Hello, it coming to that time of year again when Adur drivers decide that its getting a little to cold to race outdoors!
This year Adur are proud to be hosting a round of the Southern Oval Open Series at boundstone school in lancing followed shortly by Adurs winter series also at the boundstone school.
After last years racing i thought i would use a slightly different paint scheme to last years as on more than one occasion i got bumped or just plain taken out followed by the shout of 'sorry didn't see you' there should be no excuses this year though!

Round and round and round......

At last i managed to make it to HOT racers at haywards heath to race the banger i built way back in january.
HOT's had a good turn out of drivers, 25 banger drivers, with a good mixture of seniors and juniors, the drivers were split into 3 heats over 4 rounds with the best 3 to count for the final!!! more on this later.

Round 1, brand new car totally untested and it handled like a dream and with brand new vapex 3700 batteries endurance over the 4 min heats was never going to be a problem getting taken out by other drivers was though! the heat passed without too many problems and very little damage compared to some of the other cars in this heat, top three finish was not too bad.

Round 2, again the car was handling like a dream and i was now starting to improve on my lines and learning how to dispose of slower cars without impeding my progress too badly, but with about a minute to go i got 'collected' by a driver going the wrong way which caused some strange handling problems for the final minute of the race, at the end of the race i found the huge head on that had been dealt to my car had caused the front of the chassis to kick up by about 20 degrees!!! never mind another top 3 finish. This time some work was required on the car to sort the chassis tweak out ( brute force and the edge of a table soon had it sorted )

Round 3, more of the same in this heat, kept myself out of too much trouble and this time i was rewarded with a second place finish.

Round 4, it was at this point that i was accused of 'hot rodding' the heats, time to show what i could do, with three good rounds in the bag i got stuck in and had a great time firing cars of and turning them round as and when i got the chance, at the end of the heat i found that the front of the chassis had kicked up again but not as badly as before ( brute force and the trusty table soon sorted it though )

The finals, well more to the point THE final, now this was totally new to me 25 cars on the oval all at the same time, after the heats i was 3rd overall which meant a inside 2nd row start with all the cars lined up bonnet to boot lid the buzzer went and some how i made it to the front and managed to stay there for around 18 laps, it was at this point my luck ran out and i was collected by another driver which put my car on its side for what felt like ages, bangers aren't marshelled they are just left to there own devices, but after a few laps i got knocked back onto my wheels again and managed to keep going without too many problems for the remainder of the final, in the end i finished 5th out of 25 which i was most pleased with.

There are a few changes that i need to make to the car before the next race but nothing too major, if you fancy racing in a class that is dirt cheap and great fun i don't think you could do worse than giving the bangers a go, don't knock it until you've tried it.

Hello and welcome

Hello and welcome, I hope to use this blog as a porthole for my favorite hobbies.

I have many (possibly too many) hobbies and interests which just happen to include;

Slot car racing, just think of that pile of track and cars that you have lurking in the loft and add a few steroids and hormones oh and a couple more volts!! and you have got what has to be one of the fastest forms of motor sport in the world. If you don't believe me then you should give it a go, I did around 18 years ago and have been hooked ever since, check out the web site of the club that I race at www.roedaleslotcars.co.uk you could also have a look at the BSCRA web site for information on tracks cars, race reports, suppliers and many other things to do with slot car racing in the UK and around the world.

Radio controlled cars; now again you need to add a few steroids and some testosterone to that radio controlled car you were given as a kid for Christmas/birthday. These cars are very much scale racing cars with many of the suspension adjustments that you would find on a real race car and a few that you wouldn't !! I have raced many types of radio controlled cars over the past 6 years and have had some degree of success, I have done most of my racing at Adur model Car Club but I have traveled around the UK to race at a few other clubs.
I started of racing 1/8th scale stock cars and hot rods and then after a few years moved onto 1/10th touring cars and most recently 1/12th hot rods, I have found the 1/12th hot rods to be the most fun to race so far, I have built but am yet to race 1/12th bangers, race one of these and I can guarantee you will have an ear to ear smile after the 5 minute race, check these web sites out for more information on radio controlled cars.
The national body for radio controlled racing in the UK
My local club for 1/18th stock cars, hot rods and 1/10th touring cars
My local club for 1/12th hot rods and bangers

As I am sure from the above you can tell i am very interested in motor sport, i think my real motor sport interest has to be short oval racing as all of the action happens there and then in front of you, there are many types of oval race cars. Some are knackered old family cars stripped out with a few safety measures added and then raced to within an inch of there life with full contact as and when required to dispose of the car in front of them (Bangers) and at the other end of the scale you have £30k purpose built space framed hatch backs raced millimeters of of the car in front with no contact just a little rubbing (Hot rods don't hit each other they just 'rub' the car in front, i would hate to see what happened if they ever did 'hit' each other, i think it would be called Armageddon!!)
Have a look at these sites for more info;
Spedeworth the main promoter of oval racing in southern England.
Check out this site for photos of banger racing from all over the UK.

Well that's just a small inside look at my intrests and hobbies hope it didnt send you to sleep, look out for more updates soon.