GT3 Euroseries Rounds 1 & 2 (UK) – North Staffs

Qualifying;

Pole time was an 8.06 by the TWR Audi R8 (SCX-Olifer), but along with the BMW (Scaleauto) of Demon Slot and the Ferrari (Black Arrow) of John Underwood / Sean Illet was sent to the back of the grid for being too wide. Therefore it was the Mercedes SLS (Scaleauto) of home team Crewe’s Missiles that took the P1 grid slot ahead of the hire-car McLaren (Scalextric-Slot.it) of Steve White and Richard Hill.

Race 1

Super close from the green light with the timing screen jumbling about with every lap. As many as 5 cars saw the lead of the race including the Crewe’s Misiles Mercedes, WHS McLaren and TWR Audi. On balance, it was a Demon vs. Rockingham affair with the Herefordians earning most of the bragging rights until the 50m mark where a car problem put them out of contention. The Northants squad romped to a comfortable win from that point ahead of the WHS McLaren, which held its ground from grid P2. A cracking result for the former Quorn club racers considering the exact same car didn’t do that well at Suzuka six weeks previous. The podium was rounded off by Dave Maddock and Gareth Jones bringing the Crewe’s Missiles SLS home in third.

1) Rockingham FERRARI 385L

2) WHS MCLAREN 377L

3) Crewe’s Missiles MERCEDES 372L

4) Demon Slot BMW 367L

5) North Staffs AUDI 363L

6) TWR AUDI 361L (FL 07.80)

7) Underwillet FERRARI 356L

8) South Manchester FERRARI 352L

9) DiSCA AMG MERCEDES 319L

Race 2

Another close affair with the DiSCA AMG Mercedes holding the head of the field after starting from pole on the reverse grid. It wasn’t long before Demon and Rockingham made their way to the front, leaving a five-way battle for the next few places between the rest of the field. It was nip and tuck between Rockingham pilot Matt Tucker and Craig Jones up until the driver change window – but an early exit from Adam Le Maistre earned them a 30s stop-and-go penalty and dropped the down to fourth. That wasn’t the end of it either, the yellow Ferrari would later experience technical issues and finish a lowly seventh. Only too bad for Matt and Adam after their hard fought victory in race 1. As it turned out, Rockingham’s demise left Phil Field with a free run to the chequer, leaving everyone else to battle for 2nd and 3rd. In the end it was the home teams that edged the rest, with the Audi (NSR) of John Bailey / Mark Wain leading home the Crewe’s Missiles’ Mercedes who finished third, repeating their race one result with the exact same distance as race 1.