Haydon

Falcon | Super Production | Le mans 32 |  2010 Southern 32 | Haydon club 

The Haydon club made us very welcome for the 11th 2009 Southern 32 round on November 15th. It was one of the best attended rounds of the year. We even managed arrange for a break  in the storms so the tree branches that had been blown over the roads the previous day had been cleared.  Thanks to Wink and Neil for organizing the racing so efficiently.

Qualifying was arranged with everybody having two pairs of heats.  After the first set, Ian Barker was comfortably top at 30.47 with his super production car, while Murray Tucker was top Falcon runner with 27.49.  In concluding runs, Ian set second fastest run with a high 29, and only Brian Saunders got within a lap of Ian's time.  In Falcons things were much closer with Les May and Simon Francis both in the 27s.

Falcon finals

The Clubman falcon finals got underway with the C final, (Paul Hayward was unlucky 13th qualifier so didn't get another run).  In the C final, Roland Hobden won comfortably from Keith Edgar.  The B final was somewhat closer, with Dave Hammond  with a win from Graham Whitby.  In the A final things were pretty closely matched for the first minute except for top qualifier Murray having a bad start.  By half distance, Simon and Murray were close together for the lead, but Simon had a superb second half of the race, and Graham Sampson had a quite good second half, and Murray didn't leaving Simon 2 laps clear of the field with Graham a few feet ahead of Murray and Les on the same lap in 4th.

(above) Murray (red) Les (white) Simon (blue) and Graham (yellow) during the Falcon final.
(Below) Simon's winning car - his 4th win of the year means he has won this year's championship

Tech charts identical to overall except Stan Kirk's Falcon had an JK chassis, and Graham Sampson ran a Betta Bentley body in the Falcon final

Super Production and Falcon Masters

The 2 man F final was won by Mark Hammond, Paul Hayward made him work for it going considerably quicker with more track time.  Keith Edgar took a good win in the E final, comfortably clear of Chris Musto and Trevor Crout.   Graham Whitby won the D final at very high speed, indeed he'd have qualified a lot higher if he'd shown that pace in the heats.  Scott Francis was second ahead of Roland.  Graham Sampson won the C final from Stan Kirk,  both Timaru drivers electing to use different cars from the Falcon finals.  Phil Hemsley won the B final by a comfortable margin, ahead of close battle for Falcon Masters honors, Les May taking it just ahead of the Bournemouth pair. In the A final, Ian Barker and Brian Saunders were visibly fastest, Ian led  the first minute with Brian sitting on his tail, but once Brian was ahead he had the speed to pull away.  Ian Fisher was keep within a lap of Ian B till the last minute, but was far enough clear of Mike Read to take third comfortably.

That leaves Ian Barker assured of the Super Prod championship, and Phil Hemsley Intermediate grade champion,   but there is still plenty to play for in Falcon Masters. 

Brian, Ian B, Ian F and Mike (aka "The Apprentice" and "I Squared" teams)  relax before the A final.   Brian's winning chassis shows a large area of lead, but except for the small pieces at the rear the lead  is very thin. so the car  isn't as heavy as it looks.

Le Mans 32

The team race was run with 10 minute segments.  As "The Apprentice" and "I Squared" team drivers made up all 4 A final positions, they looked like pre race favorites, along with the home team of Wink Hackman and Neil Erith who hadn't run in the individuals but obviously knew the track pretty well.   What actually happened wasn't quite like that, Haydon's gear stripped very early in the first segment, leaving them last at quarter distance, however the other two favorites were  there at the top with I Squared 2 laps clear of the Apprentice. In the second segment I Squared maintained a couple of laps lead,  meanwhile Haydon set the first 100 lap segment to move from 9th to 3rd.     In the third segment Haydon again set the fastest segment so far, with I Squared not far behind  while the Apprentice car started to make a loud geary noise.  Brian tweaked the chipped tooth on the gear, told Mike "don't worry it'll run in" and to many people surprise (and just possibly disappointment) he was right.  So going into the final segment the Ians led by 7 laps while Haydon were 15 laps behind second and 8 laps up on 4th place Tony Mill / Trevor Crout "HORSE" paring.  Brian Saunders put in the fastest segment of the day by some margin, so "The Apprentice" won from I Squared (who seem to be suffering from tyre wear at the end).  Haydon were third - if only they'd got their gears sorted a few minute before the start rather than a few minutes after!   HORSE took 4th having looked very slightly quicker than White Cliffs  throughout.

That leaves I Squared as championship leaders, but the  Luton could change that at the final round (at Luton)

The winning car - with a close up of the gear - note a fair bit of a tooth missing, it lasted nearly half the race and set fastest segment in that condition!

 See you all at the final round at Luton on 6th December.

2010 Southern 32

We would like to make arrangements for next year's Southern 32 at Luton on 6th December.  If anybody would like to suggest changes foe next year please contact Ian Fisher or Chris Frost (preferably before Luton) and we'll take votes if necessary.  Next season's dates have been set, we now need to decide which clubs has each date.  Several clubs have already offered to take certain dates, we'll try and sort out some more before 6th December.

Chris Frost

Copyright © 2009  Southern 32 Racing League,   Photographs copyright Chris Frost All rights reserved