Pretty Much all the usual 'Suspects',..as well as a New Entrant, Neil, who has been having fun racing with the guys in the Cross City Championship and at Jam Studios.
Always Great to have a new friendly and Keen face to join us for a Race!,..Gee, that Rhymed !!,..lol
Mind you,..this Is a Tough Bunch to have a Casual Race with,..simply because all these guys have pretty fast cars and Some of them Hardly EVER come off,..some almost Never,..so it really Can be tough,..as this Is a Tricky little track, that takes both a Great car And Great concentration, to be able to get the Best out of it !!
Whilst we Don't Seem to be going as Blisteringly fast as we had previously, the Lap Totals have started to become consistently High.
In fact when one looks across the Lap charts, Everyone, is Now doing Very respectable Laps on All lanes.
The current average laps by virtually everyone, was in the 30's Plus!! The Occasionally Bad Bracket for some of us,..but it's Like Everyone is doing 32's & 33's,..Meaning it Is Close and Hard Fought,..But as is also becoming the 'Norm',..also Very Clean and Very Courteous!
Sure there are still de-slots and also the Occasional Hard driving crashes with our Lane Mates,..but it's Because we are All,..'On the Pace' !! and as I Keep mentioning,..the Racing is Really Good, with a Very Friendly and Fun 'attitude' pervading, amongst some very healthy Hard racing !!
Personally, I had a bit of a Hell of a Week, Timing and Work Wise, making 'prep' a bit odd, but as it turned out, I was Not alone, as we did have a few 'Ghosts that Walk' tonite !! lol,..(the Current School Holidays and Stock taking seeming to have gotten the better of the HSC Staffers !!!).
BUT, I had managed to do a reasonably 'Snappy' new paint Job on my (Shock Horror!!,..Outisight Chevron B16), apart from my Late masking Error!,..DOH!, but I did atleast manage to fit a new motor, as the last one seemed to have Lost a Leg lately!!,..lol
The Car was Great,..Driver Not so!!,..lol,..Should have done Much better and Should Really have done MUCH better with my New F1.
Mind you it was also good to see Troy driving it somewhat successfully in the following heat. It Would Seem I Have managed to 'Bridge the Gap' chassis wise to that 'Beast' of Wayne's !!
Now if Only I could Drive as well as Cody,..I'd be Set !!!,..
Anyway,..on to the racing.
Retro Coupe. Heat 1
10 starters, so 2 heats of 5.
Starting on White, a Lane I DO like, Race started and Whoosh, I'm Off down the Inside,..Zip, through and Well into the Lead!,..Cool I think,..as I seem to Be moving off quite well,..But ofcourse, as Brain is only Partly in Gear,..I typically fall off,..Doh!, so Finish in 4th at the end of the First Bracket and there I stayed until some far better driving in the Last 3 brackets, on Black, Yellow and Orange, allowed me to Scrape into the 3rd, Just 'Pipping' Wayne.
Dale,..Typically, managed another Fine 'Stealth' drive into 1st, Never turning Less than 31 laps on any lane!
Wayne bobbled about between 2nd and 3rd race long, Having a Really Good race with Jacco, trying to keep Dale Honest and making life Hard for the Rest of us!!
His 2nd place being All the More extraordinary, considering The Body's,..'Auto-disassembly' that it performed at about Half Stage,..the 'Ferrari' !!???,..well, that's what it was apparently called !!!,..lol, finnishing, Without it's Front bodywork!!,..Shame I didn't get a Pic !! (Hey Jacco, 'post' a pic of the car!!,..lol).
Our Newcomer Neil, Drove Very well for his First time and was Extremely Courteous, probably being able to turn even Higher laps than he did, but still ran a very respectable 210 laps. Certainly hope we see Neil back again and I do hope He had a Good time as well !!
Final outcome of Heat 1;
1st Dale Andersen 256 laps
2nd Jacco ? 243 laps
3rd Stoo Amos 241 laps
4th Wayne B 241 laps
5th Neil ? 210 laps.
Retro Coupe. Heat 2
As was almost to be expected, the 2nd heat was cleaner and faster than Ours, as will be seen by the Lap totals.
Our race was close, and this one was Just as good, in fact, even closer!
Mind you, it has to be said that Troy took Command of this race at the Start and Never looked back!!,..Everyone else vainly trying to catch him from behind.
Cody and Fox, Tussled the Whole race long, virtually Swapping positions Each Bracket, with James there initially, but lacking the Ultimate Pace of those two.
Brad seemed to have a really good race as well and Turned Very Respectable lap totals on All lanes, Consistently turning 30's and 31's!!, finnishing in 5th. Great laps and a Very Respectable and Fine Drive !!
Heck I mean honestly, this IS a Really Tough bunch of Very Good Racers, and I have often had a Great Night's racing, Running Real Hard and yet come 7th!,..And Enjoyed it !!!
