Round 2 - Oaklands Park

This was the first Saturday meeting at Oakland's that I know of. The move to Saturday was made so that Dudley could run on the Sunday. We planned it this way because most people know their way to Oakland's and we had enough locals to show the visitors the way to Dudley for the planned curry evening. Twenty-two people turned up to race including two BSL first timers, Martin Jackson and Alex Hackett Evans. This was not only their first BSL meeting but I also believe it was the first time that either had raced a 1/32nd car.

Stephen Siddall (25.54) won heat 1 but all four drivers in heat 2 beat this with Trevor Tennant setting the new top mark of 31.25. This was not bettered in heat 3. Martin Jackson, who has only been racing 1/24th Falcons at Dudley for two months, was second with 29.71. In heat 4 I set a new top score of 34.41 laps. Stuart Tennant won heat 5, the first racing involving super production cars, with 32.23 laps. Despite not feeling at all well Chas Keeling finished second with Andy Brown Searle and Kevin Willis tied for third. Martin Ellis had car problems in heat 6 and resorted to using Falcon power for the rest of the day. Chris Thomas set a new top score of 35.42 laps. In the second round of heats Alex improved by over four laps to record 20.50 laps but finished third with both the Siddall's also improving Matt to 22.88 laps and Stephen to 25.54 laps. In heat 8 Trevor improved to 31.39 but was overtaken by Dave Homer who recorded 32.07. In heat 9 Sandy Parker recorded 33.80 on Yellow lane, a score which moved her up to second place in Falcons and was to prove to be good enough for fourth overall and a place in the A final. Paul Shepherd recorded 33.92 in heat 12 to move up to third overall. The third round of heats started with both of the Siddall's again improving this time Stephen scored 26.90 and Matthew scored 23.09 laps. In heat 14 Trevor also improved again recording 31.91 laps. The only other drivers to improve in this round were Stuart Tennant 33.15 laps, Martin Ellis 28.14 laps, Paul Shepherd 35.56 and Chris Thomas 36.36laps. After setting the top score in his first run Chris swapped to his second car and was surprised to set a new top score.

Driver	Run 1	Run 2	Run 3	Best
Chris Thomas	35.42	34.92	36.36	36.36
Paul Shepherd	33.12	33.92	35.56	35.56
Graham Thomas	34.41	33.21	31.94	34.41
Sandy Parker	30.58	33.80	31.90	33.80
Stuart Tennant	32.23	31.06	33.15	33.15
Ralph Parker	30.89	32.94	29.94	32.94
Steve Sargent	10.94	32.55	31.09	32.55
Dave Homer	29.49	32.07	31.82	32.07
Trevor Tennant	31.25	31.39	31.91	31.91
Chas Keeling	31.23	31.50	30.51	31.50
Kevin Willis	29.94	31.06	27.64	31.06
Paul Hackett-Evans	26.94	27.91	30.20	30.20
Andy Brown-Searle	29.94	28.53	28.54	29.94
Stephen Siddall	25.54	25.89	29.90	29.90
David Sargent	27.96	29.37	29.88	29.88
Mark Croston	27.89	29.88	28.97	29.88
Martin Jackson	29.71	29.58	27.74	29.71
Richard Wallace	29.09	27.90	26.47	29.09
Martin Ellis	18.00	27.82	28.14	28.14
Roddy Morrison	25.46	27.33	27.26	27.33
Matthew Siddall	21.28	22.88	23.09	23.09
Alex Hackett-Evans	16.25	20.50	20.06	20.50

In the F final Roddy Morrison won with 48 laps. Martin Jackson won the E final with 51 laps, over a lap more than D, final winner David Sargent. Kevin Willis used a Super production car to win the C final with Trevor Tennant using a Falcon Second and Chas, also super production, third. Stuart Tennant 54 laps won the B final from Steve Sargent . Ralph Parker finished third in the B which gave him third place in Falcon. Dave Homers fourth place gave him a victory in Novice Falcon. The A final was one of the closest ever. For most of the race I held the lead with my Falcon with both Chris and Paul catching up and then having offs. Having used his second car to top qualify Chris used it in the final but was having problems with several offs. In the last 30 seconds Chris took the lead and just tried to stay on which allowed me to run just behind him. Paul passed me with about 10 seconds to go and was closing in on Chris as the power went off. Only 23 parts separated first and third. For Chris it was the seventh year in succession that he had won the Oakland's 1/32nd race. For Paul it was his best ever Oakland's finish and for myself, I was happy to finish third with a Falcon. Sandy Parker who was also using a Falcon finished fourth.

