With spring finally arriving in Yelling, 10 SCHORC members gathered for Round 5 of Tyco F1 and Mod.
The Track
With Tony retiring from track setup duties, Paul Rose stepped up and produced a twisty technical track. A liberal smattering of 6″ bends kept things interesting on the white and blue lanes and certainly kept the marshalls busy throughout the evening.
F1
Qualifying
Following another very close qualifying session, Craig took pole by just a single lap. Roy was second a single tenth ahead of Lee in third. Paul Homewood was fourth just under two laps behind his son. Jim pipped Paul Rose to fifth position by virtue of a faster lap as they were both just 2.6 laps from pole. Al, John, Tony and Bruce completed the grid.
C Final
Tony got off to a blistering start in the yellow lane but Al wasn’t too far behind him in red. Pushing hard to pass Tony, Al came off on lap 5 and found himself battling for 2nd place with Bruce in white. John seemed to be struggling in the blue lane and he dropped back behind the pack. A single off for Tony on lap 7 put him back in range of Al and Bruce but then he settled into his groove and powered off to victory bettering his highest heat score by over two laps. Following a string of offs for Al, Bruce took a tidy second place and his highest score of the night.
B Final
Tony was a bit keen to get going in the white lane and jumped the start. Paul Homewood got off to a good start in red and was vying for the lead with Paul Rose in yellow. Unfortunately Paul Homewood got tangled up in an incident on the start finish straight and was put back out of contention so he retired. Tony retired mid way through the race not enjoying the challenging white lane. This left only Jim in the blue lane to challenge Paul Rose for the win. Jim put Paul under some real pressure in the middle segment of the race setting the fastest F1 lap of the night in the process, but ultimately Paul went on to win by just over half a lap.
A Final
Perhaps deciding to give his rivals a chance, Craig had picked the tricky white lane for the A final. Roy had plumped for red and Lee blue. This left Paul to hop-up to the yellow lane from which he had just won the B final. Following early offs for all his rivals Roy found himself with a narrow half lap lead for the duration of the race. Behind him Craig struggled in white leaving Paul and Lee to fight for the second step on the podium. The battle was tense with each of the three on the podium setting their highest scores of the night. Roy took his second F1 win of the season with Paul Rose in a pleasing second place from 6th on the grid. Lee wasn’t far behind either of them taking the fastest lap in the A final and the second fastest of the night.
Mod
During free practice one of the lane power supplies failed, so it was decided that Mod would just be run over the Yellow, Red and Blue lanes. Even with the tricky white lane out of the equation the Blue lane was still quite interesting with the faster class of cars. The 6″ bends at the end of the main straight required really precise braking and the balance between carrying enough speed into the final sector and flying off towards the doorway was a tricky one to strike.
Qualifying
Team Homewood’s Mod cars were clearly the class of the field and with both of them putting in some seriously big scores in all three lanes they took the first two spots on the grid by a massive margin. Craig was on pole once again with Paul just over a lap and half behind him. Lee was third over 14 laps off Craig’s pole score. Jim was just two tenths back from Lee in fourth place. Al was in fifth narrowly pipping Paul Rose. Paul’s Mod developed a gearbox problem midway through qualifying and sounded like it contained an angry duck. Some tinkering alleviated the problem for a while but the problem cost him quite a bit of pace and no doubt prevented him from qualifying higher up the order. John lined up seventh on the grid ahead of Roy and Bruce.
D Final
After a close start John sprinted off to take the win from the red lane, leaving Roy and Bruce to scrap for second place in the yellow and blue lanes respectively. After a great battle Roy claimed second place just under a lap ahead of Bruce and with John a 2.9 laps ahead.
C Final
Sporting another fine body John hopped up to the blue lane to meet Al in Red and Paul Rose in yellow. Although John’s car looked great it didn’t seem to get on with the tricky blue lane and he finished a distant third. An early off for Paul gave Al a narrow lead and despite quite a few offs for both of them Al held the lead to the end of the race.
B Final
There wasn’t much between any of the cars for the first 30 seconds of the B final. Jim dropped back first in the blue lane and was followed shortly thereafter by Al in yellow. Lee then went pounding off in the red lane and had gained a three lap lead by the closing stages of the race. A series of offs in the final few laps almost cost him the win though and in the end he finished a single tenth ahead of Al in what was a nail biting climax to the race.
A Final
Lee hopped up to the blue lane to meet the formidable pairing of Homewoods. With Craig in yellow and Paul in red. Lee stuck with them for the first few laps before the blue lane got the better of him and he had to settle for the bottom step of the podium. An off for Paul gave Craig a single lap lead that he was then able to manage for the remainder of the race and take his third mod win of the season.
Thanks to all who attended!