Report and photos by Chris Frost   

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© Copyright British Slot Car Racing Association  2022  Photos copyright C.Frost 2022 All rights reserved

1/32   Nationals   2022

The  Betta and Classic Saloon Championship 30 April

After Friday’s track cleaning and running in the track with slower cars we were ready for the 2022 Nationals.  Saturday’s racing was for BSCRA saloons -  this class allows a free choice of chassis but motors are restricted to approved group 12s.  The numbers of entries are a little up on 2021 although still down on pre pandemic levels,  at least two of the top competitors were unable to race for covid related reasons.

A big thank you to our sponsor Ian Fitzpatrick - Betta and Classic.  Thanks to our race controller Andy Brown Searle and to Chris Thomas for organising the live streaming of the event.  Thanks to the scrutineers Mark Witham, Mick Metcalfe and Richard Mack for making sure all the cars were within the rules.  We also monitored controllers throughout the weekend’s racing, and they all met the rules.

Michael Ovens won best presented body with his Betta Audi, Ian Fitzpatrick presents him the trophy.

Qualifying
Ross Grogan took top spot in the 1 minute qualifying with a 6.009 second lap, breaking the record set last year by just 11 milliseconds.
The 36 competitors were seeded into 5 heats, the  first heat being run for 8 drivers, the rest for 7 drivers. That produced the qualifiers for the final.    In a remarkably close finish James Cleave and Ross Grogan were separated by just 0.02 laps, their 222 total being just short of last year’s top score.  Peter Donely was the top main grade driver on 201, 13th overall.

Mike Read                      Peter Donely              David Austin            Ant Hawkes     Bob Budge     Vince Lee      Pete Clarkson      Michael Ovens

The Main Grade Final cars and drivers  

Main grade final
The top qualifiers often pick either white or purple starting lanes so they finish on the favoured centre lanes.   
Ant Hawkes started on orange and took an early lead from top qualifier Peter Donely.   Once Peter had got white and red out of the way, he took the lead and kept a small lead from Ant to win the main grade title by nearly 3 laps.  Michael Ovens took third some 8 laps behind Ant.

Peter and his Main Grade winning car

Martin Ellis                                                             The Overall Final
                           Ross Grogan           Josh Bryant          Will Stemman           Gavin Wills       Chris Thomas      James Cleave     Mark Harwood

How heavy are the cars?  The top 8 cars were  weighed after the heats
     82.8 g           83.7 g             85.6g               83.3g              82.7g              78.7g            79.4g            84.3g

Top qualifiers James and Ross started in purple and orange so they would finish on the favoured centre lanes.  Ross needed a pit stop in the first segment.  Josh Bryant took an early lead  from James.  Josh extended his lead for 3 segments, but when he reached black lane James started to catch him.    Josh held the lead at 3/4 distance but still had white and red to run, James made a strong finish on green and blue to take the win by over a 2 laps. Will Stemman took third ahead of Chris Thomas and Ross.  Congratulations to James winning this event for the 12th time!

Full Saloon Results

James Cleaves’s winning car

It has a Recek chassis modified by James.
The motor used in the final had a ProSlot can, Mega 3 magnets and a ProSlot Group 12 armature with about 47 degrees com advance.  He changed motor after the heats.

The 72 pitch gear ratio is 6:40
Body - Mack Holden
Tyres - Alpha

Champion James Cleave

Josh Bryant 2nd   Will Stemman 3rd

Main Grade winner Peter Donely

2nd Ant Hawkes      3rd Michael Ovens