Sunday 19th December saw seven hardy souls (or should that be silly so & so's) assemble at Dowty's Slot Club for the final two rounds of the 2010 Cotswold Challenge. With appalling weather conditions & illness making a contribution, Swindon were represented solely by Mike Perkins, whilst new champion Rob Harris, reigning champion Dave Coward, Andy "Mr Consistent" (5 rounds, 5 3rd places) Dunan, Funky & late comers Graham Fryer & Phil Mitchell made up the balance.

The calendar for 2011 is already being worked on & if anyone has any suggestions for changes or improvements to the championship please drop me a line. 

Championship :-

Cotswold Challenge - October

Round 9 of the 2010 Cotswold Challenge took place at Dowty's on Friday 22nd October with only Neal Callaghan present to represent Swindon. All the Dowty regulars were present with Rob Harris hoping to clinch the championship for the first time, Dave Coward hoping to stop him & Funky, Phil Mitchell, Noddy & Andy Dunan just looking for points. Dowty's numbers were completed by James Davey & two of the newer juniors, Evan & Gabe.

Funky

Cotswold Challenge, Round 8
Cotswold Challenge returned after the summer break with a Swindon round at Dowty's.

Funky

Bexhill Open Meeting for Hard Bodied Cars 2011

Cotswold Challenge, Round 6

Sunday 20th June saw the Cotswold Challenge reach mid-point with it's annual summer tour, Dowty's for Round 6 in the morning, followed by lunch at Swindon then Round 7.

Round 4 of the 2010 Cotswold Challenge 

Round 4 of the 2010 Cotswold Challenge was run on Tuesday 20th April, with Swindon hosting the meeting at Dowty's track (It's a long story!!)

EAHORC 2010 Round 2 LHORC Edmonton - 21 Feb 2010


Despite the second round of the EAHORC championship being on the same weekend as many other slot car events, 19 people came along to Edmonton, making it the most successful meeting there to date. Formula one racing started a few minutes after 10am, with Martin Hill in probably his most imperious form ever, which is saying something. Once again the field behind him was ridiculously competitive, with Tony Stacey the driver to punch above his weight this time, taking the 3rd automatic place in the A final. Paul Homewood, the driver to watch last time out, proved that was no fluke by qualify a solid 5th, one place behind the ever improving Andy Player.

By contrast, the hero of the December round, Roy Masters, was struggling for consistency down in 16th place! Three newcomers from the prospective Kent-based HO club made their EAHORC debut. Tony Molloy would eventually finish 13th but put in good fastest laps in all his heats, so will be another one in the mix once he find some consistency. His son John and David Hannington also enjoyed their day, and plans are afoot for a return visit to pick up where they started. With the heats finished and lunch looming, the spreadsheet was quickly sorted and the finals got under way, starting with 'Edmo's' first ever F final, won by an unwell but still quick Craig Homewood. Dave Rouse, another driver struggling despite some quick laps times, won the E final, vanquishing Daniel Stacey and his father Steve as well as Roy.

For the D final Deane Walpole had managed to turn his form around a little and was somewhat closer to where a premier grade should be. With the
competitiveness of the class the way it is now, he found himself up against the impressive Tony Molloy, Julian Allard on pole and of course Dave,
capable of anything even from white lane. In the end Deane did win, but the race was a classic. The Red Bull Mega-G lead throughout, with first Julian and then Dave applying mighty pressure. Their scrap for second probably left Deane just the breathing space he needed to win by just 2/10ths of a lap, with Dave a mere 5 hundredths of a lap ahead of Julian! Tony trailed home    behind all this but again fired in fastest lap of the race by way of warning shot for the future.
The C final was almost as good a race, Robin Cornwall having to find the right balance of speed and caution to keep back John Chell and win by just .35 laps. The B final kept up this amazing run, the whole field covered by less than two laps, with Andy Player just about beating John Ovens as the latter took sizable chunks out of his lead in a no holds barred attempt to win. Would the cat and mouse racing continue on into the A final? The
line-up was Martin as hot favourite, Clive Harland in Blue having secured his promotion to premier grade by making the final, Tony Stacey as  the
underdog and Andy following his step-up.

In the end Martin crushed them all, with Andy taking a surprise second after taking a clever approach to the race, waiting for others to over-do it.
Clive took third on his Prem grade debut, with Tony last but very happy to make the final and beat 15 other hard charging drivers. Lunch was trimmed to 30 minutes following this final, the two rooms layout at Edmo again making it slower than idea assembling each race, with 4 drivers choosing Pro for the first time, 7 Nascars and the rest in Modified.

Martin was untouchable in Pro, but with three others in that class he knew that the pressure was on nonetheless. Any off track excursion with these
cars is always likely to be a biggie, so his approach was to run all four heats at the absolute limit so as to be in that mindset come the final, and
then build a big enough lead that a crash would not wreak the gameplan. It all worked out perfectly, but everyone was taking big risks at some point, the big, 1-3 lap losing, de-slot just waiting to pounce. Toward the end, Robin had a sniff at third and snuck past Clive with Marc Townsend the closest to giving Mart real pressure, finishing runner up. Despite winning by a big margin Martin's relief at the finish was palpable, as he knows how easy it is to throw it away. For those spectating, these cars continue to be the prefect way to finish the day, especially if you are not marshalling!

