Race 1
Race 2
Race 3
Race 4
Race 5
Race 6
Race 7
Final Points
Podium Photos & Reports
Race 1 - Mornington Park - 31/5/22
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Adrian Gray & Bruce Thomas
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Adrian Gray & Bruce Thomas
(apologies for the photo quality....it's cr@p
Race 1 report
There is always a level of expectation (dare I even say excitement ?) in the air with the commencement of a new series. Particularly a new series involving a range of completely new cars. For the time leading up to the first race of such a series, all drivers have a joyful sense of optimism that all cars on the grid are equal, and that their own car has just as much chance of being as quick as any of the other brand new, identical cars on the (very colourful) grid.
This fantasy is very quickly blasted into smithereens almost as soon as your car hits the very first corner of the first heat. In my case however, it took at least until the 2nd corner of the 2nd lap of the very first heat of the evening ……….at which stage after having stuck quite close to the extensively prepared Larrousse of Bruce Thomas for two laps, the Ferrari of yours truly was deposited off the track unceremoniously. In further damning proof of the intent behind this act, Bruce was heard to mutter “Bugger off Mal” about half a second before shunting the writers car off the track & happily zooming off along his merry way. In the meantime, eventual round winner Phil in the McLaren, also passed the stricken Ferrari & this was to form the pattern for the rest of this heat & the evening !
Phil continued his improvement over the heat & the rest of the evening & showed exactly how “equal” some cars can be even in a new series with very minimal modifications allowed. Phils total of 130 laps to finish first was 5 clear of the 2nd place cars of both Adrian & Bruce who perfected a Larrousse constructors “team orders” finish to grab equal 2nd on 125 laps. In a strong first up showing from Ferrari, Callan Thomas drove well in a hastily prepared car to finish 4th 1 lap back on 124, 2 laps clear of 5th place getter, Dave Bantoft in the Prost liveried F1 on 122 laps.
The 2nd Ferrari (so harshly dealt with in the early heats) managed to scrape into 6th on 118, a single lap clear of Dave Schofields Beatrice Haas-Lola who grabbed a valuable 19 constructors points in 7th. The Brabhams had a tough time of it in this first heat & the first of their drivers, John Batitch, finished in 8th on 114 laps, 1 lap ahead of the Jagermeister livery of Rhys Fillbees EuroBrun in 9th. The 2nd of the Brabhams, Rob Golley, managed to scape into the top 10 however, also on 113 laps, & still managed to score 16 points for the constructors title. In a very solid first up performance, Thomas Males in the 2nd Beatrice circulated very steadily & with good pace to rack up 108 laps and finish 11th, ahead of Dave Grays Lotus on 102 laps & the Williams of Scott Wyman in 13th.
Some good racing in the round first up, much to look forward to for the rest of the series !
There is always a level of expectation (dare I even say excitement ?) in the air with the commencement of a new series. Particularly a new series involving a range of completely new cars. For the time leading up to the first race of such a series, all drivers have a joyful sense of optimism that all cars on the grid are equal, and that their own car has just as much chance of being as quick as any of the other brand new, identical cars on the (very colourful) grid.
This fantasy is very quickly blasted into smithereens almost as soon as your car hits the very first corner of the first heat. In my case however, it took at least until the 2nd corner of the 2nd lap of the very first heat of the evening ……….at which stage after having stuck quite close to the extensively prepared Larrousse of Bruce Thomas for two laps, the Ferrari of yours truly was deposited off the track unceremoniously. In further damning proof of the intent behind this act, Bruce was heard to mutter “Bugger off Mal” about half a second before shunting the writers car off the track & happily zooming off along his merry way. In the meantime, eventual round winner Phil in the McLaren, also passed the stricken Ferrari & this was to form the pattern for the rest of this heat & the evening !
Phil continued his improvement over the heat & the rest of the evening & showed exactly how “equal” some cars can be even in a new series with very minimal modifications allowed. Phils total of 130 laps to finish first was 5 clear of the 2nd place cars of both Adrian & Bruce who perfected a Larrousse constructors “team orders” finish to grab equal 2nd on 125 laps. In a strong first up showing from Ferrari, Callan Thomas drove well in a hastily prepared car to finish 4th 1 lap back on 124, 2 laps clear of 5th place getter, Dave Bantoft in the Prost liveried F1 on 122 laps.
