Slot It Group C
Race 1
Race 2
Race 3
RACE 4
Race 5
RACE 6
Race 7
Progressive Points
Race Results & Reports
Race 1 - Mornington Park - 7/3/23
1st - Rob Golley
2nd - Phil Kalbfell & John Batich
1st - Rob Golley
2nd - Phil Kalbfell & John Batich
Race 2 - Shelmore Park - 14/3/23
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Rob Golley
3rd John Batich
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Rob Golley
3rd John Batich
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Race 3 - Shelmore Park - 21/3/23
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Adrian Gray
3rd - Mal O'May
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Adrian Gray
3rd - Mal O'May
Round 3
In the Group C round this week it was a no contest with Phil taking out the quinella for the night in a dominant display. His total of 114.423 laps took 1st place by a whopping 6 laps.
The battle for the minor placings however were somewhat closer. Adrian Gray grabbed 2nd in the end and, despite making a good fist of sabotaging his own heats, his total of 108.159 was enough to take out 2nd by 0.011 of a lap from myself in 3rd on 108.17 laps.
Clear in 4th was DB on 107.398, under half a lap ahead of Rob Golley in 5th on 106.928 (or about as close to 107 laps as you can get !)
A great scrap for 6th & 7th was fought out between Rhys & Schoee, but in the end it was Rhys on 103.108 laps who got the position from Schoee just 0.851 of a lap behind in 7th.
The next 3 positions were even more closely fought. Chris Priest in a great comeback drive took 8th with 100.959 laps (and numerically matching the great Porsche Model of the late 80s). This was but 0.095 of a lap ahead of Callan Thomas in 9th. Sadly Callans great comeback drive from early car disaster was eventually relegated to last position on the night for daring to borrow DBs car & show it off to its fullest capacity…something which hadn’t been seen when Dave was driving it 😊.
Just 0.09 of a lap further back was Bruce Thomas in 10th. Which doesn’t sound great, however given that Bruce’s sole aim for the evening seemed to be to give the Marshall at the end of the back straight as much work as humanly possible by bullishly driving straight ahead & routinely ignoring the corner………he was possibly lucky to have finished this high up.
In 11th for the round, Dave Gray notched up 98.801 laps, just a smidgen clear of Scott in 12th on 98.746 with Thomas Males rounding out the evenings results in 13th on 88.117 laps.
***Memo to Bruce – See below - this is a corner, and perhaps in the finest original Top Gear Track tradition we might consider naming this corner in honour of Bruce’s auspicious performance on it last night….."Batman Bend" has a nice ring to it ?
The battle for the minor placings however were somewhat closer. Adrian Gray grabbed 2nd in the end and, despite making a good fist of sabotaging his own heats, his total of 108.159 was enough to take out 2nd by 0.011 of a lap from myself in 3rd on 108.17 laps.
Clear in 4th was DB on 107.398, under half a lap ahead of Rob Golley in 5th on 106.928 (or about as close to 107 laps as you can get !)
A great scrap for 6th & 7th was fought out between Rhys & Schoee, but in the end it was Rhys on 103.108 laps who got the position from Schoee just 0.851 of a lap behind in 7th.
The next 3 positions were even more closely fought. Chris Priest in a great comeback drive took 8th with 100.959 laps (and numerically matching the great Porsche Model of the late 80s). This was but 0.095 of a lap ahead of Callan Thomas in 9th. Sadly Callans great comeback drive from early car disaster was eventually relegated to last position on the night for daring to borrow DBs car & show it off to its fullest capacity…something which hadn’t been seen when Dave was driving it 😊.
Just 0.09 of a lap further back was Bruce Thomas in 10th. Which doesn’t sound great, however given that Bruce’s sole aim for the evening seemed to be to give the Marshall at the end of the back straight as much work as humanly possible by bullishly driving straight ahead & routinely ignoring the corner………he was possibly lucky to have finished this high up.
In 11th for the round, Dave Gray notched up 98.801 laps, just a smidgen clear of Scott in 12th on 98.746 with Thomas Males rounding out the evenings results in 13th on 88.117 laps.
***Memo to Bruce – See below - this is a corner, and perhaps in the finest original Top Gear Track tradition we might consider naming this corner in honour of Bruce’s auspicious performance on it last night….."Batman Bend" has a nice ring to it ?