Nascar saw Andy continue to have a stonking day, beating Roy despite the Leighton Buzzard resident producing some quick lap times and scores, a 6.18s in red particularly standing out, on the way to class pole. Steve Stacey took a superb third, beating round one winner Deane who was in damage control mode after a torrid set of heats and yet more mechanical woe. Tony M was sixth, but yet again the lap times suggest more is to come so as those three battle away he could be in there making things difficult. Daniel was 5th, with John M 7th but showing flashes of real pace.

With four Pro-Mods entered for the first time, Modified ran as a separate class. Dave Rouse was the star here, although John Ovens, Julian and Tony S all produced the goods at some point during the heats. Qualifying behind Dave had been incredibly close, but it was Julian who took the fight to him in the end, beating John O narrowly in the B final and then being less than half a lap behind in the big one as Dave stuttered. Tony Stacey was third, but produced fastest lap to show what might have been. David stuck with his un-sorted short Mega-G in this class, but I suspect he will have headed off after a fun day plotting what to do next.

I believe EAHORC is in the best state ever right now, huge camaraderie as the video for this month shows, but some very intense racing and it is so
competitive in all classes. Who finds the most race-craft to go with their speed keeps shifting with every meeting and you never now how it is going to shake out, all you can do is bring your A game to every race and to every heat - and hope that is enough. DW

2010 Round 1 SCHORC yelling- 24/1/10

Back to Yelling for the commencement of the short 2010 season. With the snow threatening the event earlier in the month it was a relief to see it fade away and 15 racers able to get to the village without problems. Tony Baldock came along with dad Peter to compete in his first EAHORC meeting since January 2007, and with friend Ian Grinham also in tow and making his first appearance since 2003! The racing kicked off with F1, with Martin Hill not suffering his usual wobbles (they were to come later) to qualify on pole in part thanks to an untouchable score in what was to become the popular white lane. Tony was, as expected, up the sharp end with his Tyco, with Marc Townsend at last unlocking speed from his Mega-G to make the A final.

They were joined by local Paul Homewood, who led the vast majority of a very intense B final which required him to soak up pressure from all the other three as they battled hard. The E final had seen son Craig take the step up to the D, which was won by Dave Rouse but with Craig pushing him all the way and beating Julian Allard and Tony Stacey. These two finished 1/100th of a lap apart. The C final was won by Roy, the hero from last month struggling to match those heights, but now driving sweetly in the finals to beat Peter, Dave and Clive Harland and have a real shout in the B final.

This race was a classic, all four drivers in with a serious chance of making the A final at some point. Just when Paul thought he could relax as one rival crashed, another would pop up 2-3 seconds behind him. Late on Roy was showing the most pace and moved up to 3rd and then 2nd in rapid succession, and got the gap to the leader under 2 seconds before a crash dropped him back. Ian now found himself in second, and only a third of a lap behind, but Paul held on a drove with much aplomb as he had throughout and to make his first A final. After that the A itself was a bit of an anti-climax with the field spread out by half distance. Martin duly took a win with his Mega-G with Tony B second, Marc third and Paul a still stunning 4th considering the quality of the field.

For the afternoon, Marc and Clive duly entered Pro-Mod as expected and quickly got to grips with their new Slottechs. The pace of these cars now they are on lexan bodies is such they a crash is likely to be big and result in the loss of a lap, possibly two, so the stakes are very high. Martin produced fastest laps in all four lanes, but it was Clive pumping in the big scores as he wisely held a little in reserve compared to Martin and Marc. John Chell had also entered Pro, but was having a torrid time with his body clip and never figured. Clive took pole by five laps, with Martin behind Marc by a whopping eight, but still getting white lane for the final. Deane Walpole had found some form, using Martin's Nascar to take pole in a fierce battle with Tony B, and Dave had proved to be the fastest of the three Mod racers.

Finals commenced with Mod, Dave finding himself first under pressure from Tony S and then unexpectedly from Julian who had been having a torrid time in the heats with motor clip problems but came good when it mattered. In the end Dave won by 0.8 of a lap, with Julian just under two ahead of Tony. Nascar next and Peter initially looked the most likely to take the step up until an off saw his body clip scupper his chances, leaving Roy to again come on strong in the finals but not before having to see off a charging Ian, who had improved his score in yellow by 2 laps but could not quite get by. The A final saw everyone except Roy get off to a terrible start, but he then made what has now become uncharacteristic mistakes to squander the advantage and fall behind Deane and Tony as they headed into a private battle of their own.

Tony initially held sway, but Deane was closing in and encouraging race control to call the gaps. An off from the multiple champion just as Deane had got to within a few inches back saw the lead change hands, and trouble with his clip would see Tony eventually finishes last. Deane therefore took his first A final win since, with Andy second but not much ahead of Roy. The day wrapped with the Pro final, Martin on a mission to put his heat woes behind him and leading from the off. as the clock wound down, one mistake would have been fatal to his chances, so the race was tense as all three pushed to the maximum. Martin came through with an amazing 42.92 laps, with Clive second on 41.33 and Marc fast but trying too hard on 38.41 but well ahead of a still struggling John. A set of good finals, with the F1 B being the best and the highlight Paul's resulting 4th place. Well done to him and to all who attended for making it a great day.

Deane Walpole

Cotswold Challenge January Round

Round 1 of the 2010 Cotswold Challenge took place at Dowty's on Friday 22nd January with all the regular suspects in attendance, Rocky & Neal from Swindon being joined by Karl, whilst the Dowty contingent were swelled by no less than 11 juniors. We must be doing something right!!