1/32 BOC 2022   British Open Championship

 Leicester Electric SCC OPEN   11th / 12th June 2022

  Round 3 of the 1/32nd Scale British Open Championship  

M                                     

A total of 13 drivers took part in the first BOC that Leicester Electric SCC has hosted, with six Sunday arrivals joining the seven weekenders who had practiced on the Saturday.  

Before moving onto race day, a quick couple of comments about the Saturday.  With a liberal supply of beer and samosas available the lap times achieved were staggering.  4.7 second lapping with saloon and F1, then just missing out on cracking the 4 second barrier with sports – on at least five pints of beer.  No wonder the driver’s heads were spinning!

Raceday saw 6 Sunday arrivals who had sole free practice for a frantic first hour before open practice at 9am.  One of the innovations attempted at the meeting was an alarm to end scrutineering.  One person (who will remain nameless) fell foul, but in the spirit of the meeting on this one occasion he was let off though no one else was late all day!

Race format was 4 x 4 segmented with 1 minute qualifying.  Saloon was organised randomly for qualification with the other two classes seeded based on results.  Because of the numbers the C final had a sit-out.  

Saloon:

C Final:  Ant Pete, Nick and Ian started with Steve on sit-out.  Ant took the win from Steve, the difference being their respective runs on yellow, followed by Pete, Ian and Nick, who was running in the restricted class.

B Final: Lee, Josh, Aston and Paul started this one.  The race started with two scraps developing as Lee and Josh battled ahead of Aston and Paul.  Bad luck for Aston though in heat 2 as he stripped a gear while Josh got away as Paul caught Lee. After the third run, Josh was clear while Paul had a lap on Lee which he maintained up to the finish, the three of them being ahead of Ants score.

A Final: James to an early lead on red by a lap from Greg with Martin and Will battling a couple of laps further back.  By the end of heat 2 though Martin had fought back, taking second place from Greg, which he was to hold on to until the end, with Will’s run being good enough to take fourth pace overall from Josh.  Track records were split between Martin and James with James taking the overall record on white lane with a 4.769 lap, his overall score of 188.15 setting the mark for future years…

James Saloon

Greg’s saloon

Saloon top 3

Martin 2nd             Winner James             3rd Greg

Will 2nd             Winner James             3rd Josh

F1:

C Final: Aston, Pete, Nick and Ian started with Ant on sit-out.  The first heat saw Aston just heading Pete with Nick and Ian having their own battle further back.  By the end of heat 2, though Ant had now joined in on a similar pace, Aston had upped his game and was clearly circulating quicker such that by the end of heat four he posted a very respectable 155 laps which Ant or Pete couldn’t match.  Further back Nick took the win over Ian.

B Final: This had Greg, Lee, Paul and Steve racing together.  Greg took the lead at the start while the other three battled.  This continued through the race with Greg taking a comfortable win to finish 4th overall from Paul who headed Lee on the same lap following a great scrap while Steve fell away on his last run to be beaten by Aston and Ant.

A Final:  This was one of the best races of the day with James pulling out a lead over Josh and Will to the point that it all looked sorted by the end of heat three.  James, Will, Josh then Martin.  But Will hadn’t read the script and came roaring back at James.  James held on to win by 30 parts of a lap recording 178.26, but what might have been had Will not had an off so close to the end.  Will’s last run included a 4.818 lap, the fastest of the race.

Top 3 chassis

Josh2nd                               Winner James                          Will 3rd

Overall:  

Racing wise, no-one can really say anything other than James was the star driver.  Others were quick but it was his consistency across the track that was the key to his success.

Congratulations to those that took awards home and thank you to all who attended for making it, for me, something really special and a memory that will last for a long time.

Special thanks to Marcus, Sam and David, who were present at the event, as well as Martyn for all your efforts in supporting this event and to ALL involved for the encouragement, support and good humoured nature throughout.

We tried a few things out, which generally worked quite well, and we will learn from the feedback kindly given to us.  

One things for sure…  There will be a good prize to the first person cracking the 4 second barrier in race time!

Until next time (whenever that will be)…

Andy Smith (and all at LESCC.)  

Sports:  

C Final:  Ant, Aston, Ian and Nick started this with Steve on sit-out.  The first heat saw Aston blitz it out of the block pulling six laps on Ant who was heading Ian.  Although Steve matched him on his first run, by the end Aston took a five-lap win from Steve, Ant, Ian and Nick.

B Final: The first run saw Paul and Lee resume their day long battle ahead of Pete while Martin blazed off into the distance like a scolded Lancastrian recording an eye watering 52laps on his first run!  By the end he scored just under 200 laps while Paul just out paced Lee by a lap for second while Pete couldn’t quite maintain his qualifying form, slipping back behind Ant.

A Final: The blue riband race between the four fastest qualifiers didn’t disappoint and though Greg ended behind Martin, Will and Josh both scored a staggering 200 laps to finish in that order respectively.  But it has to be said James was in a class of his own in this one to take the win by a comfortable six laps recording 211.96 and completing a clean sweep of the meeting.  Will had the fastest lap, recording a staggering 4.076 time.

 Ant Hawkes  

 Main grade winner  

Thanks to Sam Smith for the photos

Web site by Chris Frost

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