Results and race reports

(live race updates at some meetings)

EAHORC all-time statistics - here

To return to main EAHORC page click here

2011/12 Round 5 NSR - 15/1/12

2011/12 Round 4 MBRHO - 4/12/11

It is always poignant returning to King's Lynn at the close of each year. For many of the increased numbers making their way up the various A roads on race day, or staying locally (14 attending the practice session on Saturday!) there is no knowledge of how close EAHORC came to folding some years back, only saved by MBR agreeing to host all five rounds of the next championship whilst things underwent a re-organisation. For this year the poignancy was increased by being the first chance for most of us to meet up with Martin Hill since his 'retirement' over the summer break. He and Dave Rouse had concocted a great track even by their standards, with two bridges. This was the first time to my knowledge that a free-standing nationals track had such a feature, the NSR track, which we visit next month, having the same set-up by dint of following the existing 1/32nd scale track. Racing got underway almost dead on 10am, a record field for the venue of 25 (16-18 has usually been more common) taking to the track. Everyone expected Martin to remove any rust pretty quickly, and dominate Open Wheel, which he did, but there was much of interest behind him. Andy Whorton was best of the rest in qualifying, a couple of laps up on Clive Harland, whose form continues to creep back up to his glory days. Andy Player was next up, another to find former form, but he could not shake off Paul Rose, the latest in a long line of Main Grade drivers to give the Premier guys reason to be nervous. In the end Paul would defeat Andy in an excellent B final to take his place in the top final. For me the standout performance belonged to Ken Mason from NSR. Using a Tyco, albeit one prepared by Jim Kelly, he qualified 13th on his HO debut. The slightly more experienced John Parr, from the same club, was 18th. There has already been some facebook smack talk between these too since, so look forward to part II at Norwich! Other noticeable performances included Marc Townsend still on song, David Hannington much higher up than usual, qualifying 9th, and Matty Hill making his debut and beating several adults. Must be in the genes... The finals commenced with newcomer Lee Henderson, a Kart racer from the Presto Park club, lining up against Pauls Whorton and Homewood (the latter having a torrid time) and Dave Odgen. PH was progress from this one, but go no further, beaten by Matty and John Chell (who tried a Life-Like M in one heat) in the G final, won by Dave Rouse. This meant that Al wood would face three Tyco users all trying to stop Ken being top Tyco finisher in the next final. He came through the ordeal, beating Roy Masters by just under a lap to face Mike Dadson, Ken and Lee Taylor in the E final. Mike would take a stylish win, with a big score, but behind him was some very close racing between the other three. Mega-Gs all the way now, Mike would step up to face Jim Easton (having a very solid day) and two Prem graders, John Ferrigno and Craig Homewood, both a little down on where they would like to be, to once again illustrate the depth of the field nowadays. The C final saw a comfortable win for Rob, after early leader Deane (another to be finding some former form) faded, a thrown shoe meaning Jim and Dave H would also best him, after their own scrap had seen the HONK track designer narrowly come out ahead. Rob would therefore have  a shot at making the A final an all FLBT vs Martin affair, facing Paul R (SCHORC) and Andy P (WHO), as well as another FLBTer in Marc (now you see why they usually come out of meetings as top club). Andy would add a lap to his previous score in red, as he tried his hardest to make it an all Prem-grade top final, but as in the heats he could not shake off Paul. He had found an extra two laps over his blue lane heat score, and half a second, to take a popular win with a lot of class. Traditionally Main graders who punch above their weight struggle to do it again, so lets see what happens in Norwich... The A final was expected to be a pretty straightforward affair. Andy seemed resigned to being runner-up at best, and consoled by the fact some hefty E-cup and OW points were still coming his way, as the prospect of winning both those two big titles looms large. Race control pointed out that Martin's only real weakness is to have occasional wobbly first 2 laps, not much comfort in this case as Andy's only real weakness is the same thing! As it turned out race control was spot-on, Mr Hill having a small off in the melee off the line, following it with a second frustration-induced one before the opening lap was done. Andy had motored clear, and it was not until the final minute that he would lose the lead. He was pushing hard, bettering his performance in the heats in the same lane (blue) slightly, but Martin (red) was not to be denied, taking a great recovering win by just 0.3 laps.   Following a short lunch break, during which the venue provided a (surprisingly good) stew instead of the more usual soss and chips, a quick test of a potential ISU part was carried out (more on that on the forum soon I hope), and then the PM racing session got underway. All four classes ran, and all four had at least a B final, with the field the largest PM field ever bar that strange time at DHORC. Dave Hannington took yet another straightforward win in Nascar, the class having the strongest field with 8, after Robin Cornwall (the winner in class last month) pulled out late on. Dave Rouse had kept him on his toes early in the A final, but a body-off saw his challenge fade, and he did well to edge Paul Whorton, who had taken a strong win in the B final. John Chell was forth. John Parr had exacted some sort of revenge over Ken, with 5th and his rival sixth. Brian Rogers, a stalwart at MBR racing HO for the first time in years, took 7th, having defeated former champion Roy in the afternoon's only C final. Modified featured five racers, one up on the number for the previous three rounds. Paul Homewood was well off his usual pace, qualifying last. He was only down on 3rd by 0.4 laps though, with Lee Taylor and Dave Ogden ahead and separated by 0.5 laps!! The battle for pole was between John Ferrigno and Al, with the former becoming the only driver to win an A final without being on pole. Al has taken two poles now, but the win keeps eluding him. It'll come. Paul recovered his form, and kept his sweep to the title very much on track, to take third by beating Dave O in the B final and then squeaking past Lee T by a tiny margin in the A final from the tricky yellow lane. Both Lee and Dave had posted some big heat scores, so things could get even closer as the season progresses. Meanwhile, the class looks likely to survive for some time yet. LMP, the new class, also had five contestants, with Gareth Winslade a late withdrawal during the week. Andy W had not won the class since Rob had joined on the fun at round two, but having lost OW was in no mood to go home without at least one win. He had dominated every heat except blue (Paul Rose taking that) and had a tenth or two in hand, which he duly converted to the win. Crucially for the championship, Paul was only 0.85 laps down the road and ahead of Rob. Mike took forth, ahead of 'new' Lee, still on a steep learning curve, but enjoying himself. Andy's win on a day several of his E-Cup rivals struggled to put together two strong halves to their day means only a monumental effort from somebody will deny him two (possibly three) titles. A lot of racing still to go though, and I know Rob will come back even more determined at Norwich. Pro-Modified featured a field of seven. Martin was dominant in the heats, taking every top score and every fastest lap. Craig and Jim indulged in a close battle for runner-up on the grid, the HONK winner losing out score wise in three lanes to Jim, who continues to thrive in this tough class, but beating him on the grid thanks to a big swing between them on blue. Andy P was noticeable faster than previously with his WHP chassis, and he was comfortably ahead of the Slottech two, Marc and Clive, for the first time, backing that up by narrowly beating Clive in the B final. Deane continued to struggle, his blushes only saved by mechanical woes for Marc. The A final would be pretty straightforward with the field spread out and Jim to be the one with gremlins this time. Martin duly took the win, but was never really far enough ahead of Craig to be comfortable. It was certainly his sternest test since he switched from Slottech to BSRT. Craig certainly looks favourite for the title now, but this is a class that can bite you very hard, and Clive and Marc will have their say yet. So ended another cracking meeting, after a quick teardown and the trophy presentation, and (I think) the best calendar year of racing EAHORC has had yet. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to HO racers everywhere from all at EAHORC. Over to you Mr Plinge...

2011/12 Round 3 HONK - 30/10/11

2011/12 Round 2 FLBT - 02/10/11

 To see images from the meeting click here.

If Andy Whorton made a strong case for being the new champion in waiting last month at round 1, serenely taking more points in a day than anyone had previously (thanks in part to the new weighted points system running for the afternoons), he strengthened that in Marlborough. On a day that he could not get his open wheel car to run as he would wish, suffered another of his Achilles' heels (falling behind during opening laps of big finals), had controller issues, and had a torrid time during the LMP1 heats, coming away with more points than all but one rival showed the kind of form championship runs are made of.

Things started out strongly for Andy, as he was the guy to beat in Open wheel from the off. Pole was secured by a fairly comfortable 1.65 laps, top scores in red and blue lanes being the backbone of the run to TQ. John Ferrigno, taking part in his first meeting of the new season, was embroiled in a heats-long battle with Jon Cryer (also making his 2011/12 debut after it had looked as if he may have packed in HO during the summer break) for best of the rest, John besting Jon by just 4/10ths of a lap. Key to Andy's day therefore was the top form of these two, and the relatively poor form compared to Yelling of Mike Dadson (qualifying 9th this time) and Paul Homewood (14th). The conclusion then is that the season's winners are going to be those who always make the top final or at least the top two.

A little under the radar, Craig Homewood was keeping up family honour in Open Wheel. His 21.3 laps during a winning B final run ended up (just) as biggest score, and he managed to snag 3rd overall by a tiny margin from the overly (by his own admission) crash-prone Jon. The A final therefore had two intense battles, with Andy yet again having an early off followed by a mis-marshal to leave himself a tough job getting past those two. This he did, but could only get to within 2 seconds at best of John, who drove magnificently to withstand the pressure and take the win as well as promotion to Premier grade as a consequence. The win was a hugely popular one for the likeable WHO multiple-champion.

If John's was the stand-out open wheel performance, there were plenty of others of note. Rob Less made one of his occasional appearances and showed the strongest form to date, in the top 6 all the way through the heats and ending up fifth on the grid. Robin Cornwall once again did fine things with his Tyco, qualifying 7th despite the 110' track having lots of straights and torquey sections the Mega-G loves, and only missing 6th on countback to his third worst score! Jim Easton was solidly inside the top 10, Robin Clark, in his first national since Purton, won his final with a club car and beat Paul H, Jim and club-mate Marc Townsend in the process, and Henry Townsend impressed everyone with his lap scores. With the heats complete and Rob on race control the drivers were quickly pitched into their finals to see where their qualify efforts would take them.

Marcus' Lovers friend Jake started proceeding off with a win over Louis Townsend in the I final, with Marcus himself being the one to progress from the H final. Dave Ogden, a SCHORC regular making his national debut, and club-mate Lee Taylor would take the next two finals wins. Then came Robin Clark's club car win to take him into a D final won by Marc, beating (amongst others) a much-improved Paul Whorton. Marc, a FLBT stalwart, continues to have a season well below what was expected, on this occasion no doubt exacerbated by looking after his boys and out for those from his club needing cars and controller. He will, I am sure, be back to top form soon. 9th was his reward this time out, pushing Mike down to 10th by just a few feet in a C final dominated by Robin Cornwall and Andy Player (yet another EAHORC regular making his 2011/12 debut). Robin took the win, and would end the day as one of only four to score 21 laps or more.

The B final quickly developed into a battle between Rob and Craig. The younger racer confirmed his Prem grade status by winning, returning to the kind of form seen last season in rounds a six and seven. Rob took 5th, easily his best Open Wheel result, Clive Harland would take sixth, his best result in some time, with Robin C and 'Terry-Tyco' 7th. Craig would go on to face John & Jon and Andy from the unloved white lane. The A final was to turn into the kind of four way cat-and-mouse classic that is only possible to follow with PC timing progs and features such as gap to leader (and, of course, the loved/hated track calls that go with using them).

Jon was living with JF early on, and it looked between these two after Andy's early problems. Jon would mix breathtaking commitment and judgement through the largest section of BSTS with big barrier-wackers at the hairpin near race control, usually accompanied with a quick self-deprecating chuckle followed by a rapid return to game-face mode, which gave Craig a crack at things just as Andy motored back into the runner up spot. Andy would get to with a couple of second of John, pushing like mad, but no more. In fact, Craig and Jon would often be on the same lap as him (and each other) for several seconds at a time, as things really heated up.

Normally these finals end up spread-out tactical races that are letdowns after much more intense C and B finals, but this time out all the places were up for grabs right into the dying seconds, one error being enough to drop 2 places easily. In the end John would win by just 0.35 laps, Craig would beat Jon for third by just one tenth and the whole field was covered by 1.15 laps. This great end to some spectacular open wheel action took things to a lunch break that would in turn lead to a 2pm re-start for the 21 racers would stayed for the closed-wheel mixed classes to follow.

With class selections being made on the day added to those pre-notified on facebook and slotforum, the older two classes (Mod and Nascar) were beaten by the upstart LMP1 class and swamped by Promod. 3 stockcars and four MR1s would do battle in mixed heats with 5 LeMans cars and 9 Lexans. With ProMod running for the first time this season, and Martin absent, there was a lot of interest to see who would be top-dog now that balanced arms are allowed. Armed with a slimmed-down but still impressive fleet, and a lot of nous when it came to knowing what to run, Jon swept to pole with top scores and fast laps in all lanes bar blue (that honour went to Craig). Marc must of been feeling Déjà vu, once more chasing and not quite able to live with a G3, but would qualify second fairly comfortably. Craig was third to take the last Automatic A final spot. Meanwhile, his Dad took pole in Mod class, only be half a lap but seeming to pace himself, and Dave Hannington cruised to TQ in Nascar.

