Round 5  ROCKINGHAM                16/17  November2013         ckingham club  web site

Copyright British Slot Car Racing Association 2013 photos copyright C.Frost All rights reserved

1/24 BOC  2013    British Open Championship

The biggest story from Rockingham is the Eurosport podium  - John Gooding taking his first BOC win (probably the youngest BOC winner ever), Scott Francis taking second to make it the youngest BOC 1-2 by huge margin, and Pat Skene completing the top 3.  Well done all of them.

Gavin and all the Rockingham club made us very welcome to what was one of the very best meetings of the year. Guest race controller Graeme Stephenson  did an excellent job, efficiently running all the racing.

Pat , John and Scott with their Eurosport cars

Production   Saloon

Racing started with one minute saloon qualifying.  While the established premier drivers filling most of the top places, the result that stood out was Bob Henderson’s impressive speed to qualify for the A final.

The racing was split into 5 man segmented races, 4 minutes on each lane giving the drivers 24 minutes in total.

James Cleave won by 9 laps from Gavin Wills in the A final, but third just 5 laps back was young Chris Clement’s impressive run in the B final.  Dave Harvey was 4th some 2 laps behind Chris

The Saloon A Final

Bob Henderson,     Lee Parsons,     Dave Harvey,     Gavin Wills,   James Cleave

James Cleave’s pair of winning  chassis

Open Group 12

The established premier drivers got another surprise in Open Group 12 with Mike Davies qualified for the A final.

The results of thid first Sunday class were rather less of a surprise, with a win for James Cleave from Gavin Wills, this time by 8 laps.  Lee Parsons took third some 13 laps behind, another excellent run from Chris Clements took 4th ahead of Sunday arrivals Vince Lee and Ian Barker.

The Open Group 12 A Final

Mike Davies,     Gavin Wills,     Ian Barker,       Lee Parsons,     Dave Harvey,    James Cleave

Eurosport

After the qualifying in the previous classes, the  fastest class produced another surprise.   Of course James and Gavin qualifying 1-2 was no great surprise - but the closeness was with James on 2.90556  sec and Gavin on 2.90558 sec - that equates to a lap separated by about twice the thickness of hair.

Could we expect some attrition in the race?  Only 3 of the D finalists took the start on the track, the rest were in the pits after gears stripped in qualifying, and the C final produced a remarkable number of track calls The B final produced early retirements, but the 3 remaining runners made very good use of the opportunity for a quick clean run, John Gooding amassing an impressive 419 laps followed by Scott Francis on 406 and Pat Skene on 404.  In the A final, James was soon in the pits, but Gavin was pulling away from everybody else.  Come the end of the first segment the spectators could look at the pace, Gavin was running at John’s speed and the next A finalists were running only just ahead of Scott’s pace.   By half distance, Gavin had a gear strip, which left him several laps short of John’s pace with Dave Harvey running at Scott’s pace.   Gavin then had more car trouble, leaving Dave leading the A final but slipping behind Pat’s pace to give B finalists John, Scott and Pat a 1-2-3.

Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks again to all at Rockingham.

Look forward to seeing you all for the 2014 championship which starts in February

Chris Frost

John’s winning car

Graeme Stephenson presents the trophies

Top Main Grade John Gooding.                      Top Overall James Cleave                      Top Clubman Chris Clements