Results and race reports 2008

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2008 Round 10 MBR Kings Lynn- 30/11/08

The 2008 EAHORC season got a near-perfect finish at the first race at Mussel Bay Raceway since February. Very much under new management, courtesy of Martin Hill and Dave Rouse, the meeting hit that just-right note of relaxed but competitive racing that EAHORC meeting are becoming known for. MBR introduced their own take on the clear barrier theme introduced at Edmonton in October, as well as entirely new innovations such as catch fencing and sound deadening underlay. The track was compact and challenging, but flowed well. Adjustable brakes rounded out the new feel package.

Once again a new driver was to make an impact in F1. Following on from Robin Cornwall and Tony Ryder, Norfolk-based Scalextric racer Ryan Betts announced himself with some style. With F1 qualifying as tight as has become the norm, a few errors in the heats saw Ryan down the 'C' final. This was in itself a good effort but laptimes suggested he could race with the top group. There then followed two finals, both in the fast-but-tricky yellow lane, that confirmed this as Ryan put drivers such as October winner Andy Whorton and Main Grade champion Dave Rouse to the sword. Come the 'A' final Ryan also managed, from the unloved green lane, to beat Clive Harland, another driver making his debut in the top final.

Unsurprisingly, Martin top qualified & took the win with Deane Walpole, the only driver to keep him honest in the heats, second after a twitchy start. There were other final wins for Alan and Claire Bullock, both using DHORC-spec Open wheel cars. Alan would take the class win, Claire the championship. Ryan's 3rd place gave him the Main grade win, ahead of Clive, Jaik Golloghly and Dave.

For the afternoon, as expected Martin made the switch to Modified class, running a Slottech T1 with handed curved traction magnets. He would take a comfortable win in the 'A' final although Andy (another trying out different classes as a test session for 2009) ran him close in the early laps with a bog standard Life-Like chassis sporting nothing more radical than heavily re-profiled shoes. This left Clive and Jaik to battle out Wizzard class along with Claire and Ryan, and both produced big scores with Jaik seeming to have the edge. A tactical decision to stick with the lane in which Jaik had done best in during the heats (yellow) allowed Clive access to his best lane (red), and this allowed him to overturn the form book for his first EAHORC 'A' final' and trophy, just reward for his 365 mile round trip!

Roy Masters was again top qualifier in Nascar, the 2008 champ facing off against a somewhat hung over Kevin Golloghly (like Jaik and Sharon G, taking part in his first HO race since February), September winner Alan, as well as John Chell, Sharon and Paul Edmunds. A mention here for John, not only did he win the B final to take the step up but his points gained enabled him to win the Nascar Minor. The 'A' final ran against the form book, much as Wizzard had done, with Kevin able to build up a lead of anything up to just over one lap. Roy dug deep after early woes, loping nearly a quarter of a second off his previous FTD, but his rival held on to win by a third of a lap. Third went to Sharon.

With the racing finishing in good time, it just remained to hand out the end-of-year trophies to the worthy champions, and announce all the minors winners, at the end of what has been EAHORC's best season to date. I would like to thank everyone who played a part, large or small, in making that possible.

The winners of round 10 were:

Martin Hill F1 Premier Grade & Modified

Ryan Betts F1 Main Grade

Kevin Golloghly Nascar

Clive Harland Wizzard

 

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2008 Round 9 LHORC Edmonton - 26/10/08

Round 9 of the Championship took place at Edmonton, with LHORC hosting for the 3rd and final time in 2008. 17 racers tipped up to see routed track (in the form of a large 180 degree turn) and clear barriers being used in an EAHORC meeting for the very first time. Whilst both were an unqualified success, the introduction of race software by Trackmate was less so, but the initial problems were caused by the lack of familiarity with the new methodology by the race controller, rather than the software itself. Track calls were again used, and the jury is very much still out.

There were many highlights. Andy Whorton produced a cool display to end Martin Hill's winning streak in F1, which covered February to September inclusive, but Martin clinched the Championship. Robin Cornwall produced the best rookie performance for some long time, with two third places, and everybody hopes the Roedale BSCRA racer will be back soon. Dave Rouse drove a brilliant Mod Class A final under massive pressure (added to by the fact the new software enabled race control to monitor and announce gaps!) to take his third win on the bounce. Adrian Leggett made Martin sweat for his win in Wizzard class, which clinched another championship for the Norfolk resident, who was anything but confident going into the final after a wobbly F1 performance. Martin now has six championships to his name, one less than legend Jim Kelly.

