A bright September evening in Yelling saw 10 of the SCHORC faithful gather for Round 9 of the club championship.
The Track
Tony’s latest track was a bit of a devil as the first sector featured a lot of bends. The marshalls at that end of the track were certainly kept on their toes, while those at the other end of the room had a fair bit less to do with the faster more sweeping nature of the final sector.
F1
Qualifying
Bruce’s car was running very sweetly in F1 and he duly claimed pole position by just under a lap from Craig. Al pipped Lee to the final guaranteed slot in the A final by just a single tenth of a lap. The current championship leader Paul Homewood lined up 5th ahead of Paul Rose, Nick, Steve, Tony and Roy.
C Final
Following a difficult qualifying session, Tony decided to try some urethane tyres for the C final. He initially ran well on them and turned in the fastest lap of the C final from the white lane. They proved ultimately unwilling to stay on his hubs though and after watching his tyres overtake his car a couple of times Tony decided to retire. This left Nick in red and Steve in blue to battle for the win. Roy was off his usual pace in yellow and had to settle for third. Nick and Steve exchanged the lead several times over the course of the race with Nick eventually coming out on top to take the win.
B Final
A strong start for Paul Homewood in the red lane saw him hold the lead of the B final for duration of the race. Lee in the blue lane came closest to taking the lead from Paul, but was ultimately pipped to second place by Paul Rose in the white lane. Nick finished fourth in the tricky yellow lane.
A Final
The first minute of the A final was pretty close with Craig in red holding a narrow lead over Al in white and Bruce in blue. Over the course of the race Craig’s consistency allowed him to pull away to comfortably take the win, and leave Al and Bruce to fight for second place. The battle for second came right down to the wire following a late off for Al that led to him completing the last few seconds of the race virtually neck and neck with Bruce. When the race finished Al was just a matter of inches ahead narrowly taking second. Paul Homewood rolled in fourth unable to make the podium from the yellow lane. Despite going from pole to third Bruce can take some consolation from claiming the fastest F1 lap of the night for the second time this season.
Mod
Qualifying
Paul Rose stormed to pole in Mod and was the only driver to dip below a 4 second lap during qualifying. Another consistent rather than stand out drive by Al put him 2 laps back in second place and just under two laps ahead of Lee in third. Tony’s mod was looking pretty racey and aided by a strong 40.2 laps in blue he qualified fourth. Paul and Craig Homewood were both still slightly off their usual pace and lined up fifth and sixth ahead of Bruce, Nick, Roy and Steve.
C Final
Bruce delivered a stellar drive with his Super G+ in the blue lane to the win the C final. Nick in white kept him honest throughout, closing him right down several times but always coming off before he could pass him. Roy took a comfortable third in red ahead of Steve in yellow.
B Final
Tony delivered a solid drive from the blue lane holding the early lead from Paul Homewood in red. Paul pulled out all the stops to try and catch him but just couldn’t seem to reel him in. A slight wobble from Tony towards the end of the race allowed Paul to close the gap but Tony still took the win with almost a lap in hand. Craig in white seemed to be struggling with Team Homewood’s “B” car and only just held third place from Bruce in yellow.
A Final
The first 30 seconds of the A final were pretty nip and tuck between Lee in red, Al in white and Paul Rose in blue. Tony in yellow couldn’t match their pace and retired just shy of half way through the race. Offs in the first minute for Al and Paul gave Lee the breathing space to cruise on to the win and left them to fight over second place. The gap between them remained tight until the final phase of the race when Paul made the switch to fastest lap mode. Deciding to settle for third place he engaged maximum attack and after probing the limits of the track with a series of off track excursions, he pinched the fastest lap of the night from Paul Homewood by 2 thousandths of a second.
Thanks to all who attended and see you in October for the start of the final quarter of the 2013 championships!