Pinewood Open Meeting 2009
The second round of the 2009 BOC was held on the brand new Pinewood track on 4/5 April. Everybody enjoyed the new track, being easy to get round at modest pace but difficult to get round really quickly. As always at Pinewood, the organization was excellent, thanks to Nigel, Dave and everybody at Pinewood (particularly the ladies for the catering!)
Saloon
Saturday's racing started with Ross Grogan to qualifying in saloon. Racing was on the normal 6x 4 min segments, win from any final format.
The E final was dominated by Bob Hallums, who won by a country
mile from Chris Frost.
The D final was a much closer affair, with Dowty's Rob Harris winning from
Lee Parsons some 3 laps slower than Bob's e final time.
The C final saw a fine drive from Pinewood's Graham Whitby in only his second
open meeting top Bob's time with Graham Woodward second.
Mike Read won the B final, just 3 hundredths of a lap up on Graham's time, with
Jon Penn some 4 laps down in second.
In the A final, Charlie Gooding and Ross Grogan set a pace comfortable quick
enough to win. Charlie and Ross were within a few feet of one another in
the 5th segment when a crash damaged Charlie's chassis. That was soon rectified,
but by then Ross had a 9 lap lead and a confortable win. We'll never
know how close it would have been without that incident. Ross and Charlie
relegated Mike to third and Graham to fourth overall
Ross was running a JK chassis and Pro Slot motor under a Red Fox Mercedes body.
Above, John Wells' concourse winning car, and Richard Mack's crash damaged car - almost a hatch back! Below the saloon a finalists Ross Grogan, Charlie Gooding, John Wells, Chris Thomas and Ian Barker.
Open Group 12
Open Group 12 started in much the same way as saloon, Ross top qualified and John Wells won concourse.
Chris Thomas having made the A final in saloon, only managed to
qualify for the E in open group 12, but he won from Nigel Barrow (whose
body was shedding flakes of paint over the rear tyres through most of the race,
that cannot have helped the grip!) Chas Keeling was quick, but detached
lead wires delayed his challange.
The D final saw a win for another of the previous day's A finalist, Ian Barker
going 19 laps quicker than Chris, taking a comfortable win ahead of Pat Skene.
The C saw a win for Paul Austin ahead of another impressive drive from Graham
Whitby, although they were a few laps short of Ian's time
The B final saw the first runs over 300, Richard Mack winning by under 2 laps
from Rob Harris.
Ross Grogan looked in dominant form in the A final, with Brian Saunders and
Charlie Gooding contesting second. In the end Ross won by just under 18 laps,
with Brian second and Charlie taking third overall just a few feet up on Richard
with Rob 5th and Ian 6th.
Ross used a Mack chassis under a BPA Lola body. He ran with a plastic
endbell, unlike most of the field's choice of aluminum.
Above - John Wells' concourse winning car, Below the A finalists Ross Grogan, Brian Saunders, Bob Hallums, Charlie Gooding, Lee Parsons and Brian Galpin.
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Copyright © 2009 British Slot Car Racing Association Photographs copyright Chris Frost All rights reserved