New track white markings used for the first time this week for the start of the superleague, with rounds planned to take place during the months of February, April, June, August, October and December.

Qualifying
After the first round James Hart was leading on 42 laps with Mark Deacon making an impressive start to be in second place with 40 laps, Darren Ford and Gavin Maciver both being a further lap down.
In F2 Steve Donald led the way on 38 laps, Stephen Deacon second on 36 and Daniel Lacey in third place with 35 laps. Both “Team Deacon” drivers lying in second place in their divisions – could it be their evening.
David Snowden was leading F3 on 31 laps, Jack Walsh second on 27 laps, just a few seconds ahead of John Stringer.
In the club mardave class Mike Simpson was quickest with 32 laps, Alex Forster second on 26 and Harvey Forster 20.

Round 2 saw Darren Ford take over second place from Mark Deacon who failed to improve on his first round score, club chairman Rob Hambridge racing his new car for the first time moved up into 11th place overall just ahead of Ashley King.

In the final round James Hart improved his time to be quickest, Mark Deacon shot back up into second place a lap clear of Darren Ford, Gavin Maciver and Ashley King who had his first good run of the evening.
Steve Donald was best in F2 followed by Daniel Lacey and Stephen Deacon – could Stephen keep his car performing for the finals after his recent reliability problems?
No change in the club mardave class positions from the first round.

Finals
Mike Simpson won the mardave final, Alex Forster was second and his brother Harvey was third.

Jack Walsh had a great win in the GT12 C final after a good race with John Stringer and Courtney Orme, in the end Jack was almost one lap ahead of John and Courtney a further lap down. Well done Jack!

A very competitive B final produced some close racing between Daniel Lacey, Stephen Deacon and Chris Holmes. Unfortunately Chris had to retire part way through the race with electrical problems. Stephen was slightly quicker than Daniel and was first across the finishing line to take a well deserved win, Daniel was second and Chelle Snowden third. A win for “Team Deacon” set the standard for the evening, could Mark repeat the result in the A final?, we were about to find out.

James Hart made a good start from pole with Mark in hot pursuit, at the end of lap 2 Mark had taken the lead and was keeping ahead of James despite a lot of pressure. James regained the lead on lap 6 but Mark was still challenging hard, his excellent run came to an end however on laps 13 and 14 when first Darren Ford moved into second place and then Gavin Maciver also got past Mark to take third place. They finished in that order, a super race to watch, Steve Donald also having a great race to finish in fifth place just 6 seconds adrift of Mark. Ashley King finished in last place a further 2 laps down.

A great start to the league, remember drivers five scores out of a possible six count at the end of the year.

An ordinary clubnight this week with no league points at stake gave an opportunity for drivers to experiment with their car set-up.
A good evening with some great races, James Hart won the GT12 A Final, Louis Parker was second, Richard Hicklin took third place and Mark Deacon fourth.
Steve Donald was the winner in the B Final, Chelle Snowen was second, Daniel Lacey third and Bob Harley fourth.
New member Bjorn Baldwin took the victory in the C Final, Jack Walsh was second, Courtney Orme third and Alwyn Hodges fourth.
In the club mardave class Paul Galbraith won, Alex Forster was second and Harvey Forster third.

Next week is the first round of the 2017 Superleague which is run on alternate months throughout the year with drivers best five from a possible six round scores to count.

Gavin Maciver takes second place behind winner James Hart in the A final, Mark Deacon moves up into second place in division 1, three points clear of Ashley King.
Steve Donald looks certain for promotion after taking another maximum points in division 2.
New member McKenzie Wallace wins the C final.
Alex Forster takes the lead in the Mardave division 2.

Qualifying
James Hart was quickest after round 1 with Ashley King second with some impressive driving, Gavin Maciver, Steve Donald, Bob Harley and Darren Ford were next a lap down.
Paul Carter was best in division 3, McKenzie Wallace was second and John Stringer third.
For a variety of reasons there was a much depleted field this week in the Mardave class, Mike Simpson was out in front with Alex Forster being top in division 2.
In round 2 Nick Wallace had a good drive which moved him up to fifth position overall just ahead of Mark Deacon in the GT12 class.
In the last qualifying round Mark Deacon shot up into third place overall a lap ahead of both Ashley King and Steve Donald setting up yet another interesting final.

