A pleasant June evening saw 7 racers gather for the third round of Micro Scalextric Club Class and Super F1.

The Track

Ably assisted by Paul Homewood again, Al had designed a circuit vaguely based on The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve from Montreal Canada. After initially putting in the final chicane and Wall of Champions, Al decided it would be be impossible to marshall without obstructing the driver’s view and replaced it with a single long straight. The resulting track was fast and flowing and perhaps a welcome relief for some after last month’s track. The chicanes were fast and required just a slight lift to negotiate, so if you got them wrong you came off hard!

Micro Scalextric Club Class

Qualifying

Continuing his dominance of the class, Paul Rose took pole by 2 laps from Al. Ray was just two tenths behind Al in third and Paul Homewood just a further tenth behind. Roy lined up fifth ahead of Steve and Tony.

During the heats, the slightest off would cause the motor of the yellow lane car to pop. To rectify this for the finals, it was glued in.

B Final

Paul Homewood had a cracking start in blue taking the early lead from Steve in white. An early off for Roy in red left him in third ahead of Tony in fourth who had jumped the start. By lap 9 Paul Homewood had pulled out a decent gap but an off left him with Roy right on his tail. For the next 130 seconds there was virtually nothing between them with Paul Homewood finishing just a few inches ahead at the end of breathtaking race. Behind them Tony had closed up the gap to Steve but had run out of time before he was able to take third.

A Final

Following a jump start by Paul Rose, he found himself a lap down in the blue lane. First lap incidents for Al in white and Ray in red left Paul Homewood in the unfavoured yellow hop up lane with the lead. By one minute in Al had managed to close Paul Homewood down and Paul Rose was rapidly making up his lost lap despite an off. As the race progressed Al passed and begin to pull away from Paul Homewood. An off for Paul Homewood moved Paul Rose up to second and he continued to pile the pressure on Al. An off for Al at the hairpin handed Paul Rose a narrow lead. Al put in some of his fastest laps of the evening and closed the gap slightly but after another off at the hairpin, he had to settle for second. As Paul Rose was cruised to victory, a few offs for Paul Homewood allowed Ray to take 3rd from him in the closing moments.

Super F1

Qualifying

Despite not turning a wheel in the yellow lane during the heats as his car wouldn’t negotiate the outside of the hairpin due to a worn guide-pin, Paul Homewood took pole by 3.9 laps from Roy and his SRT. The rest of the field were somewhat behind the two pace setters with Ray and his Super G+ taking best of the rest in third. Tony lined up fourth ahead of Al, Steve and Paul Rose. Paul more or less gave up on quali after some difficult heats but he managed to take the fastest lap of the night before retiring from his heat in the blue lane.

B Final

Paul Rose shot of the line and into the lead from the yellow lane but after a few offs he dropped back and then retired. This left Al in red and Tony in blue vying for the lead until and string of offs for Al left Tony in the clear. For the finals Tony had switched to running a rather nice Ferrari 312T bodied Mega G that he drove on to take the B Final win from Al and Steve.

A Final

For the opening laps Tony in yellow hung on to Roy in red and Paul Homewood in blue but ultimately he couldn’t sustain their pace and an off causing a popped rear axle dropped him back to fourth behind Ray in white. Tony eventually retired after suffering body clip failure. Up front Paul had eked out a slight lead over Roy that was all undone by an off on lap 13. Over the next minute Paul gradually closed the gap up until they were racing neck and neck for the second time that evening. After a minute of fantastically close racing that looked like it could run to the end of the race, Paul binned it and handed Roy his first victory of the season.

Congratulations to both winners and thanks to all who attended.