North London
The North London round was on the 1st March. It was great to see so many competitors, considerably more than the largest entry seen last season. Welcome to Cliff making his S32 debut and to Tom and Owain making their first trip to an away round. Thanks to Ian and everybody at North London for the well orgainsed meeting.
Falcon
Dan Garges won the Falcon D final some 2 laps quicker his best qualifying run. In the C final Scott Francis put a lap on his best qualifying run to win by a lap from Roland Hobden. Continuing the theme, Murray Tucker won the B final at faster than his best qualifying run, to beat Dave Hammond by half a lap. The A final featured some multiple pile ups and frequent changes of position. All the finalists looked like they might be the winner at some stage. The driver who came out best in the end was Phil Hemsley, beating Andy Bishop by just .09 of a lap (and some way short of Murray's B final time!)
| Final | Laps |  |
||
| 1 | Phil Hemsley | A | 34.14 | |
| 2 | Andy Bishop | A | 34.05 | |
| 3 | Bill Jenner | A | 33.55 | |
| 4 | Graham Sampson | A | 33.21 | |
| 5 | Murray Tucker | B | 34.56 | |
| 6 | Dave Hammond | B | 34.02 | |
| 7 | Simon Francis | B | 32 | |
| 8 | Stan Kirk | B | 13 | |
| 9 | Scott Francis | C | 33 | |
| 10 | Roland Hobden | C | 32 | |
| 11 | Mark Hammond | C | 29 | |
| 12 | Cliff Bicknell | C | 27 | |
| 13 | Dan Garges | D | 32 | |
| 14 | Les May | D | 28 | |
| 15 | Tom Watts | D | 25.83 | |
| 16 | Owain Parry | D | 25.04 |
Below - Phil's winning car
Super Production and Falcon Masters
Owain Parry won the E final from Tom Watts in a reversal of their Falcon positions. Mark Hammond had his best run of the day to win the F final by half a lap from Les May. Dave Hammond won the E final, slightly slower than his Falcon final time. In the D final Murray Tucker turned in another 34 to win by over a lap from Tony Ryder and Trevor Crout. Phil Hemsley's 35 was enough to win the C final from Andy Bishop and Mick Kerr. Dave Harvey was comfortably quickest in the B final 2 laps ahead of Graham Sampson's Falcon Masters winning run. Stan Kirk and Nick Thrower managed the closest finish of the day with less than 1/100 of a lap separating them. Greg Harwood had broken the lap records for two of the lanes in qualifying, and won the A final, from Ian Barker, Ian Fisher and Paul Harwood. Paul had the only Demon chassis in the A final.
The rear of Greg's bodyshell, and (above) the rest of the car
| final | laps | Falcon Masters |  |
||
| 1 | Greg Harwood | A | 40 | ||
| 2 | Ian Barker | A | 39 | ||
| 3 | Ian Fisher | A | 38 | ||
| 4 | Paul Harwood | A | 36 | ||
| 5 | Dave Harvey | B | 37 | ||
| 6 | Graham Sampson | B | 35 | FM | |
| 7 | Stan Kirk | B | 34.019 | ||
| 8 | Nick Thrower | B | 34.012 | FM | |
| 9 | Phil Hemsley | C | 35 | FM | |
| 10 | Andy Bishop | C | 34.47 | FM | |
| 11 | Mick Kerr | C | 34.23 | FM | |
| 12 | Bill Jenner | C | 31 | FM | |
| 13 | Murray Tucker | D | 34 | FM | |
| 14 | Tony Ryder | D | 32.97 | FM | |
| 15 | Trevor Crout | D | 32.66 | ||
| 16 | Simon Francis | D | 25 | FM | |
| 17 | Dave Hammond | E | 33 | FM | |
| 18 | Roland Hobden | E | 32 | FM | |
| 19 | Scott Francis | E | 31.83 | FM | |
| 20 | Chris Frost | E | 31.57 | ||
| 21 | Mark Hammond | F | 31.63 | FM | |
| 22 | Les May | F | 31.06 | FM | |
| 23 | Dan Garges | F | 30 | FM | |
| 24 | Cliff Bicknell | F | 29 | FM | |
| 25 | Owain Parry | G | 27 | FM | |
| 26 | Tom Watts | G | 24 | FM |
Le Mans 32
IČ took the early lead from Harwood Racing's Greg Harwood and Team Extream's Murray Tucker. Paul Harwood was probably quickset overall till his Won O Won team car had an excursion into his brother's lane required a gear change. Cliff and Mick got off to a bad start when an accident removed their guide plate after just 4 laps, while the Funkys and Coulsdon didn't fare that much better with bent chassis and gear trouble respectively.
The Ians set the fastest segment so far in segment 2, to take a 26 lap half way lead over Harwood racing while Dave Harvey set about reducing Won O Won's deficit with the second fastest run so far.
Paul Harwood set by far the fastest run of the day to take Won O Won up to second, but still 19 laps behind IČ. In the final segment the Ians increased their lead slightly to win by 20 laps with Harwood Racing over 30 laps behind them in third. Extreme, Brighton Beach Bums and White Cliffs were set for a close finish, till Extreme decided they had to make a late tyre change which demoted them from 4th to 5 laps behind the closest finish of the race - the Brighton team taking 4th just under half a lap ahead of the Timaru pair.
Below - the winning car
| Team | Drivers | 1st run | 2nd run | 3rd run | 4th run | Total | |
| 1 | I Squared | Ian Barker, Ian Fisher | 147.59 | 154.09 | 155.56 | 159.29 | 616.53 |
| 2 | Won o Won | Dave Harvey, Paul Harwood | 118.55 | 151.64 | 168.02 | 157.79 | 596.00 |
| 3 | Harwood Racing | Greg Harwood, Tony Ryder | 142.65 | 132.83 | 145.96 | 141.43 | 562.87 |
| 4 | Brighton Beach Bums | Phil Hemsley, Roland Hobden | 132.55 | 128.52 | 141.59 | 137.20 | 539.86 |
| 5 | White Cliffs | Graham Sampson, Stan Kirk | 137.79 | 134.83 | 133.06 | 133.79 | 539.47 |
| 6 | Extreme | Murray Tucker, Dan Garges | 141.85 | 130.10 | 140.68 | 121.66 | 534.29 |
| 7 | Norfolk & Chance | Andy Bishop, Bill Jenner | 132.87 | 121.55 | 136.70 | 126.21 | 517.33 |
| 8 | Coulsdon | Trevor Crout, Les May | 104.83 | 119.08 | 122.00 | 142.44 | 488.35 |
| 9 | Funky Ice Men | Chris Frost, Nick Thrower | 130.02 | 105.45 | 111.65 | 133.45 | 480.57 |
| 10 | Orangeville Flyers | Owain Parry, Tom Watts | 105.83 | 101.84 | 105.62 | 103.45 | 416.74 |
| 11 | Cliff and Mick | Cliff Bicknell, Mick Kerr | 4.25 | 130.85 | 146.85 | 128.94 | 410.89 |
Great to see the Southern 32 is gaining in popularity again - let's do it again at Dowty at the end of March.
Chris Frost
Copyright © 2009 Southern 32 Racing League, Photographs copyright Chris Frost All rights reserved