Race 4 - Mornington Park - 29/3/23
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Callan Thomas
3rd - Adrian Gray
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Callan Thomas
3rd - Adrian Gray
Race 5 - Stratton Valley - 4/4/23
1st - Bruce Thomas
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - John Batich
1st - Bruce Thomas
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - John Batich
Round 5 - Report
Round 5 of the Slot-It Group C cars, or as they were known this week, Marshals workout equipment.
After being quite well behaved for the first 4 rounds, the Group C cars suddenly found the Stratton Valley track to be a minefield this week. There were cars going off all over the place, either by their own design, or with the assistance of others…..sometime with little of no forewarning of the carnage that was about to befall the drivers. Its always a very keen balancing act as you get toward the tail end of a series trying to keep tyre grip from becoming too excessive, and it looks as though some cars are having this exact problem…..but not all of the time…….which makes it rather hard to adjust your driving style to adapt.
The drivers who coped best with this were Bruce & Phil, each finishing on 83 laps for the night. Bruce taking out 1st on track position from Phil in 2nd.
3 laps back & in 3rd was JB in a good battle with Rhys on 80 laps each. Rhys had a very much improved drive this week & scored his best result of the series so far. In 5th was the writers Porsche on 79 laps for the night ahead of a group of 3 drivers each finishing on 77 laps. Schoee took 6th in the end from DB & Rob in 7th & 8th respectively. Another fierce battle for places developed in the next group of drivers all on 76 laps.
Callan Thomas broke down near the midway point of his final heat, but still took out 9th ahead of Adrian Gray & Scott in 10th & 11th. Adrian alternated each lap between circulating very quickly and de-slotting at the end of the top section of the track. This had a somewhat negative effect on his overall result.
Chris Priest took out 12th with his total of 74 laps, 2 laps to the good of Dave Gray on 72 (13th) & Thomas Males in 14h just 1 lap back on 71.
An interesting round for the Group C cars this week and with only 2 rounds to go it really is Phils series to lose. The consistency of top 2 finishes has almost locked up the series win.
And in breaking news for next weeks Slot-it Group C, we will be racing for one of these……
Race 6 - Shelmore Park - 11/4/23
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Rob Golley
3rd - Bruce Thomas
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Rob Golley
3rd - Bruce Thomas
Round 6
Race 6 of the Slot-It Group C cars this week, and you’d have thought that at this stage of the series (near the end) that all cars would have been sorted out as well as they possibly could be & all racing would be as smooth & without incident as any time of the series……..Sadly it seems the opposite is true of this class !. Each round closer to the end seems to bring a new level of carnage brought about by recalcitrant, wayward handing cars.
The exception to this each week has been Phil, and nothing changed this round either as he racked up yet another win in his so-far dominant display. His total of 114 laps was 3 clear of 2nd placegetter Rob Golley, whose series has been rather more up & down over the 6 weeks so far. Luckily this week was an up & his 2nd place finish on 111 laps was well deserved. In 3rd place, after having had some obvious issues in the early heats, was Bruce Thomas. These obvious issues, were made manifestly clear to the Marshall nearest Bruce in the first heat (which happened to be myself) who’s ears were subject to a tremendous barrage of uncouth language directed at Bruce’s unfortunate vehicle.
One lap back in 4th (109) was Callan Thomas who suffered the occasional problem, but overcame one of these by re-slotting himself hands free after a de-slot coming onto the start-finish straight, thus saving himself the danger of getting marshals getting involved.
Dave Schofield had a very good run again this week & continued his extremely consistent series. His 107 laps was good enough for 5th ahead of Rhys Filbee in 6th and finishing on the same lap total.
John Batich & Dennis Murray battled it out for 7th & 8th with JB taking the position from Den, both drivers finishing on 105 laps for the night.
Chris Priest took out a standalone 9th on 103 laps, and Scott Wyman rounded out the top 10 this week on 99 laps.
Also on 99 laps in 11th was the writers car, which was a tad disappointing after a solid first 3 heats. However during the last heat on yellow, the habit of the writers Porsche 956 religiously de-slotting each lap while taking the station hairpin finally took its toll & led to the car being removed from the heat early before any further embarrassment (or carnage) was caused. This was not the only Porsche to suffer these issues though, as we shall hear about soon.
