slot car club
Southern 32 - Sunday August 21st 2011
In stark contrast to last year’s snow, a bright summer’s day beckoned racers for our round of the Southern 32 series. Despite there being two other National meetings on the same day and the 1/24th Nationals only a week away, 13 drivers turned out for a good day’s racing.
1/32nd Production Sports
Qualifying was the usual format for S32 - best single run from all four lanes. The first heat had the power of Ian Barker’s Super Wasp against the local knowledge and Falcon power of Chris Aldridge. Ian B just prevailed with a reasonable 37.31 to Chris’s 37.23. In the second there were three Super Wasp powered cars, Stan Alton, Ian Fisher and Mike Read and in between them was Cliff Bicknell’s Falcon. Remarkably Stan matched Ian Bs 37.31 with Ian F putting in a 36.29 and Mike and Cliff struggling to come to terms with the track with 32.86 and 28.49 respectively. Heat 3 was probably the ‘local’ race with Trev Tennant, Bob Budge and occasional visitor Gavin Wills. Gavin definitely used his track knowledge to good advantage to put in the fastest heat so far, on Blue he posted 37.85. No one else was getting close to Gavin’s total, until heat 8 when Ian Fisher just failed to beat it with a 37.83. It wasn’t until heat 11 that the 38 lap barrier was broken, and no surprise that it was the Wasp powered cars of Ian B and Ian F that took the top two places, Ian F with a 38.32 and Ian B a 38.38 for top spot. Heat 12 was Stan’s last chance to take pole and with him running on White lane he didn’t disappoint. His total of 38.49 was just 11 bits better than Ian B’s and 17 bits in front of Ian F. With one heat to go the top four looked settled, although Gavin didn’t improve on his first run he looked safe in fourth spot. There was a bit of a surprise to come, though. In the last heat, Trevor Tennant changed cars and running on White lane he stunned Gavin, putting in a 38.28 to pip him for last spot in the A final.
On to the finals and with 13 drivers in the main race and 5 drivers in the Clubman class, someone was going to miss out in two finals. This dubious honour unfortunately befell Cliff Bicknell, struggling to master the track with his Falcon he had to settle for 13th overall and 5th in Clubman without turning another wheel.
The Clubman final had Trevor Tennant, Gavin Wills, Christopher Aldridge and Scott Francis lining up. Trevor had first pick of lanes and predictably chose White, but Gavin ducked the usual second choice of Red and plumped for Blue lane where he had posted his best qualifying time. These two virtually had the race to themselves, Trevor took an early lead and pulled out nearly half a lap on Gav by half way. Trev’s concentration lapsed, though, on lap 26 he had the first of 3 ‘offs’ that changed the race. Gavin’s metronomically consistent pace didn’t waiver and he took advantage to get past Trev with half a minute to go and had no problem in running out winner by 30 parts with 37.45 to Trev’s 37.15. Christopher and Scott weren’t totally out of it though, Scott was always just behind Christopher and with Trevor having ‘the wobbles’ towards the end, Christopher very nearly caught him with a finishing total of 36.92. Scott was only just off the pace and took 4th spot with 36.23.
The main finals started off with the C, and in this one Murray Tucker ran out winner
with a mid 36 total of 36.61, very consistent with his qualifying times. Mike Read
had struggled to get his Wasp powered car round with any consistency and was disappointed
with his 35.99 and second in the race. The family ‘Francis’ battle was won by youth
over experience, Scott taking 3rd with 34.86 and Simon 4th, retiring on 32 laps.
The B final was almost a home club race - Gavin Wills lining up with Bob Budge, Chris
and Christopher Aldridge. Bob Budge was the class of the race putting in a faultless
drive that would have put him in the A final had he done it in qualifying. With no
‘offs’ his total was a very impressive 38.50 on White lane. Gavin had once again
made the brave move of choosing Blue, but it backfired this time with Christopher
showing a bit of form by taking second spot with 37.31 on Yellow. Gavin had to settle
for third place with 36.46, a good lap ahead of Chris who finished up on 35.36.
The
A final was a classic - Both the Ians, Barker and Fisher lined up with Stan Alton,
all with Wasp power, and Trevor Tennant with his Falcon. With Trevor having to run
on Blue it was no surprise that his qualifying form was not going to be repeated
and he was virtually an on-looker to the main event. Trevor’s finishing total was
a creditable 36.93 for fourth place. The first lap saw both Ian B and Stan both have
‘offs’ to give Ian F a flyer. Ian B recovered a bit quicker than Stan and set off
in pursuit of Ian F but had another setback on lap 5 to let Stan get ahead and second
place. As the race progressed there was rarely more than 1/2 second between the 3
of them with the positions staying constant. The 3 of them were going round as if
tethered by a bit of string, Ian F consistently .3 of a second in front of Stan.
Into the last half minute and it was still anybody’s race, Ian B, though, was just
slipping back a fraction but still in prime position if the other two had a racing
incident. Ian F was holding his nerve and although Stan got to within less than 2/10ths
with time running out, Ian F held on to win by just 6 parts of a lap (.178 secs).
Thrilling stuff, everybody was transfixed and with them so close together even the
marshalls could follow the race all the way. Ian F’s finishing total was 38.76 to
Stan’s 38.70 and Ian B recorded 38.16 in third place. Phew, time for lunch before
the team race.
LE MANS Team Race.
With the Aldridges’s leaving early for a family holiday and Mick Davies arriving, we had 6 teams for the Le Mans race. Current championship leaders, ECES, was this time made up of Ian Fisher and Stan Alton and were looking to consolidate their lead. Second placed MI5, third placed Wildcats and fourth placed S & S were also represented. The other two teams were made up of the old Ecurie Spa pairing of Trevor Tennant and Mick Davies and it was good to see the ‘70s legends, The Bee Gees, reformed in the guise of Bob Budge and Gavin Wills!
ECES were first up on Yellow lane along with Wild Cats on Red, Bee Gees on White and S&S on Blue. Bee Gees stamped their authority on the race straight away by putting 8 laps on ECES and 10 laps on Wild Cats after the first run and S&S not too far behind with their Falcon power. ECES & Bee Gees were pitted together again in segment 2 and Bee Gees stretched their lead by a further 10 laps to 18. Ecurie Spa had a disaster in this, their first run, by stripping a gear and spending half the time in the pits, registering just 91 laps. MI5 also entered the fray in the second and posted 179 laps but it became clear that the real race was going to be between ECES and Bee Gees. Their third runs were almost identical, just a lap between them, so when they lined up for segment 5, both their last runs, nothing but major disaster would prevent Bee Gees from winning. Nothing so dramatic ensued, and so, even though ECES put in the fastest segment of the race with a 196 it wasn’t enough to make up the gap. ECES finished up with 753.39 laps, some 17 laps adrift of Bee Gees who posted 770.28 for a comfortable win. The rest were pretty much spread out with MI5 putting in some good runs to finish up 3rd on 726.42, 4th were S&S, despite running out of tyres and making a pit stop, with 682.47, Cliff drove a decent couple of segments to see Wild Cats home in 5th on 647.53 and the unlucky Ecurie Spa trailed in 6th with 614.26.
Thanks to every one for turning out for a good day’s racing, and thanks to there being no problems with getting marshalls to do their job, the meeting finished at 5 minutes past 3 p.m. Even those with the long journey back to Bournemouth should have been home in time a relaxing aperitif before a timely dinner.
Footnote: A total of 6587.32 laps of racing - a total of 117.27 actual miles = alot of rubber!!