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Race reports from most recent seasons 2007 Round 9 Kings Lynn The year ended, as is becoming the norm, with a 'Christmas' meeting at the MBR club in Kings Lynn held in a good atmosphere with much banter between the racers. Turnout was down on last year, slightly disappointing but nonetheless everyone present enjoyed a good meeting at the end of a successful year. For spreadsheets click here Although Martin Hill had clinched everything he could win by the September round he was still intent on dominating again, but predicted that Jamie Kelly would be a major obstacle to that ambition. He seemed to be right on the money, as Jamie produced his best form in F1 for quite some time. He bested Martin in three lanes during the heats, took pole by 1 lap and fastest lap by nearly 0.2s. He would end the morning with the fastest lap of all (a stonking 5.03s) but did not manage to get the win despite having first pick of lane, as Martin raised his game just when he needed to. From blue lane he raised the highest score to 33.8 (from 32.9), beating his heat score in that lane by 1.4 laps and cutting 0.17s from his PB lap time into the bargain. All of which left Jamie trailing in the A final by 2.5 laps. Nonetheless the signs are that these two will continue to push each other in 2008, and Martin certainly knew he was in a race. Prior to the A final Andy Whorton had won the B, to join Jim Kelly on the A grid, as a result it would be contested by the 'expected' four drivers. John Kelly confirmed his position as early favourite for the all-new F1 Main grade championship in 2008 with a strong drive to 5th place, half a lap ahead of Deane Walpole. 7th place went to Sharon Golloghly, who would end the year in the Top 10 of the EAHORC Cup as top driver from her family. There was more success for the Family in the afternoon as son Jaik clinched the first ever National championship for cars with Lexan bodies (The Wizzard Championship). As he got to defeat his absent brother Craig into the bargain his grin at the award ceremony at the end of the day was understandably a large one! Jaik had a low key afternoon, but knew he just had to get his heats done, any amount of points would do. He did briefly run P2 in the A final before the lane got the better of him. To reach the A he had to beat newcomer Martin Ellis, who watched a fair chunk of the F1 racing before being persuaded to take part in the afternoon. Considering his total lack of experience he acquitted himself very well and I hope he will come to future races. With Martin's presence making Wizzard the most popular class for the second race running, Nextel was bumped to second best. Not confident in his Wizzard car, which lacked running-in time, Jamie elected to go back to that class, finding out after doing so that he had a chance to win the Minor championship, which he duly did with a fine (if expected) win. By contrast, his Dad John (who also could have took the title) had a nightmare of a time come the final to end up 4th after having recorded 100 laps during his heats, very much on the pace. Sharon took a superb P2 in the final, which cemented that EAHORC cup top 10 finish ahead of Kevin Golloghly, who good naturedly took stick for this, and other happenings through the day. The remaining afternoon class was Can. Dave Rouse had built an MR1 with an Artin Countach body back in the summer, and elected to run that as he could not go in Nascar without dropping out of the Nascar Minor standings. He faced Jim Kelly, known to be very quick with an MR1, with his superb Micro Scalextric Works DBR9 mounted too on an MR1, and Tony Stacey who had several of his quirky but cool Powertrack conversions on the same chassis. In the heats Jim mostly seemed to have the upper hand in terms of fastest laps but had crashes and body woes which helped Dave, who was really on it, winning all four heats comfortably. This left him with first choice of lane for the final, but also the not minor task of facing Jim in direct confrontation, something that had not happened in the heats. This placed Dave in blue (heat score 29.8) and Jim in Red (31.2) with Tony in yellow. Whilst Jim ran very close to his heat pace, Dave found a whopping 3 laps extra to take a comfortable and popular win, cutting quarter of a second off his fastest lap time of the day in the process. Christmas now looms, but after the break the new season gets under way at Derby in January 20th. I am ecstatic that the UK's most successful HO club has joined the EAHORC ranks and hope as many people as possible will make the effort to attend the races there. Bring your A game though because they have some very quick drivers in their ranks. Game on! 2007 Round 8 Swindon The September meeting was notable for many reasons. The second race hosted by HOSS was a major success, not least because of the hard work of Andy Whorton and the generosity of the Four Lane Black Top BSCRA club in Swindon. Andy had laid out a fantastic track (classified by Martin Hill as 'best he had raced on') on top of the FLBT layout, which included a bridge. Much respect must go to the FLBT club for not only making their club room available but also for 7 of their members attending for a least half the day (and 2 of them all day). This helped EAHORC ensure the record for