Dumfries Slot Car Club – 1/32nd BOC Round – 26th/27th October 2024

The Club was hosting its first BOC and a good turnout looked on the cards despite the northerly location.

We had 13 racers practising on Saturday afternoon and although Bill Jenner was already going to get the imaginary prize for furthest travelled he decided to make sure of it by coming via Skegness! Deliberately, I might add!

After an excellent social gathering and meal on Saturday evening and with no Sunday arrivals racing got under way sooner than originally planned and it was lucky it did as the schedule slipped dramatically once the brushless cars came into play!

One surprising feature of the day was that we had only 3 non-finishers – surely quite an interesting statistic given the length of the track and lap times?

In saloon James Cleave was ultimately almost 10% faster than anyone else and this secured his first win with a lap record of 3.978 seconds. Martin Ellis took second ahead of a flying Michael Ovens with George Kimber taking Main grade in this class. Bill Jenner was running as a Clubman and using restricted motors for the whole event and consequently tied up the Clubman win with little opposition and an 11th place in F1 on the way. No retirements in this class.

F1 was a little slower but, again, James C dominated with a fastest time of 4.134, Michael taking second with 4.3 from Paul on 4.5. Barry Gilzean, after 6th in Saloon, took 5th in F1and went on to 3rd in ES32, great progress and very consistent driving rewarded with great results for the day and the Main Grade Overall prize. Sadly Martin and George retired from F1.

Sports was the last class and the first heat was a bit crazy with a mixture of Hawk, brushed and brushless-powered cars and this took a while to run – especially combined with the sit-out needed for 5 drivers. In the event three of the first heat drivers, Michael, Pat Skene and George, hauled themselves up to 6th, 7th, and 8th places.

The second heat saw Keith Gibson and Ian Fitzpatrick lose position but Paul Harwood and Steve Sargent moved up the field to take 4th and 5th respectively. James Noake was the surprise of the top heat, driving his brushed car to an excellent 2nd place ahead of Barry but James C was 21 laps ahead by the end giving him a comprehensive Victor Ludorum with Michael taking 2nd overall from James N.  Martin Ellis was the unfortunate retirement from this class.

2nd Main Grade was Steve Sargent and George took 3rd.

Brushed motors were run by Steve, Ian, Keith, Colin Jackson and Bill in F1 and by Steve, James N, Colin and Bill in Sports.

We finished about 6pm which, hopefully, meant that most racers could get home the same day, but it would have been a very late one if we’d had Sunday arrivals and many more entries, despite moving things along pretty swiftly all day.

Thanks to all for their participation, sporting attitude and camaraderie.

Ant Hawkes

1/32 BOC 2024   British Open Championship