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The classes of car used in the Summer Classic are 1/32nd Vintage G.T. and 1/24th Vintage Le Mans/Can Am cars.
Racing began with the 1/32nd scale cars. Apart from a couple of Ferraris and one Mercedes-Benz, the cars of choice are the American favourites, the Cobra and the Sting Ray. The cars pictured to the right are lined up to take part in a Concours d'Elegance, prior to the start of racing. The winner, chosen by the assembled company was Joël's Daytona Cobra, #5. The format for both classes run during the day was as follows; each driver would complete four 3-minute heats, one heat on each of the four lanes, with the total number of laps, plus extra parts of laps, being added up at the end. Then a series of run-offs take place with the winner of each race being moved up to compete in the race with faster drivers until eventually, the top three from the heats are joined by the winner of the penultimate race, to make a four-driver final. The run-offs were run over 15 laps with the higher placed drivers in each race having choice of lanes.
The 1/32nd cars are not shatteringly fast, lapping the Southend circuit at over 10 seconds for the quicker cars and up to around 12 for some of the others. This meant that the number of laps completed in the 3 minutes ranged between 14 and roughly 17.5, with Steve Carter setting the fastest lap in the heats at 10.455 seconds. Worth a mention here is David Lawson's efforts to get his green Cobra running properly, which it never really did although the need to push start it did diminish as the heats wore on. Vic lost a rear wheel from his Ferrari near the end of his final heat, costing him about a lap while an alternative car was grabbed and put on the track.
At the end of the heats it was Joël Thura who led the way with Steve Carter second and Alan Shawe third. Tony Avis won the first run-off race and surprised everyone, especially himself, by winning the second one too, thus putting himself into the final with the aforemention three hot shoes! But there he met his Waterloo, finishing 4th behind Joël who was beaten into 3rd place by Alan but neither could touch the excellent pace of the 1/32nd Champion, Steve Carter although Joël did set the fastest lap with a 10.435.
Steve was presented with the trophy by Pete Shepherd who dreamed up the whole idea of the Summer Classic some years ago.
This concluded the first half of the day and gave the members an opportunity to browse the amazing collection of slot cars spares, cars and assorted goodies, laid out under Joël's gazebo which protected most of the stock, by Phil Smith, purveyor of all things slottish.
Following a tea and coffee break, admirably made by our resident chef, Vic Bettell who, it must be mentioned, is now our treasurer and the man who beats money out of us all every time we have a meeting, the 1/24th cars were lined up for their Concours d'Elegance. Happily, Mark Nicholson was able to join us for the afternoon session so an extra car was presented for judgement.
As you can see there was an excellent variation of cars in the 1/24th class. Two vastly different Lotuses, a type 40 and a Europa! There are Porsches, Lolas, Chaparrals, a Mercedes-Benz, a Ferrari and Tony's amazing Allard! The car chosen as the winner of this display was Steve Carter's Chaparral, #66.
The format for the second event may have been the same as for the first but the lap speeds certainly were not. The 1/24th scale cars are quite fast, with lap times well down in the mid 9 seconds bracket by the quicker cars and lap totals getting very close to 20 by the quickest of the drivers.
One of the nicest features of the Southend club is the willingness of its members to lend cars to those less fortunate than themselves. This particularly applies in the case of Barry Boor, who is far too mean to spend money on slot cars so was lent a 1/32nd car by David Lawson and a 1/24th Ferrari by Joël Thura.
At the completion of the ten 3-minute heats it was Joël who set the bench mark with over 78 laps in the 12 minutes, from Alan, with Barry shockingly high up in 3rd. This was a false position because after a reasonable 17 laps in the first heat, the Ferrari Barry was driving, broke down just past half way through the second. Joël quickly removed it from the track and replaced it with a rocket ship!
Phil Smith had problems in a couple of the races with his Porsche actually siezing solid for initially, no apparent reason. His did manage to get it sorted for the run-offs. Indeed, Phil had it going well enough to win the first of the 15 lap run-off races which put him into the second race with Mark, Tony and Steve. Mark drove his Lotus beautifully in the second race to come home first and give him the opportunity of racing the top three from the heats.
However, the speed of Joël's Lola was just way too much for everyone in the Grand Final and he drove a perfect, controlled race to win despite being pursued relentlessly by Barry in Joël's other, illegal, car. Joël admitted that he was cruising although a fastest lap of 9.303 would suggest a pretty fast cruise. Alan was a steady 3rd - 2nd in the true, hard-bodied race, with Mark finishing a very creditable 4th (3rd) overall.
Joël was presented with the trophy once again, by Pete, something that has allegedly happened a few times before!
With the rain still falling, the track was covered over as usual and we all left for home after a most enjoyable day's racing. |
Unfortunately, the Lola in question, although extremely fast, has a Lexan body and thus is not eligible to race in this class and so although it was used for the rest of the afternoon, Barry would not have been allowed to take home the trophy even had he managed to come first - which was never likely. But it was fun to drive!