Jim attended his first meet since the spring and was straight back on the pace, second in F1 and 4th in Modified. If he strings together several meetings on the trot expect him to be right up the sharp end. As at Pinewood, F1 qualifying was very close, with only a handful of laps separating A and C finals for example. With all the major titles now wrapped up, attention will now move on to the Minor classes (five scores or less) as well as this years Champions possibly trying out other classes. Should make round 10 (Kings Lynn, November 30th) very spicy.

The winners of round 9 were:

Andy Whorton F1 Premier Grade

Robin Cornwall F1 Main Grade

Dave Rouse Modified

Martin Hill Wizzard

Nigel Sykes Sports GT

 

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2008 Round 8 DHORC Derby -  21/9/08

Round 8 saw the action return to Derby, with six EAHORC regulars and six locals in attendance. Martin Hill was once again dominant in F1, with DHORC's Chairman Nick Sismey (making his EAHORC debut) winning the class for DHORC-spec open wheel cars. Dave Rouse was again on top form to win F1 Main Grade and Modified, the latter win making him the 2008 Champion for that class. Alan Bullock took a very popular win in Nascar, with Roy Masters doing enough to confirm himself as 2008 Champion.

Martin edged closer to the Wizzard title, and much closer to the EAHORC cup, but had to be content with 2nd place on the day, bested by an on fire Andy Whorton. The two drivers has both posted impressive scores and times all afternoon with Martin the only driver all day to get a lap time under 7 seconds. Andy had taken pole though by 1.95 laps and chose red lane. Things looked decidedly bad early on, with a costly off in the very early stages, but Andy then showed the kind of pace tempered with consistency that was lacking early in the season to get back on terms, and when his rival had some bad luck and a couple of small offs, he was able to build a lead to the finish.

Having won on his last two Wizzard outings, Andy now has a mathematical chance of taking the title, but will need other cars to get between him and Martin. He will have a chance to win again at the next round on October 26th at the London venue, with Martin no doubt keen to snuff out his challenge. Remember the clocks go back at 2am that day, we like people to be early, but not too early!

 

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2008 Round 7 HOSS Pinewood -  10/8/08

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After a gap of 10 weeks EAHORC racing resumed with the first HO Grand Prix, held at the superb Pinewood clubhouse in Berkshire, with a huge track laid on top of the BSCRA 1/24th track. There were so many highlights it is hard to know where to begin. The atmosphere was good, attendance high and some of the on-track action was stunning.

Formula 1

The day kicked off with the HO Grand Prix itself. The clubhouse filled up nicely as race time approached and everyone seemed impressed with the track, which had a bit of everything and was made truly grand by the swoops and elevation changes of the larger track it sat on. Martin Hill was, as expected, top dog in the heats, chased once again by Deane Walpole (whose mission for the day was to move up from Main grade). Local racer Steve Hills, building nicely on his debut back in April, came on strong late on to take Q2 and knock Deane to third on the grid, but he had done enough to make the jump to Premier grade. Pinewooder Simon Scott lived up to the hype of his fellow racers by pushing Deane hard in all four heats and eventually qualifying fifth just 0.03 laps behind Paul Charlton. Good job we were using full hundredths for the first time.

Another local racer, Toby Pawson, took time to find his feet but took two step-ups in the finals to finish in the top 10, scalps as he did so including Dave Rouse (now hot favourite to win the F1 Main grade title) and Roy Masters. Even better was to follow later. Tony Stacey took the first step up in the finals, to be followed by the two from Toby that took him to the C final, which was won by Clive Harland very much against the form of qualifying.

Now the tension ratcheted up as trophies would be awarded to the A and B finalists. Andy Whorton had once again been quick but prone to errors, his prep undoubtedly suffering a smidge as he worked race control. He would face Simon and Paul in addition to Clive. Simon delivered on his potential to beat Andy by half a lap, with Paul also beating him by just 9/100ths of a lap. This kind of close racing was happening all day in every heat and every final. So the A final would line up two pinewooders against two EAHORC regulars.

Deane took an initial lead, the other three coming together in the complex just before the start line, but in his heart he knew it would not last, having never won an F1 A final. Sure enough Martin hunted him down with cold precision and re-took the lead before half distance. He would finish as winner of the inaugural HO Grand Prix, a couple of inches shy of lapping Deane. Steve was only 13/100ths behind Deane, with Simon fourth having set some quick lap times in yellow.

Wizzard

The classes could really be seen to be working at a meeting like this, with several drivers having trophies to go for. From day one the class selections the drivers make has thrown up some strange scenarios. So here we had Wizzard, very often the most popular class, with just two drivers taking part! Clive Harland had the job of trying to keep Martin at bay, and gamely held on to him for the first third of their final. He had outscored Martin in yellow during the heats and was only 0.41 laps slower in white, so he had once again raised his own game, but Martin is probably the best guy in the country with these cars and eventually it showed, and he came through to do the double once more.

