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Always keen to race the latest and most current sportscars in the slot, the LMC is not totally unaware of the rich history in Motorsport. Occasionally we to take a walk down memeory lane. On the first weekend of december this voyage back in time brought us to the Swinging Seventies. An era where ever bigger wheels were mounted uder the Group 5 silhouette's. Centre stage, the wonderfull 1/24 Spa Francorchamps track in the Titanic Bowkling in Alsdorf Germany. Perfomances by several Belgian, Dutch and German groups. Read the report by the lead act...Slot Fabrik Racing team
Images by Stéphane Martin and Fola
Slotfactory Racing Team: 1st place, 1st Concourse
Hi Ya'll,the Capri made it to Alsdorf on time, added the finishing touches in the RFH cellar and at the Amoslot race center in Düsseldorf Germany,thanks for lettin me in!! Practice at the track started a bit behind schedule due to the fact that there was too much goo and grip on the circuit.... took a while to clean up, Nick and his team took well care of things....which was all fine by us because I had to put in the [b]C3 motor that i got from Mr. Kuhn+ gears from Ronald [/b], fix the wheel rubbing problem we had and put on tyre decals and polish... ;-)
About an hour late the racers took the stance at the controllers stand and took in the first test laps of the day. The grip took a while to build up and the lap time slowly started sinking.Track voltage was set at 13V instead of the planned 14.8V and the cars on the track were about 1 sec slower than the FIA Gt cars which was fine as more power would have been way too much and would have rendered the cars near to uncontrollable and would have cause much havoc.
The training session rules were changed, not every one was informed of the change of procedure but all found out sooner or later and managed to get some laps in.
Our car was off the hook. We had two chassis to choose from, and decided to use the first option which was not really faster, but "safer" to drive. The competition struggled to achieve times of 10.2-10.5 secs and as soon as we hit the track we were doing sub 10sec times.... a real surprise for me, as I could not /(still can't) understand how or why an inliner should handle better than an angle winder. The car handled better than my Astons.....
Any way keeping things short.... Tech control went fine for all (i think) , For the concourse all cars were lined up on the track and 1 team member per team was requested to choose his teams favorite.
Then it was Quali time - and we made pole..... with a 10.02 time which had me worried because in training Gert did 9.7 times and Stefan was a tick faster but in Quali just about managed 10 sec. He assured me that the car was fine and that he just had grip (or lack of it) problems because the tyres were dirty form the Tech control and the concours handling.The competiton was not faster, Team R3 did 10,04 and RFH? did 10.170 and RFH? came in 8th with a 10.4 time.
The groups were formed and the race took off. Was a bit weird watching RFH in the slower group, but it was pretty obvious that they did not belong and we watched them drive circles around every body else. They finished first in the class 4 laps ahead of BK racing.
The "quicker " group took positions behind the controller stand and the race started. The Nigrin Capri #55 dominated the run, I started on the long lane 1 and managed to finish my stint 2 or 3 laps ahead. At the end of the run, with some really fine driving by Gert and Stefan, we finished 17 laps up and were pretty sure we could win as long as bad luck _ crash, damage_ stayed out of our way.
There was the regrouping and the 3rd run started.... without RFH who had move up to second in the quickie group which took positions about an hour later (the stints were 10 mins long) . 60 mins later the results were clear. SFRT won with a 40,12 Lap advantage ahead of RFH who in turn had 4 laps more than the 2 Porsche 935_78's. the Porsches also ran very well, and finished a few track segments apart. RFH's second 320 Werks Beamer #20 turbo blew a couple of controllers and lost valuable laps in the second run.
The 320's were very competitive as were the 935's with the long and trailing rear ends.
Weam Team and sideways were somewhere out there and ran an almost invisible race and finished carrying up the rears...
  
SFRT won concour and the race and was awarded with 3 trophy's and the responsibility of organizing a return race next year.
we look forward to seeing all and maybe more, again next year. And as all most always - the people, the track the atmosphere were just unbelievable, Slotracers really are the coolest folk!
Was great meeting all the guys I didnt know, a shame that my french is almost equal to ZERO, and it was also great meeting the old faces and of course racing with you all.
Thanks Gert, for keeping your cool, thanks Stefan for being so STUPIDCONSTANTFAST and thanks to all the racers that gave us a hard time but far more important, allowed me to takee our car home in one peice.... even found both mirrors!!
As mentioned - WE'LL BE BACK!!
Fola Osu, Slot Fabrik Racing Team
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