Now it seems like less than a week ago that i was writing the last one of these which just proves how much time flies when you are having fun. But as each report developes, problems begin to arise. The biggest (slight irony, but not intended) problem at the moment, is the fact that since his late arrival in the Tamiya class, Pint sized, Class swapping, Dirty driving Simon Knight has been making news worthy performances for one reason or another. As a result of this, i am fast running out of insults to throw his way. I might start having to even resorting to making the odd 'fact' up about him. Luckily thats not the case this time as i can reveal that Simon is actually half Swiss and also a member of Al Queda. However if he gets FTD and win for a 3 meeting in a row i might have to start bending the truth a wee bit.
Moving slowly down the finishing order we find the FUK champion who seems to have got a reference comparing him to Schumacher in the latest Eurocup report in RRCi (Rob's Race Car International for those who dont know what it stands for). I do sort of see where the comment is coming from at the moment though. Schumachers current Touring car being the Mi2, is fairly comparable with the fact that his chances of winning the Carpet Thrashnall series with only 2 rounds to go, is starting to look a little like mission impossible. As i say that, it all starts to click into place, as a possible end of season drama would be if Simon removed the previously un-noticed, latex full face mask to reveal that its actually Brian Kinwald on the slim fast plan that has been driving, and Simon is still retired from racing after the events of the summer???? You never know.
3rd place went to Tallbloke, who recovered fairly well from a slightly disappointing 6 on the grid, and was showing signs of getting back to his form of earlier rounds. Following Mark fairly closely was Mr Norris (if you have seem the typo in RRCi) who had managed to resolve his glitching by not pitting as close to Bob. Pete Loveless was 5th after a bad start left his at the back of the pack and spent the whole race trying to catch up.
After a good showing in early qualifying, and being one of the few, if not only other car with the speed to match Simon through the teeth, Mark Williams was having a terrible afternoon which ended with 6th place only a few seconds ahead of the 7th to 10th train. The most likely cause of this downturn in performance over a short space of time, could be due to lack of nurishment through the day, under the eagle, salad loving, eyes of fiancee 'Slack Alice'. However this would seem a little extreme, as using one of the Olympiad's high tech weighing scales between rounds, Mark actually shows as being ideal weight for his height and Physique. Not convience with the outcome i decided to find out if the scales were either broken or if Mark had entered himself as a 7 foot tall body builder. The print out i recieved simply said 'One at a time please', so there you have it... Obviously broken.
The A final was completed by the afore mention train from 7th to 10th, covered my only a few seconds, with Jon Simblet holding on to 7th, under preassure from Fodder, Barry and GILF Hunter in that order.
With B final specialist Forum Fodder finally making the A, the win in the B was going to be closely fought between the 4 main contenders. The fastest of the cars and pre-race favourite was that of Bob, but it would seem bad luck was going to strike him once more and while laying 3rd and catching the leaders, carnage erupted at the first hairpin at the start of lap 5, and a slight gap opened up for Bob to sail into a commanding lead while Mark Satchel, Paul Collins and newcomer Kevin Dent tangled. Instead, Bob missed the gap and ended up on his roof while the others recovered to carry on fighting for the lead. Now in 5th and quarter of a lap down Bob set about chasing. Surely he would get a break now, and time was still on his side. Having made his way up into 4th and rapidly closing on Kevin Dent in 3rd, Bob approached the last section of the track with pace having set the fastest lap by some margin, but a combination of haste to catch 3rd, and a backmarker getting a corner wrong at the wrong time. Bob ended up nose first into the guttering. Bob then walked off the rostrum, collected his car, and return to the pitting area where he quietly wept into Alice's cleavage (Ok so that last bits not true, but i thought i would try and give Bob something to cheer himself up with)
Unfortunately that section of guttering in front of race control, will see the last action of Bob's white Corvette for this season, as 3 DNF's out of 4, has led to the sad withdrawl of Bob from the remaining 2 rounds of the series. Dont panic too much though, because he is not laying his transmitter down between now and April, far from it, instead he will be defending his un-disputed title of being Tamiya testing champion, and preparing for Eurocup 2005.
Nice lay in for most next round, as the hall is not available for setting up on the saturday, so racing starts an hour later at 10, and who knows, by 5, we could have a new champion??