Modified

Dave Rouse was the star here. He had flown under the radar somewhat in the heats, but a huge score and outrageous fastest lap of the day in his red heat showed what he was capable of. Deane took pole with his G3R and he and Dave (also with a G3R) ran side by side for the initial laps before Deane had an off. The lap times came down first in chunks and then small amounts as Deane attempted to get back on  terms, but Dave responded magnificently as both went under the 8 second mark, his determination to take a major scalp and put the Championship pretty much beyond all doubt such that it was his rival who wilted first. Dave's 21.53 was the highest lap score of anyone. 3rd went to John Ovens, who's Tomy SRT would probably have been the fastest car through a speed trap if we had had one, ahead of Tony Stacey who had taken the B final step-up with great panache, defeating Nigel Sykes and John Chell.

Nascar

This class has not been the most popular for a year, and 8 was the most that had ever raced it. Roy was hungry for a third straight win, but would be facing a real quality field: Toby, Steve, Paul, Simon, Dave Pepper, Tony Ryder and perhaps most worryingly of all, Andy Whorton. Simon had struggled to master the Life-Likes and could not repeat his F1 form, but Steve and Toby were on it, and it is a mark of how much Roy has thrived with something to aim for that he pipped both to take Q2. He could do nothing about Andy though, pole won by 2.2 laps after 4 clean and fast heats for the Newbury resident.

The final was to be more heartache though, a pick-up problem knocking Andy out of contention within the opening two laps. So now Roy found himself with the chance to take the win, but having to cope with the pressure of Toby being on his tail for over half the race. Roy's greater experience told in the end, but you could see on his face at the end that this was a win that meant a lot. Toby duly took second, as well as, amazingly, the second fastest lap time of anyone in the class. Steve Hills took P3 to end the day as runner-up to Deane in terms of EAHORC cup points, with Andy of course fourth. Steve had taken the B step-up, with Paul classed 5th, Tony Ryder 6th and Simon 7th after more woes, but again some quick laps times. Dave Pepper took wooden spoon but the prize for most entertaining person by a mile!

One wonders if the Pinewood guys are this good now, how good will they be next time.? Bring it on I say. All-in-all an awesome meeting that had everything from a killer track, the right balance of friendly but competitive atmosphere to some very memorable heats and finals.

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2008 Round 6 LHORC Edmonton  -  1/6/08

F1 results:

 

2008 month 6 AM results

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2008 month 6 PM results

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The first day of June saw LHORC hosting it's third EAHORC national event, and the return to the Edmonton venue after the successful race there in April. Turnout was well down on that race, but everyone nonetheless enjoyed the more chilled and relaxed atmosphere that resulted. F1 racing started promptly at 10am with 8 attending, joined later by the returning Steve Stacey and his lads Daniel and Scott, who had come back from Banger racing at Mildenhall the night before very late. As has become the norm, Martin Hill was top dog but his main challenge came not from Andy Whorton or John Ovens, but from Deane Walpole, his normally a little down on power 440X2 suiting the tricky layout.

As Martin progressed serenely to another pole position, Nigel Sykes briefly popped into Q2 before Deane sealed the deal in the final heat of the morning. These three would contest the A final by right, joined by Andy after a crash filled set of heats but a solid performance in the B final to put himself back in contention. Before that Daniel and Scott had contested the D final, with Scott being the one to move onto the tough yellow lane to join his Dad and the two Johns, Chell and Ovens (the latter somewhat below his normal pace). Mr Ovens comfortably took the win, but then had a torrid time in the B final in white lane, to end up classified 7th. With 5th place, Dave Rouse took a huge step toward the F1 Main grade title, the gap to his rival Deane increasing by a fairly large amount, but with the possibility Deane will be promoted to Premier grade before season's end increasing too.

With Andy taking the final step up and now driving sweetly, he must have had hopes of getting in the thick of things and at least beating the two Main grade drivers in the 'A'. An early off put him on the back foot and it was Deane giving chase to Martin early on before falling back. On lap 12, pushing hard to regain second, Andy sustained crash damage in the tricky final turn and had to withdraw. From that point on the remaining three stretched apart, Martin ending up 8 laps ahead of Nigel with Deane almost exactly in the middle of their scores. Martin's win and Andy's crash now make it very hard for the former to lose the Premier grade F1 title so long as he stays consistent.

