Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Points
Round 1- Mornington Park- 12/3/24
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Adrian Gray
3rd - Rhys Filbee
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Adrian Gray
3rd - Rhys Filbee
Race Report - Round 1
First round of the Sideways group 5 class for 2 years, and it was a case of much of the same in the top 2 this time round.
Previous top 2 regulars Phil & Adrian again filled the top 2 spots. Phil covered 125 laps for 1st ahead of Adrian in 2nd with 123 laps for the night. Rhys finished off a very good night by locking in 3rd place only 1 lap off 2nd with his total of 122. 2 laps back on 120 was the wingless Capri of DB with the saving in weight outweighing the lack of aerodynamics.
Also on 120 laps but ending up in 5th on track position was the Ferrari of JB. These 2 were well clear of 6th however, with Rob the next in line some 6 laps back on 114. Scott drove the better handling of the Gold Leaf capris to rack up 111 laps & lock in 7th ahead of Dave Gray in 8th on 103.
Thomas Males grabbed 9th spot in the end with his Lancia on 86 laps, finishing ahead of the writers horrid handling Capri in 10th.
First round of the Sideways group 5 class for 2 years, and it was a case of much of the same in the top 2 this time round.
Previous top 2 regulars Phil & Adrian again filled the top 2 spots. Phil covered 125 laps for 1st ahead of Adrian in 2nd with 123 laps for the night. Rhys finished off a very good night by locking in 3rd place only 1 lap off 2nd with his total of 122. 2 laps back on 120 was the wingless Capri of DB with the saving in weight outweighing the lack of aerodynamics.
Also on 120 laps but ending up in 5th on track position was the Ferrari of JB. These 2 were well clear of 6th however, with Rob the next in line some 6 laps back on 114. Scott drove the better handling of the Gold Leaf capris to rack up 111 laps & lock in 7th ahead of Dave Gray in 8th on 103.
Thomas Males grabbed 9th spot in the end with his Lancia on 86 laps, finishing ahead of the writers horrid handling Capri in 10th.
Round 2 - Gotham Park- 19/3/24
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - Bruce Thomas
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - Bruce Thomas
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
Race Report - Round 2
Sideways Group 5, round 2 – and it was a much more jovial regular race reporter this week at the end of racing. In fact, there was even cheerful, good-natured banter coming from the correspondent instead of the surly & sullen attitude that pervaded the Mornington Park track during the Sideways heats last week.
Not even a sign of the Tantrums that included (so I’m told):
And all this caused by the simple & regularly used practice of taking a new car out of the box & bringing it along expecting to be able to drive it…..Not too onerous a task you’d have thought. It is after all standard car preparation practice as listed in the Bruce Thomas car preparation handbook. However, it didn’t seem to pay off for the writer on this occasion.
Therefore, lesson learned, the last week was spent preparing (well, re-cycling in actual fact) and fronting up again for take 2. How did it all go, we shall read about that later in the report, but first to the top 3 for the evening.
Callan Thomas finally put weeks of frustration behind him having to put up with being allocated the worst of the Thomas cars to drive & was finally allowed to show his wares in the very smooth, but very ugly, Lubri1000 BMW. It looks like someone’s been Lubri ‘ing all over it…anyway it was good enough to rack up 115 laps to take out the win by a clear margin of 4 laps. In 2nd place, was the 2nd of the Thomas clan, Bruce, in the giant, imposing looking NART Ferrari. Long enough to take care of anyone daring to be on the outside of him on any given corner, Bruce numbered 111 laps for his 2nd 2nd placing in the two classes. In third, and on 109 laps, round 1 winner Phil in another BMW, thus making it 5 out of 6 BMWs in the top 3 so far. Bruce’s Ferrari seems to be the only hope for the other makes.
Jumping up to 4th this week, 1 lap back, (after all the trouble listed previously) was the writers Capri on 108 laps, 1 lap ahead of Rhys in another BMW 5th on 107 laps. First of the Mustangs, Rob, was next in line finishing 6th with 106 laps, just1 lap ahead of the 2nd (identical) Capri of Scott in 7th on 105 laps for the night.
First round 2nd placegetter Adrian didn’t have the best run this week & found himself back in 8th on 102 laps, with DB breathing down his neck in the naked (Wingless) Capri in 9th on 101 laps. JB filled the final spot in the top 10 with his 100 lap total in the 2nd of the big Ferraris, 3 laps clear of Schoee’s 97 laps in 11th. Dave Gray pumped out 96 laps in another Capri & ended up 12th with Tom Males in 13th this week in his Lancia. Tom finished with 85 laps for the night.
