[woodcote]

Stage One: Titnore Lane

Stage winner: Oliver Walker, SRC Porsche 914/6 GT

We hadn't seen Titnore Lane at a WHO club night since the Winter Stages in January. This fast, flowing stage was extended to its full length, including more twists and plenty of elevation changes. There were Ninco loops each end, with both Hobby Classic loops featuring on Jupp's Farm this time...

   

First to run Titnore Lane were Group A. Summer Stages winner Oliver was straight out of the blocks with his SRC Porsche 914, setting a sensational 37.16 second time for 3 laps. That was four an a half seconds quicker than Jeremy's Scaleauto Peugeot 208 and ten seconds quicker than both Rob Bean's Ninco Citroën C4 and Rob Allison's SRC 914. Scott was running some recent Scalextric & SCX releases, his Toyota Celica GT-Four the fastest on this stage with a 52.46.

   

Group D were next - John, Chas, Steve and Andy running mostly Scalextric and SCX, with a couple of Nincos and an Avant Slot thrown in. Fastest in the group were Andy's Ninco Subaru and Porsche 911SC, but eight seconds adrift of Oliver's leading time. Next was Steve's rapid Ford Puma, which would finish quickest of the Scalextric runners on the stage. Chas' lovely Ninco Jaguar XK-120 and Avant Slot Ferrari 308 GTB were close behind, just ahead of John's SCX Lancia Delta Integrale and Scalextric Puma WRC.

   

Terry and Mike D were joined by the club car runners in Group C. Not surprisingly, Mike went close to taking the stage lead - a 38.79 for his NSR Abarth Punto made up for a disastrously crashy run with the SRC Porsche. Terry's Ferrari 308 GTB was seven and a half seconds off the pace, but his Citroën C2 was the quickest of the SCX runners through the stage. The club car battle was intense - all four driving an SCX Renault Mégane on Titnore Lane. Philip led the way, 0.4 of a second ahead of James and 1.62 ahead of Kevin. Stephen A was just shy of 6 seconds off the club car lead. Kevin and Stephen also had their own Nincos, which went well - Kevin's Lancer grabbing sixteenth place and Stephen's Ford Focus twenty-first out of the 55 cars. Phil's SCX Impreza was up their with the club car times.

   

Last to enter the stage were Group B - the McCanns, the Fullers and Ollie B. Surprisingly, it was Kev's Teamslot Alpine that was quickest through the stage for this group - an excellent 48.42 beating Ollie's Ninco Subaru and the Ninco Lancer Kev shares with Isaac. As usual, the McCanns were running some Dakar vehicles and Mike's Ninco Pajero set a time right up with the Fullers' Scalextric Ferrari F40, which must have taken some driving on the ice! Stephen's best time was with his new Scalextric Impreza WRX, but most notable was his SCX Dakar Buggy, which came last, but comfortably inside the 120 second cut off.

Here's the result for the stage...

   

A great start for Oliver, with Mike D's Punto the closest of the chasing pack. Still early days though...

     

Next was Johnny's Workshop.