A damp March night saw the highest SCHORC turn out of 2013 so far with no fewer than 12 racers on the grid. Dave Ogden and Steve Stacey both came back for a race for the first in a few months and it was great to see both of them. With Club Principle Tony Stacey on holiday Lee Taylor had stepped up and kindly setup all the equipment.
The Track
Hermann TilkLee had laid out a fine track that produced some very close races. The first sector had some fast sweeping bends leading round into a U bend 6″ hairpin that proved quite a challenge in the yellow lane with cars regularly flying off here and keeping the attendant Marshals on their toes. The second sector was another set of fast sweeping bends but with a single 6″ thrown in the middle of the wider radius corners.
F1
Qualifying
Jim took pole by the narrowest of margins, just a single tenth ahead of Paul Homewood and Roy was just over half a lap further back. Each of the top three guys posted one heat of an amazing 40+ laps which required an average lap time below 4.5s. Consistently good scores across red, white and blue secured Lee fourth less than 3 laps off the pole total. A solid drive for Nick saw him take the fifth spot on the grid just under a lap ahead of Paul Rose who took sixth. Rookie Bruce really got to grips with his Tyco this month and took an excellent 7th place ahead of John and Al. Usual F1 front runner Craig qualified well out of position in 10th ahead of Steve and Dave.
D Final
Craig gave himself more to do by jumping the start of the D final from the blue lane, however it didn’t take him long to make up the lost lap and take the lead. He then scampered off to victory with 40.4 laps which was the highest score of the finals and could have been the highest score of the class if he hadn’t jumped the start. Dave in white challenged Steve for second early on in the race before dropping back to finish in third.
C Final
Early offs for Bruce in blue and John in Red allowed Al in yellow and Craig in the white to take the early lead. Al stuck with Craig for the first 30 seconds before the hairpin got the better of him and he dropped back from the lead. A string of further offs for Al and some consistent driving from Bruce saw Al drop back to third and Bruce take second. John spent most of the race at the back but towards the end of the race he was consistently making up ground on Al and he snatched third place in the last few seconds of the race.
B Final
After a close start it was Craig again who had the early lead from white in the B final. Nick in blue ran him pretty close in the early stages of the race but he eventually had to settle for second as Craig took his 3rd win and hop up. Paul Rose had a shaky start in yellow but managed to keep a charging Lee in red behind him for the duration of the race. He also came within half a lap of taking 2nd from Nick in the last few moments of the race after Nick had a big off.
A Final
After his success of hopping up from the D final Craig could go no further from the yellow lane and had to settle for fourth place overall. Ahead of him there was a titanic threeway battle for the win. Paul Homewood was the early leader in red, with Jim in blue just behind him and Roy a shade further back in third.
For much of the first minute there was very little separating the top three and the lead changed hands several times before Roy had an off and lost some ground putting him in third. Jim was next to suffer from an off putting him back with Roy before another off for Jim ensured that it was the bottom step of the podium for him. As some consolation Jim did bag the fastest F1 lap of the evening though.
Paul enjoyed a consistent lead for the second minute of the race with Roy unable to close the gap until an off for Paul put Roy right back in contention for the win. The pair ran neck and neck for much of the last minute but at the end of the three minutes it was Paul who was victorious by just two tenths of a lap.
Mod
Qualifying
From early on in Mod qualifying Craig looked like the man to beat, posting some seriously big scores of over 50 laps in both blue and white. He thus took pole by a comfortable margin of 3.4 laps from Paul Rose. Al narrowly took third ahead of Paul Homewood despite Al’s car sounding like it was attempting to eat it’s own gears for the majority of the evening following it’s most recent outing at HONK. Lee was fifth with a massive the highest score of the night a massive 51.1 in the red lane. His other scores weren’t good enough to pull him up any higher though. A more consistent performance across the lanes saw Nick just a third of a lap back from Lee in sixth. Jim was seventh ahead of John, Dave, Roy, Steve and Bruce.
D Final
Roy took the early lead of the D final from the blue lane. Steve wasn’t far behind him in red though and Bruce and his Super G+ did well to keep pace with them in white in the early stages of the race. An off for Roy on lap 4 handed Steve the lead but Roy quickly set about reeling him back in. Roy gradually nibbled away at Steve’s lead for what seemed like much of the race before finally catching and passing him. The pair than ran neck and neck for the closing stages of the before a late off for Roy cost him the potential win. Steve who had held his nerve superbly under the pressure took the win by just over half a lap.
C Final
Despite a good start in yellow Steve’s luck ran no further. John had a less good start in red but still managed to stay involved in the tense threeway battle for the lead that last for the first couple of minutes of the race. It was Jim in blue and Dave in white though who carried the battle for the lead right into the final minute before an unlucky off for Dave allowed Jim to take a comfortable victory.
B Final
After a close start it was Paul Homewood in red and Lee in blue who where the early leaders. Nick in white stuck with them for the first few laps before an off left him scraping for fourth with Jim in the yellow lane. Lee and Paul ran together for the first minute before Lee came off and gave Paul a lead of nearly a lap. Lee kept Paul honest for the rest of the race gradually narrowing the gap but unable to catch him. Nick managed to hang on to third finishing half a lap ahead of Jim.
A Final
Team Homewood’s B car looked substantially off the pace in the A final and Paul Homewood quickly retired from the yellow lane. Meanwhile their A car driven by Craig in blue was busy setting the pace. Paul Rose in red offered Craig a decent challenge early on the race until he had an off on lap 9. Craig continued to pound around and went on to equal Lee’s massive 51.1 laps. Al in white seemed pretty content with third place as what was left of his Mod’s gears just about kept him going through the final race of the evening.
Thanks to Lee for setting everything up in Tony’s absence and to everyone for turning up and making another great night of racing!