FYLDE OPEN sponsored by Betta & KSlotcar
Round 1 of the 1/32nd Scale British Open
Championship 29/30 January 2022
After a 2 year lay-
There certainly seemed to be an upbeat feel that racing was properly back this year with a great spirit prevailing throughout the weekend. Racers also complied very well to the covid precautions which helped to provide a safe environment to race.
We managed to run the ‘traditional’ qualifying of 2 x 3 min heats in Saloon to help drivers to dial into racing before contesting 4 x 3 min Finals. F1 & Sports were run with one 3 min practice session for all racers between classes followed by 1 min qualy & the same length of finals. At this entry volume it seems about the most can be achieved with a respectable finish time which is important to some racers participating.
The meeting marked the return after a 4 year absence to James Cleave planning to contest the series title. Will Stemman had put in some very fast practice laps in saloon but come qualifying James just managed to take top spot by 5 feet. He then proceeded to win the class by 4 laps with Will 2nd & Martin Ellis just behind him in 3rd. Ant Hawkes headed the Main Grade Runners with Sam Smith putting in a very solid run to finish 9th just feet ahead of Dad Andy. David Ensor won the Restricted battle less than a lap ahead of Nick Cunningham.
Fi qualy was an equally close affair with James shading it by 0.04 from Will, both with very impressive scores in the 4.5’s. Will lost 3 laps to James in the 1st segment of the Finals
Leaving Josh Bryant to take up the challenge. Josh was only a lap down after 3 segments but a slower last segment by him meant James won by 4 laps. Ant again headed the Main Grade runners in 6th. Ian Fitzpatrick, racing in his 1st BOC for some time was progressing up the order with each class to finish 8th just ahead of Sam who just pipped his dad again! David Ensor took honours again in Restricted.
James had looked very impressive in Sports practice & duly Tq’d ahead of Greg Harwood Will & Josh who were all very close. An accident by James early in the race meant he was 6 laps down on leader Greg after 1 segment. Greg retained a 1 lap lead on Josh for 2 segments but at ¾ stage they were on the same lap & in the last segment Josh pushed on to take the win by over a lap. Meanwhile James just managed to overhaul Will for 3rd. Without Martin running in Sports Ant managed 5th to again take main grade honours with Ian Fitz getting better again in 6th. Andy manged to beat Sam in this one while Nick beat David for Restricted honours. Also on the up was Ian Howard who took 10th.
A very big thank you to all the racers who supported the meeting. I hope you all enjoyed the day & will be back for more at the other rounds.
Finally a big thank you to Ian Fitzpatrick from Betta & Keith Gibson from KSlotcar for their sponsorship with prizes which is greatly appreciated.
Steve Sargent
Copyright © 2022 British Slot Car Racing Association All rights reserved
After a 2 year lay-
There certainly seemed to be an upbeat feel that racing was properly back this year with a great spirit prevailing throughout the weekend. Racers also complied very well to the covid precautions which helped to provide a safe environment to race.
We managed to run the ‘traditional’ qualifying of 2 x 3 min heats in Saloon to help drivers to dial into racing before contesting 4 x 3 min Finals. F1 & Sports were run with one 3 min practice session for all racers between classes followed by 1 min qualy & the same length of finals. At this entry volume it seems about the most can be achieved with a respectable finish time which is important to some racers participating.
The meeting marked the return after a 4 year absence to James Cleave planning to contest the series title. Will Stemman had put in some very fast practice laps in saloon but come qualifying James just managed to take top spot by 5 feet. He then proceeded to win the class by 4 laps with Will 2nd & Martin Ellis just behind him in 3rd. Ant Hawkes headed the Main Grade Runners with Sam Smith putting in a very solid run to finish 9th just feet ahead of Dad Andy. David Ensor won the Restricted battle less than a lap ahead of Nick Cunningham.
Fi qualy was an equally close affair with James shading it by 0.04 from Will, both with very impressive scores in the 4.5’s. Will lost 3 laps to James in the 1st segment of the Finals
Leaving Josh Bryant to take up the challenge. Josh was only a lap down after 3 segments but a slower last segment by him meant James won by 4 laps. Ant again headed the Main Grade runners in 6th. Ian Fitzpatrick, racing in his 1st BOC for some time was progressing up the order with each class to finish 8th just ahead of Sam who just pipped his dad again! David Ensor took honours again in Restricted.
