With faint signs of spring finally starting to appear in Yelling 8 of the SCHORC faithful gathered for round 4 of F1 Tyco and Mod.

The Track

Tony’s latest track was widely commented as being quite long. The first sector was quite technical with a series of mid speed U bends leading to the back straight which rand almost the full length of the hall to a sweeping set of bends leading back to the start finish straight.

F1

Qualifying

Qualifying was ridiculously tight with the whole field only separated by 6.1 laps. At the top it was even tighter with Paul Homewood and Lee having exactly the same total of their best three lanes. Paul Homewood took pole and first choice of lane by virtue of having the faster lap from Lee by 8 hundredths of a second. Roy took the final guaranteed spot in the A final just 1.6 laps back and 1.5 laps ahead of Nick in fourth who claimed the fastest lap of qualifying with an impressive 4.822. John was just 0.2 laps back from Nick but 2.3 laps ahead of Al in fifth. Al, Tony and Paul Rose finished off the grid separated by just half a lap.

C Final

Throughout qualifying Tony’s car had looked very quick on one lap pace but difficult to keep on the track at that speed. It proved so in the C final too with a string of offs putting him far enough behind Paul Rose that Paul was able to control the race from the front and take the hop up into the B final. Tony notch up the fastest lap of the night so far though with a very impressive 4.780.

B Final

Paul Rose was the first to fall away from the leading pack in the B final, going on to retire from the tricky white lane after just under 7 laps. Al in yellow was next to drop back followed by John in blue. Nick then found himself with a decent lead in red, with Al in second narrowly ahead of John. Over the next minute John gradually reeled in Al who pushed just a bit too hard to try and maintain his place and crashing off in the process. It was still a close finish though with Nick taking the win by a lap from John and with Al just over half a lap further back. Nick also managed to snatch the fastest lap of the night from Tony by just a single thousandth of second.

A Final

With virtually nothing separating Paul and Lee during qualifying, the A final promised much and delivered even more. They both shot off at the start quickly leaving Roy in yellow and Nick in white behind to race for the bottom step of the podium. For the first minute of the race Lee maintained the narrowest of leads from Paul before Paul seemed to ease of a fraction and allow Lee to pull out a lead of just a few feet. At about the same time Nick had an off and dropped back to fourth after having a similarly intense battle for third with Roy. With a minute to go Paul Homewood turned the heat back up and begin to slowly close the gap on Lee. As the race begin to draw to a close the gap was down to a matter of inches with Lee maintaining the lead by the skin of his teeth as the pressure from Paul built.

The race ended with Lee just a couple of inches ahead of Paul, both having added over two laps to their previous bests in qualifying scoring a mighty 35.9 laps with not a single off between them. It was a truly impressive drive from both off them and a very impressive first F1 win of the season for Lee.

Mod

Qualifying

After the typically frantic Mod qualifying with some interesting bodies on show, it was Paul Homewood again sitting on pole. This time it was by a very comfortable 6.3 laps (the whole grid was separated by less than this in F1) from Paul Rose. Lee took the third spot on the grid and the fastest lap of the night. Al was fourth with his newly rebuilt MR1 still sounding like it could do with some fresh gears. Nick was fifth ahead of John, Tony and Roy who finished off the grid.

C Final

After a close start, a series of offs for Tony and his Ferrari Dino left him so far behind Roy that he decided to retire from the red lane leaving Roy in blue to complete the race by himself.

B Final

Al got off to a good start in red taking the early lead in the B final from the red lane. Nick in Blue and John in white weren’t far behind him though battling for second place. Roy in yellow gradually fell back from the leaders finishing fourth. An off for John on lap 10 left him firmly in third and left Nick in second. Over the second minute of the race Nick gradually closed the gap on Al who was doing his best to extract everything he could from his car. Finally Al pushed too hard and came off handing Nick the lead and the win.

A Final

Paul Rose took the early lead in red from Paul Homewood in blue. However an early off for Paul Homewood in the first sector left him in third after Lee in the yellow lane swept past into second. Nick struggled in white before retiring early in the race. Paul Homewood quickly caught and repassed Lee to take second. Paul Rose was a full lap ahead of him though and from there he was able to manage the gap until the chequered flag taking his first mod win of 2013 and the highest score of the night.

Thanks to all who attended!

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!

A cold and damp night set the stage for Round 2 of the 2013 Tyco F1 and Modified Championships. After the usual period of free practice and some club discussion, 10 racers got down to business.

The Track

The track that Tony had laid out had a fiendish first sector with a pair of hairpins that actually worked very nicely at balancing the lanes. They also caused some hilarious accidents and a Grosjean incident taking out three of the four running cars on the second corner and causing a restart during one race. The final sector of the track had a fast sweeping set of turns leading back to the start finish straight.

