Newcastle - Round 1 - 20th April

Round one report by Graham Thomas. Please note that the opinions expressed below are not necessarily those of the series organiser. Should anyone have any comments please email them to Chris via the BSL website.

 Once again the first round was held at Newcastle. It was disappointing that the attendance was down by 4 on last year. This could be down to increased petrol/diesel costs and could well effect future rounds in the series. Dave’s Diesel guzzling Isuzu got through £110 of fuel for our trip and it maybe cheaper for us to fly to the Scotland rounds! Only six of the 23 entries were racing super production cars. To keep the classes separate we had two groups of four and five groups of three racers. This gave a total of 21 heats and with four in a race we would have only needed two more races for everyone to have four heats each. In fact the time wasted asking for volunteer marshals after the 3 driver heats was probably more than the extra 2 races would have taken! Lets hope that at future rounds the entry fits better into groups of 4. With separate finals for Falcons there are now two completely separate championships so I will report on the more popular Falcon championship first.

 The Falcon heats driver by driver.
Katy Fawcett, making her Newcastle debut, had three steady runs of 20 laps each.
Matthew Siddall was again fast on some laps but too many off’s left him with a best of 21.64 laps. Christopher Green, as he had done last year, just beat his brother Matthew with them both having 23 lap runs. Keith Charles had moved to Falcon but he also was having too many off’s in the heats. However his score of 24.80 was still better than he had done with a super production car last year. Dave Homer had a terrible first run but after the addition of some lead to the front of the pans his car handled much better and he had a best run of almost 25 laps. Next up was myself with three 25-lap runs the best of which 25.68 was just better than I had achieved with a Demon on my Newcastle debut two years ago. Just three parts of a lap better than my score was Ernest Danyi but his was the most improved score compared with last year. Another 10 feet better was local driver Mike Ogden. Also new to Falcon’s was Norman Fawcett who had his best score of 26.31 laps in his first run. Local driver Pete Sedgwick had a good last run to move from 2 feet behind Norman to 13 feet in front. Stephen Siddall had been just 1 foot behind Norman but improved in his last run to go ahead of both Norman and Pete. Alan Lucas was another to move to Falcon and had his best run first time out. This was just beaten by four feet by Martin Jackson’s second heat score which secured Martin a place in the A final. Martin drove well on his second time at Newcastle to recorded three 26-lap scores and added over three laps to his previous visit best. Chris Thomas was another who had moved to Falcon and he also improved on his Super production score of last year. Second top qualifier was Andy Brown Searle who had three runs of 27 laps and was just beaten by 20 feet by Mike Harrison who had two 27 lap runs and then had problems in his third heat.

Super Production.

The six drivers raced in two groups of three. Chas Keeling had made a late decision to race in super production. He improved with each run to record a best of 24.70 laps. David Sargent, last years Falcon champion, changed to super production. His best run of 25.37 was actually lower than he has achieved on either of the previous two years when using a Falcon. Martin Ellis had gear trouble in his first run and managed only one lap. He then borrowed a car from Paul and recorded 26.57 laps in his second run. Home driver Chris Cowan made it into A final by recording 27.60 in his second run. Both Steve Sargent and Paul Shepherd also had their best scores in their second runs. These were the only two drivers to record runs of 28 laps.

 1/32nd Heat Results

Finals  

In the E final Mathew Siddall had a few less off’s and his pace was enough to beat Matthew Green by exactly one lap. Keith Charles who having qualified with 24.80 managed 26laps in the first three minutes won the D final. Second was Christopher Green who also improved on his pace in the heats. Top qualifier for the D final Dave Homer had a bad run to finish two laps behind Christopher Green. Ernest, Mike Ogden and myself contested the C final. There was only 12 feet between all three in qualifying and the final proved to be just as close. Both Ernest and Mike had early off’s and I led for about the first 2 minutes. Ernest closed the gap and I had to speed up but he then had another off. Mike then took up the chase and I could not match his pace and he took the lead. He must have backed off slightly because I kept up close and with 30 seconds to go decided to go for it. I then had an off which allowed Ernest into second. I was just three feet short of catching him and only 14 feet behind Mike. I may have finished third but this was a very enjoyable race. All three of us improved on the pace of our heats. Onto the B final which was won by over a lap by Alan Lucas who was the only person to beat any of the three C final scores. The battle for second was just as close as the C final with Norman beating Pete by just 1 foot and Steve only another 20 feet behind. The A final was between two Newcastle drivers and two Dudley drivers. Martin Jackson took an early lead when the other three got into a first lap tangle. Mike Harrison caught up with Martin who had an off and took Mike out. The result of the crash was a motor out for Mike. This left Chris leading from Andy and the lead changed hands a couple of times with both having off’s. For the last two minutes Andy drove steady to keep the lead. Chris chased hard but was 14 feet behind at the end. Martin was a lap back but was very happy with third place overall.

Super Production Finals

The B final was a close affair with David beating Chas by just 31 feet. Martin was not happy with the car that he had borrowed and was some five laps back. The A final was won by Paul who led from start to finish to win by two laps. The battle for second place was very close with Steve beating Chris by just 23 feet. 

 With the JK chassis now allowed for Falcon motors it will be interesting to see how they perform compared to the super production car. On this occasion the top two scores in the heats were both super production cars but only Paul had a better run in the finals than the top 3 Falcon runners. As for the Falcon class I don’t think that as yet the JK is actually proving to be that much faster than the Demons. Certainly some people had been faster using Demons last year. However I do expect that, once people have spent more time experimenting with gear ratios, weight, bodies and tyres, the JK will be a better package than the Demon. The obvious advantage of the JK is its ability to survive a crash without bending.

1/32nd Finals