Dowty Slot Car Racing Club

A sparse field of 7 assembled at Dowtys on Sunday. After a couple of hours practise, racing started at 10.

First off was production. Ian set a reasonable 8.03 in his one minute qualifying run, which was not beaten until Dave M clocked 8.90. Brian took fastest with 8.95.

The four man ‘B’ final would only have three marshals so it made sense for the drivers to be careful. Ian set off in the lead from the start while Rob found his car was difficult to keep in the slot. Ian’s lead grew throughout the race while Rob & Mike were within a lap until the last segment when Rob settled down, beating Mike by almost 4 laps. Graham had never seen the track before and was struggling to keep up.

Brian lead the ‘A’ final closely followed by Dave M with Dave C finding his car wasn’t picking up properly over the bridge. Dave C picked up the pace half way through the first segment. Just before the end of the first segment Dave M’s lead wire broke which lost him about 25 laps, and the car never seemed as quick afterwards. After the lane change Dave C started to put pressure on Brian, eventually taking the lead in the third segment when Brian had a few offs on blue lane and ran out the winner by 5 laps. Brian failed to beat Ian’s time from the ‘B’ by .15 but Brian was quicker in qualifying so took 2nd from Ian & Rob.

Onto GT12, where qualifying was the fastest single lap in one minute. Graham did 7.440, then Dave M set a quick 6.347. Rob wasn’t intending to run because he had a prior dinner engagement, so when the first class finished so early he had to fit the body to his car and try it for the first time. He had to make sure he didn’t go too fast in qualifying so that he could race in the ‘B’, ending just behind Dave. Ian took fastest with 6.308, Brian just failed to beat it, then Dave C did 6.2 on his 2nd lap to qualify top.

Rob showed how good his car was with a dominant victory in the ‘B’ to set a tough target for the top final. Dave M held 2nd from Mike and Graham with the gaps being fairly equal until Mike’s gear stripped just before three-quarter distance. Mike took the opportunity to have a quick cigarette so Graham was 3rd using his production car and was 5 laps quicker after the extra 24 minutes of practise.

Dave C set about catching Rob and pulled away from a close battle between Ian & Brian. Dave was always just above Rob’s pace, eventually winning by 8 laps. Ian& Brian were close to Rob’s pace for the first half of the race, but Ian’s motor seemed to lose a bit of speed and Brian’s handling deteriorated and he lost a lot of time in the second half of the race.

A good days racing ended at 1.30 and a trip to the bar at the Sports & Social club. Thanks to everyone that bothered and sorry a few more of you couldn’t have made the effort.

D C