[woodcote]

   

Twenty-two racers joined us for the second round of our 2025 AFX Formula One Championship. We welcomed a new WHO racer - Simon came all the way from Eastbourne for his first taste of racing at the Barn.

   

Our Donington-ish track made a second appearance - basically Donington with extended esses. And we had a few extra straights added, giving us a track that almost filled the entire space...

   

A notable debut was of the new AFX McLaren F1 cars. Both James and Oliver had sought them out overseas - James racing his Lando Norris version through the heats...

   

The heats began with Deborah setting a benchmark of 24 laps in blue. Another eight heats (and an interval to swap out an expired monitor) went by before anyone got close - Kev banging in an immense 23.95 in red. Both Kev and Deborah were running Mega-G+ cars...

   

Terry immediately pushed his Super-G to 24.35 laps in red and Pete grabbed a 24.0 in the same lane to give us this leaderboard after everyone had completed two heats...

   

Dylan was top junior at the halfway point, with Stephen top rookie in eleventh and Simon an excellent sixteenth on debut. With two more heats and each drivers best three scores counting, it promised to be a drama-filled second round of qualifying...

   

Would the Mega-G+ cars of Deborah and Keith close out the top two spots - or would Pete, Terry or Ryan put a Super-G on pole? Deborah managed a 23.35 in Heat 12, Terry a 24.1 in Heat 16. While we were seeing plenty of 20+ scores, the frontrunners needed 24 each time. So when Deborah, Keith and Pete all fell short in a scrappy Heat 19, the tension went through the roof.

The pressure got to Terry, as he could only muster 20.75 in blue in the penultimate heat. It all came down to what Pete and Keith could do in the final heat of the evening. Deborah had provisional pole with 70.7 laps, ahead of Terry on 70.5. Oliver was third on 69.3, just a tenth ahead of Ryan. Pete sat fifth on 67.23 and Keith seventh with 66.25. They would both need huge scores to trouble Deborah and Terry.

Both rose to the occasion and delivered the best two heats of the night - an astonishing 24.7 on yellow for Keith and a sensational 25.3 laps on blue for Pete to claim a last-gasp pole position...

   

Could the finals match up to that excitement?