Round 1 - Worthing - September 2014
There are more pictures of the event in our facebook photo album.
|
|
Race report - by Gareth Winslade
Saturday saw the start of another EAHORC season with the drivers descending on the Sussex coast to visit Worthing HO in the Barn which is the club’s charming 18th century home.
The track comprised two long straights with an AFX first sector including a couple of switchbacks and a BSTS routed sector three which flowed nicely but had plenty of challenge in store for the unwary, especially on the outer yellow and white lanes.
The day commenced as always with Open Wheel which proved to be a tightly fought and compelling battle right through the field. A fast group of Andy P, Andy W, Clive and Mike D formed at the front while behind them was a second tight grouping of Marc, Alan, me (Gareth), Dave H and a very determined and fast Henry. At various times Duncan, Mike M (on his EAHORC debut), Keith and Ash were also on a similar pace. The game was well and truly on.
We began with a G Final between Deborah, Daniel and Louis. Louis was clearly loving his racing as much as ever but it was Daniel from red lane who charged through past Deborah on pole to take the win and step up. Deborah held off Louis for second.
In the F Final Daniel would be taking on his twin Stephen, series regular Josh and also Dave P who was having a scruffy morning by his usual standards. However from the decidedly unpopular white lane Dave found a spot of form and gave his junior rivals a good kicking…the brute. Meanwhile behind him Daniel was finding yellow lane very much to his liking and he motored past his brother and Josh into second place, Josh followed him home in third and Stephen found himself bringing up the rear.
The E Final had Tony on pole from Callum, Ash and the stepping up Dave. It was the younger drivers who went on the march with Ash demonstrating yet again his remarkably calm approach to finals as he slipped past Callum and then Tony to take yet another win in a final. Brilliant work. We never did find out what was blasting through Callum’s Domes of Aural Delight this month; drum n’ bass, garage or possibly a recording of Carol saying “Slow in the corners, quick on the straights,” either way it was enough for him to beat Tony into second while Dave finished fourth.
We’ve been very impressed by Duncan’s super rapid Tyco at WHO recently and today it lined up on pole for the D Final which was an all WHO affair with Mike M, Keith and Ash filling out the field. It would have been all Tyco race too if Ash wasn’t experimenting with (and enjoying immensely) a Mega G for the first time. Duncan’s Tyco delivered the good again as he blasted his way to the C Final step up. This was Mike’s first EAHORC appearance and very nice to see you too sir. He maintained his second place and Keith retained his third ahead of Ash.
Marc had been unlucky to suffer two poor heats which had restricted his assault on the grid to topping the C Final. Joining him were Dave H, Henry and Duncan. Henry has taken many a big scalp over the past couple of years (including me!) and today he was gunning for his Dad. This really was the race of the morning as all four drivers went for it. Marc held on for the win but it was breathtakingly close behind him, Duncan nicking it by the slimmest of margins from Dave and Henry. Fantastic drives from all four of them.
It was Andy P who again found himself in the frustrating fourth spot on the grid and the B Final pole. Having been consistently quicker than Alan, Marc and myself, we were resigned to racing for fifth place overall and that was how it turned out with Andy gradually opening a gap throughout the race. It was nip and tuck between Alan and I for the first couple of minutes before mistakes left me fending off Marc instead. Alan’s development work last season has made him a true contender at the sharp end.
The A Final line up had been too close to call throughout the heats. Although it quickly became apparent which drivers would be in the race, the order they were in was unclear. In the end Mike’s two top lane scores gave him pole from Andy W and Clive who had taken one top lane score apiece. The trio were close throughout the race with no breakaway driver punishing the others’ mistakes. Meanwhile in the tricky white lane, Andy P was unable to keep with the others and remained fourth to the finish. Not bad though for a car he wasn’t expecting to even retain its guide pin round a lap! At the sharpest of sharp ends, Andy was the quickest over a single lap but his car caught him out which let Clive through into second. Mike hung onto his lead but the three of them were separated by half a lap at the finish which just shows how well matched these guys are.
A fantastic start to the season all round.
Lunch time!
With WHO’s trusty chef Simon working this weekend, a raid was organised on the local chippy instead which proved a pretty good substitute. The McCann twins were gainfully employed in going and fetching lunch which was very decent of them.