In LMP1 Andy Whorton was in all kinds of trouble. Eschewing the simplest plan of decking his Open Wheel car and fitting a 908 body, he had gone for optimum performance via a dedicated chassis for the class, which seemed to spend more time in bits than on track. Meanwhile, was racking up big scores and taking pole with better consistency than Darren Morgan, Mike and Mat. Andy had blue for the B final, and a car that was supposedly supported, and was still many people's favourites to take the win. Before that would be put to the test, the finals commenced with a straightforward win for Dave in Nascar, from Robin C and Paul Whorton. Paul H took the expected win in Mod, with Dave O getting to within less than half a lap at times, but the Mod favourite assured all he was stroking it. Bets that he will take 8-10 wins this season are still very much on, and the same goes for Dave unless somebody flips some magnets or finds some pace from somewhere.

By contrast neither Rob nor Jon were in the mood to let the establishment win. Andy W duly took up the non-automatic spot in the LMP1 A final, and pushed hard in the early laps to clear Darren and Mike. The gap to Rob would fluctuate, both drivers taking their turns to want the gap called by race control, but never got under 2 seconds. The big off Andy needed would never come, and Rob would eventually win by nearly a lap, to a round of applause nearly as loud as that for John F in the morning. When new people break into the winner's circle it seems everyone picks up on it and appreciates it. More of the same was to follow.

The day would end with three Pro-Mod finals. Deane Walpole, having a torrid time with a Harden-Creek built GR3 that seemed to be on the pace the day before, took the C final win with a car borrowed from Jon quite comfortably from Robin Clark and Graham, but would go no further from white lane in the penultimate race. This would be won brilliantly by Jim with a Cryer G3, the SCHORC member getting more confidence with every race and loving the intense pace of the ProMod cars. His win came after a ding-dong scrap with Clive, the gap never more that 3/4 of a lap, with Andy Player in the mix early on and never far enough behind the other two that they could discount him.

Once again though the A final topped the ones below it for a change, Marc throwing caution to the wind to try and get the better of Jon. He got very close to Craig's lap record, and with big offs always on the cards with these cars, kept in touch the whole way. Jon for his part knuckled down and fought fire with fire, eventually lowering the lap record slightly and winning the race by 1.05 laps at the death. Given that the cars cover that distance in under 5.5 seconds, such margins are small, and as the hall erupted into another large round of applause for another first-time winner, Jon's grin of joy was tempered with the same amount of relief we had seen with John F and Rob. The fact HO national-style can still throw up new winners is a great testament to it's format and I hope we see some more at Chatham later in the month.

DW

2011/12 Round 1 SCHORC - 04/09/11

 To see images from the meeting click here.

After an at sometimes surreal summer break, which including the need for a change of venue, the question for all those attending the opening round of the 2011/12 season was how long would it be before the normal vibe could be felt, if at all. The answer turned out to be 'very quickly', thoughts of a looming fourth schism in the UK scene set aside for now with the focus very much on some hard but fun track action. In total 19 racers turned up at Yelling, 'Edmo' lost to us for now due to a thumb injury for John Ovens laying him up.

During practice Marc Townsend had to suffer some good-natured ribbing about being the champion-elect this season, not a massive stretch given his past form. Whilst it would be fair to say he did not seem overly worn-down by this pressure, he did not seem to be bubbling with confidence either. Clearly there is a lot up for grabs this season, and everyone had an eye out for early indicators of how things would be. As it happened Marc was in the first two heats, alongside another Prem grader in Andy Whorton, and locals Jim Easton and Al Wood. Marc blitzed the field with a 29 in red in heat one, but Andy volleyed back a high 31 in the same lane the next heat. Game on!

With F1 fields pretty large more often than not, there are usually a couple of drivers who sneak under the radar, this time it was Mike Dadson (producing a stonking 32.45 in red) and Paul Rose, joined by Robin Cornwall amazing everyone with his exploits using a Tyco. The Homewoods were also flying, but despite Paul's pre-season assertion that he and son Craig would struggle in Premier Grade this season, this was not a huge surprise. Other notable performances during the heats included Paul Roach from Chesterfield (racing in his first national for many years) qualifying 8th with his Tyco, and national rookie Lee Taylor (Mega-G) one place behind.

Finals commenced with the F final, to be contested by Paul Whorton and David Hannington (Mega-Gs) up against Tony Stacey and Paul Whorton with Tycos, David taking the win comfortably enough. With the step-up lanes being particularly tough on the short, twist layout, progress afterwards would prove hard to find, but David gave it a good go in the E final to finish just half a lap behind the returning John Chell. Both were overshadowed by a race-long battle between Al and Clive Harland, the former leading until very late on, then coming back past literarily at the last second after an off looked to have cooked his goose. The amazing finals kept coming, Deane Walpole (Mega) beating Roy Masters (Tyco) at the death in the D using the coast function on his controller to roll past, having taken Jim in the last corner.

The next final was to prove a fairly straightforward task for Marc, beating Paul Roach, Lee and Deane, but he went into the B final knowing he'd probably lost early ground to Andy and Robin in what may well be the most open F1 season ever. Robin duly took the win, in imperious fashion, ahead of Craig, Paul Rose and Marc, to ensure there would be a Tyco chassis in a national A final for the first time since December. The full line would be Robin, Andy W on pole (and tactically taking red), Mike on blue and Paul H on yellow. As we have seen several times before the racers quickly became spread out, although Mike in particular put in a mighty effort to ensure Andy was never truly comfortable. Nonetheless the race finished in qualifying order, and with Andy on cloud nine everyone headed into the first lunch break of the new season.

With three Pro-Mod runners absent, and the class minimums set now at three, there was some debate prior to the event as to whether the class, a surprise hit last season, would take place, and so it proved to be. With Marc making a tactical switch to the new LMP1 class upon learning that Deane's G3R was not race-ready, Clive moved to Nascar (once more the most popular class). Craig moved to LMP1 as well, and amazingly seven 908s or R10s would line up in a class nobody was truly sure would run at all this season. Clearly the fifty-odd I sold in the spring had an effect! Mod continued to hold it's own, four runners in the class despite three locals switching from their usual Marchons to LMP1.

Whilst the assumption Paul H would get his Mod season of to the perfect start proved to be spot on, Paul driving within himself in all five races to control his rivals whilst keeping the car fresh, any notions Nascar champion David would have a similar easy win were dispelled by Robin flying and on the attack. He absolutely destroyed everyone in red lane, to keep his 'new nemesis' is sight after both had done two heats. They were both to qualify well clear of Paul Roach, Mike and Clive (who by contrast were in very close company), Dave taking the pole in part due to an astonishing score in white. He knew he had been in a battle though.

The initial battle in LMP1 seemed to be that of finding the right tyres! With virtually all of the running with Mega-Gs up to now done in Open Wheel with height restrictions on the rear tyre minimum, there was no hard data on how much to drop and what lap times would be like. In the end, most racers seemed to go for Supertires 418s and 422s, and the cars were surprisingly fast. Expect that to increase, as well as tyre knowledge and R&D if and when the class runs again.

With the Mod final out of the way first, Paul H winning from Jim, John and Tony, the LMP1s took to the track for their two finals. With six inch bends in both Tomy and BSTS in the 68' layout, much carnage was expected with the long endurance bodies, but ended up being much less than the 'crowd' had anticipated. Marc had looked in control for much of qualifying, but a massive 34.15 in red for Andy was enough to get pole for the morning winner, who now looked a sure bet for the double. Deane lined up third, only really able to live with the other two in white (taking, in fact, the top heat score in that lane), joined by Lee after an impressively comfortable win the B final over Craig, Al and Paul Rose. Andy did indeed get the double win, but had to drive at his very best with Marc pushing him hard all the way. The new class had certainly got off to an impressive start.

The day wrapped with Nascar, pretty much as usual and as the only class to have three finals. The first of these was over very quickly, Roy retiring on the first lap and Paul W quickly decided to stop early and save his car for a B final that would also feature Simon Coombes and Mike representing WHO, and Clive racing for FLBT (who ended the day as winners in the Club Cup). This one was all about Mike and Clive, the former being the one to move up to the A after a great scrap that was only bettered within the class by what followed.

On paper the Nascar A final had all the right ingredients, Robin on his best lane, Dave on his and both likely to go for broke. Indeed race control ended up calling gaps through the whole 3 minute thrash, as first Dave then his rival took turns to take and give the pressure. Robin looked to be in control, but with both drivers pushing at the absolute limit an off saw Dave back in the lead. The reigning champ then finished off a cool day of excellent racing by remaining calm at the limit to take the win with an almost unbelievable 37.20, the highest score by anyone all day. Paul Roach completed a strong day with 3rd in class, ahead of Mike. Mike was in fact my star of the day, just edging Andy and Robin, but plenty of drivers departed the venue with heads held high and big intentions for Marlborough on Oct 2nd.

2010/11 Round 10 WHO - 19/06/11

Back in April it looked as if the 2010/11 National season would end with two sparsely attended meetings. The bother of having to send in entries for the HOGP seemed to throw people, but it all came good in the end and the meeting was cracking. Similarly, numbers for the final round at Worthing were slow to pick up, but then exploded, the 'issue' of it being Father's day turning out to be a non-issue when it came down to it. The upshot was that the attendance record set during a surreal meeting in Derby where the race controller had Flu was finally broken. 29 racers would take part in 30 Open Wheel heats, leading to 9 finals.

The main interest was in the race for promotion from Main grade. John Ferrigno and Gareth Winslade had chances to take them, but Paul and Craig Homewood were intent on keeping the top two places needed. Paul was in action in the second batch of drivers, alongside a useful benchmark in Martin Hill, and seemed pretty confident throughout of getting it done. Craig wisely chose to ignore any over-thinking things, knowing securing second place was going to be tight regardless, and focused instead on doing the best he could. As it turned out he qualified 11th, only a quarter of a lap behind Clive Harland and just over half a lap behind his Dad, and the upper-midfield was an insanely close as ever. Would 11th be enough though, with Gareth 5th and John F 7th?

Once the F1 heats shook out, Martin had taken pole by just under 9 laps, ahead of Jon Cryer and Marc Townsend (themselves separated by 3 laps, which by F1 standards is light years). To highlight that, by contrast Gareth had missed qualifying 4th by all of 0.05 laps! He could not feel too hard done by though, only beating a resurgent Andy Whorton by a quarter of a lap. Similar, by now common, gaps appear all down the grid, and the sobering fact is that every 'off' now has the potential to drop a driver one or two places down that grid. This creates lots of heroes and hard luck stories down the list, all part of being in a hardcore racing environment.

The finals kicked off with the Townsend twosome, Henry and Louis, making their first appearance since Purton in April 2010. They finished the I final only 0.2 laps apart, but some way off Hannah Rose, who took the unloved yellow lane in the next final. This featured a battle between her Dad Andrew and national rookie and junior Callum Davidson, won by the latter, followed by Tony Stacey and Hannah. Callum would therefore face fellow rookie/junior Tyler Coombes and his Dad (see a pattern?) Simon for the honour of yellow lane in the F final. Father and son engaged in a fascinating battle, the older Coombes taking it by just one tenth of a lap, with Paul Whorton only 1 lap behind. Simon then switched from a Mega to a Tyco, with other son Jonah now using the AFX platform. Another inter-family win for the Dad followed, with both finishing ahead of David Hannington but some way behind Darren McHarg.

The E final was a belter, and another indicator of how competitive things are. As qualifying suggested, this was between Robin Cornwall (racing at this level for the first time in months) and relative newcomer Mike Dadson, who had impressed all at the HOGP. Robin had been top Tyco by some margin, and took the win from Mike by 4/10ths of a lap, with Dave Rouse only another half lap behind that. All three posted scores good enough to do well in all but the top final, highlighting once again the need to qualify well, as well as increasing their best scores by a fair bit. Now attention swung to the first Homewood to try and clinch Prem grade status, Craig facing Deane Walpole, Clive and Robin. In one of those messy finals that happens from time to time, Deane came through in white with the worst fastest lap, with Craig last in blue with the fastest. In one of those nobody-wants-to-win-it scenarios, Robin took 12th just 0.15 laps behind Clive and 0.55 behind Deane. Now Craig would have to sweat the later finals!

The C final presented a fascinating dynamic. A win for John would keep his shot at Prem status alive a bit longer, a win for Paul would help his son out, and Rob Lees, having his best F1 outing to date and with nothing at stake was in there as a potential game-changer. In the end, after a battle that ran the whole race, John took that needed win, but only beat Rob by 0.15 laps and Paul by 0.7 laps. The whole field was only spread out by 1.5 laps. John thus faced Gareth and the two Andys in the B final. Craig's result put him on 364 for the season, meaning John needed 5th place to snatch promotion, with Gareth needing to win and then take 2nd overall. He duly did the first part, but only after a race long battle with Andy W that left him drained and looking pale at the finish. John had to settle for 7th, but has still had a cracking season, and I hope will be pushing hard for that promotion next season.

The A final followed the recent habit of featuring a stretched-out field. Martin simply checked out and Jon pushed too hard leaving himself too far behind Marc. Gareth posted the 3rd best score of the day in yellow, but that promotion was just out of reach, and Craig could at last relax. I am sure Gareth, and Jon, will be gunning for promotion next season as well, but at that moment F1 racing at national level was shut down until Sept 4th, as the forewarned 30 minute lunch commenced and the entry list for the closed wheel session threw up some surprises.

