After an extra hour in bed thanks to the clocks changing we returned to the pavilion for the BSL series two major events. First, as always, was the individual event. Thirty-six drives entered of whom sixteen chose to drive super production cars. These sixteen were split nicely into two groups of eight and would race after the Falcon runners. The Falcon runners were split into two groups of seven and one group of six. The first heat was for the six-driver group. Young John Gooding showed that he has inherited his dads racing skills with a great win recording 23.06 laps; almost 2 laps clear of the field. Mark Croston who was eventually the top Falcon runner on the day won the second heat. His score of 24.59 laps gave him victory by ¼ of a lap from Stephen Siddall. Heat 3 was for the open Falcon racers and was won by Ralph Parker with the best run of the day to that point of 24.75. During this heat both Sandy Parker and myself lost time when involved with another cars off. Pat Skene was the unfortunate marshal confronted by two cars that had lost their stickers. I would like to apologise again to Pat for my comments, which were made in the heat of the moment when I could see what had been a lead turning into a two-lap deficit. As it turned out later I recorded two better runs than I would have got in that heat even without this incident so it didn’t lose me anything. Fortunately Pat has been around long enough to realise that these things happen and was kind enough to accept my apology. Heat 4 was the first heat to include super production cars. Paul Harwood recorded a new best score of 26.22 laps only to see his score beaten by Martin Ellis (27.92), Stuart Tennant (27.30) and Paul Shepherd (27.14) in the following race. This race had to be rerun due to the computer losing the scores. Chris Thomas had finished on the lead lap in the original run but only recorded 9 laps in the rerun after being wrong laned. Matthew Siddall won the first of the second round of heats with a score of 22.26 laps. In the next heat Mark Croston had problems with a broken axle in the warm up. He was offered time to get ready but as he was on black lane he kindly withdrew from the race to save time. The heat was won by Glyn Taylor whose 23.73 laps was an improvement of about half a lap on his first run. In the third heat of round two I had a clear run on Yellow to set the best Falcon run so far of 25.47 laps with Ralph Parker just behind on 25.32. Alan Lucas won the next heat which consisted of all super production cars with 25.33 laps just 0.01 of a lap more than Ralph. In the last heat of round two Paul Shepherd recorded the best run of the day so far recording 28.52 laps and Stuart Tennant was second with 27.65.  The third round of heats started with Steve Smith winning on 21.77 laps, which was his best run to date by over 4 laps. In the next race Mark Croston won with 26.29 laps on Yellow with Roddy Morrison second on 25.74 laps. These proved to be the best two Falcon runs of the day. For the next heat Kevin Gray took over on race control and the track call button caused him some problems. Andy Brown had set up a temporary switch as a way of stopping the computer timer and the track power together but this required a delicate technique, which only came good with practice. The result was a few instances of the power going off and on and no one in this heat improved on their best score. In the next race Paul Harwood won with 27.18 laps, which was his best score of the day, and both Ross and Neil Grogan also had their best runs in this heat. In the last heat of the third round Keith Charles and Chris Thomas had their best runs so far. Steve Smith won the first heat of the last round with 22.42 laps but John Gooding’s second place with 22.02 gave him the highest two run total from this group. Mark Croston won the next heat with 25.90 and his best two total of 52.19 was enough for a place in the A final’s an incredible achievement with a Falcon powered car.

The next race was won by Richard Wallace on 24.93 his best run of the day beating myself by 0.01 and third place went to Mike Harrison whose 24.67 laps was his best run of the day. Paul Harwood won the next race and his score of 26.69 gave him a best two of 53.87 to secure his place in the A final. The original running of the last heat resulted in everyone getting very low scores and after a meeting between a representative from each club it was decided that the race should be rerun because it was obvious that on one of the track calls the computer timer had continued to run resulting in a shortened race time. In the rerun Stuart Tennant recorded the best heat score of the day with a run of 28.69 laps on Green lane. Graeme Stephenson and Steve Sargent both recorded their best runs and this was enough to secure them an A final place. Chris Thomas also had his best run of the day but his 25.69 laps was still ¼ of a lap short of making it into the A final. Again Chris suffered from having a rerun as he had been on the lead lap on the original run and would have probably have scored an extra couple of laps had there not been a problem with the timer.

The 1/32^nd Finals.

Matthew Siddall was the top qualifier for the E final but it was Mike Ogden, who had qualified in second place that took the victory. The D final was won by the super production powered Mick Langrage from returnees Glyn Taylor and Nial Connolly.

A super production car also won the C final this time driven by Alan Lucas. However is was at the back end of the field where Stephen Siddall who was the bottom qualifier for this final secured his overall series victory in Novice Falcon by beating Martin Jackson who had qualified third for this final. Had Stephen not beaten Martin then Mark Croston’s 100 points, already secured because of his place in the A final, would have given him the Novice title. In the B final Chris Thomas led all the way and had recorded almost 28 laps after three minutes. He then eased off but still secured victory by 1 lap from Keith Charles. For Chris it was a case of if only as even a run of 26laps in the heats would have given him an A final place. Ralph Parker won the battle for 2nd and third places in Falcon by finishing 5^th in the B final. The A final was won by Paul Shepherd and his 100 points from the final gave him a maximum possible series total of 350 points. Second in the A was Stuart Tennant , his 94 points moving him up to 4^th place in the overall championship and will give him an A grade status for next year.