average attendance for the year would be broken for the second year running. The overall attendance of 18 was the second highest in EAHORC history. Wizzard class continued to grow in stature, with all the Premier grade drivers present choosing to run it, and the EAHORC Patriot club cars making their debut both trouble free and on the pace. No less than 13 of the 15 drivers present raced in the new class therefore, with John Kelly and Dave Rouse facing off in Nextel as the latter attempted to seal victory in the Nextel Minor championship. Dave emerged victorious and now has to race something else come December whilst keeping an eye on what other do in that class. As for the Wizzard class, Martin was pushed hard by Jim Kelly (being outscored in the very fast Red lane for example) but produced a faultless display come the A final. In that final Jim added no less than 3.4 laps to his best score in blue lane but Martin added 1.2 to his best in red and that was enough to seal an emphatic win. Jamie Kelly had come with 0.1 of qualifying second but the slender gap put him in Yellow lane and from there he could not challenge. Cliff Roythorne, past winner of the Derby 24hr race with Team USA, made an impressive return to HO racing in the UK after many years away from it, to beat Team USA team-mate Deane Walpole in a tense B final and finish the afternoon as top club car user. Adrian Leggett was again impressive, finishing 6th in his first EAHORC race of the year, also using club cars. Just to add extra significance to the day, Martin also took another win in F1. The win was only by a very small margin and only after a marshalling incident with arch rival Jamie seemed to give him a big break, but the end result was the clinching of not only the F1 Championship but the big one, the EAHORC Cup, as well. As a result, he became the first driver to win three titles in one year, having already clinched Nascar some time back, since Jim in 2003. His awesome display in Wizzard marks him as hot favourite to win another three next season! So congratulations to our 2007 champions Martin Hill (EAHORC Cup, Stock F1 and Nextel Cup), Jamie Kelly (Sports GT), Deane Walpole (Can Class) and Andy Whorton (Can Class Minor). The final round of the year will be on Dec 2nd at Kings Lynn with the EAHORC League still up for grabs as well as the Nextel Cup and Stock F1 minors and the Wizzard Championship. The latter will be a showdown between Craig and Jaik Golloghly, but it is likely some of the quick guys from this meeting will be in the mix with them. Should be awesome!
2007 Round 7 Kings Lynn To read a more full race report pick up a newsletter at the next meeting (members only). Following the cancellation of the July race due to flooding the EAHORC season got back on track at Kings Lynn on August 19th and saw Martin Hill become the first champion of the year. He had been in a strong position for a long time but wanted to beat Jamie Kelly in a Nextel A final, which he duly did at the third attempt and this put him past the point at which anyone could mathematically overhaul him for the Championship. Like Deane Walpole back in June both these drivers had there eyes on Wizzard class in 2008 and it could be neither will run Nextel from this point on. This would leave an equally fascinating scrap for Victory between the likes of Dave Rouse and John Kelly. Deane came within 10 points of putting the Can Class Championship beyond doubt, but Andy Whorton was on fire to take victory in a final which saw Deane's F40 run 2 minutes flat out due to a fouled axle and Andy snatch the win with less than 10 seconds to go after earlier crashes. It was a deserved win though and Andy generally had his rival covered and he is well on his way to becoming one of EAHORC top 5/6 drivers across all classes. Elsewhere there were wins for Jim Kelly, making a very welcomed return, in Sports and Martin also took yet another F1 win.
Click below for spreadsheet for other classes:
2007 Round 6 Kings Lynn To read a more full race report pick up a newsletter at the next meeting (members only). Round six saw the lowest turnout of the year so far but this was mitigated by bad planning on EAHORC's part (Fathers day and the LeMans 24hr race falling on the same weekend), the normal summer downturn and possibly too what ITV refer to as the Lewis Hamilton effect! Martin Hill had another off day in Nextel, qualifying Q1 by some margin but crashing in traffic through no fault of his own whilst trying to break away from Jamie Kelly in the 'A' and then having a meltdown to finish P4. The continually improving Dave Rouse came second with John Kelly again on top form and finishing third. Martin did win F1, and was in fact in awesome form and never really under any pressure. Jamie finished a distant second, ahead of John who thus had his best 'home' outing to date, and Dave. Elsewhere Deane Walpole made his Wizzard class debut ahead of a full campaign in 2008 and duly beat the Golloghly brothers, who ran well but not quite on the breathless pace they showed in April. They will be back no doubt. Dad Kevin however upheld family honour to storm the Can class final by 0.1 laps from John Ovens with a temperamental but quick car built by Deane. Just to add the cherry on top Kevin recorded the overall fastest lap of the day with a 5.61 seconds!
