Race Results & Reports
Race 1 - Stratton Valley - 4/4/23
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - Rob Golley
3rd - Adrian Gray
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - Rob Golley
3rd - Adrian Gray
Race Report - Round 1
This week saw the re-introduction of the Le Mans cars from 1972-1982 for the first time in a couple of years, and a great field of 14 turned up for the first hit out in this series.
Many things may have changed in the last 2 years, but some things haven’t as we shall see. Callan Thomas took out the first round with a fast & smooth drive to rack up 81 laps, 1 lap clear of Rob Golleys BMW M1 in 2nd on 80. In 3rd place was Adrian Grays BMW M1 on 78 laps and showing that the usual BMW domination of this class is set to continue throughout this series (if early results are anything to go by)
Also on 78 laps & in a very close 4th was John Batich, ahead of a good battle for 5th between the Daves, with Dave Bantoft on 77 laps & Dave Schofield on 77 laps. DB got the position though & finished 5th ahead of Schoee in 6th.
Scott Wyman grabbed 7th in another BMW M1 to log 76 laps, 2 laps clear of Phil Kalbfell & Bruce Thomas both on 74 laps in the battle for 8th & 9th. Bruce’s mid heat breakdown & the subsequent quick car swap put paid to his chances though & it was Phil who took 8th ahead of Bruce’s 2nd car in 9th. This may not be the last time we see a new car from Bruce this series, although I assume he was hoping to get through at least one heat before having to drag out the next car out of the box.
Yet another 2 drivers were locked together on 73 laps with Rhys & Dave Gray fighting it out for the last top 10 position. Rhys in the rear engined 935 eventually triumphed in this battle from Dave in his BMW M1 in 11th.
All alone, on 72 laps, was the writers recalcitrant Porsche 935 in 12th ahead of Thomas Males in 13th on 65 laps & finally Chris Priest in 14th on 58 in a borrowed Ferarri.
The only other event of note to occur in this round was the discovery by Bruce that the Dunlop Bridge at Stratton Valley is, in fact, a swinging bridge.......although ideally it does need to stay in its usual position in order for lap counting to occur reliably !
Race 2 - Shelmore Park - 11/4/23
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Dave Bantoft
3rd - John Batich
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Dave Bantoft
3rd - John Batich
Race 3 - Mornington Park - 3/5/23
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Dave Schofield
3rd - John Batich
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Dave Schofield
3rd - John Batich
Le Mans 72-82 – Round 3 Report
It seems a while since round 2 of the Le Mans series was run with the past 2 weeks providing us with endless amounts of fun at Magnet Court instead. It’s been so long in fact that some of us thought we must be up to round 4 at least…but no it was a return to business with round 3 at Mornington Park this week.
In the absence of round 1 winner Callan Thomas, the way was clear for Phil Kalbfell to show his mastery yet again. However, things didn’t go entirely his own way. A big improver for the round was Dave Schofield in the very quick Porsche 936 & the battle between these two who were directly opposed to each other in a couple of heats was worth watching. Phil eventually did take out 1st place on 120 laps though, just 1 lap clear of Schoee in 2nd on 119. Joining in the fun this week & only 1 lap further back again (in 3rd) was JB in the very nice handling (and well driven) little Alfa on a total of 118 laps.
Locked together on 117 laps was Rob Golley & Adrian Gray in the BMW M1s, sadly it was more the boring liveried one of Robs who took out the place (4th) from Adrian (5th) this week.
DB in the 2nd little Alfa in the field was next only 2 lap back in 6th on 116 laps for the night. A great drive from Dave Gray this round saw him slot into 7th with a good total of 112 laps, well ahead of Rhys Filbee (8TH) ON 109 LAPS. Another 3 laps back & in a struggle to finish this high up (9th) was the writers Porsche 935, which had wheel slip issues on both wheels during heat 2. Sadly, the mechanics in the team only managed to “fix” 1 of the slipping wheels & ignored the other….which amazingly meant that it still had problems for the rest of the brackets.
In 10th spot this week, Scott Wayman notched up 105 laps, and rounding out the field was Thomas Males 1 lap back on 104. All drivers however were competitive, and Thomas’s best lap times are an indication of the closeness of the field.
The 11th place-getter put in a best lap of 4.419, which compares very favorably to the winners bets lap time of 4.254. Just a tad more consistency from the lower drivers can see a big improvement over the rest of the series (hopefully).
It seems a while since round 2 of the Le Mans series was run with the past 2 weeks providing us with endless amounts of fun at Magnet Court instead. It’s been so long in fact that some of us thought we must be up to round 4 at least…but no it was a return to business with round 3 at Mornington Park this week.
In the absence of round 1 winner Callan Thomas, the way was clear for Phil Kalbfell to show his mastery yet again. However, things didn’t go entirely his own way. A big improver for the round was Dave Schofield in the very quick Porsche 936 & the battle between these two who were directly opposed to each other in a couple of heats was worth watching. Phil eventually did take out 1st place on 120 laps though, just 1 lap clear of Schoee in 2nd on 119. Joining in the fun this week & only 1 lap further back again (in 3rd) was JB in the very nice handling (and well driven) little Alfa on a total of 118 laps.
Locked together on 117 laps was Rob Golley & Adrian Gray in the BMW M1s, sadly it was more the boring liveried one of Robs who took out the place (4th) from Adrian (5th) this week.
DB in the 2nd little Alfa in the field was next only 2 lap back in 6th on 116 laps for the night. A great drive from Dave Gray this round saw him slot into 7th with a good total of 112 laps, well ahead of Rhys Filbee (8TH) ON 109 LAPS. Another 3 laps back & in a struggle to finish this high up (9th) was the writers Porsche 935, which had wheel slip issues on both wheels during heat 2. Sadly, the mechanics in the team only managed to “fix” 1 of the slipping wheels & ignored the other….which amazingly meant that it still had problems for the rest of the brackets.