So at the End of Heat 2, we Had;
1st Troy Boldy 266 laps
2nd Mark Fox 261 laps
3rd Cody B 261 laps
4th James C 252 laps
5th Brad 244 laps
So the Final Placings for Retro Coupe Being Easily understood, from the Above Lap totals, High-lighted in Bold.
Been a While since Anyone in Heat 1 has Won on the Night !! Or in fact Rarely even Placed!
Whilst I Can understand the 'Timing' running this way, (as it allows a relatively casual evening's racing), it would be Nice, as noted by Mark as well, to Run a Final). Not that there are Any Stations filled with Sheep, it being More about the Racing, just worth considering.
F1's Heat 1
Only Nine starters for F1, so 4 in Heat 1, 5 in heat 2,..(I did Offer my Spare F1 to Neil, but he felt he needed a better controller and had not Run them before,..shame, as I am sure he Would have enjoyed them, as they Are Quite a 'Hoot' to drive !! As can be seen by the Lap totals!!,..lol
This was, once again, a Great Race, in Fact Both F1 races were really Good and Enjoyable to both race and Watch !!
Having only had the One race with My new F1, but not having the time to 'Modify' it the way I Had been considering, I just decided to Add a Strip of lead roughly the same size as the Centre Floating weight, which brought it's running Weight up to 118 grams!,..Still Quite Light, But BOY !!,..what an Improvement !!
I don't think I would be in Any way Stretching the Imagination in it being the Quickest Car on the Night and Was a Heap of Fun to Drive, but Still Needs Just that Little bit of Fine 'Tuning' I feel, for it to be a Very Enjoyable and Impressively Quick car to drive !!,..Heck I'm Happy !!
Shame My driving 'On the Night' wasn't up to the car's Potential,..so When Troy asked me if he could run it in the 2nd heat, I was Happy to let him have a run, as it was Great to be able to Watch the car and see someone arguably Better than myself, give it a Good run,..but More on that later!,..
Race start, Similar to the Coupe's for Myself,..lol, starting on White Again,..I Whooshed into the Lead, but atleast managed to hang onto it at the end of the first bracket and once again, even though all my Brackets were 30's or Above,..at the Current Pace!,..simply,..Not Good Enough!!,..ROFL,..
Mind you, I Was Really 'Pushing' it, to Try to Find It's Limits and handling capabilities etc,..(Troy drove it far more conservatively!), slowly, drifting backwards to 3rd.
Dale and Wayne then managing to wrestle, with 1st and 2nd, which as in the Coupe's, was swapping almost each Bracket!!, until Once again,..Softly, Softly, Catchy Monkey, Good Old Dale picks up 1st place,..Again !!!,..with Wayne Obviously coming in 2nd, myself 3rd and Jacco Just Not 'On It' in this one, with a couple of bad brackets ending in 4th, But Having Fun I think, as there was a Lot of banter and laughter all night long !!
Final placings heat 1;
1st Dale A 257 laps
2nd Wayne B 256 laps
3rd Stoo Amos 252 laps
4th Jacco 240 laps
F1's Heat 2.
Well,.. Once again,..this was a 'Hot' Race !!
Cody, was running, the WayneMobile Beast, Fox was once again running His Very Effective F1, Troy was Running My New Car, James running His WayneMobile and Brad running,... ???,..bugger me,..Not Sure,..Hey Brad,..What chassis are you Running ???,..lol,..(Note to self,..get More Chassis Photos !!1).
So Off they Go, with Cody Grabbing the lead and holding onto it,..relatively comfortably, with Troy 'Stealing' 1st at one stage in the 6th bracket.
I have to say Troy drove a rather cautious race, as he was driving a car he had Not practiced with and so was kinda All new and a learning experience as the race developed. (I'm happy with the Outcome!!,..lol)
Mark ended the first bracket in 3rd as James did in 4th and Brad in 5th and that was Pretty much How it Stayed for the Rest of the Race!
It was all Very fast and Smooth, with Very few De-slots,..as usual !!,..lol
The Final placings in Heat 2 being;
1st Cody B 267 laps !!
2nd Troy Boldy 264 laps !!
3rd Mark Fox 256 laps
4th James C 252 laps
5th Brad 237 laps,..also turning Good lap totals and really, only Slightly Off the Pace and as usual being a Very Courteous driver, which Does reduce ones overall laps,..so as I said,..Right across the Board, from 1st to Last,..as usual,..a Very Keen, Fun, friendly and Enjoyable and Competitive Group of Regulars!
Final outcome for the F1's being;
1st Cody 267
2nd Troy 264
3rd Dale 257
So, all in all, another very enjoyable and great Night's racing.
Need to do a bit of fine tuning on the CanAm car,..or perhaps build a New one !!,..Hmmm,..Gotta build a Clone of the New F1 as well,...Ahh,..It's All Good,..Great to See an ALL Scratch-built Podium in Both classes as well !!
Some Pics Below as usual,..
(Sorry about the Focus on Some of them,..still getting the 'Hang' of this New little camera!,..Doh)(Will 'Post' shortly)
See you all at the Next round.