The 2nd Ferrari (so harshly dealt with in the early heats) managed to scrape into 6th on 118, a single lap clear of Dave Schofields Beatrice Haas-Lola who grabbed a valuable 19 constructors points in 7th. The Brabhams had a tough time of it in this first heat & the first of their drivers, John Batitch, finished in 8th on 114 laps, 1 lap ahead of the Jagermeister livery of Rhys Fillbees EuroBrun in 9th. The 2nd of the Brabhams, Rob Golley, managed to scape into the top 10 however, also on 113 laps, & still managed to score 16 points for the constructors title. In a very solid first up performance, Thomas Males in the 2nd Beatrice circulated very steadily & with good pace to rack up 108 laps and finish 11th, ahead of Dave Grays Lotus on 102 laps & the Williams of Scott Wyman in 13th.
Some good racing in the round first up, much to look forward to for the rest of the series !
Race 2 - Shelmore Park - 7/6/22
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Adrian Gray
3rd - Callan Thomas
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Adrian Gray
3rd - Callan Thomas
Race 2 report
A bumper field was gathered at Shelmore Park for round 2 of the NSR F1 series. Including the long-awaited debut of the much talked about entry from the Dennis Murray stable of cars. Once sighted on track it certainly looked the part & with the Yardley Gold livery, was certainly a challenger for the best-looking car of the series along with the Dave Bantoft Prost livery.
Once the round was up & running everything was smooth sailing for the evening……
unless of course you count:
So, all pretty straightforward then.
In the racing, Phil showed that his first round result was no fluke, and so set the bar for the rest of thew series. He will be hard to catch. His 115 laps this week was 3 clear in 1st place, ahead of a very tight scrap for 2nd with Adrian Gray & Callan Thomas both totalling 112 laps & finishing on the same corner. Nose to tail basically, which gave Adrian 2nd & Callan 3rd. 5 laps back in 4th & in an improved result, was John Batich who headed home a group of 3 drivers all ending up on 107 laps. Dave Bantoft being the middle driver of the 3 in 5th & the writer in the 2nd of the Ferrari team cars finishing in 6th.
An even bigger group of drivers fought out the next 4 positions from 7th to 10th showing that the top 3 apart, this is a very tight & even class so far. Rob Golley managed 103 laps to grab the track position and got the important 7th spot & points for the Brabham team, ahead of Rhys Filbee in 8th, Dave Schofield in 9th & Bruce Thomas in 10th all on 103 laps as well. Dennis Murray showed that his car was a very nice car to drive 7 was not that far off the pace at all to finish 11th on 101, just 1 lap clear of Dave Gray in 12th on 100. Thomas Males had a great stint on lane 3 to rack up 26 laps, and this helped him to total 95 laps to finish 13th, ahead of Scott Wayman in 14th on 80 laps.
A great field of 14 drivers this week, which made for a very bust night & some great & tight racing.
A bumper field was gathered at Shelmore Park for round 2 of the NSR F1 series. Including the long-awaited debut of the much talked about entry from the Dennis Murray stable of cars. Once sighted on track it certainly looked the part & with the Yardley Gold livery, was certainly a challenger for the best-looking car of the series along with the Dave Bantoft Prost livery.
Once the round was up & running everything was smooth sailing for the evening……
unless of course you count:
- Rob Golley being omitted from the driver list (not guilty your honour! I didn’t do it this time) and having to run his heats as a special series at the end of the round.
- A hasty repair to a detached braid requiring a heat re-start.
- A well jammed screw in one slot, requiring a heat re-start.
- Multiple marshalling confusion caused by running identical liveried cars in the multiple heats.
- The regular habit of these cars de-slotting down the hill on the back straight & barrelling straight on with only the slightest hint of throttle applied therefore leading to much of the aforementioned marshalling confusion at the end of the back straight when many cars arrived in a tangled heap, or in Dennis Murrays case, a spectacular end over end cartwheel that would have taken Dave Grays head off if it were not for the very nice handiwork from the marshall (Adrian or Callan ?) in catching it before it left the track.
So, all pretty straightforward then.
In the racing, Phil showed that his first round result was no fluke, and so set the bar for the rest of thew series. He will be hard to catch. His 115 laps this week was 3 clear in 1st place, ahead of a very tight scrap for 2nd with Adrian Gray & Callan Thomas both totalling 112 laps & finishing on the same corner. Nose to tail basically, which gave Adrian 2nd & Callan 3rd. 5 laps back in 4th & in an improved result, was John Batich who headed home a group of 3 drivers all ending up on 107 laps. Dave Bantoft being the middle driver of the 3 in 5th & the writer in the 2nd of the Ferrari team cars finishing in 6th.