In 10th spot this week, Scott Wayman notched up 105 laps, and rounding out the field was Thomas Males 1 lap back on 104. All drivers however were competitive, and Thomas’s best lap times are an indication of the closeness of the field.
The 11th place-getter put in a best lap of 4.419, which compares very favorably to the winners bets lap time of 4.254. Just a tad more consistency from the lower drivers can see a big improvement over the rest of the series (hopefully).
Race 4 - Stratton Valley - 9/5/23
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Dave Bantoft
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Dave Bantoft
Race 5 - Shelmore Park - 11/4/23
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Dave Bantoft
(just switch the cars in 2nd & third from last round & you've got the top 3 this round!)
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Dave Bantoft
(just switch the cars in 2nd & third from last round & you've got the top 3 this round!)
Race 6 - Mornington Park - 24/5/23
1st - Adrian Gray
2nd - Dave Schofield
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
1st - Adrian Gray
2nd - Dave Schofield
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
Race Report – Round 6
In what seems to have been a relatively short time, we find that we are already up to the penultimate round of the Le Mans series, and with only 1 round to go it might be time for some drivers (myself included) to admit that there is actually no point in wasting anymore time working on trying to improve their car and to just write the entire series off to experience.
It also might be time for some (definitely myself included) to also write off their choice of car in their series & to immediately put in an order for a replacement vehicle so that in 2 years time, when this series comes around again, they might possible have something slightly more competitive….or at least different. What’s the old saying of the definition of madness ? Doing the same thing over & over again & expecting a different result ?......Well, in slot car terms the definition of madness is this - Using the same car in a series over & over again & expecting a different (better) result.
Well, not anymore for this writer……..new car order put in, different car coming, goodbye Porsche 935. I won’t miss you.
Anyway, some people have good cars, although this weeks winner (Adrian Gray) seems to only have a good car every 2nd week. His improvement from 6th last round to a win this round was marked by both a great drive & his Jeckyll & Hyde car that decided to turn up this week. His total of 118 laps was just enough to pip 2nd placegetter Dave Schofield, who does have a good car that turns up every week. Schoee was 3 laps clear of Phil Kalbfell in 3rd, in another car that is the model of consistency most weeks.
Dave Bantoft notched up 114 laps to be 1 lap back in 4th, and for the only the 2nd time this series 1 of the little Alfas didn’t make it onto the podium. A great drive from Rhys saw him tie with John Batich on 113 laps, but Rhys grabbed 5th on track position ahead of JB (6th) this week.
Bruce Thomas finished alone in 7th on 112 laps, 2 clear of a very consistent & quick Dave Gray in 8th on 110.
The writer finished in 9th on 109 laps in an uneventful, boring drive, mostly brought about by the fact that the car wasn’t remotely quick enough to come close to de-slotting.
Thomas Males finished in the top 10 this week on 99 laps, ahead of the final two drivers, Callan Thomas & Scott Wyman, with these two drivers being the unlucky ones this week to suffer the compulsory mechanical breakdowns. Callan, after racking up a round high total of 41 laps in his first heat, had a lead wire issue torpedo his next two brackets, and Scotts total of 0 laps in heat 2 certainly didn’t help his cause for the night at all.
1 round to go…….
In what seems to have been a relatively short time, we find that we are already up to the penultimate round of the Le Mans series, and with only 1 round to go it might be time for some drivers (myself included) to admit that there is actually no point in wasting anymore time working on trying to improve their car and to just write the entire series off to experience.
It also might be time for some (definitely myself included) to also write off their choice of car in their series & to immediately put in an order for a replacement vehicle so that in 2 years time, when this series comes around again, they might possible have something slightly more competitive….or at least different. What’s the old saying of the definition of madness ? Doing the same thing over & over again & expecting a different result ?......Well, in slot car terms the definition of madness is this - Using the same car in a series over & over again & expecting a different (better) result.
Well, not anymore for this writer……..new car order put in, different car coming, goodbye Porsche 935. I won’t miss you.
Anyway, some people have good cars, although this weeks winner (Adrian Gray) seems to only have a good car every 2nd week. His improvement from 6th last round to a win this round was marked by both a great drive & his Jeckyll & Hyde car that decided to turn up this week. His total of 118 laps was just enough to pip 2nd placegetter Dave Schofield, who does have a good car that turns up every week. Schoee was 3 laps clear of Phil Kalbfell in 3rd, in another car that is the model of consistency most weeks.
Dave Bantoft notched up 114 laps to be 1 lap back in 4th, and for the only the 2nd time this series 1 of the little Alfas didn’t make it onto the podium. A great drive from Rhys saw him tie with John Batich on 113 laps, but Rhys grabbed 5th on track position ahead of JB (6th) this week.
Bruce Thomas finished alone in 7th on 112 laps, 2 clear of a very consistent & quick Dave Gray in 8th on 110.
The writer finished in 9th on 109 laps in an uneventful, boring drive, mostly brought about by the fact that the car wasn’t remotely quick enough to come close to de-slotting.
Thomas Males finished in the top 10 this week on 99 laps, ahead of the final two drivers, Callan Thomas & Scott Wyman, with these two drivers being the unlucky ones this week to suffer the compulsory mechanical breakdowns. Callan, after racking up a round high total of 41 laps in his first heat, had a lead wire issue torpedo his next two brackets, and Scotts total of 0 laps in heat 2 certainly didn’t help his cause for the night at all.
1 round to go…….
Race 7 - Gotham Park - 30/5/23
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Dave Bantoft
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Dave Bantoft
Series Results (the xerox cup)
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Dave Bantoft
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - John Batich
3rd - Dave Bantoft