Netley

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A warm summer day in the garden - or Netley's 2009 Southern 32 round - was on 14th June.  Thanks to Dick and Mark for a very well run meeting.  

Falcon Clubmans had an entry of 8, so two full finals.   Dan Garges was quickest in the B final with Murray'Tucker's spare car, a few offs near the end allowed Mark Hammond to close up a little for second, ahead of Roland, with Paul Hayward making his S32 debut in 4th.  In the A final Murray Tucker was quickest, while Phil Hemsley was second just ahead of Simon Francis for two thirds of the race.  Meanwhile Scott Francis was still coming to terms with the unpopular red lane.  Simon took a narrow second from Phil, and it was pretty close till the final minute when Phil ran into some traffic to drop a lap behind. Murray won comfortably, so that's 2 wins out of 2 for his cars.

Netley Clubman Falcon		Chassis	Qual	Final	Final laps
1	Murray Tucker	JK	25.77	A	42
2	Simon Francis	JK	25.21	A	40
3	Phil Hemsley	JK	25.32	A	39
4	Scott Francis	JK	24.43	A	35
5	Dan Garges	Demon	24.02	B	40
6	Mark Hammond	JK	23.93	B	39
7	Roland Hobden	JK	22.56	B	36
8	Paul Hayward	Demon	21.30	B	34

Super production / Falcon Masters

Mark Hammond won the D final with Roland Hobden not far behind, and Paul Hayward finding black rather easier than his previous red lane final. Surprisingly, the C final included Ian Barker (ending a remarkable run of 16 successive A finals), and Mark Witham.  For some reason top qualifier Mark chose red lane, not sure if he knew something about the track we didn't or had just given up.   Anyway, after just 4 laps Mark retired, leaving Ian pulling out a small lead on Scott Francis who was a lot faster on yellow than he had been on red in the clubman final.
The B final was a closely matched race, Stan Alton being the early leader from Chris Frost once Simon Francis and Nick Thrower had collided with one another.  Simon then came from the back to take the lead, Chris was slightly catching Stan, till his Falcon motor died. So Simon  won from Stan and Nick.
In the A final, Murray Tucker and Dick Smith were visibly the two quickest.  Dick set the fastest lap of the race, but Murray was keeping it in the slot better.   Meanwhile Ian Fisher and Phil Hemsley were in a separate race for third, which fell in Ian's favor.   Murray took the closest win of the day just 0.4 lap up on Dick.  That's the first time in the Southern 32 anybody has taken the clean sweep of winning outright, winning Falcon Masters and Falcon clubman.

Netley		Chassis	Motor	Qual	Final	Final laps
1	Murray Tucker	JK	Falcon	25.77	A	42.64
2	Dick Smith	JK	Super	26.35	A	42.21
3	Ian Fisher	JK	Super	25.46	A	38
4	Phil Hemsley	JK	Falcon	25.32	A	37
5	Simon Francis	JK	Falcon	25.21	B	41
6	Stan Alton	JK	Super	25.12	B	40
7	Nick Thrower	JK	Falcon	24.97	B	39
8	Chris Frost	Demon	Falcon	24.94	B	RTD
9	Ian Barker	CMG	Super	24.46	C	40
10	Scott Francis	JK	Falcon	24.43	C	39
11	Dan Garges	Demon	Falcon	24.02	C	37
12	Mark Witham	JK	Falcon	24.60	C	RTD
13	Mark Hammond	JK	Falcon	23.93	D	37.90
14	Roland Hobden	JK	Falcon	22.56	D	37.05
15	Paul Hayward	Demon	Falcon	21.30	D	35

Murray's winning chassis 

Le Mans 32

The 1 hour Le Mans 32 team race line up (right) consisted of a variety of modern and not so modern group 12 powered cars, plus a Falcon powered production car. At the start the race looked very close with just 3 laps covering the top 6 teams after 15 minutes running with Netley just ahead of Luton.  Come the second segment the home team turned up the pace to lead by 6 laps at half distance, while I squared took second place from Luton.    In the third segment Netley set the fastest run of the day, Team Extreme set the fastest non Netley Segment, and most other teams faded from their earlier pace.   So going into the last segment, Netley had 22 laps lead from Extreme who were 1/100 of a lap ahead of Luton.    Netley rounded off a comprehensive win with  another run faster than any other team could manage.  Luton retook second, while Extreme were third just 0.14 laps ahead of  I Squared. The winning Netley chassis (right)  is Charlie Gooding's 1998 Nationals winning chassis, which Mark Witham has been using in club racing at Netley  for some years. It features an SCD Mk 2 center, so must be somewhat younger than the Iceman's Mk 1 SCD.

Look forward to seeing you at the next "garden" round - Bournemouth on 12 July

Chris Frost

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