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Slot Rally GB 2026 - Round Two - Farnborough

The short trip to Farnborough is almost a local round for us - 47 miles from the Barn and about an hour and a quarter driving time. Mike was our chauffeur and he took us on a picturesque trip through the glorious countryside of the Petworth Estate and Rother valley, before re-joining civilisation for a few miles of dual carriageway. It was warm when we left the coastal plain at 8am and only got hotter as we headed inland and the sun rose in the sky. It would become the hottest UK May temperature on record.

   

There was no surprise that school caretaker and slot rally track-builder Lawrence had St Peter's school optimised to keep those temperatures as low as possible. We didn't want any heat-related health emergencies. Lights were off, windows open and big fans kept the air moving. The WHO continent and our Bournemouth buddy Steve commandeered the staff room, which was on the shaded side of the building and had a fridge full of cold drinks.

   

Oliver was at his first Slot Rally away day, having recently won two club events and attended Slot Rally GB Saturdays at the Barn. Phil and myself were back for a third visit to Farnborough Park Scalextric Club, along with Mike who missed out last year. Terry was a last-minute cancellation, Jeremy taking a season-long Sunday sabbatical - and we couldn't get Gareth back to his old junior school. Maybe next year...

   

Cars wise, Mike had borrowed a Ninco Impreza from Steve, having forgotten it was four cars at Slot Rally GB. Oliver had quite a few options to choose from, but plumped for an SRC Porsche 914, a very quick Porsche 934 with 3D printed chassis, a Scaleauto Ford RS200 and another Ninco Impreza. Phil also had a Ninco Impreza, together with a Capri and Peugeot from SRC and a Targa Florio Porsche 911. Steve also was running the Targa Florio class with a Porsche Carrera 6. His rally cars were a SRC Peugeot, SRC Porsche 914 a new Fly EVO Lancia 037 - but no Ninco Impreza. As usual, I went with three Nincos - Impreza, Lancia 037 and Porsche 911SC - plus the little SCX Fiat 124 Spyder going first to learn each stage...

   

There were nine stages on the schedule - two plastic, seven routed - and our aim was to finish five before taking a break for lunch.

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Our first stage was Plastic 2 - mostly Ninco off-road and some beastly R1 esses. This track surface is something we're very used to at WHO Slot Rally events, our off-road Jupp's Farm stage a regular feature of our club and SRGB events. We got on and scored some good times, noting during the day that most other groups hated it. Oliver was a smidgeon away from going quickest on debut...

   

After all 20 cars were through Plastic 2, we made the short step to a new stage: Snowy Hill. This replaces one of my favourite Farnborough stages - Mini Hill Climb - and shares the same construction: single lane Scalextric Classic track and lots of elevations...

   

Sadly, a lot of cars struggled to get round a downhill hairpin on the track - cars were too low, too wide, too long, too light, too heavy, too fast, too slow or a combination of any of these. The only car of the 20 in our group to get round the hairpin all seven times was my Ninco Porsche 911. Its time of 45.06 seconds was easily the quickest of the bunch and put some serious time gaps on the three Porsche 914s which de-slotted each lap. The offending turn can be seen better in this shot of another group...

   

It is the corner at the end of the long right to left downward slope, where Wayne is looking. This feature of Snowy Hill would certainly make the results interesting at the end of the day.

Another short shuffle and we were at Plastic 1 - a Carrera track with a single crossover - so the 5 laps were ten times round in total. The surface was super-slippy, which made it a challenge for drivers wanting to go too fast on the wrong tyres. Mike made some uncharacteristic errors on this one...

   

The final stage in the first classroom (Gymkana) was in use, so we popped next door to finish the morning on Car Park and Mc Wayne...

   

The Car Park evolves each time - a bare board two years ago, some white lines and retaining walls last year, but now fully decorated. It also ran more smoothly this year, although cars that were particularly low had issues at the board edges. The series of loops are fun to drive five times in a row and looked great with the props in place.

Mc Wayne is a tribute to Oxford's Wayne's World - routed into a folding paste table. Easy to store, easy to set up and a challenging layout where rhythm and momentum are crucial for a really fast time over the seven laps...

   

It was here that my best car, the Ninco Subaru Impreza, ground to a halt on the tightest hairpins - something happening with the gearing. Thanks to everyone who loaned me tools at lunch, as I fixed a slipping brass pinion, sitting in the staff room...

   

However, on the very next stage, a front wheel fell off, the hub cracked and the Impreza's day over...

   

We were down to 19 cars for the afternoon.

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As we were getting started on our afternoon action, news came in that the Hill Farm stage had been cancelled due to ongoing technical issues. That meant just three stages remained for our group.

   

Three laps on the soon-to-be-retired Gymkhana got us going after lunch. This was run in the opposite direction to the previous two years and required getting the rear of the car swung out to avoid getting hung-up where the slot crossed over itself...

   

There are some great features on this stage, so hopefully Lawrence will incorporate them into future designs.

That was the first classroom finished and we moved back next door for our final two stages - the Airfield and ART...

   

The Airfield has a spectacular straight, made even faster by being run at 15 volts. That did make the technical sections a little tricky, but those four laps do go very quickly...

   

The heat was beginning to get to us as we ended our event on a new stage - ART. It certainly bore a resemblance to our Ford Ice Rink at WHO...

   

And it featured a new lap counter design by Neil's Racing Bits (here on Facebook), which was easy to use and seemed very reliable...

   

Fifteen laps round ART and we were done - time to hand in our time sheets, take a peek at other people's cars and wait for the final few groups to finish their stages...

   

   

   

Alan and Seb crunched the numbers and soon we were ready to hear the results...

Starting with Classic...

   

Where Mike finished ninth and I was at first disappointed not to hear my name called in the top end of the top ten - and then nicely surprised when I picked up the trophy for third!

80s / 90s was next...

   

With a tenth place finish for Mike.

Then Modern...

   

Mike finishing eighth.

And Targa Florio...

   

Steve finishing eighth and Phil tenth. Oliver's best was fourteenth for his Porsche 934 in classic.

Here are the overall results...

   

   

   

   

A huge field of 111 cars!

That was a very enjoyable day and always good for the journey back to take home some WHO silverware...

   

A big thanks to Lawrence and everyone at Farnborough Park Scalextric Club for hosting and to the SRGB crew for running the day. The next one - in St Albans - is just a week away on Sunday 7 June.