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We're back at the Barn on Wednesday for our first Scalextric digital event of 2025. This is one of four Nascar & Legends Wednesday evenings, with non-stop excitement and also ideal to learn the ropes. Indeed, we do insist that new racers get one or more of these events under their belts before progressing on to the GT Championship and the autumn Digital Saturdays.

Doors open at 6.30pm for practice and digital driving school. Racers are allocated to six teams for the Nascar club car team race - the allocation being seeded to give us a nice, close 60 minutes of racing over three or four sessions. Cars are swapped between teams after each session - the winners swapping with the sixth place team etc. The aim is to get as many laps as possible.

After medals have been awarded to the winners and team photos taken on the podium, we move on to the Legends pairs race. The Pioneer Legends are not club cars, so you'll need a car or an invite to share one. It's a quick-fire format, 8-minute heats with a driver change at half-way and the teams with the best scores qualifying directly for the 8-minute feature race. Before that, there's an 8-minute last-chance semi-final to fill the remaining place(s) in the feature. That usually takes us up to just after 9.30pm.


Entry is £3 for the whole evening's racing (£2 under-16s) and there is a 2025 season ticket for our digital events available (see here).

We ask that racers aged 13 and under bring a responsible adult with them.

Simon has designed us a pair of tracks to race on at the January & February Nascar & Legends nights. This is the first one...

   

Full details of all our 2025 WHO Digital racing - dates, formats, car build regulations, hardware & software guides - can be found here: https://slotracer.online/community/showt...p?tid=4548

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We enjoyed a fine start to what will be a busy year of Scalextric digital racing. Nineteen took part and another six came along, said hello, saw what it was about and helped out with some marshalling. Hopefully some will join us next month for a proper taste.

   

Those eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that the track we built is in not the design in post #1. The set-up up crew simply grabbed the first sheet in Simon's file, which happened to be the layout from last August's test night. That was an absolute belter - so no complaints there - and we filled the Barn with a mix of high-speed straights and flowing curve sections. It guaranteed plenty of exciting action for the Scalextric Nascar club cars and the Pioneer Legends.

Nascar Team Race

Our 19 racers were divided into five teams of three and one of four - our younger racers captained all six teams, with a gold driver in five. There were some very strong teams, with everyone having WHO digital experience under their belts, although a couple hadn't raced since last summer and Rob A hadn't raced digital since before the pandemic.

   

Our Scalextric in-line Nascars have been on team race duty since even before we started racing at the Barn in 2014. They've also provided excitement for scout and community groups in that time. Mike chose a set of six colour-coded Ford Tauruses for this race, with cars swapped between teams at the end of each 15 minute segment. To ease us in to the new season, we started with just a fuel simulation to think about.

Racing got underway at 7.15 and teams were quickly in the groove, making the most of the relatively straightforward fuel-only pit stops. Most of the cars were great to drive, but Ollie was finding the yellow DeWalt Taurus a bit of a handful...

   

Ryan, Simon & Rob B (green John Deere Taurus) fought Ash, Terry & John (orange Tide Taurus) for top spot in segment one. At the end, it was green ahead of orange by one lap. Stephen, Mike D & Rob A (blue Valvoline Taurus) were third with 64, Oliver, Jeremy & Matthew (red Citgo Taurus) a lap back in fourth and Isaac, Dean, Duncan & Mike Mc (white Herbie Taurus) in fifth, another lap behind. That meant the top five were nicely spread over five laps. However, Ollie, Andy & Kev were three laps adrift of fifth - that yellow DeWalt car not at all to their liking.

   

Cars were swapped before the next segment. The winners swapped with sixth, so we'd have a look at how Ryan, Simon & Rob B would get on with the DeWalt car. Second place Ash, Terry & John would start with the white Herbie/UPS car...

   

Having forgotten to select the tyre simulation for this segment, we had another full-on dash with simple strategy and pit stops. This time it was the white Herbie Taurus out front, battling with the red Citgo car, driven by Stephen, Mike D and Rob A. The others tried to keep as close as they could...

   

Ryan, Simon & Rob B were struggling with the yellow DeWalt car, yet managed to save 10 seconds on their rivals with slick pit stops and finished just ahead of Ollie, Andy & Kev who were sixth and last again.

   

Ash, Terry & John equalled the Segment One winning score of 67, jumping into the overall lead on 133 - three laps ahead of Stephen, Mike D & Rob A. Ryan, Simon & Rob B were third on 128 - five laps off the lead - with Oliver, Jeremy & Matthew another lap back in fourth. Isaac, Dean, Duncan & Mike Mc had 124 laps, followed by Ollie, Andy & Kev with 120 laps.

   

We ran with both Fuel and Tyre simulations for Segment Three. Cars were swapped - the race leaders dodging the yellow DeWalt car and having the green John Deere Taurus instead. Tyres cleaned, cars lined up and we were ready to go...

   

Finally Ollie had a car he liked and he drove the Herbie/UPS Taurus into a commanding lead. Keeping the sixth place team honest were our race leaders, Ash, Terry & John. The extra complexity of the strategy and longer pit stops meant that scores dropped by a couple of laps over the 15 minutes. The team with the DeWalt car were Stephen, Mike D & Rob A - and they drove really well, keeping pace with the pack and ending up in fifth, ahead of Ryan, Simon & Rob B who'd not enjoyed the red Citgo car - or maybe they were playing strategy for the final segment?

