Invicta Informant

This weekend there is IndyCar and IMSA Sportscars from Long Beach, California, the World Endurance Championship with a 6 Hour race at Imola, NASCAR from Talladega, Alabama, Australian Supercars from the Taupo International Motorsport Park, New Zealand, and the World Rally Championship from Croatia.

This weekend there is MotoGP from the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, NASCAR from Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, and the Goodwood Members' Meeting.

This weekend there is WRC from Kenya, NASCAR from Richmond, Virginia, and British GT from Oulton Park.

The Erith Model Railway Society held its AGM on Thursday 21st March. The members present at the meeting voted to elect Clive Simpson as Chairman. Shaun Blake has also joined the Committee. The club's Committee now consists of: Clive Simpson - Chairman. Paul Plummer - Exhibition Manager. Michael Chipperfield - Secretary. Stan Monger-Godfrey - Treasurer. Shaun Blake - Committee Member. Alan Bone - Committee Member. David Bone - Committee Member. Janet Jackson - Committee Member. New members are always welcome. We suggest that anybody interested in joining the club visits our clubrooms in Belvedere on a couple of Wednesdays (between 6:30pm and 9:00pm) just to get to know the members and the feel of the place before taking the plunge and signing-up. So any railway modellers, railway enthusiasts or modellers in general, regardless of skill, in South East London and North West Kent who are interested to joining a friendly and active club, then please do not hesitate to get in contact with us via the 'Contact Us' on our website: https://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/erithmrs/contact.html Alternatively, you can also PM me here on RMweb.

This weekend there is MotoGP from Portimão, Portugal, Australian Supercars from Albert Park, Melbourne, NASCAR from the Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, and a non-championship round of IndyCar - The $1Million Challenge at the Thermal Club in California.

This weekend there is NASCAR from Bristol, Tennessee, and the second round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship - the Sebring 12 Hours.

There is also the first round of IndyCar from St. Petersburg, Florida, and NASCAR from Phoenix, Arizona.

The UK Open was won by Dimitri Van den Bergh, who beat World No.1 and World Champion Luke Humphries 11 legs to 10. Van den Bergh moves back into the top 10 of the PDC's Order of Merit from 14th to 7th. There was also the sad news of the passing of Tony Green, aged 85 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Green was better known as a commentator for the BBC's coverage of the BDO World Darts Championships, and as the announcer and co-host of Bullseye.

The entry list for this year's World Endurance Championship had to be limited because of garage limitations at some of the tracks on the calendar, but the series organisers are looking to expand. They appear to have the opposite to Formula One's 'closed shop' attitude, plus has a lot more manufacturer interest (Cadillac, Porsche, Toyota, Isotta Fraschini, BMW, Alpine, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Peugeot in Hypercar, with Aston Martin, BMW, Ferrari, McLaren, Lamborghini, Ford, Lexus, Chevrolet, and Porsche in LMGT3).

This weekend there is NASCAR from Las Vegas and the first round of the World Endurance Championship from Qatar (coverage on Eurosport).

Darts is a sport. The World Darts Federation, the sport's highest governing body, was one of nearly 100 members of the Global Association of International Sports Federations (which was dissolved in 2023 and replaced by Sport Accord), alongside the FIA, FIFA, the ICC, etc. There has been a World Championship since 1978 and a World Cup since 1977. Rugby Union, by comparison, had their first World Cup in 1987.

This weekend there is NASCAR from Atlanta, and the first meeting of the Australian Supercars Championship from the Mount Panorama Circuit, Bathurst, New South Wales. The Bathurst 1000 is not until 13th October.

The World Senior Darts Championship was won by John Henderson who beat Colin McGarry 5 sets to 0 in the final. Lisa Ashton made the semi-finals, while familiar names like Phil Taylor, Terry Jenkins, Keith Deller, and John Part did not get beyond the first round. Winners on the PDC Pro Tour thus far this year are Luke Littler, Gary Anderson, Ryan Searle, and Damon Heta. One interesting Rileys 'Amateur' Qualifier for the UK Open (1st-3rd March) is Joe Croft, the grandson of Olly Croft who founded the BDO.

A few days ago, the entry list for this year's Le Mans 24 Hours (15th-16th June) has been released, and it looks stacked. 23 Hypercars, 16 LMP2s, 23 LMGT3s, and 7 reserves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans The World Endurance Championship starts with the Prologue this weekend at the Losail International Circuit, Qatar, prior to the first race of the season at the same circuit on 2nd March. The entry list for the season had to be limited to 37 entries because of pit garage limitations at Imola and the Circuit of the Americas, but they are looking to increase the grid size in future seasons. This series appears to have the opposite to Formula One's 'closed shop' attitude, plus has a lot more manufacturer interest.

I got some in Lined Crimson livery. The models come in packaging similar to Rapido's LNER Dynamometer Car. You must fit the couplings yourself and you are provided with four 'bar' style connectors (similar to what I have seen used on Hornby and Bachmann models of DMUs and EMUs), two shorter ones and two slightly longer ones. You also get one tension lock coupling with the brake carriages. The models have a nice weight to them, and have the look and feel of a quality product. The lighting in them is superb, with a working tail light on the brake carriages that lights up red, depending on the direction. Recommended.

