Coulsdon 11th May 2023
16 drivers booked in for Saloons, well to be precise it was 15 + 1 Birthday Boy as it was Mike Seary’s birthday. The lovely Mrs Seary provided cake and flapjacks which all agreed were delicious.
One-minute qualifiers were the order of the day, the names were duly “randomised” by the race control software, and the fun began.
At the end of qualifying it was Garry King on top with a lap of 5.356 followed by Mike Read on 5.461 and Tony Mills on 5.531.
Next followed 16, 3min segments to determine the results. The last four segments were particularly good with a battle royal developing between Garry King and Mike Read. At the halfway point there was little to choose between them. For segment 3 Mike moved to yellow lane and Garry to white. Mike drove an absolute stormer to clock 32 laps with Garry a little behind on 29. However, in the last segment failing tyres left Garry unable to mount a last challenge finally slipping behind both Tony Mills and Dave Stevenson. Mike romped home to win by 5.62 laps from Tony Mills and Dave Stevenson. However, when results from other segments are factored in good performances from Les May and Geoff King had an effect on the minor placings. Les May was second overall with Geoff King slotting in between Tony Mills and Dave Stevenson. Proof that in this format you don’t have to qualify into the fastest segment to get a good result.
A great drive Mike, well done.
Next week its Sports cars.
16 drivers booked in for Saloons, well to be precise it was 15 + 1 Birthday Boy as it was Mike Seary’s birthday. The lovely Mrs Seary provided cake and flapjacks which all agreed were delicious.
One-minute qualifiers were the order of the day, the names were duly “randomised” by the race control software, and the fun began.
At the end of qualifying it was Garry King on top with a lap of 5.356 followed by Mike Read on 5.461 and Tony Mills on 5.531.
Next followed 16, 3min segments to determine the results. The last four segments were particularly good with a battle royal developing between Garry King and Mike Read. At the halfway point there was little to choose between them. For segment 3 Mike moved to yellow lane and Garry to white. Mike drove an absolute stormer to clock 32 laps with Garry a little behind on 29. However, in the last segment failing tyres left Garry unable to mount a last challenge finally slipping behind both Tony Mills and Dave Stevenson. Mike romped home to win by 5.62 laps from Tony Mills and Dave Stevenson. However, when results from other segments are factored in good performances from Les May and Geoff King had an effect on the minor placings. Les May was second overall with Geoff King slotting in between Tony Mills and Dave Stevenson. Proof that in this format you don’t have to qualify into the fastest segment to get a good result.
A great drive Mike, well done.
Next week its Sports cars.
Coulsdon May 4th 2023
20 drivers booked in for tonight’s Club Cars but this time its handicap racing!!
Mike Read had been hard at work crunching results to arrive at a handicap for each driver. As a result, we had quite a range with largest handicap being +20 laps and the smallest 0 laps. Although that sounds to be a large range, at the end of 20 qualifying rounds most of the field were covered by less 4 laps. On a “normal” club car night that figure would be closer to 15 laps.
Move up finals were next, and we had some different faces in the top final with Mike Ransley, Peter Wedlake, and Ricardo D’Cruze qualifying directly and Ray Skilling joining them after winning the previous final. In the final, Mike Ransley established an early lead that he was to hold right through the race despite being chased hard by Peter Wedlake until a mistake, by Peter, on lap 23 dropped him out of contention for the win. Ray and Ricardo started very well but Ray got by on lap 5 finishing just a lap ahead of Ricardo. Final result was Mike Ransley 32.72, Peter Wedlake 32.13, Ray Skilling 31.10 & Ricardo D’Cruze 30.13 (after handicaps were applied).
A great nights racing, something different to normal race nights. Special mention must go to Mike Read and Dave Stevenson for all the hard work calculating and applying the handicaps.
Thanks Guys, great job.
Back next week with Saloons
20 drivers booked in for tonight’s Club Cars but this time its handicap racing!!
Mike Read had been hard at work crunching results to arrive at a handicap for each driver. As a result, we had quite a range with largest handicap being +20 laps and the smallest 0 laps. Although that sounds to be a large range, at the end of 20 qualifying rounds most of the field were covered by less 4 laps. On a “normal” club car night that figure would be closer to 15 laps.
Move up finals were next, and we had some different faces in the top final with Mike Ransley, Peter Wedlake, and Ricardo D’Cruze qualifying directly and Ray Skilling joining them after winning the previous final. In the final, Mike Ransley established an early lead that he was to hold right through the race despite being chased hard by Peter Wedlake until a mistake, by Peter, on lap 23 dropped him out of contention for the win. Ray and Ricardo started very well but Ray got by on lap 5 finishing just a lap ahead of Ricardo. Final result was Mike Ransley 32.72, Peter Wedlake 32.13, Ray Skilling 31.10 & Ricardo D’Cruze 30.13 (after handicaps were applied).
