8th-Jun-26, 07:30 AM
Slot Rally GB - Round Three - St Albans
In stark contrast to the record-breaking May heatwave a fortnight ago, waterproofs and winter woollies were in order the day before the trip to St Albans for round three of the 2026 Slot Rally GB Championship, sponsored by Staffs Slot Cars. The weather did pick up a bit for the Sunday, which meant the WHO bus haemorrhaged passengers - Mike and Terry going to the T20 cricket at Hove and Phil a last-minute cancellation. So it was just me whizzing round an mostly empty A24 and M25 early on Sunday morning.
Nascott Wood St Albans Slot Car Club have been busy embracing slot rally - nine stages greeted us in the gym of their fabulous new home at Margaret Wix primary school. Five were routed wood, three were permanent layouts using plastic track (Classic, Ninco and Sport) and just one Ninco track built for the day. There were a range of power supplies (from 9v to 15v) and various timing platforms. They certainly looked great in the big colourful hall, with Rally HQ and a large pit area just through the door in the cafeteria.
There was a little bit of excitement with a pre-release sample of Scalextric's new Toyota Celica GT-Four on show and Marc taking some pictures for Slot Car Magazine. More exciting was a former club member bringing the contents of his loft along to sell. Quite a few people did very well. I happily took home a box of a dozen nearly-new Ninco NC5 motors for less than what you'd pay for one new one.
I do like those Ninco motors - and have plans to add one to my SCX Fiat 124 Spyder for next season. The Subaru had new wheels after its disastrous trip to Farnborough and the expectation was high for the Porsche 911 SC after a Classic podium two weeks ago.
Groups were starting their timed runs when I arrived just before 9am and my group - John, Wayne, Alexis and Rob - began racing on Abbott's Park half an hour later...
Seven times around a fast and long permanent Ninco track was a good way to warm up, although there were enough tricky bits to keep the marshals busy. Unsurprisingly, John was one top form from the off, with Wayne not far behind. My cars got steadily faster - starting with the SCX Fiat to learn the stage, then the Ninco Lancia, Porsche and Subaru. I was the only one in the group not to have a Targa Florio entry, but Wayne joined me in not running an SRC Porsche 914/6 GT - his Classic car was a quick MSC De Tomaso Pantera. Rob and John both had NSR Porsche 991 GT3s for Modern, Wayne a Ninco Lancer-bodied Slot.it DTM.
Alexis opted for no Modern entry, but two Classic cars - a 3D-chassied SCX Lancia Fulvia to go with her SRC Porsche 914 - plus an SRC Peugeot 205 T16 in 80s/90s and Slot.it Alfa Romeo 33/3 for Targa. As a relative slot rally novice, Alexis started a bit crashy, but successfully found her pace during the day to bang in some good runs with all four cars.
For our second stage, we moved a few feet to another Ninco layout, Margaret's Whip - which was built for the day and included some challenging Inner Radius esses and a hill with that bumpy off-road track surface. My Ninco cars should have eaten up this stage, but I just didn't attack it like rally masters John and Wayne. At least my cars were happy over the bumpy stuff - both Rob and Alexis lost time with frustrating de-slots during their 5 lap runs.
Snow Blind was our next challenge and I was first on the stage. I did attack the ten laps, getting a nice bit of rear-end slide to get round the tight hairpins, which not every driver or car managed. I really enjoyed the flow of the stage and was finally happy with my cars. The Lancia 037 was looking good, but one off handed fastest time for my quartet to the Subaru by just under two seconds...
Seven laps round the Quack Track would be our final action before a well-deserved tea-break. This was a highly unusual stage, built from Scalextric Sport track and featuring a steep slope up to rally loop that sat in the centre of the layout...
The name came from some ducks, which made up just one part of some imaginative and really well executed scenics. Timing was via a Carrera bridge, which didn't want to play with the low cars and occasionally a shadow triggered a ghost lap. So those with Targa cars and SRC 914s needed assistance from a tape 'shark-fin' to successfully trigger all seven laps.
My SCX Fiat was high enough for the timing beam, but well off the pace - pretty much every driver struggling with at least one of their cars on what was a challenging layout.
After completing four of the nine stages, we took a break, grabbed a tea and rummaged through some boxes at the impromptu swapmeet in the car park.
