1986 ARRA 24 hour race

NORTH LONDON TEAM SET NEW UNDISPUTED WORLD RECORD 305.949 MILES IN 24 HOURS

A new outright world record was set by the crack North London team at the ARRA 24 hour race over the weekend of 5/6th July 19865. Yet again the combination of car preparation and driving skill they exhibited proved too strong for the other teams, all of whom were in contention for the whole race.

Second with 290.67 miles were team MURA, a "superteam" comprising the car building skill of Mick Webb with an all star driving team. Considering that the previous official BSCRA record was 292 miles, both the MURA and the ARRA team, in third place with 284 miles, had come close to their pre race predictions of finishing their race at world record pace. Team United had also managed this feat ( why don't you try to keep a slot car running for 24 hours if you think its easy ) but their teams lack of pace mean they wre always just waiting for the leaders to hit trouble , which none did.

There are two overriding impressions of this race which remain with me; most important was the relaxed but efficient way the meeting ran, helped of course by the sporting way all competitors entered into the spirit of the day (and night). ARRA are proud to claim that all entrants had a superb weekends slot racing and left with pleasant memories of time well spent. The other memory is of the sheer speed at which the race was run.  Forget about ccruising for a finish , this was balls out racing for a solid 24 hours with no quarter given , all the tams were aware that 1 lap lost to North London takes a hell of a lot of effort to recoup. In a attempt to convey to you the pace , all four teams were averaging lap times that would easily have qualified them as finalists at the ARRA open , with mind blowing regularity. Please study the race quarter laps to gauge how close and fast the racing was.

The ARRA clubmembers (especially Charlie and Ian Fitzpatrick) had prepared the track and clubroom so well that the the race finished only 7 minutes after the exact 24 hours had passed , this figure was arrived at by delay due to lane changes with not one minute being lost due to track problems , an achievement almost equal to NL winning 3 years running. 

ARRA have always given entrants to those teams who have supported us , but for next year I think all the teams will agree that it is time to inject some new blood ... so if you think you are good at slot car racing try the big one, the hardest, fastest, most testing race of them all ,  the ARRA 24 HOURS , surely the winners can claim to be masters of the art.

See you there next year?

Pete Crane

North London SME

Drivers    Ian Fisher, Chris James, Alan Lucas, Paul Martin, Paul Harwood

Car         Betta Rondeau, Fisher flexiboard/iso/a dck, Infinity can & cobalts, arm 30t 27g, gears Mutly                     8.36                                                                                   

11815 Laps, 305.949 miles