After the first round held last week James Hart, Dan Sheppard, Chris Metcalfe and Harvey Forster were all on maximum points, the question was could any of them maintain their record after this evenings round 2.

Qualifying
After the three qualifying rounds James Hart was the leader in the GT12 F1 class, it was close for second place though, Steve Donald being just 0.36 seconds faster then Ashley King.
Things were even closer in F2 with Darren Ford being best having a mere 0.15 seconds lead over Dan Sheppard, Stephen Deacon took third.
Chris Metcalfe had a two lap advantage in F3 over both Benn Norris and Courtney Orme.
Nathan Marshall took pole in the Mardave final, Roy Matthews was second and Harvey Forster in third place.
Visiting driver Alan Leighton finished 12th overall in his first race at the club.

Finals
As normal the mardave final was very closely contested, Roy Matthews and Nathan Marshall being locked in battle for the duration of the race, the result could have gone either way but it was Nathan who won, being just over half a second in front of Roy.

Only three of the five drivers started the GT12 D final but this did not detract from the race, Paul Carter was quickest on the track but Benn Norris won the race by just 0.23 seconds, Paul finished in second place and Courtney Orme third.

Jordan Leavis was in command of the GT12 C final from start to finish to take the win, behind him some great racing between Bob Harris, Mike Simpson and Chris Metcalfe. Positions changed several times during the course of the race wow was it close near the end, but for the second week running Mike finished ahead of Bob and Chris being fourth and best in F3.

After Darren Ford and Dan Sheppard being so close in qualifying we were expecting a similar result in the B final, however Darren pulled out all the stops to take a fine victory, Dan finishing in second place just ahead of Matthew McAdam.

With just the A final left could James Hart take yet another victory? The answer was a resounding yes, this time with a fastest lap of less than nine seconds. Steven Donald and Ashley King were left to fight for second place, a super race this with Ashley first to the finish a full second ahead of Steve.

So just James Hart and Chris Metcalfe left now with maximum league points, a good start but with the best six from a possible nine round scores to count there is a long way to go yet.

At the end of the evening there was a presentation for the previous league.
Winners of the major trophies were:-
Mardave Class    Nathan Marshall

GT12 F3              Kayleigh Knight

GT12 F2              Karl Norris

GT12 F1              Steve Donald

Chairmans Cup   Harvey Forster

There were trophies for the first three places in each league division – congratulations to all the winners.

The 2018 racing season got underway in anger with round one of nine rounds in the first league of the year, the best six round scores to count.

 Qualifying
James Hart was fastest with an impressive 38 laps. Karl Norris, Ashley King and Steve Donald were very evenly matched eventually finishing in that order for second, third and fourth places, just over a second separating them.
Dan Sheppard was the top F2 driver, Darren Ford being second and Jordan Leavis third.
In F3 Chris Metcalfe was a lap clear of Benn Norris and Courtney Orme.
Roy Matthews took pole in the mardave final ahead of Harvey Forster, it was close though with Harvey putting in the quicker lap time.

Finals
The mardave final was a head to head race between Roy Matthews and Harvey Forster with Roy having the advantage of starting from pole position on the grid. This proved to be a incredible race with only a few car lengths between them in the early stages, Roy then pulling out a few seconds lead only for Harvey to get to within 1/100th second on lap 12. It was neck and neck from there on, Harvey taking the lead on lap 13 and Roy chasing. With the finish nearly in sight and the pressure building Harvey’s lead was cut to just 0.33 Seconds at the end of the penultimate lap but held on to record a great win.

It was the GT12 D Final up next and following on from the previous race it was also a very close fought battle. Chris Metcalfe was the winner. Benn Norris took second place, Courtney Orme third and Jack Walsh fourth all less than three seconds apart.

Visiting driver Justin Heath had the fastest lap in the C Final but the winner was Tom Sheppard, Justin finishing second, Mike Simpson third and Bob Harris fourth.

Darren Ford won the B Final after a close fought race with Jordan Leavis who had the quicker laps. Bob Harley was third just a cars length in front of Stephen Deacon.

The A Final saw James Hart take yet another win with some fine driving. As in qualifying Karl Norris, Steve Donald and Ashley King had a tremendous race, they finished in this order but was so close with only 0.42 Seconds gap between them all.

A superb start to the new league with all the finals producing some fine, competitive racing with close finishes.

For 2018 the Spring, Summer and Autumn league scoring will be using the standard RC-Timing option with points being scored for the Final positions only.

See “Rules” section of website.

An ordinary club-night this evening prior to the clubs busy calendar for 2018 swinging into action next week with the start of the new league.

Qualifying
It was very close in the GT12 qualifying where Steve Donald was quickest, Ashley King and Karl Norris being just a few seconds down in second and third places.
Mike Simpson was best in the club mardave class and James Hart led the way in the LMP class by two laps, Louis Parker being in second place.

Finals
With both Roy Matthews and Harvey Forster having issues with their cars performance, Mike had a comfortable win in the mardave final.

Jack Walsh won the GT12 C Final after a great race with Benn Norris, Paul Carter having set the fastest lap finished third.

In the B Final Bob Harley was on pole but it was “Team Sheppard” who took control, Dan having an excellent drive to win the race with Tom finishing second.  Bob Harris was third pushing Bob Harley down into fourth place. Two Bob’s and two Sheppard’s in one race – all very confusing!

As expected the GT12 A Final was run at a fast pace with Steve Donald determined to make the most of being on pole position.  Another great race to watch this, Ashley winning to be “King” of the GT12 class, Steve second and Karl taking third place.

Just the LMP Final to go where James Hart and Louis Parker battled for first place, Louis set the fastest lap but James was the winner, Louis being second and Richard Parker third.

This week saw the completion of the Autumn league which was carried over from 2017.
Most of the league winners were already decided but there were several second and third place trophies resting on the evenings performance.

The track was a fast and flowing design providing plenty of exciting racing.

Steve Donald was the GT12 F1 League winner, third place in qualifying and fourth in the A Final being good enough to win – well done Steve!.

James Hart was top qualifier of the evening and won the A final.

A tremendous performance from Ashley King gained him second place in both qualifying and the A Final to move up into second place in the league ahead of Chelle Snowden in third and Bob Harley fourth.

Karl Norris won the F2 League with yet another good result being fourth best in qualifying and third in the A Final, Dan Sheppard was his nearest rival finishing second, these two being well clear of Mike Simpson in third who just kept ahead of Bob Harris.

Kayleigh Knight was the winner of the F3 League with yet another maximum points, Benn Norris took second place in the D Final which was good enough to secure second place in the league with Alwyn Hodges third.

In the Club Mardave class Nathan Marshall at last achieved the illusive winners trophy, he did not have things all his own way in the final though where Roy Matthews was the winner to take second place in the league with Harvey Forster third.

Congratulations to all the trophy winners.

The next league starts on Tuesday 23rd January.

Happy New Year to everyone, the first meeting of 2018 had a depleted number of drivers with many people being sick with one of the numerous bugs going around at present.
A good evening however on a James Hart track design with some very tight sections to test the drivers skills.

Karl Norris was quickest in the qualifying with Ashley King 0.7 seconds adrift and Matthew MaAdam third place. Ashley went on to win the A Final, Karl was second and Dan Sheppard third.

Don’t forget that next week is the final round of the 2017 Autumn League.