Dudley Area Round 2007/8

Sunday 2nd December

Doors opened at 8.30 am for the first round of the Area 5 championship 2008 held at the Dudley Slot Car Club. Twelve racers competed for the 3 classes, all Falcon powered.

Saloon

Martin Jackson used his home track knowledge; top qualifies with best 3 from 4 of 81.82 followed by Chris Thomas (80.12), Graham Thomas (78.32) and Woody (76.53). In the final Martin continued his good form to win from Chris, after a close battle by around 30 foot, after Chris’s pinion came loose with about 5 seconds to go. Ralph won the B Final, racing his only class of the day due to working nights wanted some shut eye, Ben was second with Sandy and Kevin, 7^th and 8^th respectively.  Dave won the C Final using his home track knowledge to beat Bob, Chris and Christopher.

Formula 1

Chris Thomas top qualified this time with his best 2 from 4 of 55.63 from Martin on 53.23, Using the ‘move up’ finals system Woody and Graham battled their way into the A final and a easy win for Chris Thomas 1^st Woody 2^nd Martin 3^rd and Graham 4^th, with low tires retired after 2mins.  

Sports

Once again Chris Thomas pulled out all the stops to top qualify with the fastest time of the day so far of 28.73, Graham some way back with 27.07 with Martin and Woody making up the top group as it had been all day. With a ‘win from any final’ format Dave set the pace in the C Final by setting 99.56 to give him 6th overall.  Sandy, last years sports winner, set the pace for the A finalists by winning the ‘B’ with a 103.51 total. In the ‘A’ it was clear early on that this would provide the winner, barring any mishaps, and Chris, and Martin and Woody all consistently faster than the B. Chris went into the last segment with a 1.5 lap lead over Martin and never looked like losing it. Chris’s winning total of 112.53 was about 2 laps quicker than Martin who had a motor change between the heats and final (110.30). Woody was a further 6 laps back, and Sandy’s B final total was good enough to take 4th place, Ben Woodward taking 5th place.

Championship

With his two win’s and 2nd place, Chris Thomas won the day taking 147 points, Martin second with 142 points, Woody finished up 3rd with 137 points, next came Graham some way back on 125 points.

 All in all a good days racing, Thanks to Dave for the food at dinner time and Martin for help on Race control. Look forward to racing on the new Leicester track in January.  

Chris Thomas