I and my brother went this morning (the pair of us are somewhere in that picture of the sports hall). We really enjoyed the variety and the quality of the layouts being exhibited (Priorsfield pictured). It would be difficult to pick a favourite. Painless journey there and back. Lovely breakfast in Goodfellas Café. Really good day out. Thank you once again to the Tonbridge MRC for another excellent show.

Hi Dave, I met you at the Tonbridge Show. Your chair is in the Erith MRS Clubrooms and Paul, the Exhibition Manager, has confirmed this with me. You can pop down on a Wednesday evening (our club night) to pick it up. How it ended up in our possession, I don't know.

Starting today (Thursday 15th) is the World Senior Darts Championship at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet, with coverage via the BBC Red Button and iPlayer. Robert Thornton is the defending champion. The event is open to over-50s who are not PDC Tour Card Holders.

This weekend there is the WRC from Sweden and NASCAR's (points scoring) season opener, the Daytona 500.

The Masters was won by Stephen Bunting, who beat Michael van Gerwen 11 legs to 7. This is Bunting first PDC Major, having won the World Masters in 2012 and 2013 and the BDO World Championship in 2014. Daryl Gurney was a 'last minute' addition to the field, taking the place of Gerwyn Price who had to withdraw because of family reasons. Gurney made the quarter-finals, losing to Nathan Aspinall 10-9. Aside the Premier League on Sky Sports, the next TV Major is the UK Open on 1st-3rd March at Butlin's Minehead with coverage on ITV.

Before I forget, the date for next year's Exhibition is Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th January 2025. I will start the appropriate thread for that later this year in November. Also SP Rail has uploaded some footage:

Thank you to everyone who attended over the weekend. It is very much appreciated. Attendance was better than I thought it would be. We were slightly up on the Saturday from last year, but up significantly on the Sunday from last year (who says the hobby is in decline). Feedback has been mostly positive. Bachmann, who attended for the first time, were impressed. One thing I might suggest to those coming by car in the future, is to make 'Warley'-style plans, i.e. park at a railway station car park en route and then catch the train to Longfield itself (don't forget we do have a shuttle bus running between the venue and the station). We will need to look at other parking options going forward. Being dealt a curveball on the Friday before the Exhibition, as previously mentioned in this thread, did not help at all, and I was fearful of the effects that would have had. The two trophies we award went to Scarlington (by Nick Skelton and the NoEL Group of Railway Modellers - Scarborough) and to Cato Inferno (by Laurie Calvert). Please don't hesitate to share any photos, video, feedback, constructive criticism, etc. of the Exhibition on this thread, and I shall pass on your comments to Paul, the Exhibition Manager.

Michael van Gerwen wins the Dutch Darts Masters 8 legs to 6 over Luke Littler. This coming weekend, there is the Masters at Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes. Coverage on ITV. Players ranked 9th to 24th in the Order of Merit start in the first round and the winners then play the top 8 in the second round. Chris Dobey is the defending champion of this event. Draw bracket: (1) Luke Humphries (ENG) Vs (16) Stephen Bunting (ENG)/(17) Ross Smith (ENG) (8) Peter Wright (SCO) Vs (9) Jonny Clayton (WAL)/(24) Krzysztof Ratajski (POL) (4) Nathan Aspinall (ENG) Vs (13) Dirk van Duijvenbode (NED)/(20) Ryan Searle (ENG) (5) Gerwyn Price (WAL) Vs (12) Joe Cullen (ENG)/(21) Josh Rock (NIR) (2) Michael van Gerwen (NED) Vs (15) Chris Dobey (ENG)/(18) Andrew Gilding (ENG) (7) Danny Noppert (NED) Vs (10) Dave Chisnall (ENG)/(23) Martin Schindler (GER) (3) Michael Smith (ENG) Vs (14) Dimitri Van den Bergh (BEL)/(19) James Wade (ENG) (6) Rob Cross (ENG) Vs (11) Damon Heta (AUS)/(22) Gabriel Clemens (GER)

The Daytona 24 Hours was won by the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport driven by Dane Cameron, Matt Campbell, Felipe Nasr and Josef Newgarden. The winning margin was 2.112 seconds from the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac Racing driven by Jack Aitken, Tom Blomqvist and Pipo Derani. Jenson Button finished third in the No. 40 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura that he shared with Louis Delétraz, Colton Herta and Jordan Taylor. The top five overall finished on the lead lap. The next round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship is the Sebring 12 Hours on 16th March, where Lamborghini's new SC63 car should make its debut in the series. The WEC season starts with the Qatar 1,812km on 2nd March.

Setting up has gone pretty well this evening. Unfortunately the Academy only told this afternoon (Friday) that we cannot use the tennis courts for parking. From what I was told, they had installed new heat pumps under the tennis courts and subsequently they cannot take the weight of parked vehicles. So due to things beyond our control, we now have even less car parking space than we did in previous years, and we did not have enough space even then.