Pro Modified - The afternoon’s racing commenced with an experimental new version of Pro Modified which was run to a round robin format with a field of WHO Mods, EAHORC Pro Mods and a brave Mr Twiddy with a hard body Marchon. When the dust settled it was Clive who took the win from Dave P with Mike D in third. These three all took the same score so it was the highest lap count in a single race which decided things. Stephen, Andy P, Daniel, Mike M and Alan rounded out the field.
All agreed that the new format was great fun and has a lot of promise once some tweaks are applied to it for future contests.
With the afternoon Closed Wheel classes now numbering three we had four in Closed Wheel, seven in LMP1 and a bumper ten in Nascar.
Closed Wheel - Throughout the heats it was Dave P and Dave H who caught the eye, Dave P with a white Porsche bodied Lifelike and Dave H with a Datsun variant. I kept thinking it was my own car going round, I’m so used to running that body! Behind them Tony ran a Super G+ which looked quick but nowhere near as quick as the other two. Callum seems to have more misadventures with his car than the rest of the grid put together and today was no exception. From ending the last season with the quickest car, he arrived today with a pair of nightmares instead and was mired in fourth.
Final - From pole DP took the lead from DH and never relinquished it. Very reminiscent of his HONK win last year as he cruised through the thirty lap barrier with DH a couple of laps behind. Six laps further back was Tony, unable to do anything about the top two and untroubled from behind by Callum who pulled his car off the track before the end of the race as the traction magnet refused to remain seated.
LMP1 - The LMP1 heats saw Andy W smashing in the big scores to take top across all four lanes and a commanding pole position. Behind him was Marc who is always capable of springing a surprise in a final, that boy Henry once again, Louis, Josh, Stephen and Daniel, the McCann twins making a late switch from Nascar for some reason.
B Final - An all junior affair and one that was held in a curiously tense and quiet atmosphere. Stephen on pole fell behind Louis and Josh while Daniel remained behind his twin. Louis opened up a one lap lead and the whole Barn became transfixed by the numbers as Josh wobbled nearer and further away as the time ticked down but Louis held on and promptly went berserk with delight as everyone else gave him an enormous round of applause. I think we all love it when one of the juniors puts in a stellar drive and this was one of them.
A Final - An all FLBT grid with Andy W fending off the Townsend trio was how the LMP1 A Final looked. Andy had it all under control and blitzed the field by seven laps. The drama, fun and fireworks though was happening behind him. If Louis had been the hero of the B Final, it was his brother Henry who took that title in this race as he once again had it in for his poor Dad! Indeed at the chequered flag Marc found himself demoted to third as Henry swept into a brilliant second place. That was a fun race to watch!
Nascar - After two heats apiece, it was looking rather close and tasty between Mike D, Clive, Andy P and myself. That clearly riled the reigning champion Mike as he promptly smashed us to pieces with a pulverising display of speed in the final two heats to leave himself firmly on pole. Behind it was all much closer between Andy P and Clive while I was relegated to the B Final. Keith was in a no man’s land between the top four and a tight trio of Ash, Mike M and Deborah with Paul and Alan at the rear. Alan had picked Nascar as we weren’t expecting LMP1 to run and his Nascar is sadly not yet in the same league as his mighty Mega G chassis. I say yet as we’ve already seen that Alan is more than capable of developing a good race car.
C Final - Mike M led away from the line from Deborah and the two of them motored steadily away from Alan and Paul while Paul nicked third from Alan to make it a WHO podium.
B Final - From the beginning of the B Final I was challenged off the line by Keith before being able to settle into a rhythm and pull away for the win. Behind Keith retained his second place over Ash who was able to halt the advance of Mike who had stepped up from the C Final.
A Final - A chaotic start to the last race of the day saw Mike in front with myself slipping into second. Immediately I began to wonder if I could apply some pressure to the champ and steal an unlikely win. Dream on fat boy. Mike went smoothly through the gears and drove to a thirty lap score. Andy fell foul of some marshalling finger trouble and then picked up the wrong controller before ultimately deciding to spare the car and retire. Meanwhile back on track I ran out of talent and was unable to prevent Clive coming back through to finish second place.
It is telling that only the three winners got through the thirty lap barrier in the afternoon and the story it tells is that they were the best on the day in their classes!!
Well done to all of our winners on the day!
With WHO’s trusty chef Simon working this weekend, a raid was organised on the local chippy instead which proved a pretty good substitute. The McCann twins were gainfully employed in going and fetching lunch which was very decent of them.
