RYA-affiliated offshore club and training centre for Reading and the surrounding area
Geoff Eteson
4 Dec 2023
On Monday 4 December fifteen members and their guests visited the Pinewood Raceway for an evening of slot car racing.
The Pinewood track is Berkshire’s only permanent slot car Racing venue and has two tracks but the one we used was the 145ft long 6 lane which was designed and built by Steve Oglivie for 1/24th scale race cars . Without doubt the venue and the organisers provided a professional experience of what is obviously a pastime that is enjoyed by committed enthusiasts.
After a short practice session we were “sorted” into teams of three for a series of Team Races. Each member of the team had a two minute session with a fast relay hand over to the next member of the team. After every 6 minute session the team changed race cars so that each team had experience of using all 6 cars before the evening concluded. While 5 of us were actually racing the other were busy around the track putting the cars back in their slots after some of us got a little too enthusiastic and our cars left the track. On some corners they were kept very busy .
The organiser kept a running commentary of the progress of the individual teams all of which had been given a Car Manufacturers name.
The winning team took the lead from the start. Session 2 saw them drop to third but from then on they took the lead back and stormed to victory Well done team Toyota. One interesting thing looking at the comprehensive results sheet provided by the organisers was that all of the five teams put in their best performance with the green car!!!!!
After the racing we adjourned to the café and bar where we enjoyed some basic but tasty food. The only small issue was that although Jackie had given them a detailed list of our pre-ordered meal options they had prepared insufficient “curry” options but the “chillie” came to the rescue.Nothing to do with Sailing but an excellent club night.