers have at least one Nascar & Legends evening under their belts. No club cars are available.

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Our final event of the year at the Barn is just seven days away.

An important part of the BTCC weekend simulation is the 'success ballast' power reduction that our top five in the championship will start with...

Andy Player - 65% power
Alex Stone - 70% power
Mike Dadson - 75% power
Oliver Walker - 80% power
Dean Mosdell - 85% power

These drivers carry the power reduction through Qualifying and Race One. Success ballast for Race Two and Three are determined by the finishing orders of Race One and Race Two.

This is how the BTCC points table looks after the three November races...

   

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Getting a few test laps in before the big day...

   

And such a good track layout to finish the year on!

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Did you make your WHO debut on the NerdBarnRing?

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I did...December 2019.

And i had a 121 technical tutorial from Gary Skipp as a Christmas treat!

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It's massive...

   

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Race Report - Group A Team Race

Seventeen of us gathered at the Barn for some festive Tin Top action. The NerdBarnRing was built and ready for practice at 10am...

   

It really is a fabulous layout - looks great and drives even better, usually giving us some very close racing and plenty of excitement. No super-long straights, so maybe suiting different cars and drivers from last month.

The first race of the day was the Group A team race, featuring the Scalextric Sierras, BMW E30 M3s and new Holden VL Commodores. This time out, we had four Fords and one each of the other two...

   

AST One ran last month's Muscle Car Mondiale winning Labatts Sierra and Fundamentally Barley the Shell Sierra.

   

Isaac and Andy were the only pair with the Andy Rouse ICS Sierra, while Ryan was back for his Christmas holidays to captain Smooth Operators' B&H Sierra.

   

WHAM! Racing had the Tic Tac BMW and Gearzilla returned with the Castrol Commodore.

A two-minute super-pole session determined the grid, with those drivers taking the first stint of the race...

   

The RCS64 weather gods had decided the whole 30-minute race would be run in the wet. Tyre strategy was simple - full Wets all round and a couple of sets should comfortably last to the end. Our six teams got off to a great start, Ollie getting the jump on everyone from pole position and gave AST One a handy two lap lead as we hit the first driver change. The Commodore was looking really good in second place, Dean much happier with the new car than last time out. Just behind was Rob for Fundamentally Barley, with Isaac holding fourth after a pit stop. A couple of laps adrift were Smooth Ops and WHAM! Racing - but this had been a very close opening stint.

   

Driver changes and pit stops over, the middle stint followed. Disaster struck for the leaders, as the Labatts Sierra headed to the kitchen for Alex to resolder a motor wire. AST One lost about 15 laps and dropped to the back. That left the Commodore and the Écurie Escargot Sierra battling for the lead - a long stop for Fundamentally Barley losing them a lap. At half distance, Isaac and Kev were on 52 laps, with Terry on 50. Simon had Smooth Ops in fourth, just a lap adrift of Fundamentally Barley. Ash was another two laps back in the BMW. The AST One Sierra was still in the kitchen.

   

Andy took over the leading car just after half distance and managed to put a lap on the Commodore just before the final driver change. Mike took over the Shell Sierra four laps off the lead and one lap ahead of Smooth Ops, now driven by Duncan. Ash handed the BMW to Jeremy, just a lap behind - and Alex had nine laps to make up to fifth and fifteen to the leaders.

With some of the quicker drivers on the final stint, it was a rapid ten minutes. Andy controlled the race at the front, Oliver and Mike pushing very hard behind. The Smooth Ops Sierra was anything but smooth, making life difficult for Duncan as Jeremy breezed past into fourth. But that was the only significant change. As time ran out, the winning margin for Écurie Escargot was two laps, Mike had run Oliver close for second, but the Commodore finished a lap ahead. Behind, the BMW was six laps adrift of the podium places and five ahead of the ailing Smooth Ops Sierra. Alex brought the AST One car home just a lap behind fifth place and still fifteen off the winners - how costly was that broken wire...

   
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Congrats to Isaac and Andy on their win...

       

       

       

Here are the stint stats...

   

A very enjoyable start to the day was followed by the opening BTCC action.

