Luton

LUTON club web site

Luton welcomed us all for the finale of the 2009 series on Sunday 6th December.  Thanks to James and everybody at Luton for a good days racing.

In qualifying  heat 3 saw some quick times, Paul Harwood did the first 33 with a Super while Simon Francis set the Falcon pace with 29.97.  In heat 5 James Cleave raised the Super production bar with  a big 34, Stan Alton was the other driver to top 34 with 34.38 in heat 14.   In heat  16 James  left top qualifying at 36.78.  Simon remained top for the Falcon finals,  although Chris Frost went one hundredth faster to TQ in Falcon masters.

Link to the full list of heat times

The story was of Falcon C final was Les May leading all the way, till the closing seconds when Mark Hammond went by to take the win.  Cliff Bicknell and Paul Hayward were closely matched, with Cliff taking third.  The story was of Falcon B  final was rather similar, Stephen Gerorge leading all the way, till his car stopped in the closing seconds again a Hammond (this time Dave) went by to take the win. 

The A final was a close run thing between the 3 Bournemouth drivers, Simon Francis winning from Scott with Murray third, with Stan Kirk 4th.

The Falcon A final - Simon, Murray, Scott and Stan and Simon's Falcon / Falcon Masters winning car wining car

Super Production / Falcon Masters

Cliff Bicknell was the unlucky 21st who missed out on another run.  In the E final, Mark Hammond repeated his Falcon C final win a remarkable 4 laps quicker. Graham Whitby and Les May also produced sizable improvements on their Falcon final times for second and third. Stephen George used his Super for the D final, and this time managed to win comfortably from Dave Hammond.  In the C final Simon Francis repeated his Falcon Final win to take maximum points in Falcon Masters; just as in the Falcon finals son Scott was under a lap behind in second.   Greg Harwood won the B final by the impressive  margin of 7 laps from Tony Ryder and Dave Harvey, while series champion Ian Barker has his worst result for some time when his gears went,   In the final final of the season, James Cleave proved to be about a lap a minute quicker than anybody else, but there was a close battle for second, Paul Harwood finishing just ahead of Stan Alton.   Stan's third ahead of Ian Fisher was just enough to give Stan second in the championship.

Le Mans 32

Luton SCC, the home team looked like favorites to win, an impression confirmed when they were fastest in the first segment, although Greg Harwood and Tony Ryder racing as "Braid Burners" were not far behind.  A pit stop in their first run put series leaders I squared out of contention, leaving Won o Won and Useless (with a production car!) battling for third.   By half way Luton's lead on Braid Burners was up to 6 laps, while the Ians recovered to 4th and the (far from ) Useless team slipped back towards Funky Icemen.  Jet Boys passed Team Extreme for 7th while White Cliffs had a gear go.  Scousers were having a steady run with their Falcon powered car.  Coulsdon looked quite quick when their car was running. on the track, unfortunately too much of their running was to the pits rather than on the track. In the final run James set the fastest run of the race for Luton, and Braid Burners ran out of tyres (not braids!) to leave Luton not only winners of the final round but also the win was enough to overtake the Ians and take the championship.

Thanks to all the racers who made this a great season, and congratulations to James Cleave, Simon Francis, Phil Hemsley, Luton SCC and the Bournemouth club on their championship victories.
The 2010 Southern 32 starts at Dowty on 24 January - see you there!

Southern 32  -  2010

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