Anoraks.

A race is never over till it’s over, and this week’s NSR F1 event proved it twice.

With a reasonably healthy ten-driver entry, including visitor Alan Wilkinson back for another go on Molesey’s wood and Julian returning after several weeks away, all was set for some exciting racing. Well, as exciting as racing little plastic cars round and round in circles can ever be, which, to the hobby’s aficionados is damned exciting at times, and to the rest of the world generally dismissed as the lunacy of a bunch of anoraks. Their loss.

Josh, in his last domestic race before his big event at the 2022 ISRA World Championships in Latvia, took an early lead, winning Heat 1 with Lee second, David third, then Simon in front of Julian. At the other end of the race a battle was brewing between Alan and the Tomster, the Tomster with the upper hand initially.

Heat 2 saw Josh stretch his lead over Lee to 4.7 seconds, Julian climb to third and Alan claw back some of his deficit to the Tomster to bring the gap down to 8.5 seconds.

Heat 3 did, eventually, start, but by now progress had reverted to the more usual Molesey fare of plentiful banter, umpteen warm-up laps, a bit more banter, a discussion of political history, a “who’s got the track-call button?” and more of the normal fun and games that make a club night at Molesey such good fun. Thankfully, competitive flatulence seems to have taken a back seat in recent months, otherwise we’d probably have been there until gone midnight. Boys will be boys, as they say. And some losers still call us anoraks. Their loss, again.

By the time Heat 3 had finished, Josh’s lead had grown to 6.5 seconds ahead of Lee, Alan had halved his deficit to the Tomster and was now just 3.9 seconds behind.

Heat 4 didn’t change much, Josh still comfortably ahead and driving one of his most consistent and error-free races of the year, a good omen for the impending Worlds. Simon had recovered from a poor first half to sit just five-tenths behind Neil mid-pack, and the Tomster had stretched his lead over Alan to ten seconds.

Heat 5 was the game changer. Josh crashed, and after his car had sat stationary for a while with no immediate movement from the nearby marshal – who shall remain nameless, because there’s a limit to the amount of mickey-taking your correspondent can do without it becoming a bit too much. You’d agree, wouldn’t you Vince? – David hit the track-call button. Lee went ballistic, which livened up proceedings considerably for everyone else, but more importantly the track-call meant that he didn’t quite manage to get back all of his almost seven-second deficit to Josh, the heat ending with Josh still 0.37 seconds ahead. Meanwhile, Alan had closed back in on the Tomster, the Tomster’s lead now down to seven seconds.

So to the final heat, 0.37 seconds separating Josh and Lee. Josh’s crash in the previous heat had spoiled his until then smooth and fast consistency, so the pressure was on, and it showed. Lee put in a flawless drive, Josh didn’t, hitting the wall instead. It was all over for Josh, Lee taking the win, Josh second, Julian third.

Not to be outdone by the drama at the head of the field, the Tomster joined in too, falling off a couple of times and gifting eighth place to Alan, who, although lapping slower than the Tomster, had been driving far more consistently all race. As they say, it’s never over till it’s over.

And people still call us anoraks? Their loss again, again. What a brilliant night.