In stark contrast to the record-breaking May heatwave a fortnight ago, waterproofs and winter woollies were in order the day before the trip to St Albans for round three of the 2026 Slot Rally GB Championship, sponsored by Staffs Slot Cars. The weather did pick up a bit for the Sunday, which meant the WHO bus haemorrhaged passengers - Mike and Terry going to the T20 cricket at Hove and Phil a last-minute cancellation. So it was just me whizzing round an mostly empty A24 and M25 early on Sunday morning.
Nascott Wood St Albans Slot Car Club have been busy embracing slot rally - nine stages greeted us in the gym of their fabulous new home at Margaret Wix primary school. Five were routed wood, three were permanent layouts using plastic track (Classic, Ninco and Sport) and just one Ninco track built for the day. There were a range of power supplies (from 9v to 15v) and various timing platforms. They certainly looked great in the big colourful hall, with Rally HQ and a large pit area just through the door in the cafeteria.
There was a little bit of excitement with a pre-release sample of Scalextric's new Toyota Celica GT-Four on show and Marc taking some pictures for Slot Car Magazine. More exciting was a former club member bringing the contents of his loft along to sell. Quite a few people did very well. I happily took home a box of a dozen nearly-new Ninco NC5 motors for less than what you'd pay for one new one.
I do like those Ninco motors - and have plans to add one to my SCX Fiat 124 Spyder for next season. The Subaru had new wheels after its disastrous trip to Farnborough and the expectation was high for the Porsche 911 SC after a Classic podium two weeks ago.
Groups were starting their timed runs when I arrived just before 9am and my group - John, Wayne, Alexis and Rob - began racing on Abbott's Park half an hour later...
Seven times around a fast and long permanent Ninco track was a good way to warm up, although there were enough tricky bits to keep the marshals busy. Unsurprisingly, John was one top form from the off, with Wayne not far behind. My cars got steadily faster - starting with the SCX Fiat to learn the stage, then the Ninco Lancia, Porsche and Subaru. I was the only one in the group not to have a Targa Florio entry, but Wayne joined me in not running an SRC Porsche 914/6 GT - his Classic car was a quick MSC De Tomaso Pantera. Rob and John both had NSR Porsche 991 GT3s for Modern, Wayne a Ninco Lancer-bodied Slot.it DTM.
Alexis opted for no Modern entry, but two Classic cars - a 3D-chassied SCX Lancia Fulvia to go with her SRC Porsche 914 - plus an SRC Peugeot 205 T16 in 80s/90s and Slot.it Alfa Romeo 33/3 for Targa. As a relative slot rally novice, Alexis started a bit crashy, but successfully found her pace during the day to bang in some good runs with all four cars.
For our second stage, we moved a few feet to another Ninco layout, Margaret's Whip - which was built for the day and included some challenging Inner Radius esses and a hill with that bumpy off-road track surface. My Ninco cars should have eaten up this stage, but I just didn't attack it like rally masters John and Wayne. At least my cars were happy over the bumpy stuff - both Rob and Alexis lost time with frustrating de-slots during their 5 lap runs.
Snow Blind was our next challenge and I was first on the stage. I did attack the ten laps, getting a nice bit of rear-end slide to get round the tight hairpins, which not every driver or car managed. I really enjoyed the flow of the stage and was finally happy with my cars. The Lancia 037 was looking good, but one off handed fastest time for my quartet to the Subaru by just under two seconds...
Seven laps round the Quack Track would be our final action before a well-deserved tea-break. This was a highly unusual stage, built from Scalextric Sport track and featuring a steep slope up to rally loop that sat in the centre of the layout...
The name came from some ducks, which made up just one part of some imaginative and really well executed scenics. Timing was via a Carrera bridge, which didn't want to play with the low cars and occasionally a shadow triggered a ghost lap. So those with Targa cars and SRC 914s needed assistance from a tape 'shark-fin' to successfully trigger all seven laps.
My SCX Fiat was high enough for the timing beam, but well off the pace - pretty much every driver struggling with at least one of their cars on what was a challenging layout.
After completing four of the nine stages, we took a break, grabbed a tea and rummaged through some boxes at the impromptu swapmeet in the car park.
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