Report by - Elliott Harper

The Black Lion Centre hosted the opening event of the indoor season with Round 1 of Carpet Wars. The track was fast and flowing on a 30m+ length and 12 carpet wide layout. The format was one practice, 4 qualifiers and one final and with 13 heats there was plenty of time to prepare between races.

There were a few tricky points like the chequered tape next to race control and this grip point caught a few out. Grip came up steadily through out the day and there were a few instances of grip roll observed.



Olly Jefferies had a great start to the day securing each qualifier to take FTD and pole on the grid. From the start he led the way until the last lap when he developed a fault that impacted his pace and he crossed the line in 2nd place. He was very unlucky as he had driven so faultlessly throughout the day.

I had mixed fortune through out the day and never quite got into a settled run including one I did not start from the line. Even after securing 6th place in the A I had some bad luck getting caught up in a collision on the first lap; just as I nosed into 3rd place a recovering car clipped my rear quarter and spun me out and just as I had recovered the car took a side impact that disabled my steering. By the time I was back on the track I was 8 laps down and went on to finish 9th.

Stew Noble also had a good run making the 3rd Hot Bodies Mirage driver in the A and secured 9th on the grid. Stew stayed out of trouble in the first lap and ran a clean race to finish 7th. The 4th and final Hot Bodies car was Phil Chambers starting 8th in the Modified B and kept it steady finishing in 5th.

Overall it was a very enjoyable event and well worth the trip. Thank you to Ian and all the club members that worked hard to make the event a success.