Report by Chris Frost

© Copyright British Slot Car Racing Association 2013 Photos copyright Chris Frost   All rights reserved

The 1/24 Nationals

1/24 BOC  2013    British Open Championship

The 1/24 Nationals was held at Loughborough University on 24-26 August 2013.  It was an excellent venue for the event.   Thanks to Bob Budge for making it all happen.   Race control and scrutineering were in the capable hands of Kev Gray, Graeme Stepehnson and Rob Lees, and that made a sure we had a very well run and enjoyable meeting.  As well as the top British racers we had 7 entries from the Czech Republic and one from Portugal.

After some practice on Friday, the Production Saloon class was run on Saturday.   Once all the cars were in Parc Ferme, best presented body was judged.  The winner was Paul Harwood’s Mercedes (right) closely followed by Zuzana Bastova’s VW.

In qualifying, Lee Parsons was top with a 5.492 second lap with James Cleave close behind on 5.505 with an excellent performace from young Christopher Aldridge to take 3rd place.

Racing followed the 8 x 3 minute segmented format, with the slowest 9 qualifiers running first.  Graham Woodward had qualified slowest, well below his potential - but that did put him in an early race so he was in plenty of time to watch a football match later in the day!  Not unexpectedly Woody won that race by some 15 laps.

Neal Grogan won the C race, but some 10 laps short of Woody’s total.

Gavin Wills won the B by 12 laps from the closely matched trio of Ian Barker, Jan Zemlicka and Bob Budge.  That left Gavin top on 239 from Woody on 228.  to set the target for the top 8.   

Bob was the main grade winner on 227.

The top final was a close race between James Cleave and Antonin Vojtik,  with Martin Ellis and Mark Harwood not far behind.  Martin and Mark faded near the end, leaving James to win on 243 by a lap from Antonin.  Martin was 4th just missing Gavin’s target, with Dave Harvey moving up to 5th near the end.  Lee Parsons recovered from a slow start to be be running faster than anybody at the end, his 234 total was good for 6th ahead of Mark and Woody.   James won with the same car he used to win last year, (right) although of course the motor has had a serviced since.

(Right) Antonin, James and Gavin - the top 3.

Open Group 12

The Open Group 12 class was run on Sunday.

Pat Skene won best presented body with this BPA Lola (left)

James Cleave took top qualifying spot with 4.476 followed by Antonin Vojtik on 4.554 and Martin Hojer on 4.608.

The D race was won by Charlie Gooding on 256, just under a lap up on Chris Aldridge.  

Christopher Aldridge was quite a bit quicker than his dad, winning the C on 268, three laps up up on Milos Hojer.

Martin Ellis won the B, beating Christopher’s C final time by less than a lap.  Nobody else from the B beat Charlie’s D final time.

Antonin Vojtik built up a  lead from Lee Parsons in the A final.  James Cleave was challenging for second but dropped back a little in the final segment.  Antonin was delayed in the final segment when somebody else’s accident left his braids deranged,  but that was all sorted in time for him to win on 284, which was 2 laps up on Lee, with James a further 2 laps back in third.  Dave Harvey, Gavin Wills and Jan Zemlicka followed so the top 6 came from the A final, with Martin and Christopher taking 7-8 from the B and C respectively.   Christopher was the main grade winner.

(Left) Antonin’s winning car


Won-o Won Eurosport

The fastest class was run on Monday.

Keith Gibson won best presented body with this BPA BMW (right)

The quilifying was very close, with James Cleave taking top spot on 4.014, just 4 milliseconds faster than Lee Parsons, while Milos Hojer and Antonin Vojtik tied for third on 4.066.  The Czech challenge was certainly looking impressive with  Jan Zemlicka and Martin Hojer completing the top six.

Simon Francis won the D final on 275, some 11 laps up on David Sargent.   

In the C Charlie Gooding and Martin Ellis raised the bar to 293 and 292 respectively.  Franz Barillaro was the main grade winner, and next up in the C on 285.

Dave Harvey won the B with 296, the only driver from the B to top Charlie’s C final time.

Antonin Vojtik was two laps up by the end of the first segment, but car troubles dropped him well down the order from segment 2.  That left James Cleave leading from Ian Barker. James maintained around 3 lap lead till 3/4 distance, then needed a tyre change.  Ian had started on big enough tyres to run through non stop, and went on to win on 312, over 2 laps clear from James.  Jan Zemlicka took third ahead of Martin Hojer, followed by  Gavin Wills, Milos Hojer and Lee Parsons.  Dave Harvey’s B final time was good for 8th overall



Right Dave Harvey presents Ian Barker with the championship trophy

Ian                  Gavin             Martin          Jan                  Antonin         Milos                   Lee            James

Eurosport A Final

Ian’s winning chassis - by Vince




Full Results