BSL 2024 Round 1 – Pontefract - 19 May

The 2024 BSL season kicked off at Pontefract and the entry was a rather disappointing 4!

Steve Sargent had made the trip over the Pennines from Blackpool with the other 3 competitors, Mark Corston, Malcolm Crocker and Pete Taylor all being from Pontefract.

1/32nd Production

Steve Sargent set the fastest time in Round 1 with 27.87 on blue and built on this throughout the heats. Red was the only lane he dropped below his heat 1 time. Mark Croston chased Steve hard, but was unable to stick with his pace, his aggregate score being 2 laps behind Steve. Malcolm Crocker and Pete Taylor raced closely for 3rd with Malcolm taking the advantage by 3 laps over the aggregated best scores.

The final ran pretty much in line with the heats. Malcolm and Pete battled over 3rd in the B final, with Malcolm claiming the win but one lap from Pete. The A final saw Steve gradually pull away from Mark to take the win, 2 laps clear of Mark.

Team Race

Steve and Mark teamed up as Fylde+ with Malcolm and Pete teaming up to form Team Pontyslot. A 3rd team, expanding participants to 6, (High Chaparral) comprising Ian Prout and Paul Bucknell using a car that hadn’t turned a wheel in 18 months completed the line up.

Team Race

BSL 2024 British Slotracing League

Home BSCRA
Pontefract Teesside
Dumfries Dunfermline
Highland Castle
Fylde Championship
BSL Rules

Final	Name	Class	Lane	Laps	Position
A			Red	0
A	Mark Croston	Intro	Blue	44	2
A	Steve Sargent	Super	Green	46	1
A			Yellow	0
B			Red	0
B			Blue	0
B	Malcolm Crocker	Intro	Green	37	3
B	Pete Taylor	Intro	Yellow	36	4

Team Race

Steve and Mark calmly drove away from everyone else with Team Pontyslot and High Chaparral contesting 2nd and 3rd. In the end, Pontyslot held on to a well deserved second place (their car ran beautifully throughout. The moral of this story is, ALWAYS prepare a team car, even if you’re not intending to race!

Team Race
Team	Run 1 Lane	Laps	Run 2 Lane	Laps	Run 3 Lane	Laps	Run 4 Lane	Laps	Total	Position
Fylde+	Red	96	Green	100	Yellow	93	Blue	94.16	383.16	1
Pontyslot	Blue	87	Red	87	Green	87	Yellow	87.99	348.99	2
High Chaparral	Green	85	Yellow	85	Blue	88	Red	83.04	341.04	3

With such a small entry, the racing was wrapped up by lunchtime allowing people to head home to spend the afternoon at home in the sunshine. Many thanks to Muriel from SCD and Ian who helped out with marshalling.

Hope to see more of you here next year!

Paul Bucknell

Please note for BSL purposes Mark Croston, as a former team champion, is not classified as Clubman so Malcolm Crocker was top Clubman.

Steve Sargent