8 racers arrived in Yelling to kick off the SCHORC 2013 season, including guest Bruce fresh from his first taste of competitive HO racing at AVHORA.
The Track
The first track of the 2013 season was pretty well balanced across all the 4 lanes and required good straight line pace to capitalise on the 4 long straights. Bravery through the twisty bits was where the crucial last tenths of laptime were to be found though.
F1
With new club F1 champ Craig on holiday in Ireland a few jokes about it being decent of him to give everyone else a head start in the championship this year were made.
Qualifying
While Homewood junior was away Homewood senior was left to carry their impressive F1 mantle. Paul took the best score in all but the red lane and secured pole position by 3.5 laps from Jim. Lee was just a lap behind Jim taking the last guaranteed spot in the A final. Paul Rose’s Tyco looked on better form than of late or perhaps it was just better suited to the track. Either way he took 4th by 2 laps from Al who was just over a lap clear of Nick in 6th. Following a good first outing with the club cars, guest Bruce edged club Head Honcho Tony to 7th.
C Final
Tony in blue got off to early but narrow lead over Bruce in red. Despite both drivers having a couple of offs Bruce was unable to pass Tony who held the lead till the end of the race and won by just under a lap.
B Final
Paul Rose held the early lead in the blue lane but an off on the third lap let Al in Red and Tony in Yellow past. Al and Tony drove neck and neck fighting for the lead. Al blinked first and binned his car on lap 7 handing Tony a narrow lead over Paul Rose who proceeded to charge up behind Tony applying the pressure and swooping past following a couple of mistakes from Tony that sent him back to fourth. A charging Nick in white was now left fighting Al for second place as Paul continued to manage his lead. In the closing stages, just one off for Al to Nick’s two was enough for Al to secure second place. Nick can take some consolation from being the fastest man on track in the B final though.
A Final
Despite a strong start in yellow Paul Rose found the hop up lane to be too tricky to match the leaders pace and he quickly dropped back to fourth place. A poor start in red left Jim on the back foot but he quickly caught up to the close battle at the front between Paul Homewood in blue and Lee in white. Following an off for Lee, Paul Homewood was then left with just Jim breathing down his neck. Jim closed the gap right up but an off for Jim on lap 19 left Paul with an easy last minute to cruise round and take his first F1 win since February 2011. Jim should be pleased that his charge was not totally in vain as it did bag him the fastest F1 lap of the night by nearly 2 tenths of a second.
Mod
Qualifying
The well balanced track produced some great battles in the modified heats, however with the more powerful cars it was quickly noted that the blue lane was slightly down on power. Despite limiting the absolute one lap pace of this lane it was still possible to put in a score in the high 30s.
One of the big changes to the 2013 SCHORC rules was qualifying being the total of the best three lanes rather than the total of all four. Paul Rose wasn’t particularly impressed that this new rule handed pole to Al rather than him but he soon got over it. After Al choose the red lane Paul decided that since the blue lane was down on power his best option was to role the dice and choose the white lane.
Lee’s mod was absolutely flying and he secured third from Paul Homewood by a couple of laps. Nick took the fifth spot ahead of Bruce who was driving one of Tony’s large stable of Marchons. Jim and Tony rounded off the qualifying order neither looking to be on their usual pace.
C Final
The C final had a tense start with nothing between Tony in Blue and Jim in red for the first half of the race. A couple of offs for Jim were enough to hand Tony a decent gap to manage and he sailed home to victory by over three laps.
B Final
Despite Paul Homewood’s car looking a little bit less formidable than usual in qualifying he pulled out a nice early lead in the red lane. A big off approaching the first minute allowed Nick in blue to briefly take the lead, but an off for Nick handed the lead back to Paul which he held onto to beat Nick by just 0.6 of a lap. Tony in yellow and Bruce in white had a great battle for the third with Tony coming out on top by just three tenths of a lap.
A Final
In the event the A final was even more chaotic than usual. An early string of offs in the white lane but Paul Rose far enough back that he retired. After a tense few laps racing head to head with Lee and Paul Homewood, Al pulled out a lead and set the fastest lap of the night leaving Paul Homewood in second and Lee in third.
Following a track call, a problem with the newly boxed up timing hardware caused the race to have to be stopped again with about 30 seconds remaining. The hardware had to be reset to allow the final 30 seconds to be run and these scores were then added to those from the first part of the race. The additional 30 seconds didn’t change anything leaving reigning mod champion Al the winner from Paul Homewood, Lee and Paul Rose.
The hardware problem has now been identified and should be resolved before the next club meet.
Thanks to all who attended and gave the 2013 season a great kick off!