An even bigger group of drivers fought out the next 4 positions from 7th to 10th showing that the top 3 apart, this is a very tight & even class so far. Rob Golley managed 103 laps to grab the track position and got the important 7th spot & points for the Brabham team, ahead of Rhys Filbee in 8th, Dave Schofield in 9th & Bruce Thomas in 10th all on 103 laps as well. Dennis Murray showed that his car was a very nice car to drive 7 was not that far off the pace at all to finish 11th on 101, just 1 lap clear of Dave Gray in 12th on 100. Thomas Males had a great stint on lane 3 to rack up 26 laps, and this helped him to total 95 laps to finish 13th, ahead of Scott Wayman in 14th on 80 laps.
A great field of 14 drivers this week, which made for a very bust night & some great & tight racing.
Race 3 - Stratton Valley - 14/6/22
1st - Phil Kalbfell & Bruce Thomas
3rd - Adrian Gray
1st - Phil Kalbfell & Bruce Thomas
3rd - Adrian Gray
Race 3 report
The great thing about Slot car racing is that you can often see car liveries on display that were very rarely seen in the respective 1:1 series. Not only that, but the success of many of these 1:32 team liveries often seem to be the complete opposite to the success enjoyed by these teams in real life. This makes for some interesting results & pictures in many series.
The current NSR F1 series is a perfect example of such an occurrence. Phils very rare yellow Marlboro McLaren featured in just 1 race of the actual 1986 F1 season, however after 3 rounds & 3 strong performances, this car leads the series quite comfortably with 3 wins so far. The latest win in this weeks round at Stratton Valley was however shared. The driver in equal first this week on 86 laps, was Bruce Thomas driving the equally successful 1:1 F1 car of the famous Larrousse team………No ?
Well, OK, obviously the Larrousse teams record in real life was not particularly imposing, gathering a total of 23 constructors championship points over 8 seasons with a best result of 3rd. Not that great really is it……. not horrible mind you, but nowhere near the success that the 1:32 team of Bruce & this week 3rd placegetter, Adrian Gray are enoying this series. Adrians total of 85 laps was just 1 lap clear of 4th place getter (and first properly successful 1:1 team) Callan Thomas in the first of the Scuderia Ferrari cars. Alas, the normal service was not resumed for long as in 5th spot & equal on 84 laps, was the unique Prost livery of Dave Bantoft. The 2nd of the Ferrari team cars of myself finished 2 laps back in 6th , with that well known livery of the EuroBrun team piloted by Rhys Filbee 3 laps back in 7th on 79.
Dave Schofield in the Beatrice Haas/Lola car ended up 8th on 77 laps, 4 laps clear of John Batichs Brabham 9th on 73 & Dave Grays Lotus in 10th also on 73 laps. Thomas Males in the 2nd Beatrice Haas continued his consistent driving & totalled 70 laps to finish 11th, with Scott Wyman in the Williams 12th with a total of 58 laps.
So, in summary; Larrousse 1st & 3rd………Williams last, not something you saw everyday in the F1 seasons in the late 80s & early 90s !
The great thing about Slot car racing is that you can often see car liveries on display that were very rarely seen in the respective 1:1 series. Not only that, but the success of many of these 1:32 team liveries often seem to be the complete opposite to the success enjoyed by these teams in real life. This makes for some interesting results & pictures in many series.
The current NSR F1 series is a perfect example of such an occurrence. Phils very rare yellow Marlboro McLaren featured in just 1 race of the actual 1986 F1 season, however after 3 rounds & 3 strong performances, this car leads the series quite comfortably with 3 wins so far. The latest win in this weeks round at Stratton Valley was however shared. The driver in equal first this week on 86 laps, was Bruce Thomas driving the equally successful 1:1 F1 car of the famous Larrousse team………No ?
Well, OK, obviously the Larrousse teams record in real life was not particularly imposing, gathering a total of 23 constructors championship points over 8 seasons with a best result of 3rd. Not that great really is it……. not horrible mind you, but nowhere near the success that the 1:32 team of Bruce & this week 3rd placegetter, Adrian Gray are enoying this series. Adrians total of 85 laps was just 1 lap clear of 4th place getter (and first properly successful 1:1 team) Callan Thomas in the first of the Scuderia Ferrari cars. Alas, the normal service was not resumed for long as in 5th spot & equal on 84 laps, was the unique Prost livery of Dave Bantoft. The 2nd of the Ferrari team cars of myself finished 2 laps back in 6th , with that well known livery of the EuroBrun team piloted by Rhys Filbee 3 laps back in 7th on 79.
Dave Schofield in the Beatrice Haas/Lola car ended up 8th on 77 laps, 4 laps clear of John Batichs Brabham 9th on 73 & Dave Grays Lotus in 10th also on 73 laps. Thomas Males in the 2nd Beatrice Haas continued his consistent driving & totalled 70 laps to finish 11th, with Scott Wyman in the Williams 12th with a total of 58 laps.