Finals
With only five cars in the Mardave final this week it was not so eventful as usual, Mike Simpson had a convincing win, Alex Forster and Wes Wray had a great race for second place with Wes making a good start to get past Alex on the first lap, his lead did not last long however with Alex retaking second spot on lap 3. He steadily pulled ahead until a couple of slow laps 16 and 17 let Wes through and who finished strongly to claim second place with Alex third.

Paul Carter was on pole for the GT12 C final but it was car 2 driver McKenzie Wallace who had the better start and went into the lead, Paul hit the front again on the second lap only to be overtaken again on lap 4. McKenzie then put in some very consistent driving to gradually extend his lead and win being a lap ahead of Paul in second place and John Stringer in third. Good race this – well done McKensie!

The B final saw a mixture of division 1 and 2 drivers in action, Darren Ford make up for below par qualifying to take the win being 2 laps ahead of second place driver Bob Harley and Matt Popejoy in third.

So just the A final left where James Hart put on a display of awesome driving to post the best round of the evening with 38 laps, Gavin Maciver was also going exceptionally well but was hampered in the last dozen laps of the race when his front suspension came loose but still managed to finish in second place with 37 laps. That left Mark Deacon, Ashley King, Steve Donald and Nick Wallace to battle it out for the remaining places. Surely Ashley could not beat Mark for the second week running! It was very close with very little between the two of them, Steve Donald moved into fourth place part way through the race but Ashley got past him again. It went down to the wire with Mark taking third place , Ashley fourth 2.56 seconds adrift, Steve fifth and Nick sixth. A fantastic race to watch, it does not get much better than this. Come on Ashley lets see if you can even the score next week as Mark is now three points ahead of you in the league.

Another good track design and with only three more rounds after tonight everyone was keen to do well to increase their chances of being a league trophy winner.

Qualifying
James Hart was top qualifier in the GT12 class a lap ahead of Louis Parker second, Mark Deacon third and Ashley King in fourth place. The fastest lap being set by Louis.
Steve Donald was best in F2 being a lap clear of Stephen Deacon with Matt Popejoy third.
Courtney Orme was the leader in F3 just over a second quicker than league leader Paul Carter and John Stringer took third spot.

In the V12 Mardave class Mike Simpson took pole position for the final despite his car breaking down in round 2, Roy Matthews took second place – well done Roy the investment in a new set of tyres certainly paid dividends. Wes Wray was third and it was good to see new member Harvey Forster in his first league race.

Finals
First up was the mardave class where Paul Galbraith the sole representative of “Team Galbraith” this week was keen to improve on his fifth place in qualifying, the word in the pits was that he is not letting his sons Jordan and Joshua race again until he has collected enough league points to beat them!
A very entertaining race as usual with Mike winning, Paul finishing second and Alex Forster third.

With Courtney Orme leading the cars away from the grid in the GT12 C final could he get the win to give him maximum points from the evening?. A poor first three laps dropped him well down the field and into a battle for second place with John Stringer and Jack Walsh. At the finish Paul Carter won and is now hot favourite to take the F3 title, Courtney recovered well to take second place and John was third.

The GT12 B final had the makings of a close race with all the F2 drivers plus Bob Harley F1 on pole. What a race it turned out to be with all drivers making very few errors and lapping at similar speed. Bob had the quickest lap and Steve was just 0.02 seconds slower and eventually these two pulled away from the rest of the field. Who would be first to the finishing line – it was the experience of Bob Harley that won the day with Steve finishing in second place followed by Daniel Lacey, Stephen Deacon and Matt Popejoy all one lap down.

With just the A final left there was a lot of rivalry in the pits between Ashley King and Mark Deacon over who would finish in front. Having qualified in third place ahead of Ashley, Mark was “quietly confident” – (if that’s possible) of beating Ashley once again.
So the pressure was on and with James Hart on pole the race got underway with the rest of the field in hot pursuit, unfortunately Mark had a very slow first lap dropping him to the back of the field although it did make it easier to take a photograph with the car stationary! Louis had also some ground to make up and in doing so set the fastest lap of the race, eventually finishing second behind the winner yet again James Hart. Ashley finished an excellent third place and Mark fought his way back up the field to finish fourth. A super race to watch.