Afternoon racing thus commenced at the latest ever time, with a field of 23 after six locals departed. Pro-Mod, a class that has recently seen buoyant numbers, was back down to four after the surprise absence of Clive and Marc from the class, their Slottechs in serious need of a summer rebuild. Their presence in Nascar instead meant that class had one of it's biggest fields ever, just what the three title protagonists did not need. At least one was mindful that that when Marc ran Nascar in 2009 he laid claim to being one of the fastest ever racers in that class. Mod continued it's recent upsurge in popularity, a field of 8 being the most the class has seen since April 2008. Paul H had chosen this class, the assumption being that he is at least looking at a 2010/11 switch from Pro, as his son heads the other way. John Ferrigno would be looking for a second win, Andrew and Hannah were again running Andrew's pull-back and RC conversions, Tony was (so he says) attending his last race, and the Townsend boys would again be running AFX LMP1s.

With the reduced field, Pro was not the class to look at for close battles, Martin taking pole from Jon by a whopping (frankly, mind-numbing) 22 laps, with Jon 7 laps up on Andy Player and 16 on Craig. There was hope for the future as Craig was able to lap within 19 hundredths of a second of Martin's best laptime in blue during a brief run with Lucky Bob Neo magnets. The car suffered some kind of damage during a hefty off, and was not seen in that configuration again. Craig did manage to secure the third place he needed to take the Minor title for the class, and I hope he and others will continue to look for the build that will enable them to run with Martin. Mod saw an excellent scrap between Paul and John, after the former followed the wrong car off the line and had to really push if he wanted to convert dominance in the heats into his first ever A final win. They had Andrew in close company, the local unlocking a lot more pace in white lane than he had in the heats, with fourth going to Callum after an impressive B final where he had cast aside the Junior Townsends, Hannah, and the experienced Tony Stacey.

Paul eventually triumphed, by half a lap, and attention then switched to the epic battle for the Nascar title. This was easily the most intense such battle EAHORC had seen to date, with three drivers in with a shout. Deane was the long-shot based on recent form, with Dave H perhaps the slight favourite for the same reason. Andy Whorton was the only driver who realistically could take the title without a win, giving him a slight edge heavily blunted by the size and quality of the field. In a twist that was to have real impact, Dave Rouse had decided to run in the class, having clarified that Craig's running on Pro would mean there was no Mod minor to win, and amazed everyone with his pace. David was the overall star of qualifying, flying in all four lanes to take pole by over five laps. Andy countered with a very impressive second pair of heats. Running in the very last pair of the season, knowing he needed to score big, and knowing all eyes were on him, he delivered the goods. With less than 10 seconds of his final heat remaining he crossed the line once more to demote Dave to 3rd qualifier and Gareth out of the A final altogether (these two had qualified just 3/10ths of a lap apart). The two main title protagonists would line up 'side-by-side'.

After a two car D final which saw Rob beat Paul Whorton, we once more saw racers producing startling scores from lower finals. Rob's 27.4 would of been good enough for second place, Marc's winning score in the C final good enough for the outright win. With Marc rapidly remembering how to drive a stock car really well, he went up to the B final fully intending to get right in the mix. This ended up being another messy one. Deane (the common denominator perhaps) binned it early, but everyone had their scrappy laps and all but he took turns to lead. Deane began to haul the field in, and at the death was only a quarter of a lap behind Robin. Marc was the same distance up the road, but it was Gareth who had taken the race by the scruff of the neck and pinched the final top final spot.

The season would thus boil down to this: Andy could afford to follow Dave H home to take the title, but with two rapid interlopers in there with nothing at stake would he actually be able to do so? Third would not be good enough. It was by no means certain Dave would win, and for much of the race his lead was in the 2,3,4 seconds area, hardly comfortable. By this stage though Andy has gotten into a crash on an early lap, and was on the back foot for the whole race. At one point race control calculated he was only six seconds away from where needed to be, but with Gareth and Dave R driving well the gap was always going to be difficult to close unless they took each other out. They in fact finished the race only one tenth a lap apart, but sadly for Andy never tangled so that he could produce his own Hamilton/Glock moment. Thus it was that Dave Hannington became the final champion of the season, probably EAHORC's best to date.

Congrats to him and all the other winners, huge thanks to everyone who played a part in making it such a great season.

The 2010/11 Champions

Martin Hill - EAHORC Cup, F1 and Pro-Mod

Craig Homewood - Modified and Pro-Mod Minor

David Hannington - Nascar

Paul Homewood - Main grade

Robin Cornwall - EAHORC Challenge and F1 Minor

Gareth Winslade - Rookie Cup and Main Grade Minor

Roy Masters - Nascar Minor

Tony Stacey - Tyco Cup

FLBT - Club Cup

2010/11 Round 9 SCHORC at Gaydon - 22/05/11

Although several EAHORC members have presented tracks at various shows, Sunday May 22nd was the first time EAHORC had done so officially, and it did it with some style. Originally due to race on the same day in Yelling, the association was persuaded by one of the organisers of the UK Slot Festival as to the merits or being their instead. Wary that past events that have been closed to the public during a show have been a turn-off it was decided to also bring a demo track, brilliantly put together by Andy Whorton) and display area with streaming videos. The whole thing look very professional.

At 10am the third running of the HO Grand Prix got under way. With places in that race as well as access to the venue having to be pre-booked, numbers had looked very poor in the run-up to the month of May, but by the deadline and slightly over 21 racers had signed up and paid. This was expanded to 22 when John Ovens, pulling off something only he could, persuaded Australian Stuart Donetta, whom he had only met for the first to time that very morning, to come join us! Under the watchful and fascinated eye of Joe Public the F1 heats got underway with Martin Hill once again brushing all comers aside. Only in red lane was he to be bested, by a rejuvenated Marc Townsend, and pole was secured by 6 laps. Behind him things were much closer, Andy Player another back on song qualifying second ahead of Jon Cryer (huge smile every present) by just 0.3 laps as Jon used a Martech tuned MG for the first time. Marc qualified fourth just 0.6 laps further back.

With 22 heats completed by noon, the finals started with the by-now common G final. This saw Stuart racing Tony Stacey (the only driver using a Tyco), Jon's mate Ross Bartlett and Paul Whorton. From red lane Paul took a comfortable win ahead of Tony (closing in on the Tyco cup), and thus faced Julian Allard, Craig Homewood and Dave Hannington. Craig had been struggling up to that point, but posted an F final winning score that would of been just shy of being good enough to win the C final. With white lane being particularly tough this time around he could progress no further however, with Andy Whorton and Deane Walpole putting on a race-long battle in the E final running first tenths and then hundredths apart. Newcomer Darren McHarg, a regular at the excellent Worthing club, has also been in the hunt early on. Deane eventually took the win by a tiny margin. By now the public were really enjoying what they were seeing.

The D final was another cracker. Clive Harland had narrowly missed out on a centre lane during the insanely close qualifying battle, but from yellow lane got into a massive scrap with Paul Homewood, falling short by just a tenth of a lap. Jim Easton was not far behind, having started the race narrowly the favourite. The great finals kept coming, Al Wood narrowly taking the next one, ahead of a very happy John O who was enjoying using the Martech car he had taken delivery of that very morning, with the very impressive Mike Dadson (another WHO member) not far behind having qualified 7th. The last but one final saw Marc struggle to convert his qualifying pace and the win instead go to Gareth Winslade, who thus made his second top F1 final on the bounce. John Ferrigno, another Martech customer, had another good morning with 5th, and both he and Gareth now have a real shot at getting promotion from Main Grade to Premier Grade come the season end.

As has often been the case of late, the A final could not match it's predecessors. Not only did Martin stretch away, the other three became spaced out quickly, and then settled into consolidation mode during the extended five minute final. Thus the AM session finished with Martin the overall winner ahead of Jon, Andy P and Gareth, as those that had done the business on the demo track assembled for their run on the big one, and many of the EAHORCers dashed off to try the good (if expensive) Cafe and dash around the festival exhibits.

With the kicking-out time of 5pm in mind a short lunch was called, with the venue not being surrounded by food options it was likely the quick cafe dash was going to be the best bet anyway. With Craig deciding to step up to Pro-Mod for this round, Tony, John F and Jim would face off in Mod class. Pro-Mod meanwhile continued it's upward march, the switch by Craig and the return of Ross and Jon meaning there would be three finals in that class. Nascar, set to feature another epic championship battle, completed the line up with seven entries, with four drivers opting to spend the afternoon looking around the Festival.

As expected Martin was head honcho in Pro, but his winning margin was smaller than of late. Through the heats either Marc or Jon were not that far away in terms of lap time or scores. In fact Jon produced the best score in white and the fastest lap in blue, but pushing too hard meant that he qualified third. Martin's margin in qualifying was a good example of his winning method in this class, small advantages relentlessly taken every lap and with few errors resulting in what looks like a chasm. With the job done he then had to wait through two step-finals for the first time, Ross facing Paul Homewood in the first ever Pro-Mod C final. Paul went on to this one, to face Craig, Clive (having a torrid time with gear and other car problems) and Andy Player.

Andy found himself in a yet another Pro-Mod final, this despite his latest evolution of his WHP chassis not producing the gains he had hoped, Clive's woes being his saving grace instead. With the depth of the field for the lexan class increasing steadily every few months the opening laps were intense, four missiles flying around looking very impressive. Some of the spectators had come back especially for this race, and it did not disappoint. For the first few laps there was very little visual gap between the top three, even more so when you consider that the cars can cover the small gaps in fractions of a second, but Martin once again piled on the pressure and once clear relaxed into a pace nobody could live with. We were left with an absolutely epic battle between Jon and Marc behind him.

Initially the gap looked big enough, and Marc certainly seemed to think so. But then race control began to call the gaps and Marc went into a 'rabbit in the headlights' response, as other have. The final time over the line the gap was 0.6s in Marc's favour, which translated to a win by 0.05 laps when the power went off. Not as close as the earlier F1 final, but given the speeds involved a lot more intense, and the perfect end to the day. The Modified final had also been a close affair, the three protagonists lining up immediately after all the heats. They had been close during qualifying and it was soon apparent that would carry on into the big one. Jim lead most of the way, but the real star was Tony, hanging on gamely in yellow lane. John F found himself under pressure and so missed a late off by Jim which handed him the win on the last lap. His face when he realised he had won was a picture! Tony got close too, but a crushed Jim at least held on to P2. I suspect he will soon make amends come a future Mod final.

Mod was followed by Nascar, where the close racing carried the extra spice of having a battle between those morning protagonists Deane and Andy W, plus Dave for the championship. Overworked running the demo track, Andy was struggling to get his head where it needed to be, but his two rivals had both been pulling up tree stumps in their first two heats, and both were in bullish mood. For their next pair they would be racing together, adding further drama. Sadly, Deane drove into another car on the warm-up lap of the first showdown and ripped a front corner off the chassis, so had to make a switch, and with Dave solid as a rock he secured pole with style. This would translate into a win which sets up the closest HO showdown I think there has ever been in the UK. Behind these two, Andy was again in the wars, third place being snatched by a grateful Gareth. He had been a little fortunate to be in the final at all, sweeping through in the B final after Darren's brave decision to use a Mega-G MG15 backfired due to body issues. The pace of this car suggests we could see more of these cars next season, if the issue can be fixed.

In all, a great day of racing and EAHORC took it's change to impress people unaware of it's existence with aplomb. One round to go before the summer break, it has already been a classic season.

2010/11 Round 8 ECHO Kesgrave - 17/04/11

Yet another new venue for this month, as Julian Allard (under the East Coast HO moniker) hosted round 8 in a superb, large venue with a Tescos right next door, but more importantly with a brilliant 150' track in the hall for 18 guys to drool over. A batch of 22.5 degree BSTS sections arrived the day before setting up the track, and although it will take a while to get the most from them they were used to immediately add to the options at our finger tips. F1 kicked off at a couple of minutes past 10am, and new sections notwithstanding Martin Hill was as untouchable as ever. Andy Whorton was once again his closest challenger, but behind him John Ferrigno and Gareth Winslade were revelling in their Martech prepared cars and filled the remaining 2 A final spots. This was to be preceded by 5 other finals.

Roy Masters, back after missing Marlborough, won the first final of the day, beating fellow Tyco user Dave Rouse and Paul Whorton (Mega-G). The next final, which also featured Jim Easton (Mega-G) on his national debut, became a battle between Deane Walpole running steadily and Tony Stacey (both using MGs) fast but wild (and twice semi-prostrate during big crashes were his car needed marshal attention!), with Tony winning by less than a lap. He then lost out in the next final to two Tyco users, Andy Player and Julian Allard. None of them could live with Craig Homewood, who was at last getting used to his own Mega after recent events sharing with Dad Paul. He would then come close to winning the C final, indeed beating Dave Hannington and Clive Harland as the finals became all Mega from then on in. Al Wood, another with a Martech car, just had enough to get into the B final.

This proved to be a very close run thing, Gareth converting blue lane to the win, to ensure the top four qualifiers made the top final. He just edged Paul Homewood and Marc Townsend, and his 15.05 score showed he had no intention of setting for 4th place. As has become the norm of late, the top final itself was not as close as those before it, and the four drivers quickly became spread out. Martin was way out front, and Andy eased away from Gareth (although never really enough ahead to relax), who nonetheless posted the second best score of the morning for white lane. John was fourth, nudging a little closer to Prem grade status. Meanwhile Martin's win meant he was once again F1 champion. He is probably setting records that will never be broken, and is still adding to them.

