Southern 32 2009

Southern 32 - 2009 Series Round 1 - Crawley.

Wet weather, credit crunch, races every weekend in January and other excuses didn't have much effect as 21 racers showed up on Sunday at Crawley for the first round of the 2009 series. There were several faces new to S32. The racing was run efficiently by Pete Farthing assisted mainly by Keith Edgar also of the Crawley club.

Production races

15 of the entrants were Clubman eligible but Graham Whitby didn't have a Falcon powered car so there were 14 in the Clubman finals.

Clubman

Scott Francis took the 'D' final with a run rather faster than his heats.

The next winner, also from Area 7 was Dan Garges in the 'C' final also a lap faster than his best heat. Dan held off Mark Hammond, Keith Edgar and Bill Jenner.

Dan's clubmate Murray Tucker won the 'B' final fairly easily, well ahead of a close finish between Andy Bishop, Roland Hobden and Les May.

Some familiar names in the 'A' final, Phil Hemsley with maybe a little more track knowledge than the others won by a lap, from Stan Kirk. Another lap back was Graham Sampson and Simon Francis took 4^th place. The winner used one of the new JK chassis as did a small majority of the entire field.

Driver	Final	Best Heat	Final	Points
Phil Hemsley	A	31.025	30.750	60
Stan Kirk	A	30.025	29.975	57
Graham Sampson	A	29.700	28.075	55
Simon Francis	A	28.400	24.675	53
Murray Tucker	B	28.000	28.250	51
Andy Bishop	B	28.250	26.800	49
Roland Hobden	B	27.625	26.575	47
Les May	B	27.200	25.175	45
Dan Garges	C	26.250	27.250	43
Mark Hammond	C	27.075	26.450	41
Keith Edgar	C	27.050	26.025	40
Bill Jenner	C	26.025	25.000	39
Scott Francis	D	25.425	26--	38
Robin Cornwall	D	25.950	24--	37

Below - Thanks to Phil Hemsley for the photos of his wining car

Phil Hemsley's winning Falcon DSCN2124 copy.jpg (163638 bytes)

Overall and Falcon Masters

With 21 entries, Scott Francis didn't need a final to pick up his points and we move on to places 17 - 20 for the 'E' final. Keith Edgar improved his pace to win this one by a lap from Dan G, Robin Cornwall and Bill J.

Next, the 'D' race with a win for Roland Hobden, also improving over his heats.

A fair amount of development work including a major gear ratio change paid off for Travor Crout who stepped up the pace to win the 'C' final ahead of the consistent Murray Tucker, Simon Francis and a retirement for Andy Bishop.

No one seemed keen to win the 'B' final as they all fell off several times before settling to a close finish with less than a lap covering Ian Fisher, Stan Kirk, Pete Farthing and Graham Sampson in that order.

Brian Saunders had qualified top, but Ian Barker drove a perfect 'A' final race to win while Brian fell off just once on the way to 2^nd. Phil Hemsley drove an inspired run with his Falcon on the unfavoured yellow lane to beat Stan Alton whose Wasp motor ended more like a worn out Falcon.

Ian B used a JK chassis to win (thanks to Ian for the photo below) and was also quick with a CMG one but Brian Saunders' Demon chassis was just as quick as the new designs on this track.

Driver	Club	Final	Best Heat	Final F=Falcon	Points	Falcon Masters Points
Ian Barker	Roedale	A		33.600	60
Brian Saunders	Coulsdon	A		33.250	57
Phil Hemsley	Roedale	A		30.025 F	55	60
Stan Alton	Luton	A		29.900	53
Ian Fisher	NLSME	B	30.225	29.275	51
Stan Kirk	Timaru	B	30.025	28.850 F	49	57
Pete Farthing	Crawley	B	29.625	28.825	47
Graham Sampson	Timaru	B	29.700	28.475 F	45	55
Trevor Crout	Coulsdon	C	28.850	29.975	43
Murray Tucker	Bournemouth	C	28.000	28.075 F	41	53
Simon Francis	Bournemouth	C	28.400	27.875 F	40	51
Andy Bishop	Timaru	C	28.250	Retired F	39	49
Roland Hobden	Roedale	D	27.625	28.450 F	38	47
Les May	Coulsdon	D	27.200	27.525 F	37	45
Mark Hammond	Bournemouth	D	27.075	26.950 F	36	43
Graham Whitby	Pinewood	D	27.625	25.225	35
Keith Edgar	Crawley	E	27.050	28.250 F	34	41
Dan Garges	Netley	E	26.250	27.225 F	33	40
Robin Cornwall	Roedale	E	25.950	26.375 F	32	39
Bill Jenner	Timaru	E	26.025	25.775 F	31	38
Scott Francis	Bournemouth	F	25.425	-- F	30	37

Clubs Championship

This is based on the best (up to) 4 drivers from each club on the day.

Club	Overall Points	Club Points
Roedale	60 + 55 + 38 + 32 =	185
Timaru	49 + 45 + 39 + 31 =	164
Bournemouth	41 + 40 + 36 + 30 =	147
Coulsdon	57 + 43 + 37 =	137
Crawley	47 + 34 =	81
Luton	53	53
North London SME	51	51
Pinewood	35	35
Netley	33	33

LM 32 Team Race

18 drivers stayed on for the Team Race. It was run for 40 minutes to make easy use of the 10 minutes max. in the race control settings.

Brighton Beach Bums (BBB) won the first section and went even quicker later on. 'I squared' (Ian B) went much quicker in section 2, but not as quick as Top Cats in their second run, so an interesting race was 'on'. The Ian's were a bit more consistent and went into the last section with Ian Fisher to defend nearly 11 laps lead from Brian Saunders for Top Cat. Brian took a couple of laps back but I squared took the win. Another 9 laps back were BBB. White Cliffs' Falcon powered car took them to a comfortable 4^th place well clear of 5^th placed Crawley "116" team. Next the Norfolk & Chance pairing, then Extreme after an annoying couple of pitstops with minor delays and 8^th were 'Apprentices'. Stan Alton teamed up with Robin Cornwall for the famous LSCC's first outing this year but it ended early when the car dropped into the wrong lane and was bent beyond immediate repair.

On a technical note, the winners used the Mack chassis in the photo (thanks to Ian for the photo) below with a BSP one second.

Drivers	Team	Best Run	Total	Points
Ian Barker Ian Fisher	I squared	110.825	426.875	60
Brian Saunders Trevor Crout	Top Cat	112.875	418.000	57
Phil Hemsley Roland Hobden	Brighton Beach Bums	107.300	409.575	55
Stan Kirk Graham Sampson	White Cliffs	100.575	389.600	53
Pete Farthing Keith Edgar	"116"	97.600	367.670	51
Andy Bishop Bill Jenner	Norfolk & Chance	94.500	360.150	49
Murray Tucker Dan Garges	Extreme	95.725	352.500	47
Les May Graham Whitby	Apprentices	90.200	350.715	45
Stan Alton Robin Cornwall	LSCC	97.725	167.725 Retired	43

A good start to the S32 season on a very wet day outside.

I hope to see even more of you at the next round - North London. Remember that you don't have to attend every round, just your best 6 scores count, so come along and have a good friendly day's racing, the championships are still wide open and North London is a super track!

Ian Fisher, 28 Jan 2009.

Thanks to Ian Barker for the photos