   

Ollie, Andy & Kev bounced back to win the segment with 64 laps - the same as Ash, Terry & John in second. Oliver, Jeremy & Matthew were third with 62 and the other three teams finished on 60 laps. That left Ash, Terry & John on 197 laps, six laps ahead of Stephen, Mike & Rob A, eight laps ahead of Oliver, Jeremy & Matthew - and nine ahead of Ryan, Simon & Rob B. The other two teams were level on 184 laps - 13 behind.

   

The leaders would finally have to deal with the yellow DeWalt car, but surely they had a decent cushion to the bunch behind. We threw in a weather simulation for this - the track starting dry, but slowly getting damp. At some stage, the standard Hard tyres might become a bit of a handful with braking distances starting to lengthen. This would certainly catch some teams out.

   

From the start, the car to watch was the white Herbie/UPS Taurus - winner of the previous two segments and now in the hands of Ryan, Simon & Rob B. Nine laps behind the leaders, they had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Ash, Terry & John looked under pressure and the cornering issues for the DeWalt car only got worse as the track conditions slowly deteriorated.

   

That deterioration was very gradual and only two teams decided to swap from Hard tyres - Ryan, Simon & Rob B gambling on an unscheduled stop to fit Intermediates on the Herbie/UPS Taurus and Ollie, Andy & Kev choosing Softs for their Coca Cola car. In the closing stages, they were by far the quickest cars on circuit - and that would make a decisive impact on the race result.

The white car kept clocking up the laps - ending on a score of 66, which was right up there with the best of the first two segments. And that was after an extra 20 seconds in the pits for their tyre change. The gamble paid off as Ash, Terry & John stuck with a DeWalt car that became increasingly hard to handle on those Hard tyres. A score of 55 laps dropped them to second - Ryan, Simon & Rob B victorious by two laps in a hugely unexpected turnaround. Equal on 249 laps - five laps from the winners - were two teams. Oliver, Jeremy & Matthew took third overall courtesy of finishing ahead of Stephen, Mike D & Rob A in the final segment...

   
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Congrats to our winners and a big hurrah to all the teams for putting on an exciting opening race of the season...

       

       

       

Next up was the Pioneer Legends race...

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Pioneers Legends pairs race

Ten cars and nineteen racers meant that Stephen did double-duty, sharing his dad's #69 Gulf Chevy and digging out his own #44 car so Dean could get a ride. Mike duly lined up two heats of five - the top-scoring quartet of cars would automatically qualify for the Feature race, the rest fighting it out for the remaining two places in the Semi...

   

Heat One began with Andy's #55 Perrier Dodge escaping into the lead. He handed over to Legends newbie Rob at half way with a couple of laps over the rest. John & Ash and Isaac & Kev were having a good scrap over second place, Simon & Duncan a little off the pace in fourth and Mike & Stephen bringing up the rear.

Despite a couple of early spins while getting used to the Legends driving style, Rob did a great job to bring the #55 Dodge home with 35 laps, one lap ahead of Isaac & Kev and two ahead of John & Ash. The other two pairs would almost certainly be going again in the Semi...

   

The line-up for Heat Two certainly had the potential for some big scores, so none of the pairs from the first heat were home and dry. And so it proved - the whole field was rapid, close to the 20-lap mark at half distance - apart from Ollie & Rob who'd had car issues. Mike & Jeremy and Oliver & Terry were joined by a hard charging Matthew & Ryan in the closing stages as the laps kept on coming. Those three finished on 38, 38 and 37 laps respectively, the rather squirrelly car of Stephen & Dean managing 32 despite being sideways for most of the eight minutes. On 29 laps, Ollie & Rob would be going again with a fixed car.

   

That gave us the top three from Heat Two and the winners of Heat One in the Feature. Everyone else would race again in the Semi.

The Semi final started with high expectations. Stephen would start with his car and then race his dad's - Dean having improved the rear traction of the #44 car in the short break between races. Stephen was very much part of the tight pack at the start - it was only Mike's car that got dropped in the early stages. As the pairs stopped for their mid-race driver change, the top 5 were covered by just a lap - those two step-ups were completely up for grabs.

The second half of the race was an absolute classic. Although Ollie & Rob had led at the pit stops, the pair holding top spot continued to change. Simon & Duncan looked good, but a long pit stop gave them work to do. John & Ash battled their way through, but then had to dive into the pits for a late tyre change. As things seemed to settle, Ollie & Rob were heading for the win, Simon & Duncan in second and Isaac & Kev just missing out. Then Simon got tangled in a penultimate lap pile-up, Isaac slipped through, kept going and grabbed that all-important second place by less than half the length of the main straight. Phew!

   

The Feature race was pretty exciting too. After getting past Terry in the early stages, Andy got away from the squabbling pack to build a lap lead by the driver change. Rob was soon gobbled up by Oliver, but sat in second place, benefitting from a smooth, economical drive and a late pit stop. Oliver looked nicely in control and on for a massive score, but behind all hell broke loose. Ryan was driving Matthew's Ford brilliantly, gaining ground both on track and in the pits, sweeping past Rob while he was changing tyres. Rob rejoined with not much more than a minute to go. He tried to hold off Mike for an improbably third place, but the WHO veteran got past with time to spare. Oliver & Terry's 40 laps in 8 minutes was the best of the night.

   
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Congrats to Oliver & Terry on a superb win...

   

A very big thank you to everyone who came along for a perfect start to our 2025 WHO digital season. Special thanks - as always - to the set-up and race control crews, plus all those who stayed behind to clear away. 

This was our seventy-ninth WHO Digital event at the Barn, starting back in January 2014. Quite a bit has changed, but we still get the same buzz