The Rust God.
The remains of the club’s battered RevoSlot Toyota Supras were nailed together and wheeled out again this week for the fourth round of Molesey’s Club Cars championship. Unlike the last round which had a meagre grid of just six drivers, this week we had thirteen, which quickly reduced to twelve when Jim had to retire unwell after a couple of laps.
Ed, in his first Club Cars event of the year, had arrived talking his chances down, claiming his recent lack of racing due to a health issue meant he was rusty and highly unlikely to feature in the top half of the leaderboard. It didn’t take long for that to be disproved, his third place in heat 1 behind Simon and Julian showing that far from being rusty, his enforced rest had done his driving no harm whatsoever.
The battle for the win was a thriller between Julian and Simon. Simon led by 0.21 after heat 1, Julian won heat 2 to take a lead of just 0.07, Simon was back ahead after heat 3 with a lead of 3.12 seconds, which Julian narrowed but couldn’t quite overcome in the next two heats, the pair starting the final heat with Simon just 0.39 in front. Simon, though, would have to drive the unfavoured yellow car, with Julian in the much quicker red one.
It looked as though it would be an easy run to victory for Julian, but that’s not how it played out, Julian struggling to get the best from the car, his best lap of 8.699 a long way off those managed by Lee (8.417) and Simon (8.523) and not even able to beat Ed’s and Alex’s times (8.620 and 8.633). Simon put up a good fight, but it wasn’t quite enough, Julian clawing back the four tenths he needed and going on to finish the evening with a lead of 2.35 seconds.
Ed’s race had gone well, his early pace staying with him and seeing him head into the final heat in 3rd place, half a second ahead of Lee in 4th and almost an entire lap in front of Alex in 5th. So much for him being rusty.
Sadly, a god somewhere decided that because Ed had talked his chances down pre-race, it was only right and proper that his prediction come true. Sure enough, Ed’s final heat was an utter disaster, his 2m:23.018 only good enough for 11th place in the heat and dropping him from 3rd to 5th overall.
There’s probably a moral there somewhere about negative thinking, so let it be a lesson to anyone thinking of talking down their chances at the next race. The clubroom’s walls have ears, and the god to whom they belong is a nasty so and so. Happy racing!