Different track design this week, round 4 which marks the halfway point of the current league.

Qualifying
After the qualifying it was James Hart on pole for the A final, Louis Parker second and Ashley King in third place, good performances also from Bob Harley in fourth place, Chelle Snowden fifth and Steve Donald sixth.
Steve Donald also was quickest in F2 followed by Stephen Deacon and Javier Jimenez.
David Snowden took top spot in F3, Paul Carter was second and Courtney Orme third.
So could Ashley King avenge his defeat by Mark Deacon last week, things were looking good as Mark was in the B final!
In the mardave class Mike Simpson was fastest followed by Joshua Galbraith with his dad Paul third.
Roy Matthews was best in F2 followed by Alex Forster and Jenson Wray.

Finals
Mardave Class
The mardave final saw Mike Simpson take the lead at the start, Joshua Galbraith was soon making up ground in second place and hit the front a third of the way through the race. With the first three cars very evenly matched it was always going to be a close finish, in the end Mike was the winner, Joshua was second and Paul third. In F2 Roy Matthews was quickest, Alex Forster took second place and his brother Harvey was third.

GT12 Class
In the GT12 C Final Alan Forster had a comfortable win but there was a great battle for second and third places between F3 league leader Paul Carter and second place driver Courtney Orme. Just over 3 seconds in it at the finish with Paul extending his lead by a further 3 points.

The B Final (or should it be called the “Deacon Final” with Mark on pole and Stephen car 2). Mark made a clean start but Stephen moved into the lead on lap 2 with Mark falling back another place on lap 3 behind Javier Jimenez who then overtook Stephen to move into the lead on lap 5. Some great racing here as Stephen regained the lead on lap 8 with Javier in second place and Mark third. Mark then moved up a gear and got the lead back on lap 11 and went on to win with a fine 38 laps, Javier was second and Stephen third both on 37 laps – great race!.

So just the A Final remained, James Hart was the winner on 39 laps, 2 laps ahead of everyone else but it was very close between Ashley King, Steve Donald, Louis Parker, Chelle Snowden and Bob Harley. They eventually finished in that order, Ashley getting 37 laps and the rest 36. Yes you have worked it out Mark managed 38 laps in the B final and beats Ashley in the finals yet again! (He even missed a round of qualifying to take some video as well)

Louis Parker wins the GT12 A final with Mark Deacon in second place and Ashley King third.
The last week of using the present track design again produced some tremendous racing.
Qualifying
James Hart was quickest after the three qualifying rounds with Louis Parker a close second and also setting the fastest lap. Richard Hickling was third and Mark Deacon fourth.
In F2 Steve Donald was again fastest followed by Daniel Lacey and Alan Forster.
League F3 leader Paul Carter was best in F3 with John Stringer second and Jack Walsh third.
In the club mardave class Mike Simpson led F1, Joshua Galbraith was in second place and Paul Galbraith third. Alex Forster was the highest placed F2 driver, well done also to Harvey Forster in his first race meeting.

Finals
The mardave final was very exciting and saw a lot of overtaking, Jordan Galbraith set the fastest lap time and was the winner starting from third place on the grid, his dad Paul took second place a cars length ahead of pole position driver Mike Simpson. Alex Forster was the winner in F2, Roy Matthews finishing last after yet another problem with his car.

John Stringer won the GT12 D Final to be best in F3 and bring Paul Carters unbeaten run in the league to an end.
New member Alan Forster won the C Final, Stephen Deacon was second and Peter Partridge took third place.
Gavin Maciver had a very impressive drive to win the B Final, a good race this with Steve Donald taking second place ahead of Chelle Snowden.
So just the A Final left and what a race this proved to be. James Hart led the field away from pole position but Louis Parker took the lead on the second lap and went on to win the race – well done Louis!
There was a tremendous battle for second and third places between James Hart, Mark Deacon and Ashley King. Mark had his car really flying and set equal fastest lap time with James. It was a race right to the finish with Mark taking second just 0.34 seconds ahead of Ashley King – a fantastic race.

A similar track design to last produced some good racing.

