Last night at Steve's place was really a lot of fun!We decided to run Fly Classics
again with open tops in order to allow Brian II to be present when we run our NASCAR's. There were four
(4) of us including Steve on hand to race last night and boy was the competition fierce. Everyone has plenty of cars in this
category to choose from, however the Chevrons and Porsche 908's always seem to rise to the top. Steve H. was the exception
in the he campaigned a Ferrari 512S that was very quick indeed.
Practice time was a bit protracted with Brian I and David B. AKA Rev arriving
late and still needing to tune their cars a bit. Soon everyone was reasonably satisfied with their entrants and we got down
to qualifying. Chris W. was first to qualify and ran a best time of 13.0 seconds. Next up was Brian I who put in a very impressive
12.4 second lap to take the pole from Chris. Yours truly was up next and the best I could do was to match Brian I's time.
Steve H. brought up the rear and put in a blistering lap of 12.3 seconds taking the pole from Brian I.
The first race pitted the pole
sitter Steve H. against the slowest qualifier Chris W. The handicap in Chris's favor couldn't have been tougher Steve to overcome.
With a 10.5 second deficit to work past the outlook seem dark for Steve. The start of the race saw Steve
H. Get off to one of his patented quick starts leaving Chris W. in the dust. However Chris clawed his way back and stayed
within striking distance so that he was in a prime position to take advantage of his handicap leaving Steve sitting in the
pits waiting for fuel while Chris built up a considerable lead. It looked as though Chris was not be denied for he was driving
extremely wellHe was circulating the track very close to his qualifying time when he
had an off that brought Steve back in to contention. Steve H. was able to pass Chris on the last lap to take a well deserved
win in the first heat. Their second heat began much like the first one except Chris had a couple of atypical off for him that
never let him get within striking distance of Steve before the first fuel stop Steve took full advantage of this and cruised
home to a well won victory in his first race.
Second race paired Brian I and Rev against each other
in a heads up match. Both cars and drivers seemed well matched as they traded the lead from each other for the first four
laps. A slight bauble in one of the turns by Rev saw Brian take a commanding lead in the first heat and
he never looked back cruising to a easy victory in the first of two heats. The second heat started off much differently than
the first with Brian I getting a much better start and running away and hiding from Rev. Rev had a couple of de-slots that
only seemed to bury him even further before the first fuel stop. Refueling went well for both competitor and Rev seemed to
be clawing back putting in some very laps. This caused Brian I to push even harder with the result of him timing out with
a 12.0 lap time giving the race to Rev and resetting his qualifying time in the process.
Next up was Steve H. and Rev.
With only 1/10 of second separating them this was basically a heads up race. Steve got off to a perfect start and led by a
nice margin until it came time to refuel and he missed the pit and ran out of fuel. This put him a lap down to Rev. and virtually
handed the race to him. The second heat saw Steve H. get off to an even better start and he never relinquished the lead cruising
to a hard fought victory with the cars separated by mere inches. Then Brian I and Chris were up and the difference between these two was a
full one second. This worked out to a handicap of 25 seconds total in Chris's favor. Brian I was clearly
faster than Chris however the handicap proved to be too much for Brian to overcome. Chris W. took wins in both heats driving
a virtually flawless race and taking full advantage of his handicap. Way to go Chris!
At this stage
the point standings were as follows. Steve H. 12 points, Brian I. 6 points Chris W. 8 points and Rev with 8 points Steve H.
and Brian I would race next and if Steve H. won both heats he would have enough points to win the night with 18, if he lost
both races Brian I. would even the score and they would be tied for the lead. Naturally Chris W. and Rev. were pulling for Brian to win
both heats and therefore give them a chance at the overall win. Brian I did not disappoint us as he won both his heats against
Steve in two very hard fought races. Brian's car was the better handling of the two and Brian took full advantage of this
steadily pulling away from Steve. This caused Steve to push his car harder than was prudent and ended up going off a couple
of time and thereby handing the win to Brian I. The second heat was much harder fought with these barely feet from each other
the whole race. In the end though the race was Brian's and we now had a tie for first place with Steve and Brian and a tie
for second place with Chris W. and Rev.
There was still
one more race to run and things were very far from settled. If Chris and Rev. split their races one a piece there would be
a four way tie for first place if either of them were to win both races they would win the night with a commanding 16 point
lead. The qualify gap between Chris W. and Rev. was ,6 seconds which worked out
to a 19 second total handicap in Chris's favor. That is close to an entire lap that t Rev. would have to make up if he was
to have any chance of winning the first heat. The race began with Rev. getting off to a jack rabbit start and pulling away
from Chris quite convincingly. Chris was having some trouble with his car slowing down in the corners and by lap 5 his car
came to a complete halt and would not run. He was able to place the race on hold for a few minutes and
fix a loose pick up wire that had freed itself from the guide shoe. By this time though Rev. had a considerable lead that
he never let go of cruising to an easy victory in the first of two heats. At the start of the second heat it became apparent
that something was again wrong with Chris’s car. It was making an awful noise and was turning laps almost a second slower
than his qualifying time. This truly sunk his chances for he needed to b e circulating the track at or close to his qualifying
time if he were to have any chance of winning this heat. I turns out that Chris was bitten by the Fly wheel axle snake that
all of us have experienced at some time or another. One of Chris's wheel came loos and began spinning round the axle but would
not fall off so he could fix it. Needless to say the heat fell to Rev. rather easily and that according to Chris is just racing.
Congratulations to Rev. on a very
hard fought victory last night. The racing was fun and the competition was some of the closet we have ever seen. This night
could gone anyone way with all four in contention for the victory to the very end. /what a fun night we all had. After racing
concluded Steve H. and Brian I. /vied for the lap rep record which Steve held at 12.0 seconds. Brian went first and put in
a time of 11.934 seconds. Steve followed up and try as he might he could only reach a time of 11.954 seconds just barely missing
taking back the record from Brian by 2/100th's of a second. What a night of competition we had it seems as though the racing
just keeps getting better and better!
See you at the Races.
Live Long & Prosper, Rev.
