Eight hardy souls
....Race
report by
Alan Lucas, photos and tech details by Pat Skene
Eight hardy souls gathered in Edinburgh for the Ecurie Barnton Open Meeting on 7th June, first round of the 2009/10 BOC Championship. This was the smallest entry we’ve ever had at this meeting, by a substantial margin, prompting some debate at the end about how to attract more people to the rest of the series. A number of ideas were aired, which will be aired among some of the people who didn’t attend, perhaps leading to some changes for this or next year’s series.
Eight hardy souls
....
Saloon was run using the familiar BOC format of 2 x 3 min heats leading to segmented finals. Keith Gibson took the lead of the B final in the first segment, but a ropey second segment allowed Stephen Siddall to pull level. However, Gibbo was back on the pace in the last 2 segments and won by 4 laps. The first segment of the A final saw Martin Ellis, Ian Fisher and Steve Sargent pull out a 2 lap lead on pole qualifier Graham Woodward. Martin and Ian kept up the pace in segment 2, but Steve dropped a lap behind on blue lane. However, Ian had an even worse time on blue in the next segment and Martin now led by 2 laps from Steve and Ian. Would it be enough with blue still to come? Emphatically YES said Martin with the fastest segment of the entire race to win by 3 laps from Steve. Ian was another quarter lap behind. Woody eventually retired with a stripped gear leaving Gibbo in 4th.
|
Final Grid ( Steve Sargent BSP Saunders; Ian Fisher Mack 08; Martin Ellis (winner) Mack 08; Graham Woodward BSP Basic )
|
|
Saloon |
||||
|
Pos |
Name |
Qual |
Final |
|
|
1 |
Martin Ellis |
28.96 |
A |
117.37 |
|
2 |
Steve Sargent |
27.76 |
A |
114.95 |
|
3 |
Ian Fisher |
28.74 |
A |
114.73 |
|
4 |
Keith Gibson |
25.81 |
B |
109.61 |
|
5 |
Stephen Siddall |
26.85 |
B |
105.33 |
|
6 |
David Sargent |
25.87 |
B |
101.85 |
|
7 |
Kev Gray |
25.18 |
B |
99.99 |
|
8 |
Graham Woodward |
29.17 |
A |
91.00 |
We used a different format in F1, 2 x 3 min heats followed
by 5 min semis for all then a 100 lap final for the top 4. Woody was top
qualifier from the heats again, but struggled to finish 2nd to Steve in the
first semi. Ian led semi 2 throughout and just beat Steve’s time to top
qualify for the final. Gibbo took the 3rd qualifying place comfortably, but the
last place was in doubt until the last 30 seconds, Kev Gray just failing to beat
Woody’s time.
Ian led at the start of the final, but a few offs in the second minute allowed Steve to take a full lap’s lead by quarter distance. A couple of offs, including one caused by a tape roll, set Steve back a bit and allowed Woody to get back on the same lap by half distance. But Steve was a lap ahead again at 75 laps, followed by Ian and Woody close together. Woody then started slipping back when his gear started stripping and it looked like a fast closing Gibbo would inherit 3rd, but Woody managed to keep his car running till the end and held him off. Steve took victory by just over a lap from Ian.
 |
Steve
Sargent’s winning Horky 09 chassis with Voki single mag 250 set up
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|
Grand Prix |
||||
|
Pos |
Name |
Qual |
Semi |
Final |
|
1 |
Steve Sargent |
26.18 |
47.22 |
100 |
|
2 |
Ian Fisher |
27.42 |
47.49 |
98 |
|
3 |
Graham Woodward |
27.77 |
43.87 |
94 |
|
4 |
Keith Gibson |
27.17 |
45.38 |
92 |
|
5 |
Kev Gray |
24.35 |
42.14 |
|
|
6 |
David Sargent |
23.18 |
40.73 |
|
|
7 |
Stephen Siddall |
26.96 |
40.10 |
|
|
8 |
Martin Ellis |
27.40 |
23.00 |
|
Sports ran to the same format as Saloon. Martin was top
qualifier by just 1 hundredth of a lap from Steve. Gibbo took control of the B
final right at the start and pulled further and further ahead as the race
progressed, eventually winning by 6 laps. A frantic first segment of the A final
ended with Martin, Steve and Ian all very close together and 1 lap up on
Gibbo’s pace. Ian and Steve kept this up in the second segment, but Martin
slipped back a couple of laps to share 3rd with Woody on the same time as Gibbo
achieved. Steve then took control in the 3rd segment, opening up a 2 lap lead
over Ian and Martin who was flying again. The final segment was a bit scrappy
for all, but I’m sure Steve was happy to clinch his second victory of the day
by 2 laps. Ian dropped behind Martin for a bit but recovered to retake 2nd place
by less than half a lap, with Gibbo’s time being good enough for 4th, on the
same lap as both Ian and Martin.
|
Sports Final
grid (Graham Woodward Horky 08; Ian Fisher BSP; Steve Sargent (winner)
Trigilio by BSP; Martin Ellis Trigilio by BSP
Top view of Steve's Winning
chassis Trigilio by BSP with Camen reduced height set up by BSP with PK
25/25.5 by BSP |
So, a very enjoyable day’s racing, especially for the Fylde guys who all 3 classes. They even won the Main Grade prizes, with Martin 1st and Stephen 2nd.
|
Sports |
||||
|
Pos |
Name |
Qual |
Final |
|
|
1 |
Steve Sargent |
32.43 |
A |
128.60 |
|
2 |
Ian Fisher |
31.95 |
A |
126.74 |
|
3 |
Martin Ellis |
32.44 |
A |
126.33 |
|
4 |
Keith Gibson |
31.09 |
B |
126.14 |
|
5 |
Graham Woodward |
31.85 |
A |
122.96 |
|
6 |
Stephen Siddall |
29.43 |
B |
120.35 |
|
7 |
Kev Gray |
28.85 |
B |
116.25 |
|
8 |
David Sargent |
28.82 |
B |
100.00 |
Alan Lucas
Copyright © 2009 British Slot Car Racing Association photos copyright P.Skene All rights reserved
