We were very pleased to welcome 24 racers, at a time of year when many are on holiday, to our round of the BSL. It was particularly satisfying that half the entry was filled with Novices, most of which have been racing in their first season. It was also great to have a guest racer from the southern heartland of Pinewood, namely Nigel Barrow who was in the area on business.

The Novice heats of Falcon set off at a blistering pace with this year's star find, Martin Jackson scoring 27.77 in heat 1 - a very respectable score for a super production! This was bettered in heat 2 by local driver Stephen Siddall who scored 28.42 which was to keep him in an A Final spot until the last round of heats. The Open Falcon drivers could not match this in heat 3, David Sargent setting his best run with 27.05. Heats 4 & 5 saw Martin Ellis setting super production pace with 29.68 before Paul Shepherd bettered it straight after with 30.42.

With no club racing as such and only at her 3rd meeting, Katy Fawcett set a very respectable 25.75 in heat 6 for novice Falcon. Heat 8 saw Ralph Parker up his pace with Open Falcon with 27.99 with a far too quick car on the straight!. Double BOC winner, Graeme Stephenson secured his A Final slot in heat 9 with 29.21 while a certain Steve Sargent took top spot in heat 10 with 30.86 to put the pressure on Shep!

Only 2 people improved their scores in the last round of heats, most notably Paul and myself had a real shoot out of a race for TQ in the last heat, Paul just piping my heat 10 score with a 31.07 to claim the revered green lane for the A Final.

The D final was won by local newcomer Sam Griffin who just held off Nigel Barrow for the win. Mark Croston took honours in the C Final with an impressive drive on the outside red lane ahead of Trevor Tenant in 2nd while Keith Charles, ABS & Sandy Parker had a very close battle for 3rd. The B Final saw a very close battle for the win with Stuart Tennant's extra horse power finally seeing off Steve Siddall's impressive Falcon runner. Chas sneaked through into 3rd on red lane while Ralph & David hit the traffic!

Paul & myself resumed battle in the A Final. Paul dropped it after a minute to give me the lead but then I returned the favour to let him through. I clawed back about 1/4 of a lap towards the end to draw nearly level but the last push saw another off, leaving Paul to the win. Meanwhile Norman Fawcett fought his way up the field on the least favoured black lane to take 3rd by 3 feet from Chris Thomas followed by Martin & Graeme.

1/32nd Heats

1/32^nd Finals

A Final - L to R - Martin, Graeme, Paul, Chris, Steve, Norman

Team Race

The team race very conveniently had 12 teams participating with very new newcomer Kieran Thornton joining in proceedings thanks to Keith Charles offering to pair up with him. Segments were 10 minutes, allowing a 1 hour race over the 6 lanes.

Baltererina’s were definitely the surprise package with Graeme Stephenson unable to record quicker scores than his novice team partner, Martin Jackson, and they were only 2nd to local team SDS after 2 runs. Area 2 had a slow start on red which put them 5 laps behind SDS which was to cost them dear. With Graham Thomas on holiday, Chris partnered the less experienced Bob Mitton for Oaklands and although Bob drove well, Chris was also a little behind the front runner pace which kept them out of top 5 contention. The other main Championship contenders, SCD Roadhogs ran steadily but with Chas not in best health and Paul struggling to squeeze anything special out of the car they ran in 5th spot; pretty well throughout the race. Aces Inc were their nearest 'rival within the race with Sandy driving steadily, and Stuart getting quicker & quicker. His last run of 99 laps was only bettered by feet by 2 :of the locals and was enough to take 4th for the race.

The Moravians, with Trevor & Nigel both on first visits to the track, drove very consistently to finish 7th while Dad's Taxi made the most of home advantage with Steve driving particularly well to finish 8th. Katy got quicker as the day progressed with Norman putting in his, ever solid runs to take 10th while the 2 local young drivers, Vinny & Sam gained valuable experience in 11th. Ebee Geebees

had an uphill battle with Kieran's lack of driving experience but no doubt Keith will be planning to be at the other end of the order at Barnton!

At the front of the race The Baltarina’s were impressive throughout to secure 3rd but were never quite quick enough to challenge-the top 2. After the 2nd run Area 2 dropped a further 2 laps to SDS but then on run 3 Martin Ellis put in one of his stormers to take fastest segment of the day and claw back nearly 4 laps. A further lap was pulled back in segment 4 -but in segment 5 I responded to go just 9 feet short of Martin's fastest of the day, taking the lead back to 4 laps: Area 2 could only manage to pull back 1/2 lap in the last segment with David driving a fairly faultless anchor leg on black lane for SDS.

This result must I am sure set some sort of BSL record as Area 2 have taken 5 second places out the first 7 rounds! Will they get the exclusive win while in Area 1! Will Paul secure the individual title in Scotland. Will we have a great time in Scotland - guaranteed!!

Many thanks to all of you who supported the Fylde meeting - I hope you enjoyed it. Looking forward to seeing lots of you north ot the border.

Best Regards, Steve Sargent

1st and 2nd in team - SDS and Area 2	3rd Place - With Sun roof - Balterina's

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