After a 40 minute break, during which the on-site kitchen and adjacent Tesco were much appreciated, racing resumed with the closed wheel classes. With both Paul and Tony bringing other SCHORC racers with them, Mod saw something of a revival and six racers would do battle. Pro was back down to five, Jon Cryer and Ross Bartlett finding the travelling just a bit too much, with Nascar strong once again with seven runners and a close championship battle to continue. Both Andy W and Deane were happy with their cars, but it soon became clear David H was in awesome form and had them covered barring disasters. Despite two poor scores in the gutter lanes, Andy snatched second on the grid thanks to a stonking score in blue, better than Dave's score by a quarter of a lap. This would leave Deane only third, to be joined by Gareth making it three Nascar A finals from three.

Craig was once again the man to beat in Modified, but both John and Dave Rouse were going well too in the all MR1 field. Andy Player continued to improve his WHP platform (and his driving of it) in Pro-Mod, pushing an out-of-sorts Marc out of his customary A final spot on merit, as his FLBT comrade Clive stepped up to be main challenger to the frankly scarily quick Martin. With the heats done, three B finals and three very contrasting A finals would complete the day. One would be a tense affair, one a pretty forgone deal and one the best of the day as a young man came of age.

Things kicked off with Paul and Marc in their Pro-Mod final. Although Marc won by 1.75 laps you could see he was not flowing in the usual way and was not relishing the prospect of yellow lane for the A final. Expect him (and all those pushed down from their comfort zone by the improvements of others) to come back fighting on all fronts, especially at Worthing. The final saw Martin, as expected, fly off into the blue yonder, no close first minute as we had at Marlborough. Clive, despite being in red lane, was having a devil of a time shaking off Andy despite the Wizzard car being in the other gutter lane, and was relived to take P2 by three quarters of a lap, especially as a big off had damaged his chassis during the last minute. One wonders if Andy can get a second place in the final two rounds, as the Lexan class gets busy behind the dominant Mr Hill. With this latest win, the amazing King's Lynn resident clinched the Pro Championship as well as the big one - the EAHORC cup. What can one say about the guy, words fail me.

The most popular champion of the day though was Craig. He has been destined to win the Mod championship for some time, but it was awesome to see him do it in such grand style. From pole in the A final he set about carving out a lead, and then soaked up the pressure as Dave Rouse reeled him back in. With race control calling the gaps he looked calm as you like and did not bat an eyelid as Dave crashed and dropped back. Just as well as now John was pulling him in, first in small amounts and then in big chunks of time. He posted a 9.97, the only Mod driver apart from Craig to lap under the ten second barrier, before also pushing just a little too hard and crashing out of the running. Still it was not over, because once more Dave was gaining and at the death was only 0.3 laps behind. If you are going to win a championship, that is the way to do it. Al was a strong fourth in class, having bested a dead-heating Tony and Jim in the B final and I suspect we will see more battles between these three.

The day ended with Nascar, back as the most popular class. The B final was very close early on, with Roy a little off his usual pace but yet again in the hunt to make the most of things in a tight battle with Gareth. A body problem half way would mean he could not close up the half-lap gap and so missed a Nascar A final for the first time since November 2009. He still seat Paul W and Julian with his classic Nascar, but with Gaydon likely to be another missed round he will be handing his crown over to somebody else. Who that will be remains the biggest question of the 2010/11 season, every time Andy beats David he returns the compliment at the next round, and this time was no different. After a couple of early offs in the A final Andy knew David was long gone, indeed to begin with Deane was comfortable in second. With a 40 point swing at stake, and Deane's recent form the weakest of the three title protagonists, Andy was in no mood to mess about and took the place and even got within a lap of the otherwise untouchable David.

So ended another awesome day, congrats to Julian for pulling off a storming success of a meeting, Now for the big one - The HO Grand Prix.

2010/11 Round 7 FLBT Marlborough - 20/03/11

Another new venue, and another stonking turnout, as the EAHORC 'circus' headed west to Marlborough near Swindon. The host club put together a large and brilliant track, the first to feature a bespoke bridge. Cars could be heard all day getting very slightly airborne as drivers pushed hard once they had got over their initial 'plane crash' fears. In all 22 drivers took part in F1, with many gunning for those precious three automatic A final places. Martin Hill booked his, almost a given nowadays, but Paul and Craig Homewood were out to show their performance with the ex-Cornwall Mega-G last month was no fluke. I spoke to Paul over a burger the night before raceday and could tell he was excited by the prospect, if a little apprehensive!

In the end, they need not of worried, as they drove their socks off to grab those two spots again. Homewood senior had the upper hand, and even had the temerity to outscore Martin in the tricky yellow lane. Their speed meant that once again Prem graders like Marc Townsend and Clive Harland would have to try and get into the top final by means of winning lower ones. These kicked off with the G final, with four cars (all Tycos) set to do battle. FLBT's Marcus lover beat three other local lads, Zac Moxom, Kyle Morgan and Evan Webster. The Morgan name was to feature much later, following a stellar performance. The F final saw a popular win for the very entertaining Jon Cryer from the new Bristol club. Jon has been a breath of fresh air on the forums of late, and arrived with mate Ross Bartlett in his stunning Mitsubishi Evo. His win meant he got to race Ross in the next final, along with AFX 6hr winner Kevin Gee. All lost out to Gareth Winslade however.

Gareth had dabbled with a Life-Like M, the first time one has been used that I can recall since Mick Kench won with one at Norton years ago. For the finals he focused on a Mega-G and will from now on be another using a Martech one. Having won the E final he was able to take on and beat David Hannington and Rob Lees to end up 11th overall. He could do nothing about Kyle's dad Darren, who was flying in white lane with a Tyco, despite only being an HO racer for about three weeks. I really hope FLBT can get him along to some more meetings, perhaps to the Bristol club. He could be one to watch.

His progress was halted come the C final, facing experienced racers Deane Walpole and Tony Stacey, and 'Mr Video' Andy Player. Tony, using a Martech 'loaner', took the win less than a lap ahead of Deane as things started to get serious. Up against three Prem grade drivers from FLBT, Tony was not phased at all, and although he lost out to all three kept Clive and Marc very much on their toes. Andy Whorton confirmed his place as the current second most in-form racer by taking the win. This was to translate to second for 'the big one'. With his own Mega-G still to be built, Craig again reverted to his Tyco and gamely rang it's neck, producing a fastest lap less than half a second off of Andy's! The four cars became stretched out very early on and there was no dramas as the race finished Hill-Whorton-Homewood Snr-Homewood Jnr.

AM results:

For the afternoon five locals departed, with Darren returning and joining 5 others in Nascar. With double champion Roy Masters a mysterious no-show, his rivals were tensely working out how big a points grab they could take. Meanwhile, Pro-Mod attracted the largest field for the first time, with Andy Player once again featuring in an awesome battle. Modified saw Craig once again on a mission, but with Dave Rouse and Julian Allard absent, was propped up by Paul jumping back from Pro and by Evan and Zac becoming the first in the UK to use the new AFX Lemans cars, purchased at they were by Marc the day before! Marc was a tower of strength all weekend, in fact, co-designing the track, prepping cars for his club-mates and keeping them interested and intrigued all race day. Another second place in Pro awaited him, but he was mighty on Martin's tail in the early laps.

No C finals then, so instead three B finals. These were won by Andy Player (Pro) after a scrap with Jon, Gareth, besting the still impressive Darren, and Evan (Mod) ahead of Zac. Jon had been at the centre an amazing moment during the heats. Working closely with Martin, who continues to amaze us all with his willingness to help everyone, the pair of them had contrived to put Jon on the line-up for his yellow lane race not just with a Hill body, but the chassis from underneath it. It took Jon a while to realise and then he really let rip. The result? Comfortably the biggest score of the day in that lane, and a fastest lap only 2 tenths of a second off of Martin's. Stunning stuff, to say the least. I don't know when he will next come race, but lets hope it is really soon.

The day ended with the three pole sitters taking the three wins. First up was Modified, Craig initially pushed very hard by Dad before pulling away for a win that means he should wrap up the title next month, with Tony third. The Nascar finals were next, Andy's win here straightforward, but David and Deane battled hard (the later taking fastest class lap to serve notice) as the championship becomes the hot one of 2011, with Roy still very much the favourite but Andy the one now with momentum. The awesome day ended with Pro, Jon unable to get into the top final with his own car, but able to beat Ross and Rob. Clive was to have a scrappy time of it in the A, and could not live with Marc despite for once out qualifying him (albeit by just 0.2 laps after 12 mins of racing, which is insane). In fact he had his hands full with Andy, who was driving beautifully and with little to lose.

All four cars ran very close to begin with and Martin only really started to pull heavily away once he did not have the pack with him. He was to win in the end by 4.5 laps, piling on those 0.5s advantages as I described last month. By contrast Clive and Andy swapped places several times, Andy with perhaps the less cautious approach. This was to pay off as he eventually snuck P3 by less than half a lap. If he can keep this up, and Jon returns, Pro could soon be like F1, the 'top' guys unable to take anything for granted.

So ended another stonking EAHORC meeting. As several have already said in emails and on forums, I can't wait for the next one...

PM results:

2010/11 Round 6 SCHORC Yelling - 20/02/11

The 2010/11 season commenced it's second half with the most successful round yet held at the SCHORC venue in Yelling, 20 people taking part in F1, including three making their national debuts. The stars of qualifying were Paul and Craig Homewood, sharing Paul's ex-Robin Cornwall Mega-G worked on by Martin Hill to take the two automatic places in the 'A' final alongside him. As both have made one A final before they therefore nudged closer to promotion to Premier grade status. They were joined in the A final by Marc Townsend, who like many had found the twisty track enjoyable but very unforgiving. With 20 drivers competing we once again kicked off the finals with a 2 car G final, this one between Stevenage newcomer Paul Turner and John Chell.

John won this and then had a good scrap with Paul Whorton and Alan Bullock (racing for the first time in ages, to the pleasure of all) in the next final but none of them could live with Gareth Winslade. Gareth has quickly become an integral part of the racing down at the Worthing club, and a regular contributor on SlotForum too, and it was easy to forget he was making his national debut too. A final win was just reward for coming all that way, and more was to follow. This enabled him to face off in the E final against another national rookie, Al Wood who races with the local SCHORC club. Al duly too the win, from Roy Masters, with Gareth able to move up one further place upon beating John Ferrigno. This placed Al in the next final with Tony Stacey, David Hannington and Dave Rouse. It was Dave in control of this one, until a late off saw David sweep through for the win, followed by Tony Al was fourth, but always in the hunt as the whole field was spread by just over one lap.

Julian Allard boosted him main grade chances with a strong performance in the C final, putting premier graders Deane Walpole and Andy Player out of the running, as these two finished a tenth of a lap apart and under a lap ahead of David. Initially the pattern of tight upper finals behind the leader looked to continue in the B final as behind a seriously motoring Marc Townsend, Andy Whorton faced stiff competition from both Julian and Clive Harland before all four cars spread out. This just left the A final, 2 prems and two Homewood Main graders to do battle. Martin was in blue, a lane he had been the most mighty in the heats in, and was able to simply motor away from there. Paul was able to take second with the Cornwell car, with Marc a lap behind and Craig back with his Tyco taking 4th place.

After a short lunch the track was re-configured slightly to try and reduce the number of track calls the track layout had created, and with the faster cars about to race in mind

F1 Results:

Ten drivers chose the ever-popular Nascar class for the afternoon, with the rest choosing Pro-Mod or Mod once Al and Paul T had headed home. It was expected that Martin would dominate Pro once more, but there was still plenty of interest in what would happen behind him and in other classes. Andy Whorton had been watching double champion Roy in his first two heats, and expressed some confidence he would be able to match his rival. Like most of us though, he had failed to see David Hannington sneaking under the radar with four big scores. In the end Andy took pole by under half a lap as once again EAHORC's insanely close qualifying sessions pushed everyone to their limits. Roy ended up on Pole for the B final, squeezed out of the A final by a storming Gareth. Martin had cruised to Pole in his class, and Craig seemed to have Dave Rouse covered (but then we thought that in December).

Their face-off got the finals underway, joined by Julian dipping his toe back into Modified, possibly with minor titles in mind further down the line. This time there would be no comeback from Dave and in fact Craig was able to extend his best score of the afternoon by a whopping 1.65 laps to put at least a couple of fingers on the Modified title. If he does that there is a strong chance he will tackle Pro-Mod next, a class his father Paul found himself in an epic battle a few minutes later. He had initially led Andy Player quite comfortably, after his rival had made several early errors. Andy then focused and cut down his errors, getting his lap time down to within a tenth of Paul's best and keeping it there. With race control giving him the dreaded gaps-to-leader calls Paul found it hard to get out of his comfort zone and back onto his previous pace. Both drivers had one last off, but the marshals did well to keep the intense battle alive and at the death both finished on the same score, but with Paul a few inches ahead.

The Pro-Mod A final could of course not live with that, but Martin did get off to a poor start. He does not have many weaknesses, but very occasionally can get rattled by early off. This was not one of those times and he was soon back in the lead, and back to his half a second advantage over Marc. Half a second does not sound much, and Marc is doing everything in his power to close it, but in that time even on a track this tricky a Pro-Modified will cover 10 feet in that time. Those 10 feet advances soon mount up, and this final was no different. Clive was to take his usual third place, having run Marc a little closer than of late in terms of best three scores and fastest lap. Paul was fourth, but still on a high after his B final win.