F1

Qualifying

Paul Homewood narrowly took pole position from Roy who was on fine form and trailed Paul by only 0.6 laps. Paul Rose’s Tyco was looking a good deal healthy than it had for a while too and he secured the last guaranteed slot in the A final. Nick was continuing he recent excellent form just over half a lap back from Paul in fourth place and Lee was only 0.4 laps further back in 5th. Tony was also a mere 0.3 laps back from Nick meaning just 1.2 laps separated 3rd through to 6th place. Jim took the 7th spot on the grid ahead of 2012 F1 Champion Craig who seemed to content with securing the fastest F1 lap of the night by a clear two tenths of a second. Al’s seemed distracted by a timing system that he later resolved so he lined up 9th ahead of Bruce who seemed to be settling into the groove with a new Tyco.

C Final

Craig went off like a scolded cat in the red lane and proceeded to remind everyone why he was the 2012 Champion by taking the highest F1 score of the night with 39.5 laps. Jim and Al tried to hold on to Craig from the blue and yellow lanes respectively. Al cracked first coming off after just a couple of laps while Jim held on till lap 7. With Craig then disappearing off into the distance they scrapped over second place with Jim eventually coming out on Top. Bruce ran well in tricky white lane and scored his best F1 total of the night.

B Final

The B final turned into a titanic three way scrap between Lee in blue, Nick in red and Craig in yellow. Tony perhaps regretted his lane choice as after a poor start he couldn’t keep with the charging the trio from the white lane. Craig narrowly held the early led and looked for a while like he might achieve the occasionally seen double hop up. A few uncharacteristic offs for Craig handed the lead to Nick who stayed cool and took the win. Behind him Lee who had dropped back a bit in third but Craig’s offs as he pushed to try and catch back up with Nick handed 2nd place over to the Lee in the dying seconds of the race.

A Final

Paul Homewood took the early lead in the A final from the yellow lane. Roy wasn’t far behind him in red though. A poor start for Paul Rose in blue left him trailing in fourth and Nick found himself in third place in the hop up white lane. A big off for Nick in the second minute of racing handed third place to Paul Rose. Out ahead Paul Homewood had gradually eased himself away from Roy and built up nearly a one lap cushion. With 30 seconds to go, Paul came off in the tricky first sector and found Roy just a fraction of a second behind him. A grand stand finish was on and the pair battled right till the end with Paul holding onto just the smallest of leads until the power was cut and Roy coasted to finish just a single inch ahead. It was rotten luck for Paul, but a great drive from Roy and a deserved win.

Mod

With the Tycos tucked safely away in the boxes for another month, it was time to bring out the Mods.

Qualifying

Lee’s pace in Mod has always been formidable, but he really hooked it up this month storming to his first ever Mod pole position by over a lap and took the fastest lap of qualifying. Craig was just under a lap and half behind him and Nick a further lap back in 3rd. Paul Rose was a couple of laps back in fourth ahead of Paul Homewood and Al neither of whom were running at their usual mod pace. Tony took the seventh spot by just of a lap from the only Super G+ on the grid that was driven nicely by Bruce to beat Jim and Roy’s Marchons that lined up ninth and tenth.

C Final

Bruce was a bit hasty off the line in yellow, jumping the start and earning himself a one lap penalty. Tony set off at a cracking pace in red with Jim in white and Roy in blue doing their best to keep up with him. Roy was the first to drop off Tony’s tail with a big off that left him in fourth. Jim stayed in touch with Tony for the first third of the race until an off for him put him back a bit and he found himself racing for second with Bruce. Jim’s experience won out and he held second with Bruce third and Roy fourth. Out at the front Tony had continued to pound round for the duration of the race finishing with 44 laps and beating his qualifying score in the red by almost 3 laps.

B Final

The B final started with a tight battle between Paul Homewood in yellow, Al in blue and Paul Rose in red. Al initially found himself a few tenths behind the two Pauls but pulled out the fastest lap of the night to pull them back in. From the white hop up lane Tony couldn’t stay with them and gradually dropped back. A big off for Paul Rose on lap 6 dropped him back to fourth and he promptly retired leaving Tony to take third place. With virtually nothing between Paul Homewood and Al for the first minute of racing, Al started to push a bit harder and promptly binned at the end of the back straight. Paul now had a lap in hand and with very little separating his and Al’s cars his victory looked fairly certain until he came off at the end of the 1st sector complex with just 30 seconds to go. Paul’s lead was now mere inches and with 10 seconds to go Al went all out to try and pass him but once again ended up off the track and having to settle for second place.

