Round 1   North London SME  25/26 January  

Club website

The 2014 season started at North London with a good size entry providing a very good full day’s racing.    Thanks to all at North London for making it such a good day’s racing, particularly Ian on race control, John with the catering and Paul for scrutineering etc.  Also a big thank you to the meeting’s sponsors Won-O-Won and Betta and Classic.

The event started with best presented body judging, well done Nick Clements who won with his Audi saloon (right).

All classes were run with two 3 minute qualifying races to seed the entry into 4x2 min segmented finals - win from any final.

Saloon qualifying saw James Cleave take top spot with 41.81 over 2 laps clear of second qualifier Gavin Wills.

In the finals, Sandy Parker set the early pace with 95 laps in the E final. Murray Tucker raised that to 100 laps winning the D final and Chris Thomas went a few feet quicker winning the C.  Will Stemman raised the bar to 105 winning the B by nearly 4 laps. James took the A final and overall win with 109, Will was second overall (and top main grade) with A finalists Ian Barker and Gavin Wills 3rd and 4th.

Gavin Wills top qualified in F1 with 40.70 followed by James Cleave and Paul Shepherd also on 40s.  

In the finals, the early pace was again set by Sandy Parker winning the e final, this time with 94 laps. Bob Budge’s 96 laps was the only one in the D ahead of Sandy.  Richard Mack was the first  to 100 in winning the C.  Will Stemman went just 0.03 laps quicker in winning the B, placing him top in main grade again.   James again took the A final and overall win, again with 109.  This time the A finalists filled the top 4 places with Shep second ahead of  Gavin and Chris Thomas.

In sports qualifying James and Gavin locked out the top spots again, this time James was top with 47.05,  about half a lap clear of Gavin.  Third was another Rockingham driver, a superb performance from Chris Clements.

In sports it was Michael Ovens who won the E to set the early pace with 112. Richard Mack went a lap faster in the D , leaving Michael second so far. Will Stemman’s 115 in the C demoted Richard to second so far.  Chris Thomas and Vince Lee set the target at 118 in the B final.  James made it 3 wins out of 3, the best possible start to defending his BOC title.    Gavin took second, his 125 lap total was 2 behind James.   In a very close finish for 3rd, Ian Barker passed Chris Clements  in the closing seconds, their 119 totals ensuring the A finalists  again filled the top 4 places.

Here’s looking forward to round 2 at Fylde.

Chris     .     

1/32 BOC 2014   British Open Championship

The wining saloon and F1 chassis.    James used a 2013 Horky chassis in sports.

Copyright ©  2014 British Slot Car Racing Association  Photos copyright C.Frost   All rights reserved

James  Cleave wins all 3 classes

The stars of main grade - Chris Clements and Will Stemman