A great nights racing, something different to normal race nights. Special mention must go to Mike Read and Dave Stevenson for all the hard work calculating and applying the handicaps.
Thanks Guys, great job.
Back next week with Saloons
Well the results did not go as hoped but congrats to the coulsdon racers from all at there club for there efforts at the nats well done
Coulsdon April 27th 2023
The Formula cars are not quite as popular as the other classes, couple this with the awful weather and the upcoming Nat’s and only 12 drivers booked in this time. Of those 3 were running F2 with Hawk7’s and the remainder were F1.
After 1min qualifying runs it was Dave Stevenson on pole with Micky Ovens and Paul Harwood not far behind. Top F2 was Geoff King.
Segmented finals followed with 4 x 3min runs for all drivers. Top F2 went to Geoff King on 95.36 laps with Keith Wale just behind on 94.35. In F1 Dave Stevenson took the win on 113.54 laps with Paul Harwood (snapping at his heels!!) on 112.39 laps. Peter Kerr was 3rd on 103.77 laps
Paul Harwood managed to set fastest laps on Red (5.978), Yellow (5.973) and Blue (5.774) lanes with Dave Stevenson taking White Lane on 5.916. Although some way off the outright records this was still a very creditable performance Well Done Paul.
Next week its back to club cars on May 4th
The Formula cars are not quite as popular as the other classes, couple this with the awful weather and the upcoming Nat’s and only 12 drivers booked in this time. Of those 3 were running F2 with Hawk7’s and the remainder were F1.
After 1min qualifying runs it was Dave Stevenson on pole with Micky Ovens and Paul Harwood not far behind. Top F2 was Geoff King.
Segmented finals followed with 4 x 3min runs for all drivers. Top F2 went to Geoff King on 95.36 laps with Keith Wale just behind on 94.35. In F1 Dave Stevenson took the win on 113.54 laps with Paul Harwood (snapping at his heels!!) on 112.39 laps. Peter Kerr was 3rd on 103.77 laps
Paul Harwood managed to set fastest laps on Red (5.978), Yellow (5.973) and Blue (5.774) lanes with Dave Stevenson taking White Lane on 5.916. Although some way off the outright records this was still a very creditable performance Well Done Paul.
Next week its back to club cars on May 4th
Coulsdon 20th April 2023
Well, 2023 is certainly ticking by at a pace, its nearly the end of April and just a shame that the weather hasn’t quite woken up yet!
19 drivers booked in for Genesis racing last evening with 4 runs, best 3 to count and move up Finals we were set for a good evening.
At the end of qualifying, it was Dave Stevenson at the top just ahead of Garry King, Les May, Tony Mills and Mike Read.
Regular readers maybe saying “oh ok same old names at the top” but it takes good car prep and great driving skills coupled with small smidgen of luck to produce this kind of performance each week, its not that they are short of other chasing drivers its just that we can’t catch them!!
Dave, Garry & Les qualified straight into the A final with Tony joining them after winning the B final.
Dave lead the final from start to finish finishing just 1.6 secs ahead of Les with Garry in 3rd place just ahead of Tony.
Fastest lap times were Les May on Red (5.743) & Blue (5.696) Garry King on Yellow(5.689) and Dave Stevenson on White (5.765).
A good nights racing next up its F1 on April 27th.
Well, 2023 is certainly ticking by at a pace, its nearly the end of April and just a shame that the weather hasn’t quite woken up yet!
19 drivers booked in for Genesis racing last evening with 4 runs, best 3 to count and move up Finals we were set for a good evening.
At the end of qualifying, it was Dave Stevenson at the top just ahead of Garry King, Les May, Tony Mills and Mike Read.
Regular readers maybe saying “oh ok same old names at the top” but it takes good car prep and great driving skills coupled with small smidgen of luck to produce this kind of performance each week, its not that they are short of other chasing drivers its just that we can’t catch them!!
Dave, Garry & Les qualified straight into the A final with Tony joining them after winning the B final.
Dave lead the final from start to finish finishing just 1.6 secs ahead of Les with Garry in 3rd place just ahead of Tony.
Fastest lap times were Les May on Red (5.743) & Blue (5.696) Garry King on Yellow(5.689) and Dave Stevenson on White (5.765).
A good nights racing next up its F1 on April 27th.