A Final	Lane	Score	Overall Points	Falcon Open	Falcon Novice
Chris Thomas	Yellow	58.17	50
Paul Shepherd	Red	58.08	47
Graham Thomas	Blue	57.94	45	50
Sandy Parker	White	52.00	43	47

B Final
Stuart Tennant	Yellow	54.00	41
Steve Sargent	Blue	53.93	39
Ralph Parker	White	53.16	37	45
Dave Homer	Red	50.00	35	43	50

C Final
Kevin Willis	White	53.57	33
Trevor Tennant	Yellow	53.29	31	41	47
Chas Keeling	Blue	53.19	29
Paul Hackett-Evans	Red	48.00	27	39

D Final
David Sargent	Red	49.71	25	37
Mark Croston	Yellow	49.11	23	35	45
Andy Brown-Searle	Blue	48.00	21
Stephen Siddall	White	43.00	20	33	43

E Final
Martin Jackson	Red	51.00	19	31	41
Richard Wallace	Blue	48.00	18	30
Martin Ellis	Yellow	45.00	17	29


F Final
Roddy Morrison	Blue	48.00	16	28
Matthew Siddall	White	43.00	15	27	39
Alex Hackett-Evans	Yellow	36.00	14	26	37

We had an entry of 11 teams and decided to have 15-minute segments. Laurel and Hardy won the first heat with 168.35 laps. In the second heat SDS bettered this with 169.95 laps but I managed to set the best run of 175.18 laps on Yellow lane. Laurel and Hardy improved on this in their second run to record 175.94 laps. In heat 5 SDS scored 176.11laps on Yellow, which, coupled with 169.95 on Blue put them into the lead. However Chris recorded 178.89 on White to put Oakland's 1 into the lead and SCD Roadhogs for whom Paul Shepherd had the first two runs moved into second place. In the third round of runs Chris had the best run of the day with 183.86 laps on his favourite Red lane. For the last two years Chris recorded the best run in the team race at Pontefract and Paul had recorded the best team race score at Oakland's. This year they have changed around with Paul having the best run at Pontefract. After three runs Oakland's 1 were 20 laps clear with Laurel and Hardy second and SDS third another ten laps behind on 507.38 laps. Area 2 on 506.26, Aces inc on 504.78 and SCD Road hogs on 503.89 were all close to third place. In heat 9 Laurel and Hardy suffered car problems and recorded only 146.24 laps a score which would see them drop down to fifth place. Aces Inc score of 173.79 put them in a good position to take second place. In the last run SDS needed 171.19 laps on red lane to take second place while Oakland's 1 needed just 143 laps to win. SDS actually ran around with Oakland's 1 and recorded 175.08 laps to take second spot with Aces Inc third and Area2 fourth. Oakland's 1 score of 175.61 laps gave them victory by 31.88 laps
The racing at Oakland's finished at around 17:30 and it was time to make our way to Dudley for practice and Indian food. Most people took advantage of the offer of some extra practice and those who did have the food all commented that they enjoyed it. Thanks Dave for arranging such a good spread. At around 09:00pm most people had finished practicing and we decided that it would be ok to start the racing at 09:30am on Sunday instead of the normal 10:00. This would particularly help the Dingwall lads who were facing an 8 or 9-hour journey home.

Team	Red	White	Blue	Yellow	Total	Points
Oaklands One	183.86	178.89	175.61	175.18	713.54	50
SDS	175.08	161.82	169.65	176.11	682.66	47
Aces Inc	167.37	173.79	168.15	169.26	678.57	45
Area 2	171.48	164.88	163.25	171.53	671.14	43
Laurel and Hardy	175.94	168.35	172.72	146.24	663.25	41
SCD Roadhogs	178.81	173.19	151.89	157.60	661.49	39
Balterina's	156.85	160.08	158.09	150.41	625.43	37
Dad's Taxi	150.08	156.88	156.89	149.24	613.09	35
Moravians	167.08	160.89	89.21	167.10	584.28	33
A9 Run	151.43	124.48	152.19	149.75	577.85	31
Jedi Knights	154.87	124.11	90.46	166.59	536.03	30

Team	Driver 1	Driver 2
Laurel and Hardy	Ralph Parker	Andy Brown-Searle
Area 2	Mark Croston	Martin Ellis
Dads Taxi	Stephen Siddall	Matthew Siddall
Balterina's	Dave Homer	Martin Jackson
Moraviams	Trevor Tennant	Kevin Willis
Oaklands 1	Chris Thomas	Graham Thomas
SDS	Steve Sargent	David Sargent
Jedi Knights	Paul Hackett-Evans	Alex Hackett-Evans
Aces Inc	Sandy Parker	Stuart Tennant
SCD Roadhogs	Chas Keeling	Paul Shepered
A9 Run	Roddy Morrison	Richard Wallace