ALL SORTS RACE NIGHT REPORT

The little blue Alpine rally car had managed to get alongside the bright red MAN truck as they went under the bridge. He needed to make the pass, but was now on the outside of the truck as they came to the right-hand kink… a gasp from the onlookers as the big rig at first lurched on to two wheels, then left the slot, then came crashing down on its side on top of the Alpi..no, wait a minute, the little car had somehow made it through, and was already firing down the next straight. Yes, MHSC have had another ‘Allsorts’ fun night, where each driver gets to race six very different slot vehicles and the winner is the driver with the shortest time taken to complete all of his 15-lap heats. Let’s look at the noble steeds we had to contend with:

Red lane had a Ninco Calloway of considerable vintage, but this one was armed with an NC6 motor for a bit of extra ‘poke’ down the MHSC’s straights. As red lane is the trickiest of the lot, this big benign old GT turned out to be a nice surprise, with predictable handling and a good turn of speed, and the leading contenders were all able to post good times with it.

Yellow lane was next, occupied by one of the new SCX Alpine A110 rally cars. This bijou bolide benefited from the power being turned up to 18 volts on that lane. SCX motors like volts, and we all loved this little car, with smiles all round as it powered out of the corners with a little wag of its tail. What a joy!

By way of a contrast, blue lane, normally one of the quickest, gave the driver the chance to race a Ninco BMW Rally/Raid vehicle, all knobbly and wobbly with its sprung this, that and the other. Ok, it wasn’t meant to be the easiest race night we’d ever had, and a fast race circuit is not really the environment for a top-heavy off-roader! Still, it was perhaps remarkable how well it cornered on two wheels, and it did pull spectacular ‘wheelies’ with the aid of its sprung drop-arm. Unforgettable, even after therapy.

Next up, on white lane, was the Fly MAN truck, with all the weight (and brakes) of a model supertanker. It was surprisingly quick down the straights, but you did have to start braking at least five feet before everyone else did. Good fun, though, and you could get rid of the opposition by falling over on them, which was quite handy. It was an amazingly effective roadblock as well!

Trying hard not to get squashed by the truck was a Ninco AC Cobra on brown lane, which some loved and others loved a lot less. For those who revel in classic cars, and the handling that they come with in slot form, the Cobra was a lot of fun, and it had some good races with the Alpine. The Cobra can be less forgiving than Liz Hurley, but careful handling brings great rewards (careful handling of the Cobra, that is, I don’t know about Liz Hurley).

Finally, we had a nice Slot.it Porsche 956 on green lane. This car was box-standard apart from having P4 rear tyres and posted some great times, showing how fundamentally good the chassis design is, and the 2.5 amp power supplies at MHSC helped the motor to perform at its best.

So to the racing, and everyone seemed to have at least one nightmare run to blame for their overall position – everyone except for Roland Brooks, that is, whose consistently good races with everything meant that he won overall by over seven seconds (quite a margin by MHSC standards) from Ric Woods. Ric had his own personal nightmare with the big BMW (“I have only one word for that thing, and it’s unrepeatable”) and dropped over seven seconds to Roly’s time… Everyone agreed that talented veteran Roly (who has forgotten more about slot racing than most people) took a very well-deserved win. Oh what fun we had!

The Final Standings:

1. Roland Brooks

2. Ric Woods

3. Martin Dixon

4. Matt Brice

5. Graham Hardy

6. Ken Webb

7. Nic Picot

8. Brian Keane