Newcastle - Round 1 - 22nd April

Report by Chris Thomas.

Graeme Stephenson was too busy to be able to spare the time to compile a report and asked me to do this on his behalf. For the first round of the year it was a  nice surprise to see that 27 people turned out to race, despite the absence of regular racers, Norman Fawcett, Martin Jackson and Graham Thomas. The increased numbers being mainly due to the influx of several Fylde newcomers.

1/32 Heats 

Matthew Siddall lead the way with 23.24laps in heat 1. In heat 2 Sam was the only person to beat Matt’s score from heat 1.   Mike Ogden in heat 3 with 25.22 laps, set a new top score, only to be bettered in heat 4 by Mike Harrison with 26.61. Heat 5 saw a win for Andy beating Ralph by 2 parts. Heat 6 was the first of the super production races and Chris Cowan set a new top time with 27.39 laps. Paul Shepherd set what was to be the best run of the opening round in heat 7 with a score of 27.79 laps. So after the first round of heats the top four were Paul, Chris Cowan, Mike with his falcon and Steve Sargent.

In the second round of heats only Alex and Ernest improved from the first two groups.  Mike Harrison improved to set the top falcon time of 26.85. After two rounds of heats, the top 4 remained the same. In the final set of runs, Martin had one good run to move up to 5th, and Graeme did enough to squeeze into the B Final. Ralph was the only other Falcon driver to record 26 laps. Sam Griffin won  Novice Falcon by beating Dave by 6 parts, by finishing 16th and bottom qualifier for the C Final. Paul used his second car in the final heat to record the best run of the day of 28.59 laps.

 1/32nd Heat Results

1/32nd Finals

After a few problems in the heats, Andrew Hogg from Dingwall won the G Final with a Score that would have won the next two finals. Steve Smith finished last after a mysterious problem when his car stopped, leaving Alex to second. The F Final was won by Matthew Siddall by 3 laps  after a superb drive by the upcoming star. Roddy came second a lap up on the two newcomers of Ernest and Matthew Green from Fylde. The E final was a close race between Paul Hackett-Evans and Dave, with Dave winning by 1/3rd of a lap and taking 2nd in Novice. Keith struggled to match the falcons with his super production, with Chris Green struggling to finish 3rd in novice falcon

David Sargent won the closest final from Stephen (see photo below). Sam won Novice beating Richard in the process. The C final saw all 4 drivers finish on the same lap, Chas with his super prod was fast enough to beat Andy’s falcon with home track knowledge to win battle of the traders, with two other home falcon drivers Mike and Pete taking 11 and 12th respectively.

Ralph with his Falcon powered car lead the B Final after 2minutes due to offs by Graeme and Chris, Martin having top qualified for the B Final, couldn't match his heat score and lost interest. Graeme and Chris soon past Ralph. Graeme had a few more offs than Chris, meaning that Chris won by a quarter of a lap. Although taking 3rd in the final Ralph took second in open falcon.

The A Final was a win for Paul, using his second car, as he wanted to give the others “a chance”  if only all our second cars were that quick!! Second was Chris Cowan who couldn’t match Paul's pace, but was faster than Mike’s winning Open Falcon.  Steve struggled on the less fancied green lane to take forth, having finished second the year before on the same lane.

So Paul off to the perfect start and having won at Ponte for the last two years, must be favourite to lead overall going into the Black Country weekend

 Top 4 Tech

1/24 Team Race

With 27 racers, young Matthew Siddall missed out, with his dad joining reigning team champion Martin, as Mark is now in New Zealand, looking for a strong start to the season, they had to put up with finishing last after problems with gears. Most teams remained unchanged, but it is a hopefully to be a memorable year for SDS as this is there 10th year together in BSL.  Mike Ogden joined up with Keith Charles to drive for Ebee Gee Bees.

With a late start the team race was reduced to 10-minute segments. Graeme with 97.65 laps set the pace in the first round of heats. With a good run of 95.66 laps on Green lane Newcastle secured second place to make it home teams one and two.  SDS were third also on 95, with A9 Run on 89.69 in 4th, Oaklands, Laurel and Hardy, and Ebee Gee Bees, secured the top 7, all 3 teams on 88’s. In the second round Paul recorded only 91.63, which saw SCD Roadhogs, have there first run after being sit out. The top 3 remained at the half way point, but with a 95.09 from Chris for Oaklands they moved up into 4th. A9 had a few problems with a squeak from the car to record 80 laps.

In the third round GSP recorded their worst score of 92.89,  meaning that their lead at the top was cut to 1.90laps In the 4th and last round GSP recorded the best run of the day with 98.27 laps securing them the overall victory by just over 7.5 laps. Mike recorded 94.36 for Ebee’s in there last run to claim 5th. SDS finished top away team, 3rd overall, with the Laurel and Hardy, secured 4th, only half a lap down on SDS. Apparently Ralph said it was Andy’s fault for fitting a “duff” braid that cost them third place. 5th to 7th was covered by only 5 laps, with all three teams having some sort of problem, well I did have Dave to drive with after all!! Time Lords (Jedi Knights last year) posted there best ever team result in the BSL, well done to Paul and Alex.

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