The Nascar finals completed the day, with once again lots of quality being shown through the field. Gareth had taken top score in red lane with his Tomy SG+, and not just by a little either. Roy had taken two fastest laps, and David the other two, with no driver getting best score in more than one lane. A little further down the order Deane and John F had been solid if unspectacular and Paul Whorton had put in some good laps times that again suggest he only needs to work on error reducing to be right up there. As it was he faced Tony, Alan and John C in the first final which Tony took with some style to step up to the B final.

This was won by Roy, once again showing how to still score big on the days your struggle a little more. If he attends enough rounds and wins a third title it is days like this that will secure it. Deane was 5th, his own hopes fading, with John F 6th and Tony 7th. Racing concluded with the A final, and once again Andy W made his life difficult with early offs. Worse still for his own hopes for the title, Roy was grinding out the laps and would often pop up on the timing screen in P2 or ahead of Andy. Eventually the white lane found him out and he fell back, but Andy could do nothing about David and had his hands full with Gareth. Four nascar rounds to go, can anyone depose Roy coming into the home stretch.

Marlborough and FLBT next, bring it on!

2010/11 Round 5 HONK Brenley Corner - 16/01/11

If you would like excel versions of these results click here.

EAHORC rolled into yet another year breaking new ground, as the 2010/11 season reached it's half way point. New club HONK (HO North Kent) co-hosted round 5 with the renowned Viking Club based near Faversham. After some drama in the week leading up to the event, illnesses minor and major, the event went without a hitch bar the odd track connectivity issue (quickly sorted). The F1 saw nine EAHORC regulars joined by Andy Whorton's brother Paul as well as four locals. Martin Hill was in his much more common emphatic form and dominated in every lane during qualifying bar blue, but the real tussle was between the FLBT racers. Andy too second on the grid, and Marc Townsend managed to bag the final spot in The 'A' final by just half a lap. As is often the case, when you miss the top final by the smallest of margins, as Clive Harland did in this instance, the other route to the blood riband final (winning the B) ends up out of reach too. This time around Clive beat Deane Walpole and Andy Player (using a Tyco for most of his morning) but could not handle Robin Cornwall (back using his Mega-G).

Andy P had been having a tough morning, and was happy just to be in the second tier final. He simply could not get on with his Mega-G on a day when they finally locked out the A final for the first time since their introduction. To reach the B final Andy had had to beat a charging 'Mr Scalextric' Adrian Norman, who was revelling in the speed of the Force India club car. Both had turns in the lead, both pushed hard as race control set their pulses racing with gap-calling, and in the end it was the more experienced Brighton racer who came out on top by a couple of inches. Adrian was to take Main grade honours, nonetheless. The C final also featured Tony Stacey and another local, 14 year-old Dave May. Dave had pulled off a stylish win in the D final, to be classed ahead of host David Hannington, fellow club racer Phil Shearsby and former main grade champion Dave Rouse. Phil had taken the E final win, to leave Paul Whorton and Viking racer Mike Skipper to race for the wooden spoon.

After an F1 A final that quickly became spread out, and was won by Martin, from Andy Whorton, Marc and Robin, lunch and the matter of choosing which class to run became the order of the day. With Craig Homewood absent, and Tony eventually deciding to enter Pro-Mod with a Tomy SG+, Mod class did not run again. Instead nine drivers chose Nascar and the rest Pro. With double-champion Roy Masters hospitalised just prior to the meeting, and recuperating at home, Nascar felt strange despite the large field. Deane was just glad to be racing, suffering from dizziness post his trip to Canada, and neither Robin or Andy Whorton were totally confident of winning in Roy's absence. In the end both did, more on that later!

Open Wheel:

In Pro-Modified, the cars looked as spectacular as ever, but the results followed pretty much what the form book suggested. Marc was not losing much to Martin in any one place, but as he admitted himself could not live with his rival in terms of self-belief and consistency. He had a little in hand over Clive, and in turn Andy Player was best of the rest as he continues to tweak his cars. Further, Dave R was as expected next up, using a G3 with hard body, to leave the experimenting Tony trailing. Tony used a Lexan body on his Tomy chassis, which I believe was otherwise stock. With the two Pro finals completed, it only left the Nascar races to complete a fun and relaxed day. Adrian was again enjoying himself, winning the C final ahead of Dave May and Phil. Mike had been top local this time around, qualifying 6th, he managed to go one better and finish classified as 5th after a really good scrap with Paul. Deane could only manage sixth as his title hopes took a ding. Paul's win meant that both Whorton brothers lined up in the last final of the day, his brother having snatched pole from Robin by a tiny, tiny margin. If either tripped up David Hannington was waiting in the wings. Somehow the drivers, first Robin and then Andy, lined up in the wrong lanes, something that has never happened before.

The mistake was spotted by race control at half distance, but allowed to play out as the options were discussed. Therefore, Robin took the win for a minute or two at least. Race control, mindful that decisions carry a precedent, decided it was only proper the race be run again with everyone in the correct lanes. Inevitably, this time Robin did not win, Andy did, and everyone felt sorry for him despite the decision being the correct one. There is no doubt he will win an round sooner or later, but with Andy in such form and Roy to return at some point it might be a bit of a wait. Robin took the whole thing really well, and in fact this typified the atmosphere in which the whole meeting took place. It was so good to see Adrian driving an HO car in anger at last (and doing well), to see Dave H's effort to take HO to Kent work out, and to hear the other locals asking intelligent questions about the smaller scale.

On a day when my health was not brilliant it was fantastic to pull off a classis EAHORC meeting and my thanks go out to those who pitched in and made it possible.

Closed Wheel:

2010/11 Round 4 MBR HO King's Lynn - 28/11/10

If you would like excel versions of these results click here.

With the current season not even half way through, there was a slightly different vibe to the traditional end-of-year meeting at MBR HO. With the venue unavailable for the first week in December, and the weather freezing, 16 racers gathered at the end of November to relax and race hard, and NOT think about Christmas! Martin Hill had assembled a traditional track after the recent spate of double-backers, with a layout that was fast and looked simple but had lots of challenge and a couple of places that could really bite the unwary. Dave Rouse had installed all the club's own timing gear, which worked flawlessly, meaning Deane Walpole could leave the EAHORC stuff at home.

Formula One kicked off at a couple of minutes past 10am, and as usual qualifying from places 2 to 12 was an intense scrap. Recently there always seems to be a main grade driver punching above their weight, and at least one Tyco chassis in the A final. This time around John Chell provided both those elements, qualifying a superb third early in and the just managing to outdo the likes of Deane, Clive Harland and Andy Player. He thus would line up in the A final with Andy Whorton (Mega-G) and Martin Hill (who was untouchable for the most part).

Finals kicked off with the E final. Unlike his friend, Roy Masters (Tyco) had not been able to benefit from having attended the MBR HO meeting on the 26th, good pace at that meeting seemingly hard to duplicate. He did manage to defeat Paul Homewood (Tyco) and David Hannington (Mega-G) to avoid the wooden spoon. With yellow being a universally avoided lane, he then pushed John Ferrigno (Tyco) hard in the D final from that lane, but ultimately would finish behind him and 13th (with John 12th). The win went to Julian Allard (Mega-G) after a good battle with Craig Homewood (Tyco).

The C final saw Marc Townsend (Mega-G) winning from the tricky green lane, but the championship leader was in damage limitation mode having struggled in the heats after a long journey as designated driver for FLBT. He defeated Andy Player (Tyco), Tony Stacey (Tyco), and Julian (in that order), but still ended the day having dropped behind Martin (Mega-G)  in the points table. The B final was a fantastic scrap, Clive (Mega-G) leading until almost the death but under huge pressure from Deane. A late off saw Deane (Mega-G) sweep through to make the A final in the dreaded yellow lane. Marc had retired with car woes early on, leaving Robin Cornwall (Tyco) to finish 6th. This was a solid back-up to his sensational win last month on a day when once again making that all important top 4 required three top drawer heats, anything less would not do it.

The A final could not match the B, Martin (Mega-G) stretching away from Andy with ease, and John and Deane pushing from the gutters but perhaps just happy to be in the top final on a day when getting there was a brutally hard thing to do. John managed to add a lap to his best score along the way to third, and it will be interesting to see how he goes next time out. It has never been so hard to predict who the top four in F1 will be, a sign of how hard everyone is trying at (and between) the races.

If the racers were buzzing after F1, even better stuff was in store at the end of the day. After a short practice session the closed wheel heats got underway, and exactly half had been completed when lunch was served and the race room emptied faster than a ProMod can lap the track! At this point in time Roy and Deane had absolutely equal scores after two heats, having raced together. When a quick checked revealed they would also be paired for the other two heats, a good scrap certainly looked on the cards. Over five races the pair certainly delivered on that!

With Martin feeling confident in his ProMods he decided to debut his Decosmo chassis for one heat, this being the first run anywhere in Europe as far as I know. Although he lost the race to Marc, lap times suggested to him the project is worth sticking with. Certainly is was nice to see yet another make of chassis out there, as EAHORC continues to be the place to run a huge range of stuff. Using his tried and trusted stuff for the other three heats. Martin was able to take pole by a staggering 22 laps. The win was therefore straightforward, with Marc second and Clive third. Julian continued to squeeze more speed out of his WHP chassis, beating Paul in the B final to take the last spot in the A, with Andy player switching to a WHP steed too, but still struggling and down in 7th.

6th overall had fallen to Dave Rouse. He had provided a big upset in the previous final, hunting down Craig for the Mod win and closing in 2-5 tenths of a second most laps, after Craig had pounded in his usual relentless early laps. The pair crashed heavily approaching the start/finish line with about 45 seconds to go. Sadly, Craig's car has electrical problems, Dave waited because he wanted to drama to continue (which was amazingly sporting) but the red F40 would not spark back into life. Craig held on for P2, with Tony third. At this point we thought the drama was perhaps over for the day...

Before the final Roy vs Deane race could happen, there was a Nascar B final to sort out. Robin won this, beating John Ferrigno and David. He would thus line up on yellow. The danger man was Andy W, fired up after his first really competitive morning of racing for some time, calm and positive despite being in green lane. Roy had gotten red lane, thanking Deane as they lined up for this gift, as he had scored huge in that lane. Deane for his part had his car slammed, and stuck with the lane that had worked best with that in the heats. With Robin proving last month that anything can happen in A finals, four very focused racers formed up at the line therefore.

in the early laps both the gutter-runners were in the race, but early offs for both just as Roy and Deane got into their stride put them out of the picture. The gap was never more than 2 seconds until right at the very end, both drivers had mistakes and incidents and yet remained close on track as it all balanced out. With just over a minute to go, and big crash for one of the other two created a track call, and as the power drained form the track the two rivals stopped side by side! Deane built the gap back to all of 1.5 seconds and held on as Roy crashed just after closing the gap yet again to a couple of feet. Everyone agreed it was yet another classic final, and an awesome way to end the year.

There are better versions of the above JPEGS of these results on the EAHORC FORUM - I will work on some better resizing for January.

DW

2010/11 Round 3 WHO Worthing - 31/10/10

It took a while but the epic battle between the Golloghly brothers some years back, as they battled for a Wizzard class win, has finally been surpassed in terms of the best A final EAHORC has had to date. Robin Cornwall is one of several drivers in the last 2-3 years to make a stunning debut, and then struggle to replicate that form as the almost brutally competitive meetings punish every less-than-A-game set of qualifying heats. There have been signs in the new 2010-11 season he was finding his way again, and yesterday he backed that up in style.

Martin Hill and Marc Townsend had been the stars of F1 qualifying, but Robin had quietly gone about his morning punching in solid score with his Tyco, to ensure once more that at least one of those chassis would be in the top final. He beat several premier grade drivers along the way, and on a day when both gutter lanes offered chances to mix it he could not be discounted. These three would be joined by Andy Player, who had won a B final that had featured a four-way battle in the early laps and had finished with a titanic cat/mouse scrap between Andy and Deane Walpole.

Robin found himself in an early lead once the final was underway, and led at the one minute mark. At that point the race was merely a good one, but as Marc and Martin both failed to find the kind of consistency we all expected at least one to unlock, 'the room' began to sense Robin could do this, and pull for him. 2 minutes gone, and he still led. One or the other of the pursuers was closing at all times, but neither was stringing together a solid run, and in fact Andy was now not far behind either of them. Robin meanwhile, was driving beautifully, at a quick pace but one that was low on risk. Would he hang on?

As the race would down, both Marc and Martin began to close in quite startling lumps of time. They never fully shook off Andy either, but aware of what was possible, he too began to make errors and ultimately held ground as the last amazing seconds ticked off, rather than get into the mix too. At one point it looked all over, Robin had dropped to third, but to his eternal credit he continued to grind out error free laps with the same aplomb as he had whilst soaking up almost an entire A final of insane pressure. As a result when the cars finally came to a halt he was 0.1 laps ahead of Marc. Martin was just 0.15 laps further back.

Andy had scored 19.20, to ensure that all four racer ended on within one whole lap! To put the whole thing in perspective, Marc could of covered the distance he lost by in less than a tenth of a second, and another tenth of a second would have seen Martin alongside too! Needless to say when the trophies were presented at the end of the day, Robin was giving a rousing cheer that probably carried to the sea front!

This amazing final had been preceded by five others. Locals Will and Tim Baker had faced off first, as is nearly always the way the son vanquishing the Dad. Will had then raised his game in the E final, to score more than he had in the same lane in the heats and also beat fellow WHO racers Ashley and Rick Seymour. He did not have enough to beat the sometimes erratic, sometimes rapid Tony Stacey though. Dave Pritchard had come through a tough battle with John Ferrigno in the D final to take that step-up, with Tony and a struggling Roy Masters in their wake.

