[woodcote]

Hour Three: The Blunder boys stretch their lead

   

The speed differential between the classes was taken up a notch with the introduction of two Slot.it Group C cars - the Days of Blunder Nissan and Écurie Escargot Porsche. Thankfully Simon's track design was perfect for overtaking, but the drivers of the faster cars would need to take extra care and plan which lane they needed to be in as they approached slower traffic...

   

Also running this hour was Gearzilla's borrowed Porsche 906 Whitsun+ car, with Chas doing another triple stint before popping out for a flu jab. It was another excellent endurance run from the rookie driver. Two Euro Saloons had their own battle - Brake Til Tyre with a Jaguar XJS and Laps in Concentration with their Sierra RS500. The Fuller-Beans had waited to hour three to throw their Pioneer Legend into the mix - and it was another frustrating run, with the car needing repairs.

   

The gap between the two Group C cars had ebbed and flowed, but ended up at three laps in the Blunder boys advantage. That gave them an 18 lap advantage overall at halfway, with Écurie Escargot moving up to second, four laps ahead of Gearzilla in third. Brake Til Tyre were 37 laps further back in fourth...

   


Hour Four: Écurie Escargot set the pace...

   

The pace was certainly ramping up, with the two leading teams swapping their Slot.it Group C cars for rapid Whitsun+ machinery - a Slot.it Ford GT40 MkII for Days of Blunder and a Policar Ferrari 412P for Écurie Escargot, both fitted with a Pendle 18k motor and Scalextric ratio gearing (as per our Whitsun Trophy rules). Also right up there was the Gearzilla Mercedes GT3 car, with Oliver triple-stinting...

   

Those three battled hard, but in the end it was the Ferrari that eked out a seven lap gap over the Mercedes and nine over the GT40. A second run for the Porsche 906 (Simon loaned it to two teams) saw Laps in Concentration improved slightly on Chas' score in the same car during the previous hour. Brake Til Tyre had a frustrating run in Dean's rapid Mercedes GT3, as did the Fuller-Beans with Rob's stunning Jaguar XJS...

   

That great run by Écurie Escargot - the best of the race so far - squeezed the gap between the top three teams to a mere twenty laps...

     

With two hours to go, it would be down to which team could get the most out of their remaining two cars. Days of Blunder and Écurie Escargot both had a GT3 and BTCC car to run - Gearzilla had their Group C and a Scalextric Ford Escort for the Euro Saloons...