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BTCC Qualifying & Race One

Seventeen cars lined up for our three-race BTCC weekend simulation. Ryan and Duncan would be scoring points for the first time this year. In each of the races there would be three step ups from the B Final, two each from the C and D. The line-up for Race One would be determined by a qualifying session. Andy, Alex, Mike, Oliver and Dean all carried their championship 'success ballast' power reductions into qualifying and Race One...

   

The cars went off in three heats for qualifying, each having two minutes to set a fast time. There were no issues for Alex this time and he laid down an extremely fast 13:063 lap in the first heat, with Ryan closest at 13:458. Heat Two's fastest was Andy, 0.18 off Alex's provisional pole, closely followed by Dean. Mike sat fifth, just behind Ryan. 

   

The third heat saw Oliver beat Mike to go fifth. Alex clinched what could be an important championship point for pole position. The top three start in the A Final, but would the three stepping up benefit from extra track time?

   

The Race One D Final saw the bottom six from qualifying fight it out for two places in the C and to avoid the two non-points-scoring places - only the top 15 score points in the BTCC. The opening stages of the 16-lap sprint saw incredibly close racing - Simon's Civic leading after four laps, just ahead of Stephen, Daniel and Isaac. Kev and Duncan were already beginning to lose touch. Isaac was up to third at half distance, Simon still leading Stephen...

   

Isaac reeled in Stephen for that crucial second place, but just as he was executing the overtake he came off. It didn't look like the youngster had enough time to have another bite, but a magnificent charge to the line saw the position change on the final corner! Exciting stuff...

   

Simon and Isaac stepped up to the C Final. This was also incredibly close in the opening stages. BTCC used to be a crash-fest, but the standard of driving is just so much better this year. That means any error is very costly, which simply encourages better driving. Rob led Jeremy, Terry, Simon, Ash and Isaac after four laps - all covered by less than half a lap. It was Rob-Terry-Jeremy at half distance - and that's how it stayed at the end, with Ash fourth and Simon fifth.

   

Three drivers would step up from the B Final. Mike got past Ryan and Oliver soon after the start and had Terry chasing him down after four laps. There was a small gap back to Oliver, Ollie, Ryan and Rob. By half distance, Ryan had recovered to fourth behind Mike, Terry and Oliver. Ryan kept up his charge, moving into third as Terry dropped back and taking Oliver to clinch second in the closing laps. Mike took the win without breaking sweat.

Mike, Ryan and Oliver joined Alex, Andy and Dean in the A Final. From the off, the front two were side-by-side going through the line, but then came together and Andy found himself right at the back. Alex's BMW started to have intermittent power issues, dropping him behind his championship rivals. By half distance, Andy had recovered to third, but had Oliver in close company. At the front, Mike had a comfortable lead over Ryan, who wasn't 100% happy with his car.

Alex's woes continued and he was lapped by the pack, Mike cruising to the line and scoring an extra championship point for fastest lap. Behind, Oliver and Andy were pushing hard and swapped places, closing in on Ryan in the process. As the chequered flag fell, Ryan got to the line just a few inches ahead of Andy in third. A late off dropped Oliver behind Dean...

   

These are the full results...

   
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This results meant some big changes in the WHO BTCC Championship...

   

Alex's bad luck saw Mike jump into second spot, eight points behind Andy with two races to go. Dean had moved up to fourth, but almost certainly too far back for a crack at the title.

The second race - Round Five of the championship - would follow after lunch.

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BTCC Race Two

After a 30-minute lunch break, we were back with the second BTCC race of the day. The line-up for this was the result of Race One, meaning the podium finishers qualified for the A Final - with Dean, Oliver, Alex and Rob in the B, awaiting two step-ups. The 'success ballast' power reduction was also based on the Race One result, Mike getting the maximum penalty.

   

Simon and Stephen led the D Final from the off in what  was another very close race. After four laps. Kev was up to third in his Civic and in with a good chance of a top-two. By half distance, he'd been shuffled down to fifth - the last car on the lead lap. Simon still led Stephen, but some late race-drama for Simon lost him the lead and then Daniel almost took second... but not quite. Isaac was fourth, Kev fifth and Duncan sixth.

   

Ollie sprinted away from the line in the C Final, his BMW 330i always quick, but also a challenge. After four laps, he was still at the front, chased by Terry, Ash and Jeremy - the two who'd stepped up had been gapped at the back. Terry dropped back to fourth at half distance and the top three were Ollie, Ash and Jeremy. If anyone was expecting Ollie to crash and burn, they were proved wrong - the youngster was on one of his best ever BTCC drives. The others did have their wobbles, Ollie lapping second-place man Ash once and everyone else at least twice!

