The first of six rounds of this years superleague, the remaining rounds to be held in April, June, August, October and December with trophies at the end of the year for the top three drivers in each of the formulas.

Steve Donald made a good start winning the A final, as usual it was very close between Steve and Ashley King who finished second, Karl Norris was third.

Two F2 drivers in the A final this week, Dan Sheppard finishing in fifth place and Jordan Leavis sixth, Matthew McAdam being the next F2 driver with third place in the B final, just 0.3 seconds quicker than Darren Ford.

The C final was won by Peter Lax to be best in F3, Chris Metcalfe was second and Benn Norris third.

It was good to see six club mardave class drivers this week, Mike Simpson finished first, Nathan Marshall second and Harvey Forster third – well done Harvey!

Early days yet with five more rounds to go with the best five from a possible six to count.

James Hart’s evening did not go to plan, failing to start round one due to a motor failure. Steve Donald took full advantage to be quickest with Ashley King just over a second adrift and Karl Norris third.

Steve retained the lead in round two, James moving up into second position, Ashley third with Mark Deacon moving into fourth spot.

In the final round of qualifying James was back in top form to take pole in the final, Steve being second and Ashley third. Jordan Leavis put in an outstanding performance to be assured of a place in the A final by finishing fourth overall to be the top F2 driver, pushing Mark Deacon down to fifth place.

In F3 Chris Metcalfe kept his quest to keep his 100% league record intact by being quickest.

In the club madrave class Roy Matthews led the way.

Finals
Roy finished just under twelve seconds ahead of Harvey Forster to take the win.

In the GT12 D final Jack Walsh won a close fought battle with Benn Norris to win, Benn was second and Alex Forster third.

Bob Harley had a convincing win in the C final, Guy Rogers was second and Mike Simpson third.

Karl Norris was the winner of the B final and Dan Sheppard took second place and Gareth Harold third.

The A final finished in the starting order with James Hart winning, Steve Donald second, Ashley King third and Jordan Leavis fourth with Mark Deacon taking the last place.

In the GT12 F1 James Hart retains his 100% league record to lead with Steve Donald in second place being just one point ahead of Ashley King.
In F2 Dan Sheppard is the leader but Darren Ford is only one point behind him and Jordan Leavis in third place is only four points adrift after his maximum points this week.
Chris Metcalfe is the only other driver with a 100% record and has a four point lead in F3 over Benn Norris, Courtney Orme being third.

Don’t forget the first round of this years superleague is next week.

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.

The Christmas Trophy meeting was the final event of the year, the new orange corner marker discs being used for the first time..
After three rounds of qualifying there was a single round of finals to decide the trophy winners.

First up was the club mardave final with only two drivers Nathan Marshall and Harvey Forster. Nathan being two laps quicker in qualifying was super confident of a win. However his race unravelled (or was it velcro’d) at the beginning, giving Harvey a head start before Nathan got his car going. The chase was now on, could Harvey hold on to the lead for over five minutes of sustained pressure from Nathan!  The answer was a resounding yes, a great win for Harvey, their best lap times only being 0.25seconds apart. Well done!

The GT12 D Final was next where Jack Walsh starting from pole had a fine race getting the better of Benn Norris to take the win. Watch out for both these fast improving junior members in 2018. Courtney Orme took third spot just half a lap down on Benn. Alex Forster was also going well but had to retire after fourteen laps.

Jordan Leavis had an easy win in the C Final being two laps clear of second placed driver Mike Simpson (even after Jordan had a forced pit stop to remove tape from his tyres). It was close for second and third places though with Guy Rogers finishing under three seconds behind Mike.

The B Final provided the closest racing of the evening with Dan Sheppard, Chelle Snowden and Bob Harley all in with a chance of winning, Bob having the fastest lap of 9.04sec Dan 9.05sec and Chelle 9.06sec. It was Dan who was first across the finishing line, Chelle second and Bob third. A great race to watch.

James Hart won the A Final yet again to finish the year with an impressive run of victories. Ashley King and Karl Norris finished second and third respectively a lap down and Darren Ford took a great fourth place, returning after a break in racing.

The club Chairman Bob Harley presented the trophies for both the 2017 Superleague and the XMAS Trophy meeting.
Yes Bob did win one as well! – two actually

Note that there will be NO RACING ON BOXING DAY, the next clubnight will be on Tuesday 2nd January 2018.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone, the club has a full calendar of events for next year and we look forward to an exciting years racing.

A total of nineteen drivers who braved the icy road conditions were rewarded with a total of four qualifying rounds and a final.
At the start of the evening several drivers had the opportunity to score the maximum of 205 points for the best five from a possible six rounds and with several league positions yet to be decided the competition was keen.

James Hart won the GT12 F1 league with the remarkable achievement of scoring maximum points in each of the six rounds with some brilliant and consistent driving. The second and third places went down to the wire with Chelle Snowden finishing just three points ahead of Bob Harley.

Karl Norris spoilt Steve Donald’s bid for 205 points by being third fastest in qualifying ahead of Steve who went on to beat Karl in the final and won GT12 F2 with 204 points. Well done also to both Jordan Leavis who took second place and Daniel Lacey third.

Jack Walsh was the winner of the GT12 F3 league, it was close though with John Stringer just two points adrift in second place with Courtney Orme finishing third a further five points down.

In the club mardave class Mike Simpson won F1 with maximum points, being able to discard the two points dropped in round 5. Nathan Marshal was second and Paul Galbraith third.

“Team Forster” took the top two places in F2, Alex Forster won with yet another 205 points after winning all the five rounds he raced in. Harvey Forster took second place ahead of Roy Matthews who finished third.

Don’t forget that next week is the XMAS Trophy meeting.

With just one more round to go in the autumn league after this evening, everyone was keen to add to their points total with a view to winning a trophy after the final round to be held in the New Year.
A super clean track this week – guess who was at the end of the cable with the vacuum?

Some good driving and very exciting racing with several close finishes.

After this round of the league Steve Donald looks to have the F1 title in the bag but Chelle Snowden, Bob Harley and Ashley King will have to fight it out in the final round for second and third places.

In F2 Karl Norris has a five point lead over Dan Sheppard, Mike Simpson currently in third place leads Bob Harris by just seven points.

Kayleigh Knight and Benn Norris seem to have secured first and places in F3 but Alwyn Hodges and Alex Forster are neck and neck for third place.

In the club mardave class Roy Matthews leads but Nathan Marshall just needs to finish in the final round to take the winners trophy – so confident was he that he took a week off racing this week for his birthday! Roy better watch out as a good round from Harvey Forster could move him up into second place.

Did you guess correctly?

Yes it was the club chairman Bob Harley doing a great job making a clean sweep.