Todgers.

Sideways GT3 again this week, and even before the clubroom’s doors had opened there had been some excitement. With mid-race car-swapping in previous races having become so common that it stretched the spirit of racing to breaking point, the club had resurrected a rule that had been forgotten in recent years, namely that a driver should drive only the car that he’d had passed at scrutineering. If in the course of the race it became terminally broken, a substitute would be allowed, but that was it. Outside of a terminal failure a driver would be stuck with his car for the entire race, so set-up changes between heats would once again be the only way to salvage a decent result for drivers whose cars were underperforming. So far, so simple, but the dreaded scrutineering had to be passed first.

Yes, passing scrutineering. The class rules are on the club’s website and displayed on the clubroom notice board for reference, so presenting a car that meets them should be simple, but when has anything in slot car racing ever been simple, outside of making tea and using the loo? Mind you, have you seen the state of clubs’ loos sometimes? It makes you wonder how drivers ever manage to pull their todger out of their trousers without damaging it, let alone try to point it in the right direction, so perhaps expecting a 100% pass rate at scrutineering is a step too far. Sure enough, several cars failed for wheels being set too wide.

Race controller Neil had cracked the whip this week with the intention of getting racing done and dusted earlier than in previous weeks, so after a quick Crash & Burn round – Neil leads the year-long Crash & Burn Challenge – and everyone had eventually passed scrutineering, group 1 (Neil, Peter, Chris, Tom and Mario) lined up for their first heat.

Sometimes result sheets don’t tell the whole story. This week was one of them. The gaps between final positions look quite big on paper, but the racing was a lot closer than the numbers suggest. Group 1’s first heat saw all five drivers battling neck and neck, lap after lap, never more than a few car lengths separating first to last. Peter crashed mid-heat losing a few seconds, but just two seconds covered the remaining four at the line. Tom took the heat win, with Mario just four tenths back in second, his best result since he’s been racing at Molesey.

The group’s remaining heats were similarly close in their opening laps, crashes being the eventual decider of overall positions. Neil put his years of experience to good use to finish top of Group 1 and seventh overall, narrowly ahead of Peter, then came Chris, then a dispirited Tom ruing his crash-strewn drive, then the ever-improving Mario who, had it not been for poor third and final heats, would have finished much closer to the rest of his group.

At the head of the race things were more spread out. Lee took an early lead to win heat 1 by two tenths from Josh, but try as he might he couldn’t hold Josh back in the remaining heats, eventually finishing almost a lap down in second position. As Josh admitted afterwards, his defeat at the previous week’s GT3 race by Julian, Lee and Terry, plus Lee’s new lap record, had been the spur he’d needed to make a big effort before this week’s race to build a quicker car. It paid off, Josh’s 8.429 best lap shaving 0.017 from Lee’s lap record which, coupled with an unusually consistent race devoid of errors, made Josh unbeatable this week. As ever, consistency is as important as a fast car.

Next race is Molesey’s RevoSlot Toyota Supra club cars, where nobody has to worry about passing scrutineering, nor how good they are at building a fast car. It’s just pure slot car racing with no need for that pesky scrutineering. See you there!