Roy Masters deserves a mention at this point. During setting up on the Saturday, Deane had discovered it was possible to get a Wizzard club car behind a cabinet (!) so John was dispatched to make a substantial barrier. When he returned from the venue stores after an inordinate amount of time, he had constructed holes in the front layer of the barrier (the rear part covered the opening beside the cabinet) as targets. Despite moving the front element several times on the Saturday, Deane and John left for the night convinced nobody could get a car through any holes, never mind the very small ''100 points'' one. Not only did Roy manage to do so in F1, he did it again in the afternoon, both times to raucous cheers and good natured comments along the lines of the object of the exercise being to stay on track! Nobody else managed the feat even once.

For the Afternoon, it became apparent that Deane had given up on beating Martin in Wizzard class (temporarily switching to Modified) but that Andy had not and was very much on a mission. He outscored Martin in all but red lane, but his rival had scored a almost unbelievable 47.80 (note 100ths being used for the first time here) in that lane, to show that when he could tame his car he was still a major force. Crucially Andy took pole by 0.65 laps as so was able to keep Martin away from red lane for the final. They would be joined in the A final by the two Stacey lads, Scott taking the final grid spot having beaten his Dad in a very close B final.

With Deane moving to modified he would be taking on Nigel, John Ovens and Dave (edging ever closer to the title). His all-new G3R complete with magnets of unknown type gifted him by a friend in Canada was extremely quick but would finish its heats down on power before finally cooking it's armature in round 3! Clearly matching the magnets to the 18V, 1200mA available is key to using such cars. Dave Rouse had no such problems with his Wizzard Storm fitted with Phase II polymers and an Aurora hard body, but the amount of grip he had mean offs would tend to be large and unforgiving ones, so he too struggled. To complete the misery, Nigel and John also struggled to better the top F1 scores, everyone finding it tough to get the downforce level correct for the twisty 60' track.

Similarly, Roy once again faced off against John Chell, but could not put together the kinds of scores expected, the powerful but very narrow magnets in his Life-like not lending themselves to super confidence attacking the turns. He did duly take another win, and posted a 40.10 in the final, well up on his heats scores when of course he would have cars in all lanes around him. He was joined as an A final winner by Deane and Andy, the former nursing an armature borrowed from the latter through his 4th heat and the final and vowing to send his magnets back to Canada! Dave was still struggling to tame his Poly Storm and it was Nigel, upping his game considerably from his heats, that took P2 with John Ovens taking the wooden spoon.

If the Wizzard A was expected to be a fitting end to day, sadly it did not turn out to be so. Martin had two early offs, lost his composure a little and had a couple more, and from then on Andy was away. Just as Jim Kelly used to do though, Martin tends to bounce back from such things with vengeance and Andy will need to bring nothing but his A game if he is to win the title. For those of us neutral about such things, the prospects for this championship are very exciting. Martin still topped the EAHORC Cup points haul for the day, jointly with Deane, but will be looking to get back to 320 maximums sooner rather than later.

EAHORC now enters its summer break, with action resuming at Pinewood for the HOGP on August 10th

 

	Formula 1											LAPTIME	LAPS	LAPS	LAPS	qf	a-d	LAPS	LAPTIME	LAPS	LAPTIME	AV	Speed
Pl	name	club	laps	time	laps	time	laps	time	laps	time		Best in heats	Best heat	Best 3 heats	Total of 4 heats	qf pos	fin	In final	best in final	Most in 1 race	best overall	Lap Length	MPH
1	Martin Hill	MBR	36.85	4.43	38.50	o	32.60	o	35.05	4.51		4.43	38.50	110.40	143.00	1	A	37.20	4.36	38.50	4.36	60 feet	9.38
2	Deane Walpole	LHORC	32.30	o	30.20	4.95	33.65	4.92	35.20	4.57		4.57	35.20	101.15	131.35	2	A	34.05	4.60	35.20	4.57	60	8.95
3	Nigel Sykes	LHORC	31.85	5.04	33.85	o	32.30	4.87	34.50	o		4.87	34.50	100.65	132.50	3	A	29.00	4.78	34.50	4.78	60	8.56
4	Andy Whorton	HOSS	31.85	4.77	24.60	4.92	33.80	4.67	33.35	o		4.67	33.80	99.00	123.60	4	A	12.85	4.66	33.80	4.66	60	8.78
5	Dave Rouse	MBR	32.60	4.62	30.35	4.95	29.65	4.47	35.40	4.53		4.47	35.40	98.35	128.00	5	B	34.80	4.60	35.40	4.47	60	9.15
6	Roy Masters	DHORC	31.90	o	32.30	5.09	31.35	5.10	31.35	4.98		4.98	32.30	95.55	126.90	6	B	29.60	5.07	32.30	4.98	60	8.21
7	John Ovens	LHORC	31.10	5.21	28.50	o	30.30	4.90	32.25	5.07		4.90	32.25	93.65	122.15	7	B	24.25	4.85	32.25	4.85	60	8.43
8	John Chell	DHORC	29.80	5.25	28.80	5.33	26.65	5.31	31.05	5.35		5.25	31.05	89.65	116.30	8	C	30.75	5.12	31.05	5.12	60	7.99
9	Steve Stacey	LHORC	26.90	5.41	26.90	5.41	26.30	5.30	24.45	6.10		5.30	26.90	80.10	104.55	9	C	28.70	5.46	28.70	5.30	60	7.72
10	Scott Stacey	LHORC	20.65	5.44	22.60	6.03	26.40	5.84	23.05	o		5.44	26.40	72.05	92.70	11	C	24.80	5.63	26.40	5.44	60	7.52
11	Daniel Stacey	LHORC	25.60	5.29	23.70	5.74	18.45	5.30	25.70	5.60		5.29	25.70	75.00	93.45	10	D	25.25	5.72	25.70	5.29	60	7.73