So, in summary; Larrousse 1st & 3rd………Williams last, not something you saw everyday in the F1 seasons in the late 80s & early 90s !
Race 4 - Mornington Park - 21/6/22
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Bruce Thomas
3rd - Dave Bantoft
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Bruce Thomas
3rd - Dave Bantoft
Race 5 - Stratton Valley - 5/7/22
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Dave Bantoft
3rd - Adrian Gray
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Dave Bantoft
3rd - Adrian Gray
Race 6 - Shelmore Park - 20/7/22
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Mal O'May
3rd - Rob Golley
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Mal O'May
3rd - Rob Golley
Race 7 - Shelmore Park - 26/7/22
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd Rob Golley
3rd - Rhys Filbee
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd Rob Golley
3rd - Rhys Filbee
Final Series Results
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Rob Golley
3rd - Mal O'May
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Rob Golley
3rd - Mal O'May
Race 7 report
NSR F1 – Round 7 (Final Round)
So, to the final round of the latest new series of hand out cars, and apart from the unfortunate number of forced no shows I the latter part of the series, it seemed to have been a very successful & generally very competitive class. I recall back in the start there were some concerns about the fragility of a Formula car & bets were being taken on how many pieces of them would soon be scattered around every track. However, in the wash-up, they seem to have been quite robust, with only the rear wing giving any problem & being quite willing to part company with the body at a moments notice. Luckily, they were (usually) very easy to re-attach with (mostly) no damage ensuing.
The top of the results for the final round followed an extremely familiar pattern from the rest of the series, with Phil taking out the 7th win from 7 races. It has been an utterly dominant performance with his car being right on the pace from the 1st round, and not showing any signs of slacking off since. The closest Phil came to being knocked off was having to share a 1st place finish in round 3 with the elusive Bruce Thomas, and perhaps Phil might have been challenged from this point on if Bruce had bothered to turn up for the last 3 rounds. Alas, this was not to be & Phil again finished a good 5 laps clear in 1st this round.
In 2nd spot this week and racking up enough points to grab 2nd spot in the overall results, was Rob Golley. Rob managed to (mostly) avoid the serious carnage that prevailed this week (more on this later) to drive a very consistent 110 laps & continue a very interesting run of results over the past 4 weeks. After a 10th in the first round, and missing round 2, Robs results have been – 5, 4, 3, 2……. therefore leaving us wondering if the series finished 1 week too early Rob?
After these two, there was quite a gap (6 laps) down to the next drivers, and the carnage that I mentioned earlier might have contributed to this. The harbor has not had such a workout for many a long year, and if this were the actual harbor at Monaco, the divers would have been pulling waterlogged drivers out of the depths at a rate of about 1 every lap. Ascari & Hawkins would have looked positively dry! All this action at this part of the track could have left the Marshalls with PTSD, and it was Chris who was the unlucky one stationed in this location for most of the time. It appears every time 1 car came off, there were another 2 involved immediately. Tough work for marshals unless they were 3 handed.
Anyway, Rhys managed to make the best of his heats & grabbed 3rd on 104, 1 lap clear of Dave Schofield, who also drove very consistently to finish 4th on 103. 6 laps further back in 5th was the unfortunate Ferrari of Gerhard Berger (or yours truly), who also had to deal with several other drivers on the night wanting to try his car out & was quite often left with no vehicle to control at all and was left helplessly watching his car zoom around the track (for about 3 corners) wincing until the inevitable resulting crash.
In 6th place on 92 laps was the Lotus of Dave Gray & with a fastest lap in the 5.9s, showed that this car certainly had the pace to match it with anything else in the field. Thomas Males slotted into 7th 6 laps further back on 86 & to round out the night after some mechanical trouble was Scott Wayman on 82 laps.
Constructors Championship
In the fantasy (ie fun) constructors championship, it was a runaway win for the McLaren\Williams team of Phil & Scott. Greatly assisted by Phils blemish free record, this team won in a very narrow result by 2 points from the fast finishing & consistent Brabham Team of Rob & JB. The final points 243 to 241. In 3rd spot, 28 points adrift on 213 (& a not good enough result for Enzo), was the Ferrari team. Sadly, lacking its #1 driver for the last 3 rounds, it had to make do with whatever points it could scrap for since round 4. Just 4 points back in 4th was the Beatrice-Haas team of Schoee & Tom on 209, 3 points clear of “The Daves” Bantoft & Gray in 5th on 206 in their Lotus/Prost constructors’ team. The runaway early leaders in the championship suffered greatly from lack of participation in the back half of the season & the Larousse team of Bruce & Adrian only managed a total of 23 points over the final 3 rounds of the series to finish up in 6th on 203 points.
