After entering the first SCHORC named team last year and finishing in 5th position with 5345 laps, SCHORC’s hopes were high that the team could do even better this year.

The SCHORC Team

Captained by SCHORC founder Tony Stacey, the team comprised of SCHORC members Al Wood, Paul Rose and Ray George. They were joined by DHORC’s James Mellor (who raced for the team in 2013), CHORC’s Paul Roach and previous Le Mans winner Sam Shearman. Sadly last year’s captain Roy Masters was unable to stay for the event but he was able to offer some tips and moral support during the car build.

After qualifying, the team opted to start on lane 8 which would then move on to lane 1. The plan being to get the two most difficult lanes out of the way early on.

The view from the driver’s station

Despite running well in Quali, the SCHORC car proved difficult to drive in Race Trim and suffered a lot of tramping (bouncing on its rear wheels under acceleration due to excessive torque) during the opening phase of the race. Consequently the team spent the first 6 hours of the race languishing in P7.

The Porsche Curves

Mulsanne Corner

After Al burned out the first race motor, Tony fitted a new one that proved to suit the car far better. Now driving well the team set about making up lost ground. First to be caught and passed were Ecurie Anglaise for P6 during hour 7. DHORC A were overhauled in the following hour for P5 before DHORC 1 were passed in hour 9 for P4. The car continued to run well through the night as SCHORC very gradually began to pull away from the two DHORC teams.

Pit stop for a tyre clean

This motor lasted 15 and half hours before its brushes were eventually spent!

After a fairly smooth race through the night, those members of the team that had been able to catch a brief sleep, woke to find that not much had changed and everything was still running smoothly. In the penultimate lane of the race, the car’s pace began to drop off but another motor change soon had it running nicely again.

At 11am the race was paused for 2 minutes for Remembrance Sunday. With the race underway again the team drove on to take P4 with 5535 laps, beating both last year’s finishing position and lap count.

The cars at the finish

Maybe next year?

Over the grueling 24 hour period, our little car covered 244.599 miles around what is surely one of the greatest slot car tracks in the world.

Thanks to all at DHORC for organising another truly epic event!