The cars chosen for this year's event were le Mans cars from the years 1965 to 1975 with the addition of the Ford P.68.

6 hours of racing for each team lay ahead so it was decided to bring the start time forward an hour to 10am.

Heat #1 and Springbok took an early lead with English American Racing (EAR) 2nd, the Blades 3rd and PGs 4th with Southend Slot Racing Club (SSRC) sitting out the first heat and entering the fray in heat #2. SSRC opened their account with an impressive 210 laps which will prove to be the highest heat score of the race.

Still it only earned them 4th place at the end of the heat #2. Lots of close racing ensued and the true positions would not be known until the end of heat #5 when all 5 teams had missed one heat and we were 2½ hours into the race. At this point SSRC had played catch up to take 1st place from Springbok, EAR, the Blades dropping down to 4th and PGs losing ground in 5th .

At the end of heat #6 the 30 min lunch break was very welcome. Time for a well deserved cuppa, a snack and to prepare for the 2nd half of the race.

Heat #7 was the start of the 2nd half and at the end of it, EAR had dropped from 3rd to 5th but SSRC suffered an even bigger drop from 1st at the end of heat #5 to 4th . The Blades took the lead followed by Springbok and the PGs easing into 3rd although a long way adrift. On to heat #9, and possibly the best heat of the race, with four teams topping the 200 lap mark and only 3 laps separating them after 30mins of intense racing. Well done all!!

The Blades looked a good bet for the win but Springbok, SSRC and EAR were not giving up. The Blades completed their race at the end of heat #14 and set the bar for the others to chase. SSRC had the best chance having worked their way up to 2nd and requiring only 161 laps to overtake the Blades. Springbok and EAR were still in with a shout requiring 181 and 198 laps respectively and do-able.

When the chequered flag fell at the end of heat #15, SSRC took the laurels by 25 laps from the Blades in 2nd; 3rd were Springbok 7 laps behind and 4th EAR only 1 lap behind. After 6 hours of close racing to have only 33 laps separating the top 4 teams is a credit to all the racers and 1 lap separating Springbok and EAR was amazing.

We did suffer a few technical issues which meant the race finished at just before 7pm. Many thanks to all the SSRC members for their support and hopefully we can do it all again next year.

Graham