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| Gordon in red shirt - he proposed the handicap event. |
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| Tony Ball advises the newbies on the goodies in the new cabinets. |
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| Marshals on duty. |
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| Rare short of Phil on race control! Vallen spectates. |
Thanks to the persistence of Ecurie's PRO Annetjie, I enjoyed a visit to the club's trial novelty handicap event last Friday evening. Gordon Neal proposed this as an “any 1/32 plastic car” class, with handicap based on the two 2 minutes qualifiers driven the same evening. This permits brand new drivers and differs from the handicap championships of old, which were based on two previous events. Those achieving more than 105% in the final "broke out" and were excluded, to catch out the ringers.
Maybe not a championship style event but it was certainly a bunch of fun for a one in a while giggle event and saw quite a range of cars dug out of dusty boxes. Of course the older hands always have to be smart - Mike and Shane had a double magnet F1, which is traction locked down for consistency, till it was panel beaten by other cars and the barriers. Tony and Dave went with an older Fly and touring car for consistency in the 7 to 7.5 second per lap category. Nigel decided on blitz vinnig, which turned out anything but consistent ;-)
The organisers were blessed with just the result they wanted, the top three results all being kids! Phil looked spot on 100% for his 102 laps with 51 laps at half way but Shane saw to it that the track calls increased exponentially and although Phil took it on raw laps, followed by yours truly, he suffered on handicap and yours truly was able just pip him on handicap with a useful 97.8% but the lighties were un-catchable at over 100%!