Pro Modified - The afternoon’s racing commenced with an experimental new version of Pro Modified which was run to a round robin format with a field of WHO Mods, EAHORC Pro Mods and a brave Mr Twiddy with a hard body Marchon. When the dust settled it was Clive who took the win from Dave P with Mike D in third. These three all took the same score so it was the highest lap count in a single race which decided things. Stephen, Andy P, Daniel, Mike M and Alan rounded out the field.
All agreed that the new format was great fun and has a lot of promise once some tweaks are applied to it for future contests.
With the afternoon Closed Wheel classes now numbering three we had four in Closed Wheel, seven in LMP1 and a bumper ten in Nascar.
Closed Wheel - Throughout the heats it was Dave P and Dave H who caught the eye, Dave P with a white Porsche bodied Lifelike and Dave H with a Datsun variant. I kept thinking it was my own car going round, I’m so used to running that body! Behind them Tony ran a Super G+ which looked quick but nowhere near as quick as the other two. Callum seems to have more misadventures with his car than the rest of the grid put together and today was no exception. From ending the last season with the quickest car, he arrived today with a pair of nightmares instead and was mired in fourth.
Final - From pole DP took the lead from DH and never relinquished it. Very reminiscent of his HONK win last year as he cruised through the thirty lap barrier with DH a couple of laps behind. Six laps further back was Tony, unable to do anything about the top two and untroubled from behind by Callum who pulled his car off the track before the end of the race as the traction magnet refused to remain seated.
LMP1 - The LMP1 heats saw Andy W smashing in the big scores to take top across all four lanes and a commanding pole position. Behind him was Marc who is always capable of springing a surprise in a final, that boy Henry once again, Louis, Josh, Stephen and Daniel, the McCann twins making a late switch from Nascar for some reason.
B Final - An all junior affair and one that was held in a curiously tense and quiet atmosphere. Stephen on pole fell behind Louis and Josh while Daniel remained behind his twin. Louis opened up a one lap lead and the whole Barn became transfixed by the numbers as Josh wobbled nearer and further away as the time ticked down but Louis held on and promptly went berserk with delight as everyone else gave him an enormous round of applause. I think we all love it when one of the juniors puts in a stellar drive and this was one of them.
A Final - An all FLBT grid with Andy W fending off the Townsend trio was how the LMP1 A Final looked. Andy had it all under control and blitzed the field by seven laps. The drama, fun and fireworks though was happening behind him. If Louis had been the hero of the B Final, it was his brother Henry who took that title in this race as he once again had it in for his poor Dad! Indeed at the chequered flag Marc found himself demoted to third as Henry swept into a brilliant second place. That was a fun race to watch!
Nascar - After two heats apiece, it was looking rather close and tasty between Mike D, Clive, Andy P and myself. That clearly riled the reigning champion Mike as he promptly smashed us to pieces with a pulverising display of speed in the final two heats to leave himself firmly on pole. Behind it was all much closer between Andy P and Clive while I was relegated to the B Final. Keith was in a no man’s land between the top four and a tight trio of Ash, Mike M and Deborah with Paul and Alan at the rear. Alan had picked Nascar as we weren’t expecting LMP1 to run and his Nascar is sadly not yet in the same league as his mighty Mega G chassis. I say yet as we’ve already seen that Alan is more than capable of developing a good race car.
C Final - Mike M led away from the line from Deborah and the two of them motored steadily away from Alan and Paul while Paul nicked third from Alan to make it a WHO podium.
B Final - From the beginning of the B Final I was challenged off the line by Keith before being able to settle into a rhythm and pull away for the win. Behind Keith retained his second place over Ash who was able to halt the advance of Mike who had stepped up from the C Final.
A Final - A chaotic start to the last race of the day saw Mike in front with myself slipping into second. Immediately I began to wonder if I could apply some pressure to the champ and steal an unlikely win. Dream on fat boy. Mike went smoothly through the gears and drove to a thirty lap score. Andy fell foul of some marshalling finger trouble and then picked up the wrong controller before ultimately deciding to spare the car and retire. Meanwhile back on track I ran out of talent and was unable to prevent Clive coming back through to finish second place.
It is telling that only the three winners got through the thirty lap barrier in the afternoon and the story it tells is that they were the best on the day in their classes!!
Well done to all of our winners on the day!
|