Could Ollie repeat that drive in the B Final? He was up against Dean, Oliver, Alex and his dad, so a it was certainly a big ask. Maybe the adrenaline was took much, but Ollie had soon lost touch with the pack - Alex leading Oliver, Dean, Ash and Rob after four laps. Just after half distance, Dean got ahead of Oliver and Rob had passed Ash for fourth...

   


As the race moved into the final stages, Alex was well clear, but there was a big battle for the remaining pair of step-up places. Oliver needed to keep things clean in second, but Dean had slipped to fourth behind Rob, who'd made steady progress in his MG. The chequered flag fell on Alex and Oliver and then - a lap back - Rob led in Ash and Dean to grab a place in the feature race.

Alex's progression meant all three championship contenders were in the A Final. Frontrunner Andy needed a better race this time, but the pressure was on - another first-lap off saw him back in sixth. He'd recovered to fourth by lap four, chasing Mike, Alex and Oliver. Things went from bad to worse, another off returning him to the back and then getting nerfed into the Armco by the leaders whilst being lapped. As Mike, Alex and Oliver powered away to stand on the podium and grab the big points, Andy did get past Rob and Ryan to salvage fourth place. After his third successive race win, Mike had the momentum and was surely favourite to lift the trophy.

   

   
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That race really shook up the championship standings - Andy going into the final race with a single point lead over Mike. The maths looked very simple...

   

That race would be a partial reverse-grid, the number nine drawn by Kev gave pole to Ollie - Dean and Ash joining him in the A Final. The four qualifiers for the B Final would be Ryan, Rob, Andy and Oliver, with Alex and Mike in the C Final. And the top five from Race Two would carry a 'success ballast' power reduction into the championship-decider.

However, before all that, we have a Carrera Classic Nascar race to look forward to!

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Carrera Classic Nascar

There was a full 12-car grid for this one - very encouraging for a new class - and we'll have to tweak the format next year to accommodate a bigger grid...

   

Ten early-70s models were joined by Jeremy's Fury and Andy's Bel-Air, both earlier models built to our Goodwood St Mary's Trophy regs with skinny tyres.

A pair of two-minute qualifying heats would split the field into two 20-lap races - the feature race for the fastest six and a consolation race for the rest. These big, heavy Carrera cars certainly made a change from the Scalextric BTCC action - times were a second a lap slower and everything rather more sideways!

   

Oliver put his Torino on pole with a 13:801 lap, everyone else in the 14s and 15s apart from Isaac and Rob who had car issues. The crucial sixth and seventh place cut-off saw the two St Mary's car battle it out - Andy shading Jeremy by 0.463 of a second to grab the final place in the feature race.

   

Jeremy started from pole in the consolation race and drove a near-perfect 20 laps as carnage ensued behind him. By half distance, the Richard Petty Fury had lapped everyone, with the McCann Roadrunner ahead of Rob's rejuvenated Charger in second and third. Isaac led Simon and Ollie. The two youngsters were heavy on the gas and needed to pit twice - both their cars also had trips to the parquet flooring, hopefully without too much damage. Jeremy cruised home, a lap ahead of Rob, two ahead of Stephen & Daniel, three ahead of Isaac and four laps ahead Ollie and Simon.

   

The feature race promised to be quicker and closer. Oliver and Mike lined up on the first row, followed by Alex and Dean, then Terry and Andy...

   

The pole-sitter was fairly quickly shuffled through the pack, leaving Dean to take control at the front. Five laps in, Dean led Mike and they were followed by Alex, Andy, Terry and Oliver was already a lap back. It was an exciting race, the occasional error proving costly, but Dean, Mike, Alex and the recovering Oliver certainly put on a great show with the big cars. A second pit stop for Mike dropped him out of contention and it looked like Dean's Torino had the race under control with just two laps to go...

   

However, disaster struck on the final time round, as Dean dropped from first to third - Alex grabbing the win and Oliver second. Bad luck for Dean, but Alex was delighted to get his first win of the day...

   

Here are the stats...

   

And that left us the small matter of our BTCC championship decider...