The C final next, and Deane had come alive having found a brake setting (none as it turned out) he liked by accident, to set what would remain the second highest lap score of the morning and thus beat fellow Prem graders Andy Whorton and Clive Harland as well as Dave. He was in the mix too come the B final, which saw all four cars circulating side by side for the first three laps. This race alone totally vindicated the decision to force Mega-G runners to reduce the width of the front wing, such tooth-and-nail stuff would never has been possible otherwise. Come the finish Andy P had held his nerve, keeping Deane at bay and with Dave Hannington (6th) and John Chell (7th) a fair way back.

With a bunch of locals departing the scene during the lunch break, the meeting took on a more slow-paced and laid back vibe. The consensus was that the afternoon could not match the morning's events, and so it proved, but nonetheless there  was still some hard and uncompromising racing to be done. Nascar, as ever, was fierce. The make-up of the A and B finals was not decided until the last 30 seconds of the last heat, double champion Roy not making the A due to body troubles, and Deane Walpole making it after 2 steady runs. Roy was able to have the last laugh though.

Martin Hill had been utterly dominant in ProMod (nobody ran Mod), ahead of Marc, Clive and Andy P. Both Clive and Marc had various reliability issues in the heats, even more so Andy, so Martin did not even have to break sweat this time around. It seems more a matter of when he wins the title, rather than if, and who can stop him winning all ten rounds. This situation meant that Nascar provided all the afternoon 'excitement', starting with Tony, reluctant to even race in Nascar, winning the C final and then also managing to beat John Chell in the B. He could not compete with Roy or John Ferrigno, but was still learning his SG+ as he went along.

Such was the nature of the four lanes, with drivers really unsure of what to choose for their finals, that Andy W, Deane and Robin found themselves facing one of the best Nascar exponents EAHORC has in red lane. Needless to say none looked confident, and they were proved right! Deane has made the worst choice, crashing on blue in such a way as to end up on another straight on three occasions, twice collected by the helpless Andy, who otherwise had been making a decent race of it from pole in white lane. Roy and Robin managed to avoid any of this, and once both Andy and Deane had decided to retire it was between these two. Yet again, Roy was to show he had too much in hand, and so took an unlikely win to end a second stonking day on the coast.

DW

2010/11 Round 2 LHORC Edmonton - 3/10/10

Top-notch meetings at the now-renowned 'Edmo' venue have become the norm nowadays, but the most recent one managed to raise the bar thanks to a problem with access to tables. John Ovens took the decision to place the track in the larger but more cluttered back room, and to deal with any issues this threw up as best as could be achieved. The result was a track felt by all to be present to be the best so far at the venue. This vote of confidence made the extra time spent setting up more than worth it, and vindicated John's ability to build a stunning layout (he loved playing with the BSTS especially!).

Martin Hill took a fairly straightforward win in F1, but qualifying had been tight with Marc Townsend in hot pursuit. Clive Harland was closer to Martin's one-lap pace, but Marc has put up more big scores. Behind these three automatic A finalists, Andy Player had tied with John's son Michael (racing for the first time in some time) for fourth, getting the nod on countback to dropped scores (a 20.45 in red trumping 19.10 in blue). Ovens Jnr was to have revenge come the B final though, beating Andy by 0.7 laps to ensure once again there would be at least one Tyco chassis in the top final.

Before all that John had won the bottom final, the E, beating a struggling John Ferrigno and Paul Homewood. Deane Walpole won the next final by a inch or two from Robin Cornwall after a couple of hairy last laps between these two after a late. late off by Deane. These two left John O and yet another John (Mr Chell this time) in their wake. Julian Allard, enjoying a seam of good form lately, took the C final after a titanic battle with Andy Whorton. Andy had decided to run a Tyco, with Julian sticking with his fairly recent decision to commit to the Mega-G, and there was very little in it. Well behind them Deane and Craig Homewood finished very close together for the final two places in the top 10.

Julian was to take one further move up the order, narrowly beating David Hannington in the B final to take 6th (and a second consecutive Main grade win), as up ahead Andy P chased Michael in vain. Having had a fraught time at Norwich, Martin appeared to be trying a different tack come the big final, leading but driving well within himself. His pace was only just ahead of Michael and Marc's best laps, and slower than Clive as he attempted to get on terms up front. This resulted in a comfortable, measured victory that will probably unlock an awesome run of results. Martin does wobble, but all his rivals know they are rare and usually lead to devastating form later on. Marc still leads the F1 title race for now, with the return to Worthing next up.

F1 (AM, top) and Closed Wheel (PM, bottom) results

Over the years the popularity of the closed wheel classes has waxed and waned in quite often unpredictable ways, and things flipped once again at Edmo. With Dave Rouse working, Tony Stacey on holiday and Julian (WHP) deciding to switch to ProMod, Craig found himself as the only one in Mod class apart from John O. He was able to take a pretty easy win, John's SRT as quick as ever but unsorted and unable to live with Craig's relentless attacking style and confidence in his awesome Marchon F40. Craig (Slottech) then stepped up into ProMod, this class proving almost as popular as Nascar this time around, and wowed everyone by taking tied second overall in that class in a dead-heat with Clive (Slottech).

Marc (Slottech) had been closest to a frankly on-another-planet Martin (G3) in qualifying, as the later raised the fastest average IPS achieved during EAHORC's history to over 330! Marc was to finish just 0.85 laps down on the dead-heaters, proving that behind Martin at least things are close. Andy Player (G3) looked set to be in that mix too, but in the end armature trouble meant he was lucky ended up 7th overall. Paul continued to struggle with his 905EX in 6th, but improved with each of his five races.

Roy Masters, like mate John Chell passing up to chance to run on the Rockingham oval in Derby scheduled (sadly) for the same day, showed yet again why he is so hard to beat in Nascar. During qualifying, for example, he only grabbed the top score in white lane, but nobody else strung 3 big scores together and that score ended up being the key to yet another pole position. From there he was able to control things as first Robin and then Andy W threw all they could at him before throwing their cars at the barriers a little too often! In the end Robin took runner-up and vows come back harder on home turf later this month.

So wrapped another stonking National race - thanks to all who attended and special thanks to John Ovens for being decisive and creative in equal measure. I have no idea when we will be back at Edmo next, John is a hard man to pin down, but rest assured we will be back...

DW

2010/11 Round 1 NSR Norwich - 5/9/10

Despite the gradual and almost ceaseless increase in EAHORC attendance levels over the years, a G final is still a pretty rare thing. One with Martin Hill in it is something I doubt any of us thought we would see! Nonetheless, the opening round of the 2010/11 season, after a 2 month break which flew by for some and crawled for others, threw up just that scenario as National HO visited Norwich for the first time. Controller issues had the multiple champion is trouble like never before, he then took a record 5 step-ups to save his morning with 5th overall. In fact the only other person to take a step-up was Clive Harland, the racer who thus denied Martin a route 'back' to the A final.

Pole position had been taken by Andy Player. Andy was driving beautifully, happy to not have to run tactically with Main Grade in mind, and mastering the tricky but awesome track with big scores and very few crashes. He therefore became a Prem Grade driver with room to spare and in some style. In the final itself he had to give second best to Marc Townsend, as the FLBT member scored 18.75 to take his third F1 win. Jim Kelly, the main architect of the HO track laid on top of hosting club NSR's routed 'Scalextric' track, showed he had not lost any speed after a long gap away from National HO racing with 3rd overall, with Clive fourth.

With Andy P taking promotion to Prem, top Main Grade driver on the day was a delighted Julian Allard. In fact Julian had the fastest heat lap of everyone in blue lane, to show he really means business this season and will be in the mix during his planned part season. 7th was Roy Masters, with Deane Walpole 8th, John Ferrigno 9th and Craig Homewood completing the top 10. Top local, Jim aside, was Greg Nairn in his second HO event (11th), with the also returning Dan Ellis struggling in a quality field further down. Ryan Betts was setting quick times, but could not match the consistency he has shown in the past (making an A final at MBR once for example). John Parr at last raced HO cars in anger, and his stated intention to come to MBR in November best conveys what he thought of it.

As seems to be the norm now, F1 qualifying was very tight, everyone either in need of a lap here or there to move up or prevent themselves sinking way down the field, and with the middle part of the leaderboard on the move especially right up to the last pair of heats. John F and Craig could not be separated at all for example, both scoring 48.55. Craig was ahead on countback to dropped score, but John bested him come their final. There were many similar tales up and down the entry list, with everyone trying to find their best way to negotiate the 128' track with three bridges and a strong field with real depth.

F1 (AM)

After a short lunch class selection for the afternoon session produced another bumper Nascar field, for what will possible be the most fiercely contested class of all this season. Four drivers chose Mod class, the remaining six Pro-Modified with Paul Homewood and Andy P making the switch to this daunting class. For much of the running double Nascar champ Roy looked on course for pole in that class, but a top score from Jim in yellow proved to be enough to steal it. Deane took third place some distance back but still hoping to be one of the guys in the hunt to stop Roy doing a treble. With the rest of qualifying shaken out, four finals would finish the day.

Any hopes that Martin would still be struggling in the afternoon were quickly dispelled as he was as untouchable as ever in Pro-Mod. However, the battle to see who will be his nearest challenger looks like it will be intense. Andy P was getting used to his G3 for most of the event, but picked it up a notch come the A final having taken the step up from the B ahead of Andy Whorton and Paul. As the final wound down he passed first Clive and then Marc. Heartbreak was too follow all too swiftly as a very late off saw P2 change on the computer screen in the blink of an eye to P4. Notice has been served though I would say!

Dave Rouse may have been shell-shocked by the arrival of Craig Homewood in the Mod class part way through last season, but for the first time he was able to match his younger rival, his F40 sporting new decals and now well and truly sorted. Both drivers took 2 best lane scores each, and 2 fastest heat laps each, to leave the other 2 drivers in the class, Julian and Tony Stacey in their wake. In the end Craig took pole by the ridiculous margin of 0.1 laps and chose green lane with Dave choosing to be next door in yellow. Craig was able to raise his game a little to take the win, the key being to minimise crashes and risk-taking through traffic. Dave was never more than a lap adrift until the later stages, and Craig readily admitted of his four wins in the class, this was the hardest. I think we will see more uncompromising battles from these two.

The first Nascar final saw Dan and young John Molloy doing battle, father Tony deciding to withdraw after a torrid set of heats. He was therefore able to watch John take the win and also the scalp of the still very fast but still erratic Ryan in the next final (won by Greig). The B final turned into a major scrap between David Hannington and John Chell, with David just winning to take the final spot in the last race of the day, the Nascar A final. This quickly split into two battles, Roy keeping Jim honest all the way through and Deane and Dave separated by roughly the length of the main straight most of the time, with both pushing hard. Jim seemed to have it done, but a late off and a delay getting the car back on track meant Roy was right with him at the death. We all know how good Roy in such situations, but in the end Jim was able to hang on by 0.15 laps to ensure the home club took at least one trophy home.

So, another classic EAHORC event, and another thrilling season in prospect, with close racing and good attendance levels, and more importantly great atmosphere. Roll on 'Edmo' on Oct 3rd. Will my voice give out, or will I actually buy the threatened spud-gun? :)

DW

Closed wheel (PM)

2010 Round 6 WHO Worthing - 27/6/10

As we had discussed at a meal the night before the race, what really makes EAHORC work is the people. A really diverse bunch drawn together by one common theme and very little in the way of angst or ego. It is the human interest angle that makes the racing so interesting. Roy Masters was a good example of this, despite still feeling the after-effects of a three week illness he dragged himself the not inconsiderable distance to Worthing because he wanted some fun, and had a job to do in Nascar. EAHORC could be the best thing since sliced bread but would not amount to a hill of beans without such dedication.

Racing started with F1 on the dot of 10am, Roy turning up too late to be added to the spreadsheet by name and so had to race as 'spare'. After some good natured ribbing about that the racing got under way with Martin Hill, John Chell, Dave Rouse and newcomer Andrew Rose on track for the first pair of heats. As we have come to expect, Martin was once again the man to beat as the heats rolled along, but he was not having it all his own way, Andy Whorton besting him in yellow and an impressive Craig Homewood matching him in blue lane. He still took pole, from Andy, with the star of qualifying being David Hannington making his first A final by right. This meant that yet again 2 Megas and two Tycos would contest the top final.

Finals started with the 'F', contested by locals Ashley Seymour, his friend Daniel Healey, WHO Junior medal winner George Barrow and Andrew's daughter Hannah. She drove very steadily and calmly with various degrees of 'moments' going on around her, to beat Ashley by 0.15 laps and progress to the 'E' final. This was won by Andy Player, just ahead of fellow WHO organiser Robin Cornwall, Ashley's Dad Rick and Hannah. Andy would then take second in the next final, but had to give second best to Paul Homewood, although ahead of Clive Harland and John. The C final would see the highest placed of the rookie locals in action, Andrew qualifying an impressive 9th. The final was won by Deane Walpole after a long scrap with Roy. An eventual finishing position of 8th overall for Roy was impressive considering he was far from 100% health-wise. The B final started out with an almighty scrap between Deane, a back on form Dave , and John Ferrigno, but none of them could live with Craig, who therefore got himself into a F1 A final for the first time.

