F1

1/32 Nationals 2025

F1 Sunday 4th May

F1 racing was on Sunday. As always, in this class there’s a free choice of chassis and motors. This year all the overall finalists and 6 of the 8 main grade finalists were using brushless motors, a big increase on last year

Best presented was won by Mick Metalfe with this Red Bull paint job on a Betta RB20 shell. The spray painted body looked great, all the more so when you think about the intricate masking needed for all that detail.

Sammy presented the prizes. There was a big thank you from all the competitors to Sammy and Christine for the catering

Home BSCRA
SaloonF1
SportsClubman
F2 Super Prod
Team

James Cleave was top qualifier with a 5.878 second lap, beating the record he set last year by over a tenth of a second. Will Stemman and Gavin Wills were next up with laps in the 6.0s. Gordon Dickson was the fastest main grade driver, an impressive 6th overall.
45 drivers ran in qualifying, but one withdrew from the heats leaving 44 seeded into four 7 driver heats and 8 drivers in the top two heats. James was set a new record of 227.48 laps in the 8 x 3 minute heats, second place Josh Bryant also broke the old record. Ben Tapp was the fastest main grade driver in the heats, tenth overall on 206.

Main Grade Final

Barry Gilzean led the first part on the final. Elliot O’Gorman came through to take a one lap lead in the penultimate segment, but he still had his run on the unfancied black lane. Barry retook the led in the final segment, Elliot was second ahead of Ben Tapp with Mark Witham 4th with the highest placed brushed motored F1.

Steve Sargent, Ben Tapp, Peter Donely, Chris Aldridge, Mark Witham, Elliot O’Gorman, Barry Gilzean, Mick Metcalfe

Main Grade Final

Overall Final

After one segment James Cleave led from Josh Bryant, Chris Thomas and Gavin Wills with a lap between each.

As the race progressed the gaps between the top 3 widened. Martin Ellis and Will Stemman retied early on with car problems. Gavin had problems in segment 5, Mark Harwood and Richard Mack moved up to 4th and 5th.

James is F1 champion for the third year in a row, his 311 lap total was some 5 laps faster than last year. Josh, Chris, Mark, Richard and Gavin completed the top 6

The photo was taken a split second after the start of the final with James making a gentle getaway in 8th - that soon turned into first place!