© Copyright British Slot Car Racing Association 2023 Photos copyright C.Frost 2023 All rights reserved
1/32 Nationals 2023
Betta & Classic 2023 Saloon Championship
There were 39 drivers in Saturday’s saloon class racing. In this class there’s a free choice of chassis, motors are restricted to group 12. This class usualy has the widest variety of bodies, this year the Betta Mustang proved the most popular.
Best Presented -
Betta Ford Mustang
|
|
Driver |
Chassis |
Motor (group 12) |
Gears |
Tyres |
Body |
Weight |
|
1 |
James Cleave |
Cleave Tech 2023 |
ProSlot can and arm |
6:40 72p |
Won O Won Klingon |
Betta Ford Mustang |
79.8 gm |
|
2 |
Gavin Wills |
Cleave Tech 2023 |
ProSlot can and arm |
6:40 72p |
Alpha |
Betta Ford Mustang |
79.6 gm |
|
3 |
Ross Grogan |
GSR |
Koford can ProSlot arm |
6:40 72p |
Alpha |
Betta Ford Mustang |
84.4 gm |
Practice started after the INTRO 32 championship at half past eleven, this was followed by best presented body judging and 1 minute qualifying runs.
James Cleave was top qualifier with a new record for this class, the full results
are on the results page. The 39 entries were seeded into 5 heats, 4 with 8 drivers
and a 7 man top group.
Main Grade Final
The top 3 qualifiers fror the Main Grade Final were Aston Offer in
13th overall on 208 laps, Graham Woodward and Michael Ovens. Aston hit car trouble
early in the race leaving Woody leading from a closely matched bunch of Michael ,
Mark Witham and James Noake. Shortly after half distance James was in the pits,
leaving Woody, Michael and Mark in the top 3. Graham extended his lead to a winning
margin of 9 laps from Michael with Mark a further 6 laps back in 3rd and Ben Tapp
another 6 laps behind in 4th.
James Noake Graham Woodward Mark Witham Aston Offer Bob Budge Ben Tapp Michael Ovens Pete Clarkson
The Overall Final
The top 3 qualifiers for the Overall Final were James Cleave on a record 227 laps followed by Ross Grogan and Gavin Wills. James led from the start followed by Ross and Gavin, by quarter distance James had 3 lap lead with Gavin and Ross frequently swapping second place. Greg Harwood was 4th until passed by Martin Ellis just after half way. James retained his National title by a 7 lap margin from Gavin with a nearly identical car. Ross came home in third ahead of Martin, Greg and Josh Bryant in 6th.
The top 6 cars
James Gavin Ross Martin Greg Josh
A top view of the winning Cleave Tech chassis