As has become very common when he is in the zone, Martin was able to find extra pace for the final. Andy Whorton had been struggling in the early heats until he found a Tyco to his liking, and come the final he produced a score that would have been enough to win it, but by them Martin had moved the best score on to 21.20 to win comfortably. Craig continued to thrill onlookers, beating David by 8/10ths of a lap to take third place. David had still been impressive, and with Craig joined the long list of Main Grade drivers able to get into the high finals and mix it up. The finals duly dispatched, everyone scattered for lunch, either to chase down some food, or catch a bit of sun or maybe watch the first part of the Grand Prix streamed on Andy Whorton's laptop. With all that done close wheel racing commenced.

The big question about to be answered was would Roy be able to get the job finished? Struggling a little due to his illness he found himself in the B final and facing a pretty stark scenario: If he did not win it and Andy Player was to win the 'A' final he would lose the crown despite the effort he had made to come. If these facts had given him any nerves typically it did not show and he led John Ferrigno over the line to win by a lap, Paul making his life a little easier having dropped out very early on. Roy duly took the title to go with the one he won in 2008, and could relax as he stepped up to a very intense A final. Both Deane and Andy Player had been flying in the heats, with Andy taking pole, having grabbed best score in Yellow and Red (and choosing Yellow for the final). Deane had blitzed everyone in blue and had that lane for the showdown. David has been under the radar somewhat, taking no best scores of fastest laps but quietly qualifying only 1.65 laps off pole.

In much the same way Martin finds another gear, David took an early lead in the final and pushed himself on to new heights as both Andy and Deane furiously hunted him down to no avail. He found an extra 2.4 laps over his heat score in the same lane (Red) and took 3/10ths of a second off his best laptime. Deane and Andy also lowered their best laptime, but the truth was David was driving beautifully and seemed to have them covered. Roy was 4th, but was the only Nascar driver to lap under 8 seconds and also took the best heat score in blue to remind everyone he was still a force, plus of course he had taken 'the big one'.

With Marc Townsend unable to attend and Robin stepping back to Mod having realised his newly fettled WHP chassis still needed the right kit in the tyre/wheel department, there was once again only three Pro-Mod chassis. Martin took pole quite comfortably, although only a lap up on Clive in three of the lane, a stoking score in Blue did the damage. Andy Whorton was even more laps back from Clive on the way to qualifying third than Clive was form Andy and so it was no surprise to find their final not being a particularly close one! They were joined by Craig, who had taken an awesome hatrick of round wins with his Marchon, and was this time persuaded upon the step-up to use an 'proper' Pro-Mod. Despite having to learn the car as he went, and from Yellow lane he was on the pace and finished less than a lap behind Andy to confirm his talent yet again. The real star though was Martin, taking six wins from six this season.

Dave had duly taken runner-up spot in Modified, although this time he did run Craig closer in the final. The problem for the other Mod competitors is Craig is very cool and invariably produces scores right on his potential without the need for headline laptimes. His efficiency in the final, on a fastest lap time of 7.47 was a stonking 98.3% for example , and this was the backbone of a win by 1.35 laps. Robin took 6th in the combined Mod/Pro class, 3rd in Mod, ahead of John Chell (who had decided to one last run in the class ahead of a full on Nascar campaign next season), Andrew with his wonderful Micro RC car conversions and daughter Hannah with a similar vehicle. We don't do concourse awards, but if we did...

With the finals wrapped all the remained was to give out the trophies for the day and of course for the season. This time around the winners got small 'keeper' trophies to go with the ones they will (hopefully) hand back a year from now. To remind you the winners were: Martin Hill (F1, Pro-Modified and the EAHORC Cup), Roy Masters (Nascar) and Dave Rouse (Modified). This winners took the glory in what I think has been easily the best season so far in terms of Vibe, attendance and close racing. Thanks go to all the participants who have made that possible. Have a great summer! DW

2010 Round 5 Pinewood Wokingham- 16/5/10

Sometimes you set up an event to be something big and fate conspires against you. At the second time of asking, the second HO Grand Prix did not fall foul of that possibility. In many ways, avoiding such ignominy was made easier but once again being back at the superb Pinewood venue and once again building an HO track on top of their impressive 1/24th scale raceway. Helped by the fact that some more of the stunning BSTS pieces arrived a few days before, including some straights, and the purchase of a really nice slew of trophies discounted by the event sponsor, all we needed was a field with some depth and strength in depth, and as the room filled up as 10am approached it became clear all the boxes were going to be ticked.

Racing started a few minutes after the appointed hour. The vast majority seemed to be enjoying the large track, with the new sections giving us options we did not have in 2008. Following the track underneath did involve some trial and error to get the right amount of flow and challenging switchbacks, with allowing for good entry speed onto the two long straights an priority. Next time we might have 22.5 degree corners, which should enable the track to be an even better one. Watching the F1s was fascinating, the Mega-Gs having a slight edge out of the twisties and on the second half of straights and the Tyco striking back in the gutter lanes.

Martin Hill was on a mission to put his Purton woes behind him, and make sure he left at the end of the day still the only person the win the HOGP. Purton F1 winner Marc Townsend and local superstar Simon Scott kept him honest during qualifying, but he was not to be denied pole. Simon carried the main hopes for the Tyco, but not far behind in the heats was legend Tony Baldock making his first race appearance since January. With ten trophies on offer, the target for all was to qualify for the top three finals or at the very least a decent lane in the D final. As has become the norm now, there was lots of very close racing with everyone pushing hard to get into those positions.

Finals started with the G, Dave Rouse besting newcomer Mike Tolley from the Molesey club. Mike had done well in the heats, on a very steep learning curve, but F1 is a fierce class and somebody has to end up with the wooden spoon. Much better was to follow. Next up was the F, won by Paul Homewood using a Mega but unhappy with his performance overall. The E final was won by Roy Masters, who had shocked Andy Player and Deane Walpole but rolling up unexpectedly, thus taking the Nascar racing that would follow that afternoon to a whole 'nother level. Roy beat Julian Allard, who in turn beat an improving David Hannington by just 2 hundredths of a lap. Now things would get interesting as those trophies loomed large!

The D final line-up consisted of Roy, Tony Stacey, who hated the track but had performed solidly, John Chell, another doing the maximum in a tough field, and John Ferrigno from Worthing. The winner would be guaranteed a trophy of some kind. The two John's put on a great show, with the former showing how far he has come since he started by taking a very popular win and pumping in a fastest lap 4 tenths of a second of the other three (who were evenly matched). As things moved toward the sharp end, everyone now racing would get some kind of gong, but nobody was settling and the racing would continue to be close. Andy P took the C win, putting in a score that showed what he could do if not having to play it tactically, whilst Clive Harland and Deane has a momentous scrap behind and only a lap ahead of Mr Chell.

The B final next, and the battle to see who would join Martin, Marc and Simon for the big one. Andy Whorton had endured a nightmare time a Purton on his return after the birth of his second child, and was already happy to be back in the top six. He put together a solid race, running within what he could do, and leaving Tony Baldock, local Paul Charlton and Andy Player to put on a monster display as they battled behind him. Andy P was last, but only a tenth of a lap behind Paul and a fine effort in a lane most people endured far more than enjoyed. Tony B was only another 0.17 laps up the road, as EAHORC once again revelled in putting on no-quarter-asked-for-or-given F1 racing.

The HO Grand Prix A final itself was not a classic. However watching the race with a timing monitor in view showed four guys pushing like crazy even though the risks where immense, especially Simon. He got the gap down to one second on two occasions but Martin was driving as his very best too and was soaking up the pressure despite the  lead never going above 6 seconds at any point. Marc was also pushing hard, and was only just over 3 tenths of a lap behind Simon at the finish, despite picking the wrong lane for the final, erroneously thinking it had already gone. So the second HOGP wrapped with another good bunch of races, the handing out of the trophies and then into a quick lunch with the Monaco F1 race being streamed for those interested.

2010 HO Grand Prix results:

For the Afternoon, Tony B departed on an errand and we also lost Marc, who headed off the see Oxford win at Wembley. His departure meant there would only be three Pro Modifieds, with a further four picking Mod and another bumper Nascar field, including the top three in that championship after Roy's change of heart. He would not take pole, but in the closest qualifying battle in EAHORC's history, was only 2 hundredths behind John Chell, who had made a class switch and was driving beautifully. Insanely, Paul Charlton was only another 13/100ths of a lap back in third, with the 3 B finalists 1.02, 1.11 and 1.2 laps off pole itself (and very close to each other). The A final was an absolute classic. Roy, John and Paul were joined by Mike, who produced one of the drives of the day to beat Deane Walpole and Andy P in the B final, despite both those drivers pushing like mad in a desperate bid to prevent Roy from putting the title beyond doubt.

With Mike having to contend with yellow, it was left to the other three to put on a barn burner. Roy started off in his usual measured way, a master of coming on strong later in races, and it was Paul that held sway for most of the race. He made a late error, with much sympathy to be heard around the room, after an otherwise controlled and impressive run. As Roy swept through, JC was right with him, both then survived a late off thanks to the best bit of marshalling of the day by Craig Homewood, and it was he who overturned the formbook to take the win by just 14 hundredths of a lap. Paul recovered well,  and was only 9 hundredths of a lap behind at the death. Another lap, and who knows?

The other two finals could not live with that, Martin brushing Andy W and Clive aside in Pro, and Craig taking an impressive win in Mod, showing if anything even more poise and guile than at Purton. Dave Rouse was again second, this time with a bright yellow F40 copying the Walpole screw idea used on Craig's Marchon. Julian was third ahead of a very out of sorts Tony Stacey. Dave clinched the title, but behind him there is much to play for.

Thanks to all who helped make the meeting one of the best, if not the best, EAHORC has ever put on. Congrats to Martin Hill for winning three more championships, truly a pleasure to watch somebody so on top of their game set records that will probably stand for ever. Lots of contenders below him, but who will step up?

Afternoon results:

If you would like excel versions of these results click here.

2010 Round 4 FLBT Purton- 18/4/10

Round four of the 2010 season turned out to be a meeting where almost all of the efforts to build a high attendance worked at the same time, with the result 26 racers rolled up on a sunny day that clashed with an F1 race. The organiser had had to press the EAHORC extenders into action for the first time in ages, and ad-hoc tables had been brought along on race day by the returning Andy Whorton, such was the need for extra pit space. The resulting meeting was one of the best ever, as EAHORC celebrated it's 8th birthday in style. It was Marc Townsend, using an A.F.X Mega-G fettled by fellow premier-grade drive Clive Harland, who led the way as F1 started proceedings. Martin Hill, looking for his fourth win from four starts this season was by contrast struggling to master the large and technical track and would qualify only 5th.

A scrappy B final would mean he did not progress to the A final either, with Marc the only premier grade driver to make the top final. He would face John Ferrigno (who did take the B step-up) and Tony Molloy, both building on the promise shown on their debuts to make the blue riband final at only their second attempt. Andy Player completed the A final line-up nudging closer to Premier status with every meeting.

Before that we had to complete no less than 8 finals to follow the 26 heats, with lunch taking place at 1340! The H final saw local lad Rowan Ripley, at first reluctant to take part at all for fear of showing himself up, take the win just ahead of another local lad Evan Webster. Dave Hannington found himself racing former Main Grade Champion Dave Rouse and BSCRA Chairman Rob Lees in the G final, but came through to win by a lap and a half from Rob, with Dave struggling and only a lap ahead of Rowan. Andy, back after a three race bout of paternity leave, was another one really struggling, two retirements in his first pair of heats leaving him mired in the F final. He won that but would progress no further, and must be hoping to get back to his former status for Pinewood.

Robin Cornwall would take the next win, in the E, putting not only Andy but another struggling premier grade driver, Roy Masters, to the sword. Julian Allard, another driver finding improved form would win the D final, 1.04 laps ahead of John Molloy who had also taken a step up since his last race (his debut). Things started to really heat up as the C final got underway, Craig Homewood driving with real panache to edge out Kevin Gee, making his EAHORC debut and first time racing HO since the 2009 AFX 6 hours. Craig's dad Paul had been in the hunt too and was only a lap and a bit behind Kevin at the finish.

Most expected Martin to take the B final step up from blue lane, but he had a very uncharacteristic off on the first lap and struggled to get back into the game, not least because up front John and Clive were setting a furious pace and with Craig in touch too. John swept through in the end to deny yet another pair of premier graders access to the A final, just 0.15 laps ahead of Clive.

This left Marc to defend the supposed elite's honour, which he duly did having dug deep from a yellow lane in which only he seemed comfortable. None of the Main graders were able to take the instant promotion on offer therefore, but all drove out of their skins. John took second, sneaking the place ahead of Andy P on the last lap, with Tony M only one lap back. Marc was, perhaps understandably, more relieved than anything, as the standard of competition in EAHORC F1 continues to climb from already high levels.

For the afternoon, six drivers picked Pro Modified as their class, and 8 Modified with the rest in a bumper Nascar field. Impressively, just as in the morning, nobody needed to use club cars. Roy was the class of Nascar once again during the heats, and Martin was as imperious as ever in Pro as he decided to put his F1 woes behind him

. Craig and Dave R were neck and neck in Mod, the youngster revelling in a Martin Hill prepared car passed onto him by his Dad after he decided to stick with the stock cars. In the end stonking scores in Blue and White lanes saw Craig take pole by a big margin, and Dave's perfect season was under threat. Julian Allard continued his massive battle with Tony Stacey, just edging him in the heats this time around. And so to the finals.