A Final

Paul hopped up to the white lane in the A final, where he joined his son Craig in yellow and the two enjoyed running 1-2 for the first 4 laps before the white lane got the better of Paul. After running round for a few laps in fourth Paul decided to retire. An early off for pole sitter Lee in red had left him slightly behind Craig but ahead of Nick in blue who had also not made the best start. Lee battled valiantly to catch Craig and narrowed the gap right up on several occasions only to come off while trying to close the final part of the gap. In the end Craig took the win by just over half a lap from Lee, with Nick taking the bottom step of the podium.

So far in the first 6 races of the season we have seen 6 different winners, with a few big names yet to take a win in 2013 will March add another name to that list or will we see the first repeat winner of 2013?

Thanks to all who attended another great night of SCHORC racing fun!

Last Wednesday evening saw the 2013 season opener for the Micro Scalextric and Super F1 classes.

The Track

With 2 club stalwarts missing it left 7 racers lining up on the grid. With the expected lower numbers Tony had laid out a track that required minimal marshalls but with a tricky hairpin to catch out the unaware. With last years double champion absent people were keen to make a good start to the season.

Micro Scalextric Club Class

Qualifying

Lee continued his impressive recent form by putting in a big score in white in the opening heat signalling his intentions. He went on to dominate qualifying by claiming the highest score in every lane. Club supremo Tony had by his own admission been struggling recently but he seemed to have regained his mojo as he put in some impressive scores to finish second only 2 laps behind Lee. Jim claimed the last automatic spot in the A final with some consistent scores. Roy put a big score in the red lane which helped him to just pip John to 4th by only 2 tenths. Club newcomer Bruce made a good account of himself on his first outing with these cars to claim 6th. After winning the last Micro Scalextric round at the end of last season Nick was struggling a little and a poor heat in red saw him drop to the back of the grid. Jim claimed the fastest lap of the night during qualifying in the white lane.

B Final

The B final saw Roy take red, John in blue, Bruce in white and Nick left with the unfavoured yellow lane. Roy could not quite repeat his performance in qualifying and suffered a couple of early offs in the red lane which left him too much to do to chase down John and Bruce up front. Nick improved his score in yellow by almost 3 laps but had to settle for 4th. John led virtually the whole race with Bruce hot on his tail but a late off allowed Bruce to surge past at the death and claim the win.

A Final

The A final was delayed initially by a car failure as the white car had developed a serious fault. As these chassis were club ones and not prepared by individual racers it was deemed fair that the race be restarted. The restart was abandoned as all the club members were required in the car park to help push Clifford (John’s big red van!) out of the snow. The final eventually got underway at the third time of asking. Bruce struggled in the yellow lane after having white the final before but didn’t have to worry about Jim as his car didn’t even make a lap before stopping. Lee led from start to finish in the white lane putting in the biggest score of the night with almost 31 laps to take the victory. Tony followed up on his impressive qualifying and kept Lee honest but a couple of late offs gave Lee a little breathing space at the end.

Super F1

Qualifying

After a few minutes practice Super F1 qualifying got underway. 3 different chassis – Mega G, Super G+ and SRT were on the grid to contest this one.

The opening heat saw Tony’s resurgence continue with a massive score in the red lane that remained unbeaten and saw him take the fastest lap of the night as well. Although putting in the most laps overall this years new rule of taking the best 3 heat scores saw Tony slip to 2nd on the grid behind Jim with Lee close behind in third. John took 4th spot in his SRT with Nick in 5th, Roy in 6th and Bruce in 7th.

B Final

John, Nick , Roy and Bruce lined up on the grid for the B final. John’s SRT had impressive straight line speed and he eased away at the front to take the victory from a hard charging Nick close behind in second. Roy took 3rd from the white lane in a borrowed car from Bruce in 4th. Although finishing last Bruce was getting used to his new SG+ and improved his heat score in yellow by 10 laps.

A Final

Jim had pick of the lanes and took red with Tony making the surprise choice of the yellow lane. Lee was in blue with John taking the hop up in the white lane. This A final did not yield any huge scores but was a very close affair from start to finish. Jim got off to a slow start and found himself at the back with Lee and Tony leading the way. Lee was looking like he would take a double win but a late off allowed Jim to take the lead and the win. Tony almost overhauled Lee at the finish but fell short by just 2 tenths. John finished 3 laps back from Tony. With lap times in the mid to low 4 second region the top three all finished within less than a lap of each other.

Thanks to all that attended and made it another enjoyable evening’s racing.

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!