Sideways Group 5, round 2 – and it was a much more jovial regular race reporter this week at the end of racing. In fact, there was even cheerful, good-natured banter coming from the correspondent instead of the surly & sullen attitude that pervaded the Mornington Park track during the Sideways heats last week.
Not even a sign of the Tantrums that included (so I’m told):
- Throwing his ill-behaved car against the wall, smashing it into many pieces
- Storming off the track & refusing to Marshall
- Slamming his controller (with force) into his toolbox
- And finally - Leaving before supper in a rage.
And all this caused by the simple & regularly used practice of taking a new car out of the box & bringing it along expecting to be able to drive it…..Not too onerous a task you’d have thought. It is after all standard car preparation practice as listed in the Bruce Thomas car preparation handbook. However, it didn’t seem to pay off for the writer on this occasion.
Therefore, lesson learned, the last week was spent preparing (well, re-cycling in actual fact) and fronting up again for take 2. How did it all go, we shall read about that later in the report, but first to the top 3 for the evening.
Callan Thomas finally put weeks of frustration behind him having to put up with being allocated the worst of the Thomas cars to drive & was finally allowed to show his wares in the very smooth, but very ugly, Lubri1000 BMW. It looks like someone’s been Lubri ‘ing all over it…anyway it was good enough to rack up 115 laps to take out the win by a clear margin of 4 laps. In 2nd place, was the 2nd of the Thomas clan, Bruce, in the giant, imposing looking NART Ferrari. Long enough to take care of anyone daring to be on the outside of him on any given corner, Bruce numbered 111 laps for his 2nd 2nd placing in the two classes. In third, and on 109 laps, round 1 winner Phil in another BMW, thus making it 5 out of 6 BMWs in the top 3 so far. Bruce’s Ferrari seems to be the only hope for the other makes.
Jumping up to 4th this week, 1 lap back, (after all the trouble listed previously) was the writers Capri on 108 laps, 1 lap ahead of Rhys in another BMW 5th on 107 laps. First of the Mustangs, Rob, was next in line finishing 6th with 106 laps, just1 lap ahead of the 2nd (identical) Capri of Scott in 7th on 105 laps for the night.
First round 2nd placegetter Adrian didn’t have the best run this week & found himself back in 8th on 102 laps, with DB breathing down his neck in the naked (Wingless) Capri in 9th on 101 laps. JB filled the final spot in the top 10 with his 100 lap total in the 2nd of the big Ferraris, 3 laps clear of Schoee’s 97 laps in 11th. Dave Gray pumped out 96 laps in another Capri & ended up 12th with Tom Males in 13th this week in his Lancia. Tom finished with 85 laps for the night.
Round 3 - Stratton Valley - 2/4/24
1st - Bruce Thomas
2nd - Adrian Gray
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
1st - Bruce Thomas
2nd - Adrian Gray
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
Round 4 - Mornington Park- 9/4/24
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Bruce Thomas
3rd - Adrian Gray
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Bruce Thomas
3rd - Adrian Gray
Race Report - Round 4
To the 2nd class of racing tonight, the Sideways Grp 5, and one thing this class certainly does is highlight very effectively the huge differences between a well setup car……..…and others.
The chassis in these “lovely” models is extremely unforgiving of ANYTHING even remotely out of order. Everything from chassis flex, to incorrect weight placement, to tyre preparation, to front wheel setup needs to be perfect to allow these things to go round the track (both left & righthand corners) without performing an awful shudder under the slightest throttle acceleration with no particular rhyme or reason from lap to lap. There are plenty of such examples throughout the field, including my own. However, at the top end of the field this week, we saw what this class can actually be made to do when car prep & track conditions are in perfect harmony. First car to show off such performance was the Ferrari of Bruce’s which flew around notching up 3.9 second laps as easily & as smoothly as you like, with a best in the 3.8s in heat 2 on yellow. Only to be followed up immediately afterwards by Phils BMW which promptly racked up lap times in the 3.7 range on both Red & yellow lanes, before falling away slightly on this week’s recalcitrant blue lane. Even Adrian Grays BMW, which is usually the pacesetter, had a little trouble keeping pace for lap after lap with these two this week.
Therefor it was a win for Phil, with his total of 133 laps proving too much for Bruce by 2 laps with Bruce having to settle for 2nd despite a wonderful drive. Adrian was another 2 laps back in 3rd with this 129 lap total. Round 2 winner, Callan Thomas also had to give way this round & found himself in 4th on 128 still very competitive, laps.