James had looked very impressive in Sports practice & duly Tq’d ahead of Greg Harwood Will & Josh who were all very close. An accident by James early in the race meant he was 6 laps down on leader Greg after 1 segment. Greg retained a 1 lap lead on Josh for 2 segments but at ¾ stage they were on the same lap & in the last segment Josh pushed on to take the win by over a lap. Meanwhile James just managed to overhaul Will for 3rd. Without Martin running in Sports Ant managed 5th to again take main grade honours with Ian Fitz getting better again in 6th. Andy manged to beat Sam in this one while Nick beat David for Restricted honours. Also on the up was Ian Howard who took 10th.
A very big thank you to all the racers who supported the meeting. I hope you all enjoyed the day & will be back for more at the other rounds.
Finally a big thank you to Ian Fitzpatrick from Betta & Keith Gibson from KSlotcar for their sponsorship with prizes which is greatly appreciated.
Steve Sargent
Results | |||||||||||||
Saloon |
Qual |
Finals |
|
F1 |
Qual |
Finals |
|
Sports |
Qual |
Finals | |||
1 |
James Cleave |
37.61 |
150.77 |
|
1 |
James Cleave |
4.552 |
145.92 |
|
1 |
Josh Bryant |
3.976 |
165.77 |
2 |
Will Stemman |
37.66 |
146.8 |
|
2 |
Josh Bryant |
4.704 |
141.66 |
|
2 |
Greg Harwood |
3.949 |
164.1 |
3 |
Martin Ellis |
36.67 |
146.17 |
|
3 |
Will Stemman |
4.59 |
136.19 |
|
3 |
James Cleave |
3.823 |
155.94 |
4 |
Josh Bryant |
36.36 |
141.94 |
|
4 |
Martin Ellis |
4.964 |
135.73 |
|
4 |
Will Stemman |
3.962 |
154.27 |
5 |
Greg Harwood |
36.63 |
140.09 |
|
5 |
Greg Harwood |
4.841 |
133.72 |
|
5 |
Ant Hawkes |
4.308 |
149.22 |
6 |
Graham Woodward |
33.4 |
137.54 |
|
6 |
Ant Hawkes |
5.076 |
133 |
|
6 |
Ian Fitzpatrick |
4.373 |
144.52 |
7 |
Ant Hawkes |
34.54 |
134.67 |
|
7 |
Graham Woodward |
5.04 |
130.72 |
|
7 |
Graham Woodward |
3.992 |
144.05 |
8 |
Mick Metcalfe |
33.21 |
134.06 |
|
8 |
Ian Fitzpatrick |
5.297 |
125.71 |
|
8 |
Andy Smith |
4.417 |
143.53 |
9 |
Sam Smith |
32.13 |
130.94 |
|
9 |
Sam Smith |
5.154 |
125.16 |
|
9 |
Pat Skene |
4.178 |
143.11 |
10 |
Andy Smith |
32.09 |
130.67 |
|
10 |
Andy Smith |
5.409 |
124.97 |
|
10 |
Ian Howard |
4.805 |
138.46 |
11 |
Ian Fitzpatrick |
33.5 |
126.22 |
|
11 |
Keith Gibson |
5.187 |
123.81 |
|
11 |
Mick Metcalfe |
4.274 |
137.86 |
12 |
Ian Howard |
32.2 |
124.75 |
|
12 |
Mick Metcalfe |
5.325 |
123.56 |
|
12 |
Sam Smith |
4.659 |
136.63 |
13 |
Pat Skene |
31.72 |
122.1 |
|
13 |
Ian Howard |
5.891 |
112.8 |
|
13 |
Keith Gibson |
4.587 |
135.17 |
14 |
Keith Gibson |
26.77 |
120.11 |
|
14 |
David Ensor |
6.097 |
110.13 |
|
14 |
Nick Cunningham |
5.706 |
118.78 |
15 |
David Ensor |
30.65 |
115.33 |
|
15 |
Colin Jackson |
6.023 |
109.93 |
|
15 |
David Ensor |
5.551 |
117.33 |
16 |
Nick Cunningham |
27.44 |
114.36 |
|
16 |
Nick Cunningham |
5.738 |
104.81 |
|
16 |
Colin Jackson |
5.112 |
75 |
17 |
Colin Jackson |
29.23 |
113.66 |
|
17 |
Pat Skene |
5.047 |
48.76 |
|
|
|
|
|
James Cleave wins Saloon and F1
Josh Bryant wins sports
Main Grade winner Ant Hawkes
Ian Fitzpatrick -
2
James Cleave’s winning saloon chassis
It has a S&K Group 12 armature
Thanks to Pete Clarkson for the photos of the presentations and to James Cleave for the photo of his chassis
Copyright © 2022 British Slot Car Racing Association Photos copyright P,Clarkson and J.Cleave All rights reserved
1/32 BOC 2022 British Open Championship