In 12th on 96 laps, and circulating mostly without incident, was Tomas Males, 1 spot ahead of Dave Gray in 13th on 93 laps.
Dave can probably consider himself a tad lucky to have even finished this high though given the blatant & deliberate attempts by the nearest marshal to thwart his first heat.
Not only did Dave have to put up the obviously unsporting behavior of having a pair of glasses flung at his car on the start/finish straight, but the marshal in question used this distraction to perform an even more underhanded move. Once the obstruction (glasses) had been cleared from the track & the heat was re-started, Dave then found to his dismay that his controller power had been severed leaving him helpless until the problem was pinpointed & rectified. Ironically it was the marshal who initially caused this hullabaloo who then made a great show of plugging the controller back in as if to absolve himself of all prior actions. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this individual in weeks to come.
Finally, in 14th this week & on 92 laps was the other unfortunate driving a Porsche 956. Dave Banoft’s car must be a member of the same “union” as my own as it decided that once it got to the final heat on yellow that it would follow my own cars handing & de-slot each lap at the same point (station hairpin) thus completely destroying yet another drivers evening results.
Only 1 round to go DB……
Race 6 of the Slot-It Group C cars this week, and you’d have thought that at this stage of the series (near the end) that all cars would have been sorted out as well as they possibly could be & all racing would be as smooth & without incident as any time of the series……..Sadly it seems the opposite is true of this class !. Each round closer to the end seems to bring a new level of carnage brought about by recalcitrant, wayward handing cars.
The exception to this each week has been Phil, and nothing changed this round either as he racked up yet another win in his so-far dominant display. His total of 114 laps was 3 clear of 2nd placegetter Rob Golley, whose series has been rather more up & down over the 6 weeks so far. Luckily this week was an up & his 2nd place finish on 111 laps was well deserved. In 3rd place, after having had some obvious issues in the early heats, was Bruce Thomas. These obvious issues, were made manifestly clear to the Marshall nearest Bruce in the first heat (which happened to be myself) who’s ears were subject to a tremendous barrage of uncouth language directed at Bruce’s unfortunate vehicle.
One lap back in 4th (109) was Callan Thomas who suffered the occasional problem, but overcame one of these by re-slotting himself hands free after a de-slot coming onto the start-finish straight, thus saving himself the danger of getting marshals getting involved.
Dave Schofield had a very good run again this week & continued his extremely consistent series. His 107 laps was good enough for 5th ahead of Rhys Filbee in 6th and finishing on the same lap total.
John Batich & Dennis Murray battled it out for 7th & 8th with JB taking the position from Den, both drivers finishing on 105 laps for the night.
Chris Priest took out a standalone 9th on 103 laps, and Scott Wyman rounded out the top 10 this week on 99 laps.
Also on 99 laps in 11th was the writers car, which was a tad disappointing after a solid first 3 heats. However during the last heat on yellow, the habit of the writers Porsche 956 religiously de-slotting each lap while taking the station hairpin finally took its toll & led to the car being removed from the heat early before any further embarrassment (or carnage) was caused. This was not the only Porsche to suffer these issues though, as we shall hear about soon.
In 12th on 96 laps, and circulating mostly without incident, was Tomas Males, 1 spot ahead of Dave Gray in 13th on 93 laps.
Dave can probably consider himself a tad lucky to have even finished this high though given the blatant & deliberate attempts by the nearest marshal to thwart his first heat.
Not only did Dave have to put up the obviously unsporting behavior of having a pair of glasses flung at his car on the start/finish straight, but the marshal in question used this distraction to perform an even more underhanded move. Once the obstruction (glasses) had been cleared from the track & the heat was re-started, Dave then found to his dismay that his controller power had been severed leaving him helpless until the problem was pinpointed & rectified. Ironically it was the marshal who initially caused this hullabaloo who then made a great show of plugging the controller back in as if to absolve himself of all prior actions. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this individual in weeks to come.
Finally, in 14th this week & on 92 laps was the other unfortunate driving a Porsche 956. Dave Banoft’s car must be a member of the same “union” as my own as it decided that once it got to the final heat on yellow that it would follow my own cars handing & de-slot each lap at the same point (station hairpin) thus completely destroying yet another drivers evening results.
