It was once again our pleasure to host the B.S.L at ARRA, and with twice the numbers of last year it made for a very busy day’s racing. It was also nice to see some old faces that we have not seen for a number of years, as well as several new ones.

Production got off to a very brisk start, with several very quick times. In fact we initially thought that our oldest track record had finally gone. But as Ian said to me “the cars are quick, but not that quick!” So we manually times a number of heats, only to find that the in-built clock on the race system was running consistently slow, with a 3:00 heat actually running at 3:20. So sorry guys, no track record. Still at least you all got extra value for money racing (perhaps we should have charged more for the longer track time!)

Those racers who came last year probably notice an annoying little pause between Murray saying “GO” and the power coming on. We think that this was part of the same problem, and we have attributed it to the networking of the remote laptop we set up for you to follow the racing. (If anyone uses the same software as us and knows how to get round this problem then please let us know)

The Fylde club dominated the heats with Steve finally overcoming Paul by just .12 of a lap, but they were almost two laps clear of the next two racers where Mark used his home advantage to good use, putting his Falcon just .01 ahead of Norman.

1/32nd Heats

1/32nd Heat Results

The F Final was an easy win for Martin Jackson followed by the ever improving Sam and Katy. Stephen Siddall having a quiet day with Matthew at a birthday party won the E final by two and half laps over Dave Homer with local Elizabeth finishing third. The D Final was the first of the finals with four drivers. Even though Chas was using a Super Production he was upstaged by Sandy and home member Graham. The closest final was the C Final where Graham managed to keep Trevor at bay and win by just 0.15 lap. David and Andy were a few laps down.

After sobering up throughout the day, Stuart won the B Final by nearly a lap as Chris had problems with a loose body towards the end. Chris held off Ralph's falcon powered car, whilst Martin had one of his “normal” days! In the A Final Steve managed to maintain the pace from the heats to take the win over Paul, although Paul did lead for the first few minutes after legging Steve off twice. Mark was unable to maintain that very slim advantage over Norman who took third place.

Finals

Steve's Winning Car

Team Race

Thanks to a couple of old ARRA members helping out for the day, we actually managed to field two teams in the Team Race (might even have been three if Elizabeth had fancied a run with me, ah well, there always next year). So with the extra teams we had 12 which meant three groups. ARRA 1 set the initial running with 100.80. No teams beat this score in the second heat, although Dads Taxi had a pit stop so that their broken axle could be changed.  By the end of the first round of heats SCD Roadhogs, SDS and Area 2 had pushed the home team back into 4^th place with these three teams all having 101’s. At the half way stage, Oaklands 1 were also making the running by moving into 3^rd place. With Chris beating Chas by nearly 5 laps. Laurel and Hardy had also overtaken Arra 1 to move into 5th. SDS now had a 6 lap lead over Area 2. With Pirelli, Moravians and Balterina's  only covered by 3/4 of a lap the lower positions were also being fought over.

After 3 runs SDS had pulled out a 10lap lead with Steve’s top run of 105 on Blue, therefore looked favourite to take their second win of the season. Arra 1 and Laurel and Hardy swapped places (5th and 6th respectively, with Aces Inc moving within 14 feet of the 6th placed team. Balterina’s were the biggest movers from 10th up to 8th with their best run of 95.12 by Martin Jackson. Pirelli dropped down to 11th with Katy having a few problems on blue lane, meaning that Dads Taxi moved within a lap after their earlier problems.  The final set of runs saw  SDS complete the best run on every lane to win by just over 13laps. The top 6 remained the same. Aces Inc encountered problems so Balterina's and Moravians each moved up one spot. Norman nursed home the Pirelli car with a 93 to hold 11th place, after Dads Taxi had their best run of 92 on Yellow.

My racer of the day – Kate Fawcett. Given her age and that she has never been to the track before, I thought she put in some very creditable runs. Clearly a chip of the old block!

Colin Charlesworth

Club Secretary

SDS Winning Car

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