Red Army.

Red’s fastest. Always has been and always will be. Yellow might look pretty, silver’s allegedly stylish and beige is just plain wrong, but if you want to win, you need a red car. And so it proved tonight, as an army of red Vipers descended upon Molesey and dominated proceedings.

After last week’s successful return to racing, it was good to see another healthy turnout of eleven drivers, but sadly the country’s fun-police disagree and as of next week we’re restricted to a paltry six drivers. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

A polite request to the race control computer to amend the way heats finish – after the lead car crosses the finish line rather than every car completing all fifteen laps – was met with a curt “Up yours mate!” by the timing system at the end of the first heat, necessitating a re-run using the tried and tested every-driver-does-the-full-distance method. If it ain’t broke…

Once again Josh made everyone else look silly, but behind him the racing was excellent. Lee took the runner-up’s spot and Terry, driving Josh’s spare car, raised his game to match the car and barely put a foot wrong on his way to a well deserved third place. Three red Vipers – 1st, 2nd, 3rd. It’s science, and you can’t argue with that unless, of course, it’s one of the 1001 different interpretations of pandemic science given to us by 1001 “expert” scientists. Perhaps our race control computer should have a word with them too.

Behind the Red Army, the also-rans enjoyed close battles throughout, with a welcome heat victory for a resurgent Graham who’d lopped a couple of tenths off his lap times by shortening his gearing.

Next week it’s all change, with two six-driver race nights. If nothing else, it’ll be different.