Rockingham  18th and 19th February 2023

First things first… What an amazing turnout!! Thank you to everyone who came and supported the Rockingham Club and the first round of the 1/24 BOC series. 20 racers competed over the weekend and made the racing very competitive and fun. 8 out of the top 9 drivers in the BSCRA ranking were present so the racing was always going to be tough. It is also worth noting that some competitors were competing in their first ever 1/24 BOC event and it was great to see new faces and returning faces back in the series.

1/24 Production

After plenty of practice, 24PR got underway and in qualifying, organised in ranking order, Richy Kettleson broke the track record early on. He held top spot until the last person to qualify, James Cleave, just pipped him, and went under 3.7s to set a new track record and a time of 3.695s to TQ.

Without any delay, the racing followed with the C-Final seeing its fair share of issues for the drivers. David Sargent hit problems with multiple failures. The motor also started going slow and polished the armature which showed all the signs of a magnet becoming unglued. Family Sargent were not having a good day as Steve also had a terrible start with the body shell becoming damaged in the first segment and needed a repair under green flag conditions.

Scott Francis had a pinion spin in the first segment of the B-Final and he attempted a quick repair, but it spun again and needed a longer pit stop. Bob Budge was another casualty of the B-Final when his motor fell out after a crash in segment 4. He was back again in segment 5 but had obviously lost a lot of time.

The A-Final was instantly much quicker than the other finals, with the only casualty being James Cleave who had to retire after his motor went up in smoke after a track call for a crash on the other side of the track. That left Ross Grogan with a good lead that he was able to hold till the end and took a clear victory from Gavin Wills who just lacked a bit of top speed to challenge more closely.

Ross’s wining car used a C43 chassis with Cahoza UL setup and bevelled T5 mags. A 0.518” 45 degree Valiko armature drove a 7:43 gear ratio and put the power down to the track through Won-O-Won rubber. The Attan Tesla was the body of choice for most runners with the Attan Mercedes being the second most popular choice. 7 racers used Koford armatures, 7 racers used Valiko armatures, 2 racers used ProSlot armatures and there was one S&K armature in the field.

Open Group 12    |   Eurosport

© Copyright British Slot Car Racing Association 2023  Photos copyright 2022 Ant Hawkes   All rights reserved

1/24 BOC  2023   British Open Championship

Production top 3 cars

          Third
         Will Stemman

Winner

Ross Grogan

Second

Gavin Wills

James Cleave’s armature