Dudley Slot Car Club
Members in 2010
Dave Homer (BSCRA Grade: Novice) founder of Dudley Slot Car Club. Tried to join a slot club at the age of 14 back in the 1960’s, but due to numbers and immaturity was not allowed to join, so Dave took up Go Karting. Like all of the Dudley newcomers Dave has only raced Falcon powered cars at Dudley club nights, until he raced with Kevin Gray (from Leicester Club) at a S32 round at Dudley in 2008, he enjoyed it that much he bought a set of 1/24th open cars and competed in the 1/24th BOC in 2009. He has raced in BSL championship from 2005 onwards, and has raced in the area rounds. He competed at the 2006 nationals as Novice finishing 12 out of 15. Dave who runs a food factory, he produces the “Mister Dave’s Curry” and recently introduced “Curry by Courier”. He also enjoys the odd holiday and helps out with the local radio station.
Mark Evans (BSCRA Grade: Novice) as most of the other new members Mark came to the club after seeing an article in a local newspaper. He enjoys his club racing, winning the Sports Handicap title for Spring 2007. Enjoys racing 1/32nd as they give more of a challenge! Other hobbies for Mark include Clay Pigeon shooting. Mark works in Networking for BT.
Martin Jackson (BSCRA Grade: Intermediate) Martin 19 is one of the youngest members at Dudley. Since joining at the end of 2005, Martin competed in the 2006 BSL, missing only the first round where he finished 3rd in Novice falcon. Driving with Dave he finished 6th in the team event. He missed most of 2007 while he concentrated on his GCSE’s. In 2008 won the BSL novice title with maximum points. Martin won the BSCRA novice final at the 2008 by 8 laps. He also finished 9th in the Gp12 production class at the 2008 1/24th Nationals which was been used for the worlds warm up race. Martin is attending the world championships in Chicago this year. Martin is currently training to be an accountant.
Luke Jackson (BSCRA Grade: Novice) Martins younger but very fast brother. Luke now in his final year at school won the Dudley Novice class in 2009 with maximum points. He has mastered the knocking off (legging) of others. Luke enjoys racing the 1/24th class, but enjoys the challenge of the 1/32nd scale. He is hoping to do some more out of club racing in 2010, racing with Martin in the BSL and he competed in the area rounds this year.
Adam Homer (BSCRA Grade: Novice) Luke’s friend from School, joined the club about 18 months ago. Competed in the Saturday club, where he finished second to Luke but now is racing on Monday nights. Hit the magic 30 laps before Christmas, but has missed the last few months due to other interests outside slot racing and concentrating on his GCSE’s.
Neil Rogers (BSCRA Grade: Novice) A close friend from Dave’s Go Karting days. Neil helped with the later stages of track building at Dudley. He can not race every week due to commitments at work but enjoys his racing when he can attend. Prefers racing 1/24th as they are easier to drive!
Graham Thomas (BSCRA Grade: Main Grade) aka Wobbler, started racing at Oakland's in 1992 on the very same week that Woody (Graham Woodward) joined. Raced in BSL championships for many years and has won the team race on 3 occasions with 3 different partners. He came second overall in the BSL 1999, behind Oaklands now Dudley member Chris Aston. Won the first ever open falcon title in the 2006 BSL and was top Falcon driver in the Dudley S32 in 2007. Graham raced mainly Scalextric type cars up to 1997 when he competed at the Nationals as a Novice. He top qualified for the novice final at his first attempt but only finished fourth in the final after being wrong laned. The following year in one of the strongest ever novice finals he again finished 4th (behind John Watts, Ralph Parker and Steve Morrow all of whom went onto become premier grade). He competed in a number of BOC and Area meetings in the past, winning the Area 5 championship in 2009. He has finished second to Chris in all of the Dudley Championships to date.
Chris Thomas (BSCRA Grade: Premiere) aka Baby Wobbler, raced Scalextric as a boy and started slot racing at Oakland's aged 8 in 1993.In his first year he won the team event in the Southern BSL round at Oakland's driving with James Cleave. Chris has raced in the Northern BSL championships for many years and finished 3rd overall in 2006 and 2007 he changed to the Falcon Class in 2008 and won beating Martin by 26 points. He has won the BSL round at Oakland's for the last 9 years and also won the inaugural round at Dudley in 2006. Chris became only the third person to win both novice titles at the 2001 nationals and also finished 7th in main grade f1 and second in main grade saloon that year. Chris was Area 5 Champion in 2006 beating Brian Saunders to the title and went on to become premier grade after finishing 6th in F1 at the 2007 nationals. Chris finished 4th in the Area in 2008 after missing the Dudley round. He finished 4th in F1 at the Nationals. In 2009 Chris finished an unlucky 9th in F1. He finished 20th in Saloon and 16th in Sports at the same meeting. He has won all of the Dudley club championships to date. Chris also raced in the 2008 world championships held in Milton Keynes where he caught the bug for it. In 2009 he raced for 10 days in Helsinki, with his best result of finishing 20th in the world in F1.
Chris Aston (BSCRA Grade: Main Grade) Now back racing every week at Dudley. Originally an Oakland’s member, Chris works evening for the Royal mail, he has rearranged his hours to get Monday evenings free. His claim to fame is Winning the 1999 BSL overall. Yet to win a club night, but getting very close. Chris is also the president of the World Crossbow Association. Chris has raced in many BOC and national events over the years.
James Aston (BSCRA Grade: Novice) Chris’s son, started racing towards the end of 2009. He has quickly come up to speed, but still waiting to hit the magic 30 in 3 minutes. Raced a 1/32nd car for the first time this year, but would rather race the 1/24th. Has a good battle with Jason most weeks. James is currently leading the novice 1/24th class in 2010.
Brian Bradley (BSCRA Grade: Main Grade) Brian’s a returnee racer. Met Dave at 14 when was trying to join a club in Stourbridge. Premier grade back in the day, has won a few club nights at Dudley since changing to a finger fighter, rather than the thumb. Like all classes of racing! Has introduced Jason and son Tom into the club. Favourite saying is “Me first”. Raced at this years area rounds, enjoying the banter with the other area members. Outside slot racing, Brian works for a brewery, bottling beer.
Jason and Tom (Both BSCRA Grade: Novice) Father and son pairing who have been coming for nearly a year now. Jason enjoys coming, as he has good battles with James. Jason hit the magic 100 laps in the segmented in February and not looked back since. Tom now finding it harder to keep up with the pace of rest of the club, but enjoys himself. Tom enjoys doing race control, even if he forgets to reset the counters!!!
Malcolm Ash (BSCRA Grade: Novice) another returnee racer. Malcolm has bought a set of cars of Brian Saunders and Charlie Gooding. He is very fast on the middle lanes, but struggles on the outer ones, but making top finals most weeks.
Kevin Willis (BSCRA Grade: Intermediate) Where do you start, everyone knows Kevin. The person everyone loves to hate, sorry hates to love, well you know what I mean. Enjoys club racing, but would like to do bigger meetings. Kevin’s most famous moment was at the 2000 nationals, where he set the best 5 min run for a production car and lead part of the 120 lap final only to finish 4th on 115. Kevin now sells some slot car products under the alias of KSCP. Outside slot racing, Kevin produces precision engineered parts for the Aircraft industry and likes to ride his tricycle.