Change at the top?

With twelve drivers competing, you’d think that NSR Classics would provide great racing, and indeed they did, but there wasn’t a lot of overtaking this week. Instead, consistency was key. Make a mistake and lose time, and it’s mighty hard to get it back.

Heat 1 saw Lee take a narrow lead of 0.13 seconds, but Josh turned the tables in Heat 2, albeit by the tiniest margin of 0.01, before opening a decent gap in subsequent heats to take another comfortable victory.

The biggest upset of the evening was seeing Julian fail to make the podium for the first time since a Slot.it Group C race way back in November 2019. This time he fell victim to Simon driving Josh’s back-up car, a quick Porsche 908/3.

Simon’s lead over Julian remained under two seconds for the first four heats, but he found a little more speed in Heats 5 and 6, Julian slowed at the same time, and they finished separated by more than a lap. Quite a shocker.

The midfield battle between Terry and David had been the closest, Terry ahead by less than a second for the first two heats, then 0.61 down after Heat 3, but it all came to nothing for David when a controller malfunction or car-prep incompetence (the true culprit hasn’t been identified yet) wrecked David’s chances.

All in all it was a good evening’s racing, where consistency was rewarded and a new name appeared on the podium for the first time in ages. Congratulations Simon.

With a burgeoning membership at Molesey and newcomer Phil impressing everyone with his speed, are we seeing the beginnings of a change at the top? Who knows, but it’ll be good to watch things play out over the rest of the year.