Pro Modified went first. Andy W was somewhat fortunate to win through the B final without having to push to much due to mechanical issues for Rob and a DNS for Robin. He would then beat Marc in the A final, the F1 winner's car seeming to be down on performance after a big off. Martin was untouchable, although Clive was giving it his all before settling for second place. In Nascars Roy led as expected, but not by as much as expected. in fact he probably would have had his hands even more full if Andy P and Deane had not been involved in a huge scrap, Deane twice coming onto Andy's tail and taking runner up spot by a single hundredth of a lap at the death. Both scored more in their respective lanes than they had in the heats, whilst Roy scored less but used his well-known coolness to edge it.

Modified really saw Craig come of age. Following advice given prior to his final, he held back whilst Julian and Dave R led initially, with Tony Stacey (having taken the B step up with a very strong drive) in close company. He then got into a rhythm, moved to the front and edged away from Dave. Never far enough ahead to relax he drove with few errors as the clock wound down to take the most popular win of the day. What odds Paul takes back the F40 for Pinewood? LOL. So, all in all a truly fabulous day. A venue bursting at the seams, a great buzz in the air, shocks aplenty and some trademark awesome races. Roll on the next round.

If you would like excel versions of these results click here.

2010 Round 3 MBR HO Kings Lynn- 21/3/10

A slightly surreal meeting to start with, as host Martin Hill and Dave Rouse turned out to be the only locals present. The much vaunted EAHORC 'vibe' was further tested by electrical problems in blue lane, and yet I think the Association came through with flying colours. In all 13 racers pitched up for F1, and it quickly became apparent that behind a flying Martin everything was to play for so competitive was everyone's scores. With Clive Harland's brilliant new spreadsheets being used for the first time it was once again possible to sort the scores mid way through the heats, and this really showed everyone's fortunes changing heat by heat.

In the end Clive was best of the rest behind Martin (the only two to use Mega-Gs), with Andy Player making his first A final by right and second since starting out in HO last October. The step up was taken by Roy Masters with a comfortable win in the B, leaving mate John Chell (with a career best 5th overall to show for his morning), Julian Allard and impressive newcomer John Ferrigno in his wake. John had qualified well given the tight margins between scores, and then took some major scalps on the way to a popular win in the C final, namely Dave Rouse, Paul Homewood and Tony Stacey. Tony had something of a wild day, pushing too hard on a track he could not master, but a stonking 20.55 in the unfavoured yellow lane, beaten by nobody and 1.7 better than Martin, showed raw pace was still there.

Dave meanwhile has recovered from a woeful qualifying by his usual standards to win the D final, but had nearly been undone by Craig Homewood (who had driven really well in the heats but had lost out in the closeness of it all, as well as a fourth score tiebreaker), and then moved up a couple more spots to take 8th overall. Robin Cornwall and Deane Walpole were left to fight out last place, with Deane victor but unable to finish higher than 12th.

Below for the first time is a lap chart generated by trackmate lap times, with the raw data converted to positions with excel and then made into an image file doctored in photobucket. If it sounds quite a bit of work, it is!

 For the Afternoon 6 drivers chose to be merged with the Pro Modified runners, down to three due to the absence of Marc Townsend, with four choosing Nascar, including Paul making his first foray into closed wheel racing. Martin was once again untouchable, not massively faster than Clive in any one area, but enough on all lanes and with so few mistakes the margins just built and built. Robin was a fair way back, awaiting new parts to get his Storm on par with the competition. Andy seemed to be struggling to live with Roy in Nascar, this championship really shaping up to be one to watch, with Deane showing more pace but making far more errors. Roy and Andy would actually run quite close come the final, with Deane in the mix early on, but one always felt Roy (a wily EAHORC campaigner by now) had plenty in hand and so it proved.

Similarly Dave Rouse was to take yet another win in Modified, leaving John Chell and Craig (also making his closed wheel debut) behind him and Tony struggling once more but very fast when he could stay on. This made it three win from three, with fellow MBR HO member Martin taking 6 wins from 6 and still on maximum points in the EAHORC cup. As a result that club have built up what could be a decisive lead in the club championship but the battle behind is intense with three clubs practically level at half distance.

If you would like excel versions of these results click here.

Click here to download AM results as a spreadsheet and here for PM results.

2010 Round 2 LHORC Edmonton- 21/2/10

Despite the second round of the EAHORC championship being on the same weekend as many other slot car events, 19 people came along to Edmonton, making it the most successful meeting there to date. Formula one racing started a few minutes after 10am, with Martin Hill in probably his most imperious form ever, which is saying something. Once again the field behind him was ridiculously competitive, with Tony Stacey the driver to punch above his weight this time, taking the 3rd automatic place in the A final. Paul Homewood, the driver to watch last time out, proved that was no fluke by qualify a solid 5th, one place behind the ever improving Andy Player.

By contrast, the hero of the December round, Roy Masters, was struggling for consistency down in 16th place! Three newcomers from the prospective Kent-based HO club made their EAHORC debut. Tony Molloy would eventually finish 13th but put in good fastest laps in all his heats, so will be another one in the mix once he find some consistency. His son John and David Hannington also enjoyed their day, and plans are afoot for a return visit to pick up where they started. With the heats finished and lunch looming, the spreadsheet was quickly sorted and the finals got under way, starting with 'Edmo's' first ever F final, won by an unwell but still quick Craig Homewood. Dave Rouse, another driver struggling despite some quick laps times, won the E final, vanquishing Daniel Stacey and his father Steve as well as Roy.

For the D final Deane Walpole had managed to turn his form around a little and was somewhat closer to where a premier grade should be. With the competitiveness of the class the way it is now, he found himself up against the impressive Tony Molloy, Julian Allard on pole and of course Dave, capable of anything even from white lane. In the end Deane did win, but the race was a classic. The Red Bull Mega-G lead throughout, with first Julian and then Dave applying mighty pressure. Their scrap for second probably left Deane just the breathing space he needed to win by just 2/10ths of a lap, with Dave a mere 5 hundredths of a lap ahead of Julian! Tony trailed home behind all this but again fired in fastest lap of the race by way of warning shot for the future.

The C final was almost as good a race, Robin Cornwall having to find the right balance of speed and caution to keep back John Chell and win by just .35 laps. The B final kept up this amazing run, the whole field covered by less than two laps, with Andy Player just about beating John Ovens as the latter took sizable chunks out of his lead in a no holds barred attempt to win. Would the cat and mouse racing continue on into the A final? The line-up was Martin as hot favourite, Clive Harland in Blue having secured his promotion to premier grade by making the final, Tony Stacey as  the underdog and Andy following his step-up.

In the end Martin crushed them all, with Andy taking a surprise second after taking a clever approach to the race, waiting for others to over-do it. Clive took third on his Prem grade debut, with Tony last but very happy to make the final and beat 15 other hard charging drivers. Lunch was trimmed to 30 minutes following this final, the two rooms layout at Edmo again making it slower than idea assembling each race, with 4 drivers choosing Pro for the first time, 7 Nascars and the rest in in Modified.

Martin was untouchable in Pro, but with three others in that class he knew that the pressure was on nonetheless. Any off track excursion with these cars is always likely to be a biggie, so his approach was to run all four heats at the absolute limit so as to be in that mindset come the final, and then build a big enough lead that a crash would not wreak the gameplan. It all worked out perfectly, but everyone was taking big risks at some point, the big, 1-3 lap losing, de-slot just waiting to pounce. Toward the end, Robin had a sniff at third and snuck past Clive with Marc Townsend the closest to giving Mart real pressure, finishing runner up. Despite winning by a big margin Martin's relief at the finish was palpable, as he knows how easy it is to throw it away. For those spectating, these cars continue to be the prefect way to finish the day, especially if you are not marshalling!

Nascar saw Andy continue to have a stonking day, beating Roy despite the Leighton Buzzard resident producing some quick lap times and scores, a 6.18s in red particularly standing out, on the way to class pole. Steve Stacey took a superb third, beating round one winner Deane who was in damage control mode after a torrid set of heats and yet more mechanical woe. Tony M was sixth, but yet again the lap times suggest more is to come so as those three battle away he could be in there making things difficult. Daniel was 5th, with John M 7th but showing flashes of real pace.

With four Pro-Mods entered for the first time, Modified ran as a separate class. Dave Rouse was the star here, although John Ovens, Julian and Tony S all produced the goods at some point during the heats. Qualifying behind Dave had been incredibly close, but it was Julian who took the fight to him in the end, beating John O narrowly in the B final and then being less than half a lap behind in the big one as Dave stuttered. Tony Stacey was third, but produced fastest lap to show what might have been. David stuck with his un-sorted short Mega-G in this class, but I suspect he will have headed off after a fun day plotting what to do next.

I believe EAHORC is in the best state ever right now, huge camaraderie as the video for this month shows, but some very intense racing and it is so competitive in all classes. Who finds the most race-craft to go with their speed keeps shifting with every meeting and you never now how it is going to shake out, all you can do is bring your A game to every race and to every heat - and hope that is enough. DW

If you would like excel versions of these results click here

Click here to download AM results as a spreadsheet and here for PM results.

2010 Round 1 SCHORC yelling- 24/1/10

Back to Yelling for the commencement of the short 2010 season. With the snow threatening the event earlier in the month it was a relief to see it fade away and 15 racers able to get to the village without problems. Tony Baldock came along with dad Peter to compete in his first EAHORC meeting since January 2007, and with friend Ian Grinham also in tow and making his first appearance since 2003! The racing kicked off with F1, with Martin Hill not suffering his usual January wobbles (they were to come later) to qualify on pole in part thanks to an untouchable score in what was to become the popular white lane. Tony was, as expected, up the sharp end with his Tyco, with Marc Townsend at last unlocking speed from his Mega-G to make the A final.

They were joined by local Paul Homewood, who led the vast majority of a very intense B final which required him to soak up pressure from all the other three as they battled hard. The E final had seen son Craig take the step up to the D, which was won by Dave Rouse but with Craig pushing him all the way and beating Julian Allard and Tony Stacey. These two finished 1/100th of a lap apart. The C final was won by Roy, the hero from last month struggling to match those heights, but now driving sweetly in the finals to beat Peter, Dave and Clive Harland and have a real shout in the B final.

This race was a classic, all four drivers in with a serious chance of making the A final at some point. Just when Paul thought he could relax as one rival crashed, another would pop up 2-3 seconds behind him. Late on Roy was showing the most pace and moved up to 3rd and  then 2nd in rapid succession, and got the gap to the leader under 2 seconds before a crash dropped him back. Ian now found himself in second, and only a third of a lap behind, but Paul held on a drove with much aplomb as he had throughout and to make his first A final. After that the A itself was a bit of an anti-climax with the field spread out by half distance. Martin duly took a win with his Mega-G with Tony B second, Marc third and Paul a still stunning 4th considering the quality of the field.

For the afternoon, Marc and Clive duly entered Pro-Mod as expected and quickly got to grips with their new Slottechs. The pace of these cars now they are on lexan bodies is such they a crash is likely to be big and result in the loss of a lap, possibly two, so the stakes are very high. Martin produced fastest laps in all four lanes, but it was Clive pumping in the big scores as he wisely held a little in reserve compared to Martin and Marc. John Chell had also entered Pro, but was having a torrid time with his body clip and never figured. Clive took pole by five laps, with Martin behind Marc by a whopping eight, but still getting white lane for the final. Deane Walpole had found some form, using Martin's Nascar to take pole in a fierce battle with Tony B, and Dave had proved to be the fastest of the three Mod racers.

Finals commenced with Mod, Dave finding himself first under pressure from Tony S and then unexpectedly from Julian who had been having a torrid time in the heats with motor clip problems but came good when it mattered. In the end Dave won by 0.8 of a lap, with Julian just under two ahead of Tony. Nascar next and Peter initially looked the most likely to take the step up until an off saw his body clip scupper his chances, leaving Roy to again come on strong in the finals but not before having to see off a charging Ian, who had improved his score in yellow by 2 laps but could not quite get by. The A final saw everyone except Roy get off to a terrible start, but he then made what has now become uncharacteristic mistakes to squander  the advantage and fall behind Deane and Tony as they headed into a private battle of their own.

Tony initially held sway, but Deane was closing in and encouraging race control to call the gaps. An off from the multiple champion just as Deane had got to within a few inches back saw the lead change hands, and trouble with his clip would see Tony eventually finishes last. Deane therefore took his first A final win since mid way through 2008, with Andy second but not much ahead of Roy. The day wrapped with the Pro final, Martin switching to a BSRT chassis. He was on a mission to put his heat woes behind him, and leading from the off.  As the clock wound down, one mistake would have been fatal to his chances, so the race was tense as all three pushed to the maximum. Martin came through with an amazing 42.92 laps, with Clive second on 41.33 and Marc fast but trying too hard on 38.41 but well ahead of a still struggling John. A set of good finals then, with the F1 B being the best and the highlight Paul's resulting 4th place. Well done to him and to all who attended for making it a great day.

DW

If you would like excel versions of these results via google docs - click here and here

To see race reports from the 2009 season go here

To see race reports from the 2008 season go here

To see race reports from the 2007 season go here

To see race reports from the 2006 season go here

For an archive of our 2003, 2004 & 2005 seasons go here

To return to main page click here