Dunfermline 1/32 BOC Meeting, 18/19 March 2023
We had a very healthy entry of 16 racers who made the journey up to Dunfermline this year
Saloon
James Cleave top qualified in Saloon by more than a quarter of a second and was joined in the A final by Steve Sargent, Josh Bryant and Ant Hawkes.
Winner of the D final was Chris Aldridge with 114 laps, which would lead to him being 9th overall. This was beaten in the C final by Barry Gilzean with 119 and David Sargent with 117. Barry would end up 6th overall. Ben Woodward won the B final with 123. Martin Ellis and Graham Woodward also beat Barry’s score, just, with 120 laps.
James soon pulled ahead in the A final, eventually finishing almost 9 laps ahead of Ben’s score. Could anyone else beat Ben? Ant was on target early on but fell away slightly and finished 3rd overall. Josh and Steve both had problems, especially Steve whose car ate 3 gears, so Ben was 2nd in the end.
1/32 BOC 2023 British Open Championship
Formula 1
James dominated qualifying again, a third of a second ahead of the next qualifier (Ben).
Pete Clarkson won the D final by 9 laps, setting a target of 111. It was tempting
to expect Martin and Josh to challenge that score in the C final, but both of them
started the warm-
Given James’s dominance of qualifying, it was no surprise that he took an early lead and pulled ahead to win by almost 10 laps, but it was much closer between Steve and Ben for second. They both finished on 118, with Steve just a few parts ahead. Barry beat Pete’s score (just) and took 5th place, with David taking 4th.
Sports
James was easily top again in qualifying, by a quarter of a second from Ben this time.
Bob Budge won the D final easily, his score of 125 eventually making him 9th overall. The C finalists were very evenly matched in qualifying, but Woody and Martin soon pulled away. Woody set an impressive target of 140 laps, and Martin 135. David Sargent was the only B finalist to challenge them, but he finished just behind Martin, on 134.
James won quite comfortably again, although Ben made him work a bit harder for a win by just under 6 laps. Woody’s score from the C final gave him 3rd overall, with Chris slotting in 4th, just ahead of Martin.
Restricted Power Class
David Ensor won the Restricted Power class, having used these cars in Saloon and Sports.
Brushless
Bob Budge and Nick Cunningham used brushless cars in F1 and Sports, Bob winning both classes.
Main Grade
The Main Grade winners per class were Ant Hawkes in Saloon, Barry Gilzean in F1 and Graham Woodward in Sports. Woody took the Main Grade trophy thanks to having a 2nd place (in Saloon) to back up his win, Ant and Barry both having a 3rd as their next best result.
Overall
I said in last year’s report that James, in the Sports class, had the most comprehensive victory I've ever seen. Well, he topped that this year by having the most comprehensive victory I've ever seen across an entire meeting! He was simply unbeatable. I’ve already mentioned how far he was ahead in qualifying in each class. It was the same in the races – in EVERY CLASS he set the fastest single lap time on EVERY LANE and the most laps on EVERY LANE!
We assigned overall positions based on BOC Championship points scored. James won of course, scoring 100 points for 2 class wins. Ben was 2nd overall with 94 points from two 2nd places, and Woody was 3rd with 86 points for a 3rd and a 5th place. Steve and Martin just missed out on the trophies with 84 points.
Alan Lucas
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