Nearly Simon.

With 50% more drivers than last week – a much more healthy nine instead of a meagre six – the second of this month’s NSR Classic events produced some of the best racing seen at Molesey recently.

At the front, Lee and Simon were neck and neck for five of the six heats, while in the midfield, Graham and Alex were even closer for the entire race. It’s ironic that NSR Classics are one of the less popular classes at Molesey, yet consistently serve up some of the best racing.

Whilst the lead and midfield battles were superb, the same couldn’t be said of Tom’s race. He started badly and got worse, his driving wayward and crash-strewn, his car less than perfect, his frustration getting the better of him. He wasn’t helped by the conflicting advice he was being given from others. I’ll spare the drivers their blushes and leave them anonymous. Driver 1 said Tom’s car had too much grip. Driver 2 said it didn’t and it was mostly Tom’s driving which was at fault. Driver 3 said that none of it mattered anyway as it was only a slot car race, while Driver 4 was so busy debating with Lee the merits or otherwise of selling assorted tat at the country’s markets that he didn’t appear to have noticed that Tom was even in the building. As always with racing at Molesey, there were as many opinions as there were drivers, so I’ll let you guess who was saying what. Naturally, this being racing, Tom sided with the “it’s the car” excuse, but whatever the true reason, he ended the night thoroughly grumpy and miles behind in last place.

Away from Tom’s travails, the fight for the overall win was excellent, Lee and Simon swapping positions several times and lining up for Heat 5 with Lee just 0.4 seconds ahead, which is when David decided to join the party.

With Josh slowing markedly after Heat 2, David had third place in his sights and was now on a roll, starting Heat 5 just 0.6 seconds away from a podium spot. Racing in adjacent lanes and with a handful of laps done, David and Simon were side by side entering the long sweeping corner that leads to the finish line, David on the inside. David’s car got slightly out of shape and gave Simon’s car the lightest of taps. It was almost imperceptible, but sufficient to cause a deslot for Simon, opening up a gap to Lee which Simon couldn’t close in Heat 6. Lee’s race-winning margin of 5.57 seconds doesn’t do his battle with Simon justice. Had it not been for his crash in Heat 5, there’s every chance that Simon could have taken the overall win.

The battle for 5th place between Graham and Alex didn’t fall victim to any crashes, the pair driving smoothly and consistently, almost dead-heating several times. Heat 1’s gap was just 0.06 seconds, Heat 3 closer at 0.03, and Heat 4 closer still at 0.02. It was a brilliant fight.

NSR Classics may have fallen out of favour with many of the club’s drivers, but there’s no denying that the cars are damned good if close racing is what you’re after. Will they be killed off for next year, or will they win a reprieve? We’ll find out when the club votes on next year’s classes.