Click below: for Can, Wizzard & Nextel spreadsheets
2007 Round 5 Thatcham For round five the racing moved on to a new venue, Thatcham in Berkshire. Andy Whorton, who was just a lad when HO races last took place at National level in that part of the country, put on a cracking meeting together with David Vaughan (who hosted those HOSRA races way back when) and collectively calling themselves HOSS (HO Slots in the South). Attendance was down on recent races, but this is to be expected at a new venue and on FA Cup final day, and with recent attendance averages breaking records a downturn was always likely. Nonetheless the racing was cracking and Andy took a well deserved win in F1, after Martin Hill had an off late on in the A final. Jamie Kelly's mini-slump continued and he finished F1 just 6th overall. Dad John however once again put on a strong showing to take fourth, his 'away' form once again top drawer. We were highly delighted to welcome Rob Lees, chairman of the British Slot Car Racing Association, to the meeting. No surprise, Rob was up to speed immediately and took second place in F1. The Can Class A final was again won by Deane Walpole, pushed hard initially by Andy who had struggled with car troubles in qualifying. Jamie salvaged his day with a storming drive to win Nextel, exonerating those who had advised him to try the class long before now, Martin by contrast had a torrid time. He never found a chassis or controller he was happy with and qualified & finished fourth. No doubt he will be back with a vengeance!
To read a more full race report pick up a newsletter at the next meeting (members only). To get the full & data-sort enabled spreadsheet click below
2007 Round 4 Kings Lynn Just when it looked as if the season could not get any better, it did. Many of the drivers from round 3 returned, thus ensuring another big turnout. The highlight of the event though was the performance of Craig and Jaik Golloghly in only there second HO event. Not content with producing a much better performance in F1, with Jaik 6th and Craig 9th, they left everyone else with their jaws dropped after a breathless Wizzard final. Just to add extra juice to the situation, the brother's lap times compared almost exactly to those recorded by Jamie Kelly during practice the night before so it could be game on if/when the ''big guns'' decide to give Wizzard class a try. For F1, the expectation was that Jamie would again give Martin Hill a very stern test, being the only guy to beat him in three attempts. With Jim Kelly unwell & absent the rest of the pack could eye an A final spot with a little more hope. In the end, Martin took pole by more than three laps with Jamie 5 clear of Peter Baldock. Before these three could face off Andy Whorton and Tony Rix had to sort out which of them would win the B and join them. In the end Andy took it to make his first F1 A final and with a big score, unfortunately he had green lane on a day when that lane was one to avoid on the tricky reversed Sugo layout. So it was left to Martin to beat Jamie comfortably as he in fact had his hands full fending off Peter. For the afternoon leaders Jamie, Martin and Deane Walpole all took further wins in their respective classes. Martin had the biggest wobble, qualifying behind Nigel Sykes with his very on-song SG+ and only finishing ahead of him in the final by a few tenths after an atypical scrappy showing. There was plenty of good racing through the day, especially in the packed midfield of F1, but it was definitely the Wizzard final that everyone was looking forward too. With Craig again using Deane's P3, he was out qualified by his brother (again using Martin's P3 but this time devoid of mechanical gremlins) by exactly one lap. Not a lot in it then, and so it proved with Craig storming off in the final with Jaik a couple of inches behind for most of the opening minute. Jaik had a small off at which point Craig backed off slightly but looked to have over done that as his brother got back on his tail quickly and the battle resumed. Just past half distance the same thing happened and once again Jaik got back on terms, and with 20 second to go briefly took the lead heading toward the heavy braking zone toward the west end of the track, before Craig braked even later, took back his 2'' lead and held it to the end. Outstanding! To read a more full race report pick up a newsletter at the next meeting (members only). To get the full & data-sort enabled spreadsheet click below
2007 Round 3 Kings Lynn For me personally it would be hard to top round 2, as I was co-host as well as coordinator, but round three came mighty close. For about the fourth time the Con Club room was packed out by 17 racers and the atmosphere was about as good as it gets. It was great to see old hands like Peter Baldock chatting with newcomers and people mingling freely. There was also some cracking racing on a challenging Brno facsimile. F1 was fast and furious as always with Jamie seeming to have an edge and out to stop Martin Hill making it three from three, which he duly did. Martin did a good piece of damage limitation to take P2 from the green gutter lane, despite qualifying behind Peter Baldock, who had a cracking day and will surely win an A final before too much longer.
