Missiles Launched.
The new Molesey GT class is here at last. After spending ten weeks studying rules looking for loopholes and thinking about how to build an all-conquering missile, twelve drivers unveiled their lovingly fettled machines for the first race of the season.
Actually, twelve is probably an exaggeration, because some of the cars looked like they’d been tuned with an axe, but we’ll gloss over that bit to protect their owners’ feelings.
Josh fielded a beautifully prepared Slot.it Porsche 911 GT1-98 that he’d no doubt spent a considerable amount of time building. Lee arrived with a Slot.it GT1-98 too, functional rather than beautiful, but did admit he’d spent a couple of hours building it. There were several NSR Moslers, a Mazda 787B in the hands of young Tom, a bright orange Slot.it McLaren F1 GTR for Simon, a Slot.it Lancia LC2 for Alan, plus an NSR Corvette C6.R, Mercedes-AMG GT3 and Neil’s old workhorse, his faithful Scaleauto Viper, preparation of which appeared to be little more than taking it out of the box it had been dumped in after it was last raced.
Group 1, Heat 1, and if anyone other than Josh had hoped they might be competitive, those hopes were well and truly destroyed by his blistering 7.308 lap, over half a second quicker than Lee in second place. Lee spent the remaining heats trying to stay in touch, opening a huge gap to third-placed David, but it wasn’t to be and he finished the night almost half a minute down.
You’ve got to hand it to Josh. He’s quick and he sure knows how to build a decent car. The only question left unanswered is how fast he’ll have made it after a few more weeks testing. Sub 7 seconds? Don’t bet against it, especially as he’d dipped into the 7.2s by the end of the evening.
Mid-pack was where the action was, Terry and David squabbling over third, Simon and Neil over fifth. Terry threw third away in the final heat with two very costly crashes, while Simon and Neil were barely separable, 0.17 apart after Heat 4, 0.80 after Heat 5. Neil was unlucky in Heat 6 though, falling victim to someone else’s crash and losing half a lap, which settled the battle in Simon’s favour.
All in all it was a promising start to Molesey GT. Josh looks uncatchable for now, but elsewhere the racing was close, the atmosphere friendly and good-natured even when track-calls were being loudly complained about – always a sure sign that the racing is tight – and the class wasn’t dominated by NSR Moslers as some had feared it might be. With a full grid this week, plus several absentees due to return in the next few weeks, racing at Molesey is definitely looking bright.