A Final - Mark, Graeme, Martin, Stuart, Paul S, Paul H, Steve and Ross

Team Race

 Eighteen teams entered for the team race.  These were split into two groups of nine with the championships top placed 9 teams in the second group. With an eight lane track each group would have one team sitting out of each heat and it was arranged so that the ninth placed team would have last sit out first thus ensuring that the top eight teams were in the last race.

In the first heat GSR design (Ross and Neil Grogan) set the pace with 69.60 laps just beating Newcastle (Graeme Stephenson and Mike Harrison) 69.49, GT Tuning (Glyn Taylor and Paul Harwood) 68.49 and the Gooding's with Charlie driving the first leg fourth on 68.44. Heat 2 saw the entry of the top placed teams and Area 2 took the lead with 69.74 laps however none of the other teams beat any of the top three from heat 1. Heats 3 and 4 saw Dads taxi and Ebee Geebees join the fray with the later recording 69.96 in heat 4 which was the best first leg by any team. However in the same heat Aces Inc set a new top run of 71.78 laps, which moved them into the overall lead from Area 2 and GSR Design with all three teams within just over a lap of each other. Three laps back A9 Run, GT Tuning and Newcastle 1 were separated by only half a lap. GSR had a sit out in heat 5 which meant that they would have to wait until later to put pressure on the top two. In heat 6 Stuart Tennant again topped 71 laps for Aces Inc to increase their lead over area 2 to almost two laps. However heat 6 was all about Martin Jackson who recorded the best individual leg of the whole race with 75.46 laps on Orange lane moving Balterina's up to third overall. Incredibly this 15 minute run by Martin, with a Falcon powered car, was more than half the laps that Brian Saunders had recorded with a group 12 car in 30 minutes when setting the best run of the enduro race on Saturday. GSR Design returned to win heat 7 with 71.13. laps from London Scottish on 69.74. Heat 8 was a bad one for the leaders Aces Inc with 63.57 on Red lane, which saw them, drop down into second place. Area2 winning the race with 72.92, a total of 281.42 laps, moved into the overall lead by seven and a half laps. Aces inc were now second but only just over 4 laps separated them from GT Tuning, Laurel & Hardy and Balterina’s. With 8 teams now having had a sit out it was difficult to get an accurate picture of the overall position. However of those with a sit out, GSR on 208 laps were just 73.10laps behind Area2, and Ebee Geebees on 205 laps were also well placed to mount a challenge. GSR had another good run in heat 9 with 74.50 laps on Blue lane and with Aces inc on sit out for heat 10 GSR were now the top team of those who had already had their sit out and were 9 laps ahead of Aces Inc who were just over a lap ahead of Oaklands. Of  the teams who had competed in all  5 runs Area2 were top but they were now less than 66 laps ahead of GSR with Balterina's almost another 12 laps behind Area2. With yet another good run in heat 11 GSR consolidated their position as favourites to win. However GSR had not competed in any of the qualifying rounds so they would not score series points at the finals. The overall title situation was developing into a battle between Area2 and Oaklands. Both of these teams required the 100 points for winning the final to overcome SDS and SCD both of whom were having a bad day, to take the overall championship. After heat 12 Area 2 who were 74.62 laps ahead of Oakland’s were favourites to take the overall title. In heat 13 GSR recorded 66.66laps on the less fancied Black lane and were now clear favourites to win the final. In heat 14 Chris Thomas had an even better run on Black with 67.27laps which moved Oakland’s to within  73.56 laps of Area2 with a run in hand. With the Gooding’s having retired after 5 runs only A9 run had completed all of their runs after heat 16, however a lead of only 40.49 laps from GSR was never going to be enough.

A run of 74.47 by GSR in heat 17 set Area 2 an almost impossible target of 78.94 in heat 18. However Area2 were more concerned about preserving a 6.52 laps lead to stay ahead of Oakland’s so that they could take the series title. Chris Thomas soon reduced the deficit and at halfway was about 4 laps down overall. With Chris still making good progress towards the end of the race Ralph Parker slowed to let him through but misjudged the manoeuvre and the result was that the Oakland’s car ended up on the floor with what proved to be fatal gear damage. In the end a score of 67.55 laps was enough to give Area2 the overall title but they were 11.39 laps short of the final winning GSR Design team. The gear problems cost Oakland’s less than 6 laps so Area2 would have taken the series victory anyway. The 100 points for winning would have given them the overall title but the 94 points scored at the finals by Oakland’s for coming second was not enough to move them above either SDS or SCD.  For Area2 the finals was the only round in which they took top points, but winning the team race series was a very nice way for Mark Croston to bid farewell to the BSL prior to his trip to New Zealand.

Overall a very good weekends racing on what is probably the best racetrack in the country. Many thanks to everyone who made this event possible and a very special mention to Mick Langridge who made the very long journey to collect the track.