18th-Oct-26, 01:05 PM
Hour Five: Oliver launches Gearzilla into the lead!
Apart from a little drizzle during hour 3, weather conditions in RCS64 had remained dry. Hour 3 was when Days of Blunder and Écurie Escargot had run their Group C cars, arguably the weather impacting on their performance. Could Oliver take advantage of a perfectly dry track with his Slot.it Porsche? Also running a Group C this hour were Laps in Concentration. The Fuller-Beans and the Escargots had GT3 cars, Days of Blunder a BTCC Passat and Brake Til Tyre their 2026 WHO Whitsun Trophy winning Slot.it Ford GT40...
Not surprisingly, the Slot.it cars dominated. However, disaster struck the GT40 when a collision sheared the capacitor from the digital chip. That was race over, although Alex negotiated a swap to Simon's Ford and a 50 lap penalty. Oliver stretched his lead over the chasing pack, the others just trying to score as well as they could and not even attempting to keep up with the blue Porsche...
The Écurie Escargot Bentley GT3 managed a decent pace - just 2 laps off Oliver's Mercedes GT3 score in the previous hour. But the Days of Blunder Passat had lost significant ground in the battle for the race win - finishing 20 laps behind the Bentley and 38 behind the Gearzilla Porsche. At the end of the penultimate hour, Oliver's charge had leapfrogged Gearzilla over both Days of Blunder and Écurie Escargot...
Hour Six: A brilliant winning drive with a most unlikely car...
The top three teams started the final hour with some of their least favoured machinery. In third place - and 18 laps behind the leaders - Days of Blunder had Simon's Mercedes AMG GT3. In second spot - seven laps behind - Écurie Escargot were racing Andy's MG6 BTCC car. And defending Gearzilla's lead, Ash would triple stint his Scalextric Escort Mk1. Looking at those three cars, Ash had a huge challenge ahead of him. If laps were tied at the end, the final standings would be decided by the finishing order in this last hour.
The Fuller-Beans had enjoyed the previous session with their Ford GTE and the afternoon ended on a high note with their Slot.it Group C Porsche. Although outclassed by Alex double-stinting his all-conquering Porsche 962, the Fuller-Beans set their best hour score of the day and finished second on the road. It was always very close battle for that second place, with the GT3 cars of Days of Blunder and Laps in Concentration pushing hard.
Meanwhile, the battle that really counted was at the back of the bunch - between the MG6 and the Escort. The MG was certainly quicker, but was losing any advantage in the pit stops - the Escort was burning far less fuel. At half-way, the gap was up to just over 4 laps, but then trimmed back to two at the next stop. Ash was driving the small, twitchy Escort magnificently. The strategy of triple-stinting Ash certainly paid off - the car wouldn't have suited Oliver's aggressive driving style and would have been very challenging for a relative novice like Chas. They most likely would have haemorrhaged laps to the MG. But in Ash's hands, the Écurie Escargot trio were kept at bay...
As the final minutes of the six-hour race ticked down, another round of pit stops shortened the MG's lead to just one lap. Ash had done it, successfully defending the lead created by Oliver with the Group C Porsche!
Of course, there was also the Handicap Race result to calculate - and that was a thumping win for the Silver-Bronze-Bronze trio Days of Blunder...
Huge congrats to Oliver, Ash & Chas and to Simon, John & Stephen!
Here are all the teams in Scratch Race finishing order...
A very big thank you to everyone who took part. Our Birkett Relay is such a great format for a six-hour race - and this was the closest one yet. Special thanks goes to the set-up crew, race control team and to everyone who stayed behind to pack away. We were all done and away comfortably by 5.30pm.
The WHO Birkett Six-Hour Relay will return in 2027 on Saturday 16 October. The 2027 WHO Digital Guide will be available in the next few weeks.
Apart from a little drizzle during hour 3, weather conditions in RCS64 had remained dry. Hour 3 was when Days of Blunder and Écurie Escargot had run their Group C cars, arguably the weather impacting on their performance. Could Oliver take advantage of a perfectly dry track with his Slot.it Porsche? Also running a Group C this hour were Laps in Concentration. The Fuller-Beans and the Escargots had GT3 cars, Days of Blunder a BTCC Passat and Brake Til Tyre their 2026 WHO Whitsun Trophy winning Slot.it Ford GT40...
Not surprisingly, the Slot.it cars dominated. However, disaster struck the GT40 when a collision sheared the capacitor from the digital chip. That was race over, although Alex negotiated a swap to Simon's Ford and a 50 lap penalty. Oliver stretched his lead over the chasing pack, the others just trying to score as well as they could and not even attempting to keep up with the blue Porsche...
The Écurie Escargot Bentley GT3 managed a decent pace - just 2 laps off Oliver's Mercedes GT3 score in the previous hour. But the Days of Blunder Passat had lost significant ground in the battle for the race win - finishing 20 laps behind the Bentley and 38 behind the Gearzilla Porsche. At the end of the penultimate hour, Oliver's charge had leapfrogged Gearzilla over both Days of Blunder and Écurie Escargot...
Hour Six: A brilliant winning drive with a most unlikely car...
The top three teams started the final hour with some of their least favoured machinery. In third place - and 18 laps behind the leaders - Days of Blunder had Simon's Mercedes AMG GT3. In second spot - seven laps behind - Écurie Escargot were racing Andy's MG6 BTCC car. And defending Gearzilla's lead, Ash would triple stint his Scalextric Escort Mk1. Looking at those three cars, Ash had a huge challenge ahead of him. If laps were tied at the end, the final standings would be decided by the finishing order in this last hour.
The Fuller-Beans had enjoyed the previous session with their Ford GTE and the afternoon ended on a high note with their Slot.it Group C Porsche. Although outclassed by Alex double-stinting his all-conquering Porsche 962, the Fuller-Beans set their best hour score of the day and finished second on the road. It was always very close battle for that second place, with the GT3 cars of Days of Blunder and Laps in Concentration pushing hard.
Meanwhile, the battle that really counted was at the back of the bunch - between the MG6 and the Escort. The MG was certainly quicker, but was losing any advantage in the pit stops - the Escort was burning far less fuel. At half-way, the gap was up to just over 4 laps, but then trimmed back to two at the next stop. Ash was driving the small, twitchy Escort magnificently. The strategy of triple-stinting Ash certainly paid off - the car wouldn't have suited Oliver's aggressive driving style and would have been very challenging for a relative novice like Chas. They most likely would have haemorrhaged laps to the MG. But in Ash's hands, the Écurie Escargot trio were kept at bay...
As the final minutes of the six-hour race ticked down, another round of pit stops shortened the MG's lead to just one lap. Ash had done it, successfully defending the lead created by Oliver with the Group C Porsche!
Of course, there was also the Handicap Race result to calculate - and that was a thumping win for the Silver-Bronze-Bronze trio Days of Blunder...
Huge congrats to Oliver, Ash & Chas and to Simon, John & Stephen!
Here are all the teams in Scratch Race finishing order...
A very big thank you to everyone who took part. Our Birkett Relay is such a great format for a six-hour race - and this was the closest one yet. Special thanks goes to the set-up crew, race control team and to everyone who stayed behind to pack away. We were all done and away comfortably by 5.30pm.
The WHO Birkett Six-Hour Relay will return in 2027 on Saturday 16 October. The 2027 WHO Digital Guide will be available in the next few weeks.
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