2008 Round 5 HOSS Newbury Vodafone HQ

4/5/08

As in 2007 HOSS laid out it's superb portable HO track, AFX Raceway, at the BSCRA 1/32nd Nats in Newbury. Unlike last year though, for 2008 the track was used for a round of the EAHORC Championship. Despite the bank holiday, a handful of racers came to the excellent Vodafone World HQ and were joined by some of the BSCRA racers. These included Andy Brown-Searle and Graeme Stephenson from AB Slotsport and Matthew Siddall, a nine year old already proving to be a precocious talent at his local 1/32nd club in Flyde, where he races with Dad Stephen.

Martin Hill and Dave Rouse once again made the trip without the father and son duo of John and Jamie Kelly to represent the MBR club, with Roy Masters and John Chell returning for DHORC. From the off it appeared that Martin was not going to be phased by a track very far removed from the EAHORC norm, and was on a mission to overtake Jim Kelly in as many of the Hall of fame stats as possible. There is always somebody trying to push him though and for F1 it was Andy Whorton once again, gamely keeping his scores and fastest laps competitive. In the end Martin was able to take Q1, but Andy had given himself hope as his biggest score was 0.7 laps bigger than Martin's. Come the A final Martin produced his normal trick of taking a big leap, finding two laps to beat the also improving Andy by one! Third fell to Deane Walpole, despite suffering from vertigo, ahead of Will Stemman (The Luton BSCRA racer making his HO debut), who took  the step up from the B final.

To do that Will had beaten Matthew, who was the star of the day. He may have had 100s of laps or practice on the Saturday but on the Sunday he showed awesome racecraft to go with the speed, only losing to Will by a couple of laps and handsomely beating drivers with much more experience. More of the same was to follow. 6th fell to Clive Harland, the FLBT member taking place in his first HO race outside Swindon, with Ryan Elsam (another talented BSCRA junior) 7th and Dave Rouse only 8th, and relinquishing the lead of F1 main grade as a result.

For the afternoon the AB Slotsport guys joined the fray, with all drivers racing Wizzard class except John and Roy (Nascar) and Will and Dave (Modified). Initially Deane seemed to be on a flyer, with two 34 laps scores and for the first time Martin seemed worried, but he followed that with two poor scores and Martin was able to be much more consistent and in the end 0.5 lap quicker in terms of ultimate pace over three minutes. With pole and red lane secured he was once again able to find 2 extra laps for the final to leave everyone else bewildered and bemused! Clive took a superb P3, using his own Wizzard for the first time to take the B step-up and then finish ahead of Andy Whorton who retired on lap 10 in the A with fluff around his armature.

Matthew was again a superb fifth, ahead of Andy Brown Searle using a P3E obtained by John Ovens, Graeme using the club cars (and taking the C final step up), Ryan (CC), James Davey from the Dowty club (CC), and Chris Musto's daughter Matilda (CC). Roy duly took his overdue Nascar win and Will bested Dave, although the latter was happy enough with P2 and a big lead in the Modified Championship, in the process becoming the first driver to win an A final with a partially scratchbuilt car (I believe so anyway), using Martin Hills BSRT G3 with glued-in SRT traction magnets.

F1 results:

 

2008 month 05 AM results

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PM results:

 

2008 month 05 PM results.

