Slotcar Legends met at the Eggdome once more and the track was to prove once again a source of great racing and some really close results. The Eggdome ranks highly as a venue in most part due to John and Kim’s hospitality. The track’s part in all this is to supply a facility which could be rated second to none in local South East Queensland racing, and, as will be revealed later, Eggy had yet one more trick up his sleeve.
A couple of very Nice BMW’s from Scalextric
A very nice pair of Ferraris from Norm’s box. We’ll be fighting these off with a big stick soon!...........
Racers slowly gathered after 2.00 pm and by 4.00 there was a respectable gathering at the Buderim venue. Not too large and not too small, with fifteen in attendance and fourteen racing. As the race boxes open as each racer arrives it becomes apparent that some have a novel approach to the event in hand while other boxes harbour serious racing equipment. But none compared to Terry’s LMM Panhard model. Expertly detailed and an RTR for the track. Finished in French racing blue and beautifully detailed I expected it to be primarily for the plastic track but after a couple of minor adjustment the model was soon lapping quite respectably in its own right.
Terry’s Fabulous Panhard. Maybe not a race winner but out in front in many other respects
A new Bowler in someone’s box, we’ll see this at the next raid event no doubt!
After the social networking was over the first event was called . This was to be World touring cars. Hard one to call, this and as it included all the European touring cars it was going to be anybody’s race. I had taken my well balanced SCX Honda and a couple of guys chose to field the very respectable Scaley BMW 320’s. Also appearing was a finely tuned Scaley Renault and a Ninco Audi A4.
Keep your eye on the Hondas
In the first heat Glen and I took off into the lead and several laps later Glen deslotted leaving me to cruise to the finish. Whilst cruising I had not realised that glen was on a mission and a couple of laps from the finish he was clearly close behind. Luck held and I managed to cross the line first. Several heats later the models were lapping in the high sixes and race averages were in the very low sevens, with two or three names making the running. No time to relax here and even in soft heats the hammer needed to be down.
Mmmmmmmm?
Looking for payback, Glen and I started well and looked to have a good heat when back markers brought his challenge to an end. Al and Justin took the race to the crowd in heat twelve and eventually Justin, looking for another tenth or two, lost control and left Al to take the flag. In the mean time, Paul, also with an SCX Honda, was weaving his way through his heats quietly, not giving any sign of alarm to the other race leaders. Kev worked his way quietly through the pack taking one good average heat after the other and Peter S also steered his car into a striking position through the heats and everything was up for grabs by the last heat.
And a Cortina!!
Finally the computer dished out the good and bad news and it went something like this.
Race 1 World Touring Cars 22 laps Pos. Gp B Driver race time. 1. Phil 10’ 17.500†2. Paul 10’ 17.750†3. Perro 10’ 18.781†4. 1 Kev 5. 2. Peter S 6. Justin 7. Alan 8. Eggy 9. 3 Peter J 10. Norm 11. 4 Gary 12. 5 Ken 13. 6 Moby 14. 7 Bob
Keep your eye on the 512’s
Next up was track owners choice. On this occasion John had chosen Classic Le Mans up to 1971. A popular choice and most racers had their favourite models ready to go. The class covers such classics as GT40’s, Lola T70’s, Porsche 917’s and Ferrari 512’s of various kinds. Norm’s choice of a well set up GT40 was looking hard to beat in practice. How would it be going head to head? What’s more, how would Norm be going head to head??? Mmmmmmmm?
A good cross section of entries in this class
Justin opened up the betting with a 6.1 second lap and a fast average, maybe it was Justin’s turn to clean up?? Ken decided to play arbiter a few heats later. Race leader Peter S was lapping his 512M at a steady speed when he seemed to pick up something in the slot. With a continual scraping noise from underneath which didn’t seem to impair his progress too much he forged on the end of the race. One of Ken’s screws had become detached from the model and lodged itself on the Ferrari’s traction magnet, luckily not slowing him down. Nice try Ken!!
Keeping track of the racing….the Legends way!!
Norm gave us all a wake up call by driving his first heat at a blistering pace and knocking of a 5.797 lap just to rub it in. It was about this time some of us realised maybe we had chosen the wrong model?? Norm blasted each of his heats unstoppably and it was no surprise when the computer announced the bad news to the rest of us.!
A couple of 512’s for the event.
Race 2 Classic Le Mans up to 1971 22 laps 1. Norm 9’ 66.640†2. Paul 9’ 59.314†3. Glen 10’ 00.563†4. 1. Peter S 5. Eggy 6. Phil 7. 2. Gary 8. 3. Ken 9. 4. Bob 10. 5. Kev 11. Justin 12. 6. Moby 13. Alan 14. 7. Peter J
Mien Host…..mien hosting!!
About two thirds of the way through the Classic Le Mans event we were called to the dining area for yet another taste of the Van Egmond hospitality. Some of us possibly took stock of what was going wrong. Others joined in a vibrant bench racing session and focused on the food and company. John and Kim had laid on a magnificent barbeque and the cakes and other goodies were to die for, trust me! Eventually we headed back into the race room to conclude the Le Mans event and to run the feature race which was the Classic Mustang challenge.
Legends Mustangfest
A few races into the Classic Mustang event and heat four proved to be bad news for Glen. What inspired him to jump the start I don’t know but it placed him a lap down and he had it all to do to catch up. On top of that it seemed as though the track in front of him was littered with dead slotcars as one racer after the next performed what seemed to be a series of tactical deslots in his path.
A couple of heats later Peter J decided to play his trump card in front of Peter S….. no less than three times!! I’m sure Peter S was feeling he had been tarred with the same brush as Glen for this race but he was able to negotiate the mobile chicane and promptly set off to make up for lost time. Some very quick models in this class and no one make was dominant. With new Pioneers and Scaleys on the track, some raced the Carrera versions and I had some good heats with my scratchbuilds, SCX powered Revell bodied mustang, once I had slackened the chassis screws off!!!
Finally it was chequered flag time and guess what!!
Race 3 Classic Mustang Challenge 25 laps 1. Norm 11’ 48.874†2. Paul 12’ 12.374†3. 1. Gary 12’ 13.453†4. 2. Peter S. 5. Glen 6. 3. Kev 7. Justin 8. Phil 9. Alan 10. Eggy 11. 4. Ken 12. 5. Peter J 13. 6. Moby 14. 7. Bob