[woodcote]

   

We're back at the Barn for the final WHO Mod & WHO Tuners night of 2025 - and our first championship decider of the year.

   

The track plan is another of Simon's from 2015 - ten years ago, Tony and Corey were crowned WHO Mod and Mod junior champions.

Going into this race, Andy has a healthy lead, although both Oliver and Pete can clinch the title with a nul points score for the leader. The tuners table is lead by Steve - who sadly wont be scoring any more points - James, Kevin & Kev are all able to overtake him, should they run a Tuners car all night.

[Gareth]

Race Report

The start of autumn always means the championship deciders beginning at WHO.  In October that would be Modified and Tuners.  Andy Player just needed to turn up and race to seal the Mod win but in Tuners we had a much more exciting prospect in store.  This would be the last hurrah of the Viper Pro-10 monsters as we will be switching the stock Pro-4 magnets from next season.  With numerous track breaks throughout the evening, it was easy to see why! 

With Steve Puttick sadly passing away this year, he would not be able to hold onto his championship lead.  But that did leave the exciting prospect of a new Tuners champion in the form of either James Blackmore, Kevin Gifford or Kev Fuller.  All three would be racing this evening.

   

Young Oliver and Adam the Elder both returned this evening but also with three friends who were also new to the club.  Welcome to Hunter Burdfield, Neil Terry and Karl Trott.  

We’d be racing on another vintage Simon track from 2015.  A lopsided diamond with a dizzying infield that would see the cars running through several switchbacks.  It was a compact design but a fairly long lap.  

The pace difference between the Mods and Tuners was particularly pronounced at around 3 seconds a lap.  This would make it tricky for the drivers in both classes to find the pace in mixed heats.  

Through the heats there were the usual big hitters in the form of Pete, Terry and Andy at the top. Just behind them, Mike McCann was looking super impressive and quick along with Matthew while Oli Walker was struggling with his Vipers and Rob Bean’s car almost caught fire necessitating a change in armature and larger wheels to try and keep it running cool. 

In Tuners there was a nice battle shaping up between James, Kev and Simon, Kevin a little further back and struggling with his Bulldog. Oliver, Adam and Hunter would have been right up there as well but sadly they had to head off after two heats along with Neil and Karl.  That meant that the Juniors would be a straight fight between Ollie Bean and Isaac Fuller.  Unfortunately for Ollie, Isaac was absolutely flying and qualified in the C Final while Ollie was only in the E.  

There was also a welcome break in the middle of the heats to eat cake to celebrate Tracy McCann’s 50th birthday.  Many happy returns to you Tracy and thank you to Mike for providing us with cake.  

The final heat of the evening saw Mike McCann in blue going for his first A Final in many  seasons.  If he hit 24 laps he had a chance.  A track break meaning we had to pause the action only increased the tension still more.  Mike hit the 24 laps in the final seconds but agonisingly his score of 24.25 left him 0.15 laps behind Andy’s total of 71.1.  Incredible drama!  

   

[Gareth]

G Final

   


With the early departures during the heats, the G Final would be a heads up duel between Simon (Mega G+) in red and Kevin (Bulldog) in blue.  Kevin’s difficult evening continued with a crash on lap 1 and a string more to follow.  This meant that it was all one way traffic for Simon who cruised to an easy win. 

[Gareth]

F Final

Simon stepped up into yellow lane where he would be battling Tuners championship protagonists Kev (red) and James in white.  With Tracy McCann’s Viper in blue it was unlikely the trio of Tuners would progress unless she had a catastrophe.  She didn’t and absolutely blitzed the field as she stormed to an 18 lap run.  

   

Behind her would the battle for the Tuners championship and the evening’s win was on.  James got away fastest and led the way from Kev and Simon.  James’ Bulldog was sounding like an absolute bag of bolts and definitely not running right.  He tried to make it a bit quicker by smacking it into the barriers on lap 10 but all that did was lose him p2 and his rear bumper!

   

Kev kept it solid and on track to claim the Tuners win behind Tracy, James hung on for p3 and Simon trailed home a distant 4th.  Simon’s Mega G+ is still new so I’m sure it will come good in time.  

[Gareth]

E Final 

   

Tracy would be in yellow lane for this heat where she would be taking on Ollie in red, Mark in blue and Ash in white.  Ollie had been joking before the race that maybe he would repeat his double step up from F1 and be able to challenge Isaac for the junior crown but no one was expecting him to put in a perfect error free run.  Which he promptly did.  Holding the lead from start to finish on his way to a very respectable 21 laps was impressive.  

   

Meanwhile Ash had got away well and was shadowing Ollie nicely until a crash on lap 3 allowed Mark and Tracy to get past.  Ash and Tracy had a brilliant scrap from there to the flag, the order changing several times before finally being settled in Ash’s favour.  Neither of them could get close to Mark though who cruised serenely to a good 2nd place.