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2008 Round 4 LHORC Edmonton

13/4/08

LHORC hosted only it's second EAHORC event to date and like the first (Feb 2007) it was a success. Unlike the Leyton race though the attendance forecast overnight was not good. Things turned around with the surprising and very welcome arrival of Nigel Sykes and Peter Baldock as well as Tony Stacey's brother Steve (who lives locally) and his two sons. BSCRA racer Tony Ryder and Mike Ovens (who raced just in the afternoon) also bolstered the numbers, and the new venue buzzed with noise and bustle.

The day started with F1, and Martin Hill was in consummate form even by his standards. With the high attendance drivers completed their heats in pairs, with Martin kicking off with two 20 laps score when nobody else could get a 19. Early on Nigel posted a 19.8 to show his long absence from EAHORC races had not blunted him and Peter showed the same with a 19.9 score. John Ovens posted a 19.2 and Andy Whorton a 20.2 to a least make a fist of challenging Martin but this was swept aside by two 21s in the last pairing. So that was Q1 assured for the multiple champion but qualifying featured a remarkable achievement, with Tony Ryder missing out on automatically making the A final only be countback to fastest lap - and then only by 0.01 seconds, despite this being his first ever HO race.

Second place in qualifying was taken by Peter and 3rd by John Ovens, which meant that Andy Whorton whom you would normally look for in those spots had a lot of work on his hands after an error-strewn set of heats. In fact he had to come from the C final, but finally found some consistency to beat Paul Charlton from the Pinewood 1/32nd scale club, and Deane Walpole & Dave Rouse who were continuing there season long battle for Main grade honours. Andy then beat Steve Hills, who like Paul had attended ahead of the HOSS round at Pinewood in August to get some experience, Tony Ryder and Nigel to make the A final the head way!

From the lights the four A finalist ran through the first few corners as one until Andy tried an overly optimistic move into turn 7 and crashed heavily, after which he never featured. Martin pulled clear, leaving Peter and John to squabble over second and third, with Peter eventually besting John by 0.2 laps. Both drivers more than showed what they might be able to deliver in  terms of a championship run if they were able to attend more races, but for now Martin has everyone covered.

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F1 results April

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For the afternoon Deane and Andy once again vied for which would be main challenger to Martin in Wizzard, with Deane seeming to have the upper hand, actually outscoring Martin in yellow but ultimately taking Q2 1.7 laps down with Andy Q3. Come the final these three were joined by Steve Stacey, who had beaten his two sons, Daniel and Scott in the B final, all three running club cars. Martin stormed off and initially Andy held second before Deane fought his way past. Martin was edging away still but it was game on until around half distance when Deane's car stopped and he was left with the scant consolation of 4th place. Andy duly took P2 to keep the gap in the Wizz championship to Martin looking respectable, but he and anyone else have a mountain to climb.

Nascar featured a fascinating final with Steve Hills and Paul joined by fellow Pinewooder Dave Pepper and Roy Masters, who would leave the meeting leading the championship regardless but wanted a win having taken pole. Roy was running the car on possibly the lowest rear tyres yet seen at an EAHORC meeting and the car was noisy as result but still effective. Initially Roy lead, but Steve ran him hard and eventually moved ahead to win by 3 tenths. No doubt Roy will keep plugging away, and surely that win will come for the highly popular DHORC member soon.

Modified class featured a very diverse collection of chassis. Peter and Nigel with SG+, Team Ovens and Tony Ryder with John's SRTs and Tony Stacey and Dave Rouse with Marchons. Mike had not raced HO for some long time and was clearly dismayed to see how quick the old man was! After starting out somewhat rustily he beat Peter and the two Tony's in the B and was then the only driver able to stay with John in the A before eventually fading too to finish second, with Nigel third and Dave, well on course for the Championship title, a distant but very valuable fourth.

All in all an absolutely stonking meet at a very promising venue, to which we return on June 1st. Before that we have round 5 at the BSCRA Nats on May 4th on a track unlike any other raced on in the history of EAHORC. Miss this one at your peril! To download the spreadsheet for the afternoon racing click below:

 

PM Results

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2008 Round 3 HOSS Swindon

The return to FLBT started in somewhat muted fashion, with the entry list for F1 under double figures and appalling cold & wet weather outside (and inside as the roof sprang a couple of leaks!). By the end of day however the weather had receded in people's minds and four more drivers turned up to make the overall experience a good one. Most of the those present had attended the corresponding fixture last year and were eager to once again enjoy running on top of the Swindon Club's superb BSCRA layout, complete with swoops and elevation changes.