Rhys had his 2nd very good drive for the evening & grabbed 5th with his 124 laps which was 1 lap ahead of Rob Golley in 6th. JB (120 laps), DB (118) & Scott (113) took out positions 7, 8 & 9, with the writers evil handling car rounding out the top 10 on 110 laps for the night. Dave Gray & Nick Golley both ended dup on the same total of 108 laps, but this time it was Dave Gray who took out 11th from Nick in 12th. Schoee had the misfortune of a lead wire breakage/disconnection, and this sadly impacted his night quite effectively, which resulted in 13th and 105 laps for the night.
One more thing to note from the night though. Over recent weeks the driving “style” of a certain driver has been highlighted with great amusement by Callan, who has compared it with a certain popular “meme” doing the rounds of mainly Ford enthusiasts I assume. Ask Callan for details of this, and I’m sure he’ll be delighted to bring you up to speed.
Callan even provided the following video coverage of the driver in question (with face not shown to protect their identity):
To the 2nd class of racing tonight, the Sideways Grp 5, and one thing this class certainly does is highlight very effectively the huge differences between a well setup car……..…and others.
The chassis in these “lovely” models is extremely unforgiving of ANYTHING even remotely out of order. Everything from chassis flex, to incorrect weight placement, to tyre preparation, to front wheel setup needs to be perfect to allow these things to go round the track (both left & righthand corners) without performing an awful shudder under the slightest throttle acceleration with no particular rhyme or reason from lap to lap. There are plenty of such examples throughout the field, including my own. However, at the top end of the field this week, we saw what this class can actually be made to do when car prep & track conditions are in perfect harmony. First car to show off such performance was the Ferrari of Bruce’s which flew around notching up 3.9 second laps as easily & as smoothly as you like, with a best in the 3.8s in heat 2 on yellow. Only to be followed up immediately afterwards by Phils BMW which promptly racked up lap times in the 3.7 range on both Red & yellow lanes, before falling away slightly on this week’s recalcitrant blue lane. Even Adrian Grays BMW, which is usually the pacesetter, had a little trouble keeping pace for lap after lap with these two this week.
Therefor it was a win for Phil, with his total of 133 laps proving too much for Bruce by 2 laps with Bruce having to settle for 2nd despite a wonderful drive. Adrian was another 2 laps back in 3rd with this 129 lap total. Round 2 winner, Callan Thomas also had to give way this round & found himself in 4th on 128 still very competitive, laps.
Rhys had his 2nd very good drive for the evening & grabbed 5th with his 124 laps which was 1 lap ahead of Rob Golley in 6th. JB (120 laps), DB (118) & Scott (113) took out positions 7, 8 & 9, with the writers evil handling car rounding out the top 10 on 110 laps for the night. Dave Gray & Nick Golley both ended dup on the same total of 108 laps, but this time it was Dave Gray who took out 11th from Nick in 12th. Schoee had the misfortune of a lead wire breakage/disconnection, and this sadly impacted his night quite effectively, which resulted in 13th and 105 laps for the night.
One more thing to note from the night though. Over recent weeks the driving “style” of a certain driver has been highlighted with great amusement by Callan, who has compared it with a certain popular “meme” doing the rounds of mainly Ford enthusiasts I assume. Ask Callan for details of this, and I’m sure he’ll be delighted to bring you up to speed.
Callan even provided the following video coverage of the driver in question (with face not shown to protect their identity):
However, despite the good natured ribbing, spectators might want to keep an eye out over the next few weeks as the writer’s eagle eye may have spotted the beginning of a trend set by this type of driving….to be continued….
Round 5 - Gotham Park- 16/4/24
1st - Bruce Thomas
2nd - Callan Thomas
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
1st - Bruce Thomas
2nd - Callan Thomas
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
Round 6 - Mornington Park - 30/4/24
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - Bruce Thomas
3rd - Rob Golley
1st - Callan Thomas
2nd - Bruce Thomas
3rd - Rob Golley
Round 7 - Gotham Park - 7/5/24
1st - Bruce Thomas
2nd - Callan Thomas
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
1st - Bruce Thomas
2nd - Callan Thomas
3rd - Phil Kalbfell
Overall Series - Top 3
1st - Bruce Thomas
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - Callan Thomas
1st - Bruce Thomas
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - Callan Thomas