BSL 2025  British Slotracing League

Norman Fawcett

British Slotracing League 2025

17 Aug -  Dunfermline

We had a healthy turnout of 12 for the Dunfermline BSL meeting today. Everyone got 4 heats in the 1/32 class, with the sum of the best 2 counting to seed the finals. Ant Hawkes set the fastest time early on, 29.75 laps, which was only beaten in the final heat when Pat Skene did 30.16. This gave Pat and Ant the top 2 qualifying positions. They were joined in the A-final by Neil Grogan and Alan Lucas. Ant was the only non-home member to make the A-final and, interestingly, the only Super-Production runner, the other A-finalists all using Intro32s.

Kurtis Walker won the C-final, half a lap ahead of Pete Farthing. Trevor Leeming and Shane Leeming, both first-time visitors to the track, were 3rd & 4th.

The B-final proved to be the closest race, just over a lap covering the whole field in 5 minutes. Winner was Steve Sargent with 48.19 from Pete Clarkson 48.15, Gavin Scott 47.25 and Marcus Corrieri 47.05.

In the A-final Neil and Pat, throughout the race, were both as fast as the fastest qualifying time. Neil won by half a lap with 50.78 from Pat with 50.36. Ant took 3rd with 49.19 and Alan 4th with 47.95.

The team race was an hour of track time, 15 mins per lane for each of the 6 teams. Ecurie Barnton (Pat & Alan) took an early lead when Pat did 166 laps on Red lane. Ecurie Dunfermline (Neil & Marcus) were 4 laps behind at this stage, then a 10-lap gap to Team Norman (Steve & Pete C), 4 laps ahead of The AA (Ant & Gavin), then an 8-lap gap to T1 (Kurtis & Trevor). SCD (Pete F & Shane) were already in trouble after just 51 laps (motor out I think). Unfortunately they suffered further reliability problems throughout the race, but credit to them for keeping running until the very end.

As the race developed there were 2 main points of interest for spectators. Which of the home teams would win? and who would be 3rd (Team Norman or The AA)? To deal with the second of these first, The AA closed the gap to just 3 laps at half way. Team Norman then had their best segment, 156 on White lane, increasing the gap to 8 laps, but The AA had a great last segment, 158 laps on Yellow lane. Could Team Norman hold on? Well yes, but only just with 616.53 vs 615.28!

As for the race lead, Ecurie Barnton (EB) increased their lead over Ecurie Dunfermline (ED) to 7 laps at half way. Then a crucial development - ED pitted to change tyres during segment 3. Meanwhile EB had their fastest segment of the race and led by 19 laps with 15 mins to go. Game over? Well, not really. EB started running out of ground clearance and slowed considerably towards the end. Also (probably related) their car became noisy in the last 5 mins, later diagnosed as a axle bearing becoming very seriously worn, allowing the axle to float around. Pat was able to nurse the car home, eventually 9 laps ahead of ED. However, it's interesting to consider than ED lost about 10 laps during their pitstop for new tyres.

Team Race Final Positions:

1. Ecurie Barnton 655.48 laps

2. Ecurie Dunfermline 646.97

3. Team Norman 616.53

4. The AA 615.28

5. T1 526.47

6. SCD 343.13

Alan Lucas

Pat’s photos of the event on Slot Car Racing News

© Copyright  British Slotracing League 2025  All rights reserved