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Our third slot rally club night of the year saw 24 drivers compete over four stages with a total of 65 cars. We welcomed Lee for his first taste of racing at the Barn, plus Mark for his first slot rally night. For Jeremy and myself, it was déjà vu all over again as we opened up the Barn and built stages just a few days after a full day of Slot Rally GB action on Saturday. 

Keeping true to prevailing weather conditions, snow and ice were limited to the deepest, darkest parts of Friston Forest - Jeremy's Classic track layout staying the same from Saturday. The shortened Jupp's Farm also returned unaltered, but we ran Johnny's Workshop in the opposite direction (anti-clockwise). Northdown Farm - a stage we didn't use for the Slot Rally GB event - rounded off the four tracks in a strangely empty Barn...

   

The four groups of six drivers would rotate through the four tracks during the evening. Group A starting on Friston Forest, Group B on Northdown Farm, Jupp's Farm II, Group C on Jupp's Farm and Group D on Johnny's Workshop...

   

The rally report will look at each stage in turn, starting with Friston Forest...

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Stage One: Friston Forest

Winner: Andy Player, Ninco Porsche 911SC

   

The latest incarnation of Friston Forest retained some ice and mud sections and was the same configuration as used for Saturday's Slot Rally GB event. The SCX Classic track pieces offer low grip, combined with tight inner radius corners and Scalextric Classic rally loops at each end. 

   

The verdict over the two events was that this version of Friston has a really nice flow and a range of different cars made appearances towards the top of the leaderboard, including the big SRC BMW shared by Matthew and James...

   

Jeremy's SCX Peugeot and Scalextric Ford Puma placed particularly well, followed by a gaggle of SCX cars in the top half of the standings. At the top, Andy's Porsche was two seconds clear of Oliver's SRC Porsche 914/6, with Jeremy's SCX Peugeot a mere 0.38 of a second behind. 

   
You'll need to click the image to study the results table.

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Stage Two: Jupp's Farm

Winner: Oliver Walker, SRC Porsche 914/6 GT

   

The original Jupp's Farm stage has been significantly shortened - and most of us prefer it that way. Gone is the long, sprawling circuit, with just the bottom section of Ninco off-road track retained. A Ninco loop is attached on the left and a tiny HobbyClassic loop on the right. It gives us a smaller dose of bumpy track and a footprint that saves space and tables.

   

Unlike Friston Forest, there weren't many SCX or Scalextric models in the top half of the results table. John's SCX Escort RS1800 came in sixteenth overall, beating Jeremy's Scalextric Puma by just over half a second. 

   

WHO racers are getting familiar with the rough road surface on this stage, finding a steady pace gets them through. The SRC Porsches are nimble over the bumps, but it's the Ninco cars with suspension that really come into their own. This time, it was Oliver and Ryan leading the way with their SRC Porsche, ahead of Isaac's rapid Ninco Mitsubishi Lancer...

   
Don't forget to click on the image to make it bigger!

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Stage Three: Johnny's Workshop

Winner: Oliver Walker, SRC Porsche 914/6 GT

   

Jean created this 3D printed track for his Johnny's Workshop stand at the Havant swap meet a couple of years ago. Now surplus to requirements, he very kindly donated the layout - complete with timer - to the club as a slot rally stage. The 3D printed surface is unique, giving a different level of grip to any sectional or routed track. Racers at Saturday's Slot Rally GB event experienced the debut of this stage, but we reversed the direction for the club night...

   

Again, there was a good mix of cars doing well on this surface, with both Jeremy's and John's Scalextric Pumas in the top 20 and Scott's Lancia Delta S4 leading the SCX cars in twelfth. Our only club car runner tonight, Lee a great job putting the Scalextric Mégane in 41st, ahead of plenty of more experienced rivals driving their own cars...

   

At the top, the Walker's SRC Porsche was quickest - Oliver beating Ryan by exactly one tenth of a second and two seconds ahead of Andy's Ninco Porsche in third...

   

That left Oliver leading the rally with one stage to go. Andy was 2.65 seconds adrift and Ryan just nine thousandths of a second behind in third!

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Stage Four: Northdown Farm

Winner: Oliver Walker, SRC Porsche 914/6 GT

   

This was the second appearance of this stage, following its debut in April for the Spring Stages. There was a slight tweak to the driver position and to the angle of the smaller return loop. Otherwise, it was the same as before - lots of tight turns and a long straight with a crest.

   

In a tight three-way battle for SCX honours, Scott's Lancia S4 came out top again, ahead of Jeremy's Peugeot and Andy's Suzuki. John's Puma was best of the Scalextric cars...

   

The fastest car of all was the Walker's Porsche 914/6 GT - winning a third successive stage in the hands of Oliver, with Ryan 1.31 seconds behind. Terry's Scaleauto RS200 set the third fastest time on the stage...

   

It was now time to crunch the data for all four groups across the four stages...

   

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Here are the full results of the WHO Summer Stages 2025...

   
Please click on the image to make it bigger.

Congratulations to our podium...

   
Overall: Oliver, Ryan & Andy, plus Isaac for top junior

And here's the car that placed first and second in the hands of Oliver and Ryan...

   

What a performance from Oliver - three stage victories with the 914/6 and a relatively comfortable margin of 4.05 seconds to Ryan.

The three classes - Modern, Classic and 80s / 90s look like this...

   

With our three class podiums...

   
Modern: Jeremy, Isaac & Terry

   
Classic: Oliver, Ryan & Terry

   
80s/90s: Andy, Terry & Oliver

The Scalextric and SCX results - for standard versions of those manufacturers' models - look like this...

   

Congrats to our podium finishers...

   
Scalextric: Jeremy, John & Rob

   
SCX: Jeremy, Andy & John

The winning margin for the SCX cars was a mere twelve hundredths of a second! Not such tight margins in Scalextric - Jeremy winning by 18 seconds in the battle of the Pumas.

With one round of the manufacturers' championships still to go, these are the standings...

   

   

Absolutely all to play for in October!

   

Expect some ice and snow to return for our final slot rally club night of the year - and we plan to set up a fifth, non-competitive stage as a 'shakedown' to test your cars before the off.

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And here's a bit of video from the four stages...

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I've added up the numbers and sixty different people raced with us at the Barn this month...

• 27 at the WHO Mod race - including Mark, Sathya, Fred and Iain making their debuts
  
• another six joined us for our WHO Digital Wednesday
  
• Jeremy, Phil & Scott made their first appearances of the month at the Slot Rally GB Saturday, along with 22 visitors
  
• Daniel and Lee joined us for the slot rally club night.
  

Not bad!