Henning hosted 5 members of our group at his home on Tronson. TMS (Tronson Model Raceway) provided lots of very close, very competitive racing for the experienced in our group. The rest of us (by us I mean Matt) struggled to stay on track regularly, but we’re getting better. 😄
Henning, Henry, Ken, Lez, Leo and Matt were all prepped and ready to race. Excitement filled the room as everyone threw down some practice laps in the select cars for the day. Some of us brought more than 1 to test in a particular class [Leo had 6 Classic Endurance (Fly or Scalextric)] to see which one was quickest today.
Pre 1975 Classic Endurance
We started the day off with the Classic Endurance showing a good mix of cars in this group with a variety of Porsche’s (a couple 917’s and 908’s), a Gunston Chevron B21 (not Lez’s) plus that Gulf painted car ??? of Lez’s. Not sure what that was (Chaparral maybe?). At the end of that grouping Leo, in very dominant fashion was out front by almost 5 laps and posted the fastest lap as well, with Matt taking 2nd with his best finish of the day and Ken down just .5 of a lap, rounding out the top 3 podium positions.
Vintage Slot.it
Next up was Vintage Slot.it with an Alfa 33/3, a pair of red Ferrari 312’s, a Ford GT40, a Matra 670b, and a McLaren M8D filling out the field. This fast field was again led by Leo when the final heat ended. However it was not won in the same dominant fashion as the first class. Lez posted the fastest race lap and was only a mere .1 of a lap down on Leo for 2nd after 9 minutes of racing. Ken was very consistent again rounding out the top 3 podium positions.
Group C Slot.it
Group C cars ran next, with 3 drivers running under the 5 second mark. Once again the top step was occupied by Leo this time in his Lowenbrau IMSA Porsche with the highest number of laps and the fastest race lap. Lez had an amazing 2nd place showing in his taka-Q Toyota who was bested again by just .1 of a lap. Lez’s taka-Q Toyota team mate Henry filled up the remaining podium spot in what was the closest finish of the day. Henry and Henning were tied with an identical number of laps, right down to the hundredth of a lap. The tie was broken in favor of Henry by virtue of his faster lap time.
Modern Slot.it
Another fast Slot.it class was up next with Modern Slot.it. Leo in another modestly dominant fashion was up 3 laps on Lez when the racing was done. Leo’s Dragon Racing LMP car was driven the furthest distance, along with posting the fastest lap in these heats. Lez’s Nissan R390 followed up with his third 2nd place finishing in what was becoming common place today for this experienced racer. Ken with his Audi R18 LMP car acquired his third, 3rd place finish, completing the podium when the dust settled.
Classic F1
Our final class of the day Classic F1 was the quickest class of the day and seemingly the longest. All the other classes ran heats that required fuel pit stops. With the small physical size of these Classic F1 cars it was not possible to include fuel stops, so the 3 minutes seemed longer without the needed pit stops for fuel. This time highest lap count and fastest lap were held by someone other than Leo. The end of these heats saw Lez with his Scalextric JPS Lotus 72 almost 3 laps up on 2nd place Leo and his Policar Lotus 72. Ken once again rounded out the podium with his fourth 3rd place finish with his Policar March 701. Ken was also our quickest car of the day with his March 701 posting a 4.615 a full.25 ahead of 2nd quickest. This series of heats provided the most entertainment with the heaviest crash of the day with one of our racers going off track due to tire to tire contact with another competitor and if fact actually careened over the catch fencing and flying down into the abyss which looked a lot like Hennings floor.
Fuel pit stops also played a large part in the results today. Most if not all racers were caught out at least once by the fuel light registering EMPTY while minding their own business and continuing to turn laps that were not counted as aresult of no fuel.
At the end of the day it was pretty obvious that our top 3 drivers were Leo ocupying the top spot overall, Lez following up convincingly in second and Ken in a solid 3 overall by virtue of four 3rd place finishes. Congrats to all who showed up.
A special thank you to Henning for hosting this week at his fun, yet challenging Tronson Model Speedway.
Rumour has it we will get an opportunity to see Leo’s track as a group next. I for one am excited to get some more laps on his fun track again, having previously spent some time there to do some testing with my GT3 proxy Corvette. Look for that announcement shortly.
Kelowna Slot Car Club KSCC 