[Kevan]

Targa Florio - 4th September 2025

   
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One car, three minutes on each of the three Rally stages plus a three lane round robin of three minute heats on BallaYorkley… all the three’s
…and not long after 7pm three seemed to be the number of the counting, and the number of the counting seemed as though it would be three…(people that is! )
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Thankfully Brian, Chris & Gav turned up to make two groups of three drivers…
…then a sudden influx of club members and visitors as Mike (who we thought was away in Ireland)  turned up with Dave (who hasn’t raced at the club for a long time)... shortly followed by Ian and his wife who were invited a couple of weeks ago after a chat whilst at their home to see the remarkable outdoor G-gauge railway that goes round the outside of their house in Bride.
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As it turned out we had two groups of four drivers on the Rally stages as Ian rekindled his youth racing Slot cars in England…and he can drive perfectly well! (you obviously never lose it) driving some of Andy’s cars on BallaYorkley whilst the rest of us were on the Rally stages.
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“There’s a problem with the track!”... as Andy’s car refused to get through one of the crossovers on Little Druidale… moving the car across the junction from different directions was puzzling for a short while… “there’s a screw!”... dig it out with a knife, a short M2 machine screw and panic over, no problems with the track.
…”who’s lost a screw?”... no reply… Mister Nobody then.  Gav’s Ferrari did OK with three screws missing from the rear end… Mister Nobody maybe?
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There was a good mix of cars, small sports, classics, prostocks, upgraded basic cars so between the eight of us there were actually seven winners of one sort or another.  All will be revealed in the results sheets.
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Brian’s Ford GT40 broke down early in the evening and was swapped for a Ferrari 275/330/365 P2, normally raced in our Small Sport/Saloons races, went really well tonight.
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Gav’s Ferrari broke down after a couple of laps on TT Grandstand stage, (broken guide wire) Chris kindly fixed it whilst the next driver took over.
…it broke down again on BallaYorkley when the other wire on the guide snapped off.
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Dave’s GT40 was finding grip a little hard to come by but was assured that a few more visits would see the tyres polish to a shine on the painted track surface and have more than sufficient grip.  To be fair, a snapped chassis wasn’t helping matters but Dave managed to win a heat on BallaYorkley.
The other GT40 that made it through the evening was Mike’s, it’s been in our Targa Florio events before so was expected to go well and didn’t disappoint. 
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Ed was racing a proxy XK120 Jag (out of the box of course…club joke!), Chris also raced one, this was much closer to out-of-the-box spec and was the sole Back2Basics car tonight.
There wasn’t a great deal of time between these two cars but this may change in the near future as Chris has commissioned a K3D chassis for one!
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Kev raced an SRC Alfa 33TT12, first time on the Rally stages but forgetting to bring his Rally controller was a personal annoyance, made do with his normal racing controller and he seemed to enjoy driving it.
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Andy raced a Porsche 908/3, another car new to the Rally stages, set up like the car Kev prefers for Targa Florio nights so was expected to do well…and it did!
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At the end of the long evenings racing (and we certainly got full value for money) there were winners galore and some pleased club members as some cars hadn’t been in competition before.
We’re here to help each other, there’s always more than one winner and the evening ended with us wanting to do this again.
…which we can do, the Christmas Turkey Targa is the next one!
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Results by MSCC classes:

   

Results by Targa Florio car type:

   

Car comparisons

   
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Next week is ‘Battle of Britain’ 1 & 2 - this was a great event first time round so it should be great fun next week.  Think Mini Cooper vs Porsche 911, Jaguar mk7 vs Audi LMP, Cortina vs BMW M3.
…bring one of each, one Brit, one German (no open wheelers).

[Kevan]

The round robin circuit racing which followed the three Rally stages

[Kevan]

Targa Florio - 5th February 2025

   
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Even with what seems a lot of regulars off working/ill/injured/holiday it was another great turnout this week as eight of us got to drive our favourite car round all four club tracks.  For the Rally stages this meant two groups of four.
…we’re getting good at being organised as we started just after 7:30 and finished by 9:30 with everything put away, tracks covered etc.
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The two groups for the Rally stages were:

• Jamie, Andy, Terry, Macaulay
  
• Kev, Brian, Jake, T.J.
  

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Everyone drove one car all night, three minutes on each of the three Rally stages followed by three rounds of racing on BallaYorkley circuit.
The number of completed laps on the three Rally stages were added to the race total on BallaYorkley.
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Six different classes were entered varying between Standard cars to scratch built Open Class cars.
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Class wins for:

• Jamie’s Jaguar XK120
  
• Brian’s Ferrari 275 P2
  
• Macaulay’s Porsche 908/2
  
• Kev’s Alfa Romeo 33 TT12
  
• T.J’s Ford GT40
  
• Andy’s Ford GT40
  

   

Car comparisons

   
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It seems some of our newer club regulars really enjoyed tonights racing and look forward to the next one in May (there’s three more this year).
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…if you liked the Rally side of things, there’s six of those to come in 2026, the first one is the 12th March
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There’s a video of the racing on BallaYorkley.
Once we get a bit more organised and the newer regular club members get used to what happens, we’ll get some video of the Rally stages also.
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Next week is Sports & small Sports followed by Grand Prix & F1

[Kevan]