South Downs  23/24 January

 

The 2016 BOC season got off to an excellent start with the South Downs Open Meeting.   Thanks to Ant for giving us all such a good week end’s racing.    

There was a lot of racing to get through with 1 minute qualifying followed by 8 x 3 min segmented racing for everybody in all 3 classes.  The good entry could have been larger but a couple of people dropped out due to illness - get well soon!



Saloon


After best presented judging, the qualifying for Saloon got under way. James Cleave came out top on 5.302 seconds, followed by Dave Harvey on 5.326.

The racing commenced with the 8 man C final. David Sargent’s car looked much better than in qualifying, and he won with a score that would eventually put him in the top 6 overall.   Behind him there was some very close racing with 5 cars on the same lap in mid race.

 
The B final saw another area 2 driver exceeding their qualifying pace, Paul Shepherd won with a score just half a lap faster than David’s.  Scott Francis in his first 1/32 BOC was well in touch with Shep throughout, and finished a couple of laps behind.  


The A final saw James Cleave, Gavin Wills, Dave Harvey and Martin Ellis take the top 4 spots overall.   































1/32 BOC 2016   British Open Championship


Saloon




F1




Sports


1

James Cleave

247.76


1

James Cleave

246.17


1

Paul Shepherd

282.78

2

Gavin Wills

240.12


2

Paul Shepherd

242.96


2

Gavin Wills

278.97

3

Dave Harvey

233.68


3

Gavin Wills

235.07


3

James Cleave

277.69

4

Martin Ellis

230.71


4

Martin Ellis

229.42


4

Dave Harvey

263.80

5

Paul Shepherd

226.96


5

Keith Gibson

227.25


5

Steve Sargent

260.25

6

David Sargent

226.59


6

Steve Sargent

221.90


6

Chris Aldridge

252.09

7

Scott Francis

224.09


7

Vince Lee

221.56


7

Mike Read

249.21

8

Chris Aldridge

220.78


8

Greg Harwood

212.30


8

David Sargent

245.07

9

Greg Harwood

219.20


9

Mark Witham

211.95


9

Bob Budge

243.74

10

Steve Sargent

218.09


10

Mick Metcalfe

210.79


10

Mick Metcalfe

237.58

11

Bob Budge

216.19


11

Bob Budge

208.18


11

Phil Hemsley

235.97

12

Mike Read

210.36


12

Phil Hemsley

207.25


12

Greg Harwood

228.60

13

Mark Witham

209.15


13

Mike Read

204.31


13

Mark Witham

228.01

14

Chris Frost

206.09


14

Richard Mack

203.70


14

Chris Frost

223.22

15

Peter Donely

205.44


15

Chris Frost

191.79


15

Peter Donely

222.22

16

Phil Hemsley

204.89


16

Paul Jennings

186.76


16

Harry Shepherd

212.58

17

Mick Metcalfe

199.74


17

David Sargent

179.16


17

Paul Jennings

200.59

18

Vince Lee

195.75


18

Harry Shepherd

173.60


18

Keith Gibson

161.37

19

Richard Mack

193.79


19

Peter Donely

159.19


19

Scott Francis

56

20

Paul Jennings

187.59


20

Chris Aldridge

67


20

Martin Ellis

26

21

Harry Shepherd

184.07


21

Scott Francis

65


21

Vince Lee

17

22

Keith Gibson

59


22

Dave Harvey

15


22

Richard Mack

13

Best Presented Body

 The winner was the F1  Toro Rosso by Gavin  Wills.

Saloon A final cars and drivers  

Steve Sargent, Chris Aldridge, Vince Lee, Martin Ellis, Gavin Wills, Dave Harvey, James Cleave


F1

F1 qualifying again saw James in top spot, this time with a 5.582 second lap followed by Gavin Wills on 5.651 and Steve Sargent on 5.698.

The C final again produced a very clear winner, this time Mark Witham set a score that would put him 9th overall.  That put Mark top clubman driver for the second class in a row.  

Keith Gibson won the B final to take 5th overall, with Greg Harwood also beating Mark’s score.

The A final saw James Cleave, Paul Shepherd, Gavin Wills, and Martin Ellis take the top 4 spots overall.   Congratulations to James, that second win gives him a maximum championship score.  Martin is now back in main grade, but a pair of 4th places  looked more like a premier performance!  

Curiously the winning F1 total averages about a quarter of a second slower the qualifying time, where as in saloon it was half a second off.  Maybe F1 was less delayed by accidents?



Sports

Inevitably sports was the fastest class.   Although not inevitable, it wasn’t a great shock see James complete the clean sweep of top spots, with a 4.522 second lap followed by Gavin Wills on 4.637 and Richard Mack on 4.779.

The C final again produced a clear winner this time it was Mick Metcalfe.  This was Mick’s second top 10 finish of the day, and this time he finished ahead of Mark for top clubman.   

Chris Aldridge won the B final with 6th overall and topped main grade. He was followed by  Mike Read, David Sargent and Bob Budge.

The A final produced something a little different - Paul Shepherd winning from the closely matched Rockingham pairing of Gavin Wills and James Cleave.   It was also a first BOC win for a Gordon Dickson chassis so double congratulations to Blackpool members.

Thanks to K Slot and Won O Won for supporting the meeting.

Don’t forget round 2 of the 1/32 BOC at Blackpool in March.


Chris




The winning chassis from James Cleave - Dubick  F1 and  VIP Saloon

Shep’s sorts winning chassis Gordon Dickson sports chassis

Copyright ©  2016 British Slot Car Racing Association  Photos copyright C.Frost   All rights reserved