Heat 1: Roy, Marty and Russell raced their Ferraris 312PB, although not planned, the color of each car spoiler corresponded to the lane they raced on. Roy gets a good start on the yellow lane and stays ahead of the pack. On lap 30, Roy, with a half-lap advantage over Marty, collides with Russell and loses the lead; Marty is now almost a full lap ahead of Roy. The next forty laps had Roy closing the gap on Marty; both completed 71 laps: Marty finished first, on blue, five feet ahead of Roy. Russell completed 64 laps.
Heat 2: Ary, with his Alfa, joins the race on the yellow lane, Russell and Roy stay on for their second heat, on blue and yellow lanes respectively. Russell starts ahead of the field and keeps the lead until a collision with Ary on lap 14, Roy is now a full lap ahead of both. Russell and Roy stay neck to neck for another ten laps, Ary starts to turn fast laps cutting Roy’s lead to 1/4 lap. Just before completing 31 laps, Roy is passed by Ary; the Alfa’s pace is two tenths faster per lap. Russell pushed his car hard but had a few de-slots along the way, completing 67 laps at the five minutes mark. Roy couldn’t keep up with the Alfa and completed 71 laps to Ary’s 74.
Heat 3: It is Brian’s turn to join the race, he also drives an Alfa Romeo. Roy, now on blue, takes the lead, chased by Ary and Brian. On lap 11, Ary takes the lead on the green lane. At heat mid-point, drivers are separated from each-other by one lap: Ary with 37 laps, Roy with 36 and Brian with 35. Both Brian and Roy had a clean race with no de-slots, Ary pushed his car and de-slotted a couple of times. Brian finished 70 laps, Roy 73 and Ary 75.
Heat 4: Marty is back, on the yellow lane. Brian starts the heat ahead of Ary, on blue, and Marty; by lap 9 all competitors were racing within inches of each other; Ary took the lead from Brian, Marty was now a full lap behind. The fast paced race continued for another 13 laps when Marty de-slotted on the straights and lost precious time. By the half-way point, Ary had 37 laps, followed by Brian’s 36 and Marty’s 34. With 30 seconds remaining, Brian de-slotted, also on the straight, triggering a yellow flag. The remainder of the heat saw drivers pushing their cars without any de-slots; Marty completed 70 laps, Brian 71 and Ary 75.
Heat 5: An Alfa filled Ferrari sandwich, the last heat of the race had Russell on the yellow lane, Brian on blue and Marty on green. Marty is the first to compete a lap after the green light, Russell and Brian were right on his tail. This was a very even race, all competitors were on the same lap a few feet apart from each other; until lap 19, when Russell lost control and Marty added a full lap between the two. Brian suffered a de-slot a couple laps later, now he was a few car lengths behind Russell. At the 2:15 mark, Russell over-accelerated in the entrance to the straight, the car didn’t take it and spun to the right side of the track. Brian pushed hard trying to close the gap on Marty’s lead but ran out of time. Marty completed 72 laps to Brian’s 71 and Russell’s 67.
The last and defining race of this series is scheduled for Saturday, June 16th. As always, all of the Austin Slot Car Club races are broadcasted live on ustream.tv, tune-in at 11:30am CST to watch the Mille Miglia Series finalle, the Slot.it 70’s Prototypes Series race will follow: https://www.ustream.tv/channel/austin-slot-car-club.
Here are the detailed results for round #5:
This race was recorded and can be viewed, while available, here: https://www.ustream.tv/recorded/23031397