Rhys in the Eurobrun, combined with Dennis’s Yardley made up the final team for the series, and again, it was a 1 man show most of the time with Rhys contributing the lions share of the 194 points that eventually saw them finish up in 7th spot for the season.
All in all, a bit of fun, but something that could be considered again for those series where we have a few “team” cars shared among the drivers.
NSR F1 – Round 7 (Final Round)
So, to the final round of the latest new series of hand out cars, and apart from the unfortunate number of forced no shows I the latter part of the series, it seemed to have been a very successful & generally very competitive class. I recall back in the start there were some concerns about the fragility of a Formula car & bets were being taken on how many pieces of them would soon be scattered around every track. However, in the wash-up, they seem to have been quite robust, with only the rear wing giving any problem & being quite willing to part company with the body at a moments notice. Luckily, they were (usually) very easy to re-attach with (mostly) no damage ensuing.
The top of the results for the final round followed an extremely familiar pattern from the rest of the series, with Phil taking out the 7th win from 7 races. It has been an utterly dominant performance with his car being right on the pace from the 1st round, and not showing any signs of slacking off since. The closest Phil came to being knocked off was having to share a 1st place finish in round 3 with the elusive Bruce Thomas, and perhaps Phil might have been challenged from this point on if Bruce had bothered to turn up for the last 3 rounds. Alas, this was not to be & Phil again finished a good 5 laps clear in 1st this round.
In 2nd spot this week and racking up enough points to grab 2nd spot in the overall results, was Rob Golley. Rob managed to (mostly) avoid the serious carnage that prevailed this week (more on this later) to drive a very consistent 110 laps & continue a very interesting run of results over the past 4 weeks. After a 10th in the first round, and missing round 2, Robs results have been – 5, 4, 3, 2……. therefore leaving us wondering if the series finished 1 week too early Rob?
After these two, there was quite a gap (6 laps) down to the next drivers, and the carnage that I mentioned earlier might have contributed to this. The harbor has not had such a workout for many a long year, and if this were the actual harbor at Monaco, the divers would have been pulling waterlogged drivers out of the depths at a rate of about 1 every lap. Ascari & Hawkins would have looked positively dry! All this action at this part of the track could have left the Marshalls with PTSD, and it was Chris who was the unlucky one stationed in this location for most of the time. It appears every time 1 car came off, there were another 2 involved immediately. Tough work for marshals unless they were 3 handed.
Anyway, Rhys managed to make the best of his heats & grabbed 3rd on 104, 1 lap clear of Dave Schofield, who also drove very consistently to finish 4th on 103. 6 laps further back in 5th was the unfortunate Ferrari of Gerhard Berger (or yours truly), who also had to deal with several other drivers on the night wanting to try his car out & was quite often left with no vehicle to control at all and was left helplessly watching his car zoom around the track (for about 3 corners) wincing until the inevitable resulting crash.
In 6th place on 92 laps was the Lotus of Dave Gray & with a fastest lap in the 5.9s, showed that this car certainly had the pace to match it with anything else in the field. Thomas Males slotted into 7th 6 laps further back on 86 & to round out the night after some mechanical trouble was Scott Wayman on 82 laps.
Constructors Championship
In the fantasy (ie fun) constructors championship, it was a runaway win for the McLaren\Williams team of Phil & Scott. Greatly assisted by Phils blemish free record, this team won in a very narrow result by 2 points from the fast finishing & consistent Brabham Team of Rob & JB. The final points 243 to 241. In 3rd spot, 28 points adrift on 213 (& a not good enough result for Enzo), was the Ferrari team. Sadly, lacking its #1 driver for the last 3 rounds, it had to make do with whatever points it could scrap for since round 4. Just 4 points back in 4th was the Beatrice-Haas team of Schoee & Tom on 209, 3 points clear of “The Daves” Bantoft & Gray in 5th on 206 in their Lotus/Prost constructors’ team. The runaway early leaders in the championship suffered greatly from lack of participation in the back half of the season & the Larousse team of Bruce & Adrian only managed a total of 23 points over the final 3 rounds of the series to finish up in 6th on 203 points.
Rhys in the Eurobrun, combined with Dennis’s Yardley made up the final team for the series, and again, it was a 1 man show most of the time with Rhys contributing the lions share of the 194 points that eventually saw them finish up in 7th spot for the season.
All in all, a bit of fun, but something that could be considered again for those series where we have a few “team” cars shared among the drivers.
