Ipswich Open Meeting 2009

Ipswich Open Meeting 2009
James Cleave wins all 3

Track Track from the driver's end

The Ipswich club welcomed us to their club in Wickham Market, Suffolk for the second round of the BOC on the very warm June 27/28 weekend. Thanks to Paul and Richard for an excellent meeting.

Saloon

The racing started with everybody having two qualifying heats. Martin Ellis and Paul Shepherd made it a Fylde 1-2 into the finals. The finals were segmented, win from any final. D final winner Mike Gibbon raced considerably quicker than his qualifying time, but his total was eclipsed in the C final which provided a very close finish between Steve Sargent and Keith Gibson. The B final produced another close finish with Paul Harwood just beating Ian Fisher. James Cleave took an early lead from Paul Shepherd, and maintained it to win by exactly a lap, with Dave Harvey third overall. Shep's car ended the final with the front pan stops broken off which made it look like the chassis was falling apart when you picked it up, but he said he didn't notice much difference in the handling!

Pos.		Qual.	Final	Seg 1	Seg 2	Seg 3	Seg 4	Total
1	James Cleave	32.47	A	33	33	33	32.72	131.72
2	Paul Shepherd	32.96	A	32	33	32	33.72	130.72
3	Dave Harvey	31.84	A	31	33	31	32.49	127.49
4	Paul Harwood	31.00	B	31	31	33	31.93	126.93
5	Ian Fisher	31.79	B	31	31	32	32.63	126.63
6	Steve Sargent	30.03	C	28	28	31	32.87	119.87
7	Keith Gibson	29.64	C	29	28	31	31.69	119.69
8	Bob Hallums	30.04	B	28	30	30	31.25	119.25
9	Stephen Siddall	30.87	B	30	28	30	30.7	118.7
10	Martin Ellis	33.27	A	30	29	28	30.43	117.43
11	David Sargent	27.97	C	28	29	29	28.74	114.74
12	Mike Gibbon	26.85	D	28	29	27	29.33	113.33
13	Chris Frost	27.15	D	27	28	29	27.89	111.89
14	Mike Read	26.63	D	27	26	27	26.57	106.57
15	Trev Crout	26.47	D	25	26	26	27.16	104.16
16	John Goldsmith	28.05	C	26	28	17	28.08	99.08

James Cleave's saloon The winning car and the top 4 tech chart -

Driver	Chassis	Group 12 motor	Gearing	Body
James Cleave	Mack (used at 2007 Nats)	Pro Slot	7:43	AAA Honda Integra
Paul Shepherd	Mack	Pro Slot	7:44	CAT Daytona
Dave Harvey	Mack (R Mack's 2nd at 2009 Nats car)	BOW	7:43	CAT Daytona
Paul Harwood	Mack with brass pan inserts	Pro Slot	7:44	CAT Daytona

In F1 the racing again started with 2 qualifying heats each. James Cleave was quickest with the only 32, with Pauls Harwood and Shepherd in the 31s. F1 qualifying proved significantly slower than saloons on this track. We then moved into four 5 minute semis finals. The quickest qualifiers chose red lane and the slowest were left with blue, so there was a big speed range in each semi. James was significantly quicker in the semis to bag red lane for the final ahead of Paul Shepherd, Steve Sargent and Paul Harwood.

In the final James was off into a flying start and the two Pauls were just off .... after the marshal had recovered a car from the floor James was pulling away from Steve with the Pauls well behind. Shep managed to catch and pass Steve for second. Although Paul Harwood was able to lap a little quicker than Steve, the North London driver was having too many offs. So James won by a very comfortable margin of 6 laps.

F1		qual.	semi laps	semi	final	The Final
1	James Cleave	32.35	55.57	1	75
2	Paul Shepherd	31.65	54.6	2	69
3	Steve Sargent	30.74	53.87	3	66
4	Paul Harwood	31.82	53.52	1	64
5	Dave Harvey	29.12	51.03	3
6	Ian Fisher	29.84	50.53	4
7	Martin Ellis	25.89	49.97	4
8	Keith Gibson	29.34	48.90	2
9	Chris Frost	27.62	45.52	2
10	John Goldsmith	26.82	45.45	2
11	Stephen Siddall	27.58	44.96	1
12	Mike Gibbon	28.29	44.39	4
13	Bob Hallums	28.97	42.75	1
14	Trev Crout	27.14	42.70	4
15	David Sargent	27.27	41.61	3
16	Mike Read	28.87	0	3

The final - chassis

The winning car, and the start of the final

Driver	Chassis	Motor	Gearing	Body
James Cleave	Mack	Pro Slot 35t27g ; Voki single mag set up	7:33	Red Fox 2005 McLaren
Paul Shepherd	Horky	Pro Slot 45t30g ; single mag set up	7:30	Red Fox 2005 McLaren
Steve Sargent	Horky (CMG slots prepared)	Pro Slot 50t30g ; single mag set up	7:30	Red Fox 1998 McLaren
Paul Harwood	Horky	45t29g	7:31	Red Fox 1998 McLaren

Sports/GT

The 3rd class produced the third different top qualifier from the heats - Paul Shepherd with the only 37 of the day. The 5 minute semi finals started with Shep winning by 4½ laps from Ian Fisher. In the second semi James showed his speed with a run equivalent to over 38 in 3 minutes. Meanwhile Bob Hallums had his race terminated almost before it started with the body through the gears, Dave Harvey suffered the same problem in heat 3. The marshals didn't get bored in the third semi, in fact Martin Ellis won it on the unloved blue lane. Paul Harwood won the final semi by 8 laps, so he made the final along with James, Shep and Ian Fisher (not a place he expected after his semi run)

The final was fairly spaced out - James took his hat trick of wins, Paul Harwood deprived Shep of his third second place and Ian made the best of blue lane in fourth.

The very generous prize fund included cash prizes for the winners, and Mack chassis kits (donated by Richard) for the intermediate and main grade winners.

		qual.	semi laps	semi	final
1	James Cleave	36.94	63.56	2	75
2	Paul Harwood	36.04	60.87	4	72
3	Paul Shepherd	37.58	62.04	1	69
4	Ian Fisher	35.02	57.59	1	65
5	Martin Ellis	31.79	57.03	3
6	Steve Sargent	36.19	56.31	3
7	Keith Gibson	34.27	53.84	1
8	David Sargent	32.04	52.83	4
9	Stephen Siddall	32.20	51.33	2
10	Trev Crout	28.18	51.27	2
11	Mike Read	32.80	50.54	3
12	Chris Frost	32.04	50.5	1
13	Mike Gibbon	32.27	49.72	3
14	John Goldsmith	27.86	42.5	4
15	Dave Harvey	35.28	17	4
16	Bob Hallums	34.80	1	2

The final - chassis The final - drivers

Above - the final cars and drivers - below the winning chassis - a Horky chassis just as it comes from the builder

The winning car

Driver	Chassis	Motor	Gearing	Body
James Cleave	Horky	Pro Slot 25t25g 0.250long 0.480 dia; Voki 12 mag set up	6:45	BSP Audi R8
Paul Harwood	Mack	22t25g ; Veliko set up	7:45	BSP Audi R8
Paul Shepherd	Horky	Pro Slot 26t25g ; single mag set up	7:44	BSP Audi R10
Ian Fisher	BSP	Veliko 22t26g; Horky set up	6:45	BSP Audi R8

Chris Frost