Andy Whorton from HOSS had if anything put together an even better HO track than in September 2007, running clockwise and with the corners all subtly different and minus any banking. The track flowed beautifully and had to be attacked with a mixture of aggression and patience. The day started with F1 as usual and Martin Hill leading the way early on but many drivers getting in good scores. Martin's 18.0 laps was countered by Deane Walpole on 17.7 despite a car decidedly lacking go and a superb 17.9 from Adrian Leggett followed by an 18.0 from John Kelly. Jamie Kelly, having struggled in his first heat, then raised the bar to 18.1 before Martin blitzed everyone with an 18.7 in the unfavoured yellow lane.

This remained the biggest score for some time, and then Martin equalled it in white lane. The very next heat Jamie and Deane raised the bar still further, Jamie with 19.1 and Deane with 19.3 (despite neither driver getting under a 9.00s lap at any point!). Not wanting to be beaten in any way, Martin then produced a stunning 19.7 to put pole beyond any doubt. Behind him thought things were very tight. Jamie took Q2 on count back to fastest lap from Dave Rouse, who was having his best F1 outing to date, and Deane missing automatically making the A final by just 2 tenths. Andy was a further tenth back and only two tenths ahead of Rob Lees. In all Martin was three laps ahead of the field but Q2-6 was covered by just 0.6 laps!

The F1 final was a straight forward affair for Martin, although Jamie gamely tried to stay with him. He then had an off and a marshalling mix up saw him and Deane drop back. This allowed Dave into P2, but this happened early on and to his credit he soaked up the pressure superbly and held Jamie at bay as he tried to recover, recording his best score of the day (19.1) as well. As a result Dave was the top finishing Main grade driver for the second meeting in succession and he looks on ominous form. Deane at least limited the damage by winning the B final and so taking the step up to the A and eventually P4. Andy again struggled with his consistency and was undone by a smooth drive from Rob who took fifth with Andy sixth. Adrian (7th) and John (8th) had perhaps struggled a little after doing well in their first heats but the level of competitiveness was such that any dip in form was punished.

To view F1 spreadsheet click below:

 

2008 month 03 AM r...

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Over the course of the afternoon FLBT regulars Mike Perkins, Toby Stevens and Clive Harland arrived to have their second crack at HO. Some manoeuvring by race control enabled them to get in all four heats, and some more of the same allowed HO newbie Neal Callaghan to race in the heats. As a result 10 drivers contested Wizzard class, with 3 choosing Modified. With Jim Kelly absent Dave was hoping for a good points haul and faced off against Jamie using an SRT and Adrian with an MR1. Qualifying between Dave and Jamie was fairly close, but Jamie generally had the upper hand with Dave tending to record fastest lap. Adrian's MR1 was very quick but the handling was a little wayward.

In Wizzard Martin was once again dominant, his P3E visibly quicker down the main straight but his commitment into the swoops, especially at the east end of the track, something to see. Andy was again the nearest challenger, and he managed to equal Martin's score in blue and outdo him by 0.7 laps in yellow but was some way back in the other two lanes. Deane, having prepped a very fast car which he then 'lost' by over application of comm drops, was in his customary 3rd place, comfortably ahead of the pack but unable to touch the top two. As at Round 2 these three locked out the automatic A final spots.

They were joined by Clive, who once again showed very good form. Before that Neal had learnt very quickly in his two Wizz heats and took the step up from the C final ahead of Mike (8th), Toby (9th) and Jenson Leggett (10th) to therefore do battle with Clive and Rob for the shot at being the FLBT representative in the A final. The fourth B final spot was taken by John. In the end Neal ran Rob very close but neither they nor John could do anything about Clive, who won by just over two laps. So, to the A final, which initially mirrored the February one, although for a much shorter period. Martin brushed aside Andy's early challenge and by half distance the field was spread out and the race ended with the four drivers finishing in  the qualifying order and spread out to the tune of 5.7 laps.

In the process, Martin added half a lap to the biggest wizzard score and reduced the fastest lap by 2 tenths, and there is no doubt he is driving beautifully at the moment and leaving his competitors breathless. Lets hope for their sake he has another couple of off days as his did back in January! The Wizzard finals where preceded by the Modified final, with Dave happy to be scoring at least 110 points over absent Jim, but hoping to score even more. He initially was in the hunt, but fell back to finish just 0.8 laps behind but well ahead of Adrian, who immediately vowed to come back stronger next time.

To view Wizzard and modified spreadsheet click below:

 

2008 month 03 PM

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All in all a cracking day of racing in a good atmosphere and proof if it were needed that HO tracks placed on top of BSCRA layouts can be huge fun. I dream of one day EAHORC having it's own permanent track, and one day we really must make it happen!