Only 1 round to go DB……
***In a follow up from last weeks racing, extensive repairs were undertaken at the Stratton valley racetrack during the week. Hopefully all the works will be completed for our next visit:
Race 7 - Mornington Park - 3/5/23
1st - Mal O'May
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - Dave Schofield
1st - Mal O'May
2nd - Phil Kalbfell
3rd - Dave Schofield
Final Series Results - Top 3
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Rob Golley
3rd - John Batich
1st - Phil Kalbfell
2nd - Rob Golley
3rd - John Batich
Group C – Round 7 Report
So, we came to the final round of the Slot-it Group C sports car series this week and what “should” have been one of the faster & more well performed classes of our entire roster……didn’t seem to really turn out that way. For whatever reason this series was dogged by a downturn in performance across the board, with nobody able to match previous series times on any track with any car. We’ll just have to put it down to one of those slot car things that just happen for no reason whatsoever……along with equally unexplained things such as:
Rob Golley slotted into 4th on 117 laps, and clear by 2 laps of a very good battle for 5th & 6th between JB & DB both on 115 laps. JB took the position on this occasion with DB finishing 6th.
In 7th Chris Priest showed that it was time for a Tic-Tac and his 112 laps was 1 lap clear of Rhys Filbee in 8th (111 laps). Dave Gray was very quick on occasions throughout his 3 heats and with a little more luck might have pushed a lot further up the results board, but in the end had to settle for 9th with a 106 lap total. Thomas Males grabbed the final top 10 spot with his 96 lap total.
The slot car X-Files continued at the end of the field as well, with both Adrian Gray & Scott Wyman suffering a lead wire detachment for no reason, after having both put together at least 1 one untroubled heat. As Adrians issue came in heat 3, his wasn’t quite as big a disaster as Scotts & so he ended up 11th (76 laps), with Scott sadly 12th on 48.
The overall results were closely fought (well, after 1st place anyway).
Phil took out the series with a dominant display, from Rob Golley in 2nd & JB in 3rd. JB really suffering from his 1 missed round.
So, we came to the final round of the Slot-it Group C sports car series this week and what “should” have been one of the faster & more well performed classes of our entire roster……didn’t seem to really turn out that way. For whatever reason this series was dogged by a downturn in performance across the board, with nobody able to match previous series times on any track with any car. We’ll just have to put it down to one of those slot car things that just happen for no reason whatsoever……along with equally unexplained things such as:
- Why a previously well performed car suddenly starts behaving like a dog (even if the aforementioned car has been put away after a successful series, not touched at all, then brought out for the next identical series 2 years later…….not that I’m bitter or anything)
- Why a car that has been a dog for the entire series, suddenly performs like a dream in the last race of the series (see further down for perfect example)
- Why wheel/pinions/tyres/lead wires never show any sign of becoming loose during pre-race checks or practice, but only halfway through the 2nd or 3rd heat when you are in the process of putting together a very good bracket. (again, see further down for examples)
- Why a brand new car out of the box has tyres resembling eggs, wheels scraping on bodywork & body posts cracked by the sheer force of screws tightened by an airgun.
Rob Golley slotted into 4th on 117 laps, and clear by 2 laps of a very good battle for 5th & 6th between JB & DB both on 115 laps. JB took the position on this occasion with DB finishing 6th.
In 7th Chris Priest showed that it was time for a Tic-Tac and his 112 laps was 1 lap clear of Rhys Filbee in 8th (111 laps). Dave Gray was very quick on occasions throughout his 3 heats and with a little more luck might have pushed a lot further up the results board, but in the end had to settle for 9th with a 106 lap total. Thomas Males grabbed the final top 10 spot with his 96 lap total.
The slot car X-Files continued at the end of the field as well, with both Adrian Gray & Scott Wyman suffering a lead wire detachment for no reason, after having both put together at least 1 one untroubled heat. As Adrians issue came in heat 3, his wasn’t quite as big a disaster as Scotts & so he ended up 11th (76 laps), with Scott sadly 12th on 48.
The overall results were closely fought (well, after 1st place anyway).
Phil took out the series with a dominant display, from Rob Golley in 2nd & JB in 3rd. JB really suffering from his 1 missed round.