[Gareth]

D Final 


Ollie’s reward for his win was yellow lane in the D Final where he’d be battling Daniel in red, Rob in blue and Stephen A in white.  Stephen’s Viper was in full 2026 spec with Pro-4 traction magnets so this would be an interesting test.  Already he had done well to out qualify several Pro-10 cars.  

   

Ollie and Rob blasted off the line into 1st and 2nd respectively but Ollie crashed on lap 3 promoting Rob into the lead.  Rob’s car was feeling unfamiliar after the rebuild in the heats and he wobbled on lap 6 which gave Daniel the lead who was concentrating hard and keeping his car on the road.  Rob and Stephen who had also crashed on lap 4 were now fighting and all four cars remained tight on the same lap.  Ollie had got his head down and was pushing really hard.  The fastest driver in the race was back into 3rd after 30 seconds, back into 2nd on the minute mark and swept into the lead with 50 seconds on the clock, Rob following him past Daniel into second before he promptly crashed and fell to the back again.  A lap later and Stephen was off the road which gave Rob back 3rd but he couldn’t recover the time lost to Daniel.  

So the race ended with Ollie celebrating another win and his second double step up in successive months.  Daniel was 2nd, Rob 3rd and Stephen a decent 4th and valuable experience for January and the start of the Pro-4 era. 

[Gareth]

C Final

   

Ollie stayed in yellow to take on me in red, pole man Isaac in blue and Oliver Walker in white.  With the added spice of the Junior medal and championship in the balance this race had much promise.  

Ollie was straight into the lead with a scorching start ahead of me, Isaac and Oli.  But on lap 3, the track got very quiet as Ollie, Isaac and Oli all crashed leaving Goldie (my daughter named my car!) the only car circulating.  The action was then paused for a track break and when battle resumed, Isaac and Oli engaged in a fierce duel for p2, both of them a lap behind Goldie.  Ollie had gone back to erratic mode and the Barn resonated to frequent “clunk” noises as his Viper kept finding the barriers.  It was like a different driver was on the throttle from D to C final.  

   

Ahead of him Oli managed to drag out a 2 lap lead on Isaac at the flag but you could tell he was determined to do some serious tuning ahead of next season.  

[Gareth]

B Final 

   

I was pleased to be in the yellow lane for the B Final with Matthew in red, Mike in blue and John in white.  It was also a pleasure to see John’s Viper rocking a very familiar body that he’s campaigned for many years.  

Everyone circulated close together for a cagey opening couple of laps before some unspoken signal passed between Matthew and Mike and they rocketed away from John and me.  I crashed on lap 5 and dropped out of contention. John was keeping it on the road but he seemed unable to get into the 4 second laptime zone where Matthew and Mike were hanging out.  Matthew especially was on fire with a storming 4.2 second fastest lap but even so the lead changed four times between them before a late crash on lap 20 ended Mike’s race and allowed John through 2nd.  Mike finished 3rd and I was way back in 4th. 

[Gareth]

A Final

   

Pete was on pole for the A Final and had decided to go for yellow lane.  It was a bold choice but with so many outer corners, it was a very quick lane.  Terry was delighted to take red, Andy was in blue and Matthew stepped up into the generally unfavoured white.  

The lights turned green but only three cars raced away, Terry’s motor was screaming flat out but there was no drive.  The problem was later traced to a stripped crown gear.  It was a cruel end for a driver who had a good shot at the win. 

Matthew crashed on lap 1 and didn’t seem to have an answer for the other two cars, his mesmerising pace from the B final never really showing up which was a real shame.  

So that left a two car duel for the win which with Andy crashing on lap 4 rather quickly fizzled out.  That didn’t stop Andy from pushing incredibly hard from a lap behind trying to pressure Peter into making a crucial mistake which would give him the win to seal his title.  The mistake didn’t come through as Pete blasted his way to 25 laps and the win.  Andy was still pleased with 2nd, especially as he had the last laugh with scooping the Mod title for the season.

Congratulations then to Pete for the win, Isaac for the Junior medal and Kev for the Tuners victory.  

   

Congratulations also to Andy for the Mod title, Isaac for the Mod Junior title and James Blackmore for becoming a first time WHO champion as he scooped Tuners.  

   

Thanks as always to the setup and tear down crews, race control and all the brilliant marshals.  

   

See you in November for Nascar!  Yeehaw! 

   

[woodcote]

Thanks Gareth for another great report!

Here are the final WHO Mod & WHO Tuners championship tables...

   

   

And the latest update of the Club and Rookie tables, with just two rounds to go...

   

   

Don't forget to click on the images to make them bigger & readable.