2008 Round 2 MBR Kings Lynn

Round 2 took place on Feb 17th with hosts MBR building their first fully fictitious track since 2005, placed on top of their brand new wood 1/32nd track. Martin Hill was on a mission to get his season back on track, and in F1 a large score in his first heat was the main factor in pipping Jim Kelly to pole by 0.1 laps! Come the 'A' final he was able to take a comfortable win and add nearly 1.5 laps to his highest total. Jamie Kelly also improved over his disastrous Derby form, but was still the slowest of the premier grade drivers present. After initially fighting closely with main grader Deane Walpole in the F1 B final he took the win and the step up to join Jim, Andy Whorton and Martin. Kevin Golloghly won the D final, and lead the C for some time before eventually losing to Roy Masters, who was in good form all day.

To view the full spreadsheet for the morning racing click below:

 

2008 month 02 AM

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For the afternoon, The F1 premier grade drivers mostly avoided each other, although not by design, only Andy and Martin facing off in Wizzard. Jim was usually at least 2 laps ahead of his opposition in Modified, his SRT with GT40 body getting better as the heats wore on and ultimately able to run with the Wizzard cars. He duly took his first A final win in the class for a year, ahead of Dave Rouse and Tony Stacey. Nascar, having not run at all last month, made a return with 5 drivers taking part. Jamie, unable to get his Wizz running well enough to mix it, was always going to be hot favourite for the Nascar win but in the end was run close by Roy, a timing glitch resulting in a two-man runoff final that Jamie won by 0.1 laps. Roy had in fact only pipped Sharon Golloghly in qualifying by 0.1 laps but that had been enough to get a more favourable lane for the final and run Jamie so close, in the end Sharon finished 4th behind Kevin Golloghly and ahead of the returning Peter Means.

The Day ended with the Wizzard finals. The B final was a race between John Kelly and current Wizz champion Jaik Golloghly for the wooden spoon. Jaik produced a flawless display to take the step up and Join Martin (pole), Andy (Q2) and Deane (Q3) in the A final. Almost within the first few seconds this race split into two, Martin being pushed very hard by Andy and Jaik and Deane running side by side. As Andy started to drop back a little, Deane tried to get on terms but instead made mistakes and dropped to last. Jaik pressed on and made Andy sweat a little on going home as championship leader, eventually finishing only 0.9 laps behind. Martin was extremely relieved to take the win, having found Andy running alongside him and up for the fight most disconcerting! I suspect the battle between these two could be the story of the season.

To view the full spreadsheet for the afternoon racing click below:

 

2008 month 02 PM

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The action now moves to Swindon on March 16th, with another track on top of the awesome FLBT BSCRA layout. Hope to see you there...

2008 Round 1 DHORC Derby

The new season got underway with the highest turnout for an opening round in EAHORC's history. Coupled with the first EAHORC race held at the prestigious Derby HO Racing Club (DHORC), this made for a perfect start to the year. Wayne Lander made good on the potential showed at the February 2007 race, DHORC's top driver winning F1 and Modified. He also became the first driver to use both a Racemasters AFX GT40 body and a BSRT G3 in an EAHORC race. Jamie Sismey put up the second best performance by a home driver, placing second in F1 and 4th in Wizzard. Phil Rees won Open wheel, beating club-mates Martin Allsopp and Claire Bullock.

Andy Whorton upped his game in Wizzard class to take the victory he felt he should have got at Swindon September 2007 and his win prevented DHORC taking a clean sweep. A nervy A final saw Andy take the win by half a lap from Deane Walpole. Martin Hill was not on his usual form but took third place after having to win the B final and take the step-up. He had struggled even more so in F1, qualifying in an unheard of 10th, before getting his act together to take no less than 3 steps-us (and therefore 4 in one day!) and an eventual 4th place. Expect the reigning F1 champion to be back on form sooner or later.

Jamie Kelly, another champion and hall of fame luminary , had an even worse day and was well off his usual form (partly, rumour had it, to a hangover!). 5th in F1 and 10th place in Wizzard puts him on the back foot, but I would bet he will bounce back - especially in F1. By Contrast Dad John was on good form and lived up to his status as early favourite for the F1 Main grade title. He had the best score of anyone in green lane after the heats, and was mixing with Premier grade drivers, eventually taking 6th overall.

Racing wrapped up at 5PM, followed by a worthwhile exchange of views with some of the DHORC regulars (the club of course has a successful format of it's own, which differs in many ways from the EAHORC one but also has many similarities). All in all, an excellent and vibrant start to the new season. DW

To see race reports from the 2007 season go here

To see race reports from the 2006 season go here

For an archive of our 2003, 2004 & 2005 seasons go here

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