Qualifying
After the three rounds of qualifying James Hart was quickest with Louis Parker second, these two drivers being a lap ahead of Richard Hickling, Ashley King, Gavin Maciver and Mark Deacon. Ashley being ahead of Mark for a change by 3.76 seconds – could he repeat this in the final?
Steve Donald continued his great run of form by being best in F2, a lap clear of Matt Popejoy and Daniel Lacey.
Paul Carter was the top driver in F3, 3 laps ahead of Courtney Orme and John Stringer.
In the club mardave class Jordan Galbraith was in unstoppable form taking pole in the final followed by Mike Simpson and Paul Galbraith. In F2 Roy Matthews was fastest with Daniel lacey second and Alex Forster third.

Finals
The mardave final was a runaway victory for Jordan Galbraith with a fine drive, Mike Simpson was second 2 laps down and Paul Galbraith third. In F2 Alex Forster was the top driver finishing ahead of Roy Matthews who seemed to be lacking drive! – it always pays to ensure the motor pinion is on securely!

Javier Jimenez cruised to victory in the GT12 C final, Paul Carter finished in second place and Courtney Orme third.

The GT12 B final produced some very exciting racing with all the drivers being very evenly matched and the lead changing hands several times during the race. At the finish it was F2 driver Steve Donald who crossed the line ahead with a tremendous performance, beating F1 drivers Darren Ford, Bob Harley and Chelle Snowden.

As usual the last race of the evening was the GT12 A final, yet again James Hart set the fastest lap on his way to victory, guest driver Richard Hickling took second place, Louis Parker was third and Ashley King fourth – ahead of Mark Deacon again!- has this set a trend to be repeated next week?
A great race to complete the evening.

The first of eight rounds of the winter league with drivers best six round scores to count, points being awarded for both qualifying and final positions in each division.

Qualifying
Some very competitive racing with James Hart being to top qualifier on 42 laps in the GT12 class and a good performance from new member Mark Deacon to be second with 41 laps ahead of Louis Parker, Ashley King and Gavin Maciver a further lap down.
Best division 2 driver was Steve Donald with a very impressive 39 laps, followed by Matt Popejoy with 38 and Javier Jimenez with 36 laps.
In division 3 Paul Carter was the leader on 30 laps, 3.44 seconds ahead of Alister Hart, Courtney Orme took third place on 29 laps.
In the club mardave class Mike Simpson took pole position in the final with 31 laps followed by Paul Galbraith on 30 and Jordan Galbraith 29 laps. In division 2 Jensen Wray was the leader on 21 laps with Alex Forster second on the same lap and Roy Matthews third on 15 laps after some electrical problems with his car.

Finals
First up was the mardave final where Mike Simpson had a steady drive to lead from start to finish, leaving it to Paul and Jordan Galbraith to fight it out for second and third places. It was Paul who came out on top with Jordan trailing by seven seconds.
In division 2 Roy Matthews got his car going properly and was best followed by Alex Forster and newcomer Dianne Taylor.

Lee Devey won the GT12 C final just ahead of Peter Partridge, Paul Carter was the top division 3 driver with Jack Walsh taking an excellent second ahead of Alister Hart.
The B final turned out to be a tremendous race with little to separate the first three drivers, it was Matt Popejoy who crossed the finishing line first to win ahead of Chelle Snowden, Bob Harley and Daniel Lacey all on the same lap.
James Hart was on pole position for the A final and with an almost faultless drive took the win, Louis Parker was second and Mark Deacon third (yes Mark you did beat Ashley again!). A great race this with Steve Donald finishing in sixth place to be best in division 2.

The first meeting on 2017 with everyone fully refreshed after Christmas and New Year!
Some great racing on a flowing track design, apologies for the glitches in the results as we were testing out the lap counting system.

Something a little different this week for the Christmas fun night – the drivers were allocated into six teams and the carpet area was split into two separate and similar tracks to enable two teams of drivers to race simultaneously, one on each track.

With the team score for each round being the sum of the team members individual laps the emphasis was on reliability and teamwork as well as good driving as they were not racing against each other but trying to maximise their team scores.

To even out any differences in the tracks the teams changed track after each round.

The final results were very close with Gavin Maciver, Wes Wray and Chelle Snowden being the winners just 4 laps ahead of Darren Ford, Roy Matthews and Mike Simpson.

Don’t forget there is no racing on Tuesday 27th December.
Next clubnight is Tuesday 3rd January.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR