1/32 Nationals 2022
F1 1 May
Sunday was F1 racing day.
Ian Fitzpatick judged best presented body, the winner was
Aston Offer’s Mercedes.
The qualifying runs saw James Cleave top with a 6.219 second lap, not quite as quick
as his record lap set last year. Top main grade drivers were James Noake and Gordon
Dickson, both quick enough for the top heat.
The 34 racers were seeded into 4 heats,
the first 2 heats being run for 9 drivers ( 8 lanes plus a sitout) and the top 2
heats were simple 8 x 3 minute segmented race. Will Stemman was quickest in the
heats on 218 laps followed by Ross Grogan and James Cleave.
Either brushless or brush
motors can be used in the F1 class. Richard Mack took 16th overall, Bob Budge took
27th overall and 7th place in the main grade final with their brushless powered
cars, everybody else used conventional brushed strap motors.
Main Grade
Final
Vince Lee James Noake Bob Budge Gordon
Dixon Pat Skene Ant Hawkes Michael Ovens Pete Clarkson
James Noake and Gordon Dickson having qualified for the A heat it was no surprise
to see them in the top two spots for the main grade final. James led up till the
all important final segment when Gordon took the lead and won the main grade title
for the second time -
Overall Final
Martin Ellis James Cleave David Sargent Josh Bryant Gavin
Wills Chris Thomas Will Stemman Ross Grogan
Car weights (grams) weighed after the heats
72.3 77.3 69.8 76.7 76.2 78.3 75.3 72.7
Will Stemman took an early lead in the final, followed by Josh Bryant and Ross Grogan. James Cleave was 7th in the early running. After 3 segments Ross and Chris Thomas had displaced Josh to 4th. Will extended his lead to 2 laps from Ross at half distance. James recovered to third after 5 segments. At the end Will extended his lead from Ross to 3 laps to take a very emotional win while James closed to within a lap of Ross.
Will’s winning car
It has a Castricone chassis
The motor was built by Dave Harvey. The Cahoza single
mag set up with a Koford 45 turns of 29 gauge 28 degree 0.250” length armature
Gears
-
Rear tyres -
Body
-
SCD super thin braids.
The writing on the chassis is mainly about the controller settings. (No I haven’t got an explanation of exactly what it all means!)
Will used the same tyres in the heats and the final. He started the heats with
0.8mm clearance and wore down to about 0.7mm in the 8x3min running, then to 0.3mm
in the 8x4min final. Obviously the extra 1 minute in each final segment doesn’t account
for that much extra tyre wear. Both Will and second place Ross observed they were
pushing much harder in the final, Ross was sure that was the reason for the much
higher tyre wear.
Champion Will Stemman
3rd James Cleave 2nd Ross Grogan
Main Grade winner Gordon Dickson
2nd James Noake 3rd Vince Lee
Report and photos by Chris Frost
© Copyright British Slot Car Racing Association 2022 Photos copyright C.Frost 2022 All rights reserved