Martin was his usual dominant self in Nextel, but not before having a couple of poor-ish heats in yellow and red and feeling Peter Baldock breathing down his neck. Stonking scores in BOTH blue and green lanes restored the Natural order before producing another 37 lap score in the final. At least for a while his chasers were reminded he is not infallible! Can Class was a much closer affair with both Deane Walpole and Tony Rix setting big scores but running F40 bodies on their Marchons that are known to come off easily in crashes. In the end a record-equalling 37.3 put pole beyond doubt before a cat and mouse final protecting those bodies resulted in a win for Deane by 0.7 laps.
Sports GT was once again dominated by reigning champion Jamie from Dad John, Jamie posting fasted lap and biggest score in every lane and winning the final by 2 clear laps. Wizzard class picked up a little with newcomers Jaik and Craig Golloghly joining Roy Masters in the class and enjoying the lexan bodied cars immensely. In the end Craig overturned the apparently normal form at his 1/32nd scale club to beat his brother. As Jaik had brush tension troubles whilst trailing the race left everyone looking forward to these two racing each other again. To read a more full race report pick up a newsletter at the next meeting (members only) To get the full & data-sort enabled spreadsheets click below
2007 Round 2 February 18th Leyton The first HO meeting of any kind held in London for at least a decade was a resounding success. Martin Hill again took maximum points in three championships but had to really work for them for over half of the Nextel final and all of the F1 final against a backdrop of the highest ever EAHORC attendance (21). Whilst Martin was pushed hard initially in the Nascar final by Peter Baldock and Nigel Sykes before pulling clear, he was on the back foot to Jim Kelly for all of the F1 race. Closing his rival down it looked as if he had left his charge too late until Jim had an off in the last two seconds allowing a relieved Hill to sweep by and reigning champion Jamie Kelly to dead heat for second place. Nonetheless Jim was back on top form after a low-key December and January, winning the Can class (with eleven participants, another record) ''A'' final emphatically after pole man Deane Walpole got mired in bad set up choices. Jamie took his customary Sports GT victory from John Kelly and Dave Rouse. This was John's showing in an EAHORC meet as he was very on song with his f1 car, taking 4th place. Another highlight was returning Essex racer Kevin Johnson's victory in the Can 'B' Final and subsequent 3rd place in the 'A'. The track held up well, both John Ovens ingenious 'tapeless' jointing method (actually reinforced lexan body tape underneath as opposed to black electrical tape above) and some of the unusual corner designs drawing praise, helping to offset a problem with white lane where 10% of it was down on power and the problem could not be traced. To read a full report, pick up a copy of EAHORC news at the next meeting on March 25th back at Kings Lynn.
Click below to view the full colour, data-sort enabled spreadsheet
2007 Round 1 January 28th Norfolk Given the number of regulars unable to attend the first round of EAHORC's new season an attendance of 12 (AM) and 14 (PM) was pretty good. At one point it looked as if everyone would have to go home as somebody had stolen some money from the room on the Saturday night and then the keys had gone ''missing''. That, plus the fact that a few drivers had trouble with yellow lane and the Tomy timers threw a brief fit meant there was a slight edge to the atmosphere through the day as opposed to the normal relaxed one. There were some highlights though and plenty of on track action. Martin Hill was in top form, taking honours in a hotly contested F1 class. He also won the Nextel Cup final to get his quest to win 'the one that got away' last year off to a good start, but it was not without drama. He had Peter Baldock pushing him hard in the heats and a jump start in the final meant he had to drive at 10/10ths to get the win. Jamie Kelly again won a Sports GT final, but had more opposition than last year, and Kevin Nicholls became the first driver to win a final with a lexan bodied car by beating son connor as Wizzard class made it's debut. Wayne Lander came over all the way from Ripley and made an immediate impact, featuring highly in two finals and taking home a goodly hall of EAHORC cup points. To read a full race report, grab a copy of EAHORC news at round 2 (Feb 18, London)
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
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