I'm sure you will all be keen to see the results asap so I will post these now - "subject to official confirmation" of course!
1. Graham - BRM 2. Paul - Cooper 3. Charlie P - BRM 4. Joel - Ferrari 5. Mac P - Ferrari 6. Alexis - Ferrari 7. Bryan - BRM 8. David L - Ferrari 9. Bill - Porsche 10. Jim - Lola 11. Jay - Brabham 12. JohnP - BRP-BRM 13. Dave J - BRM
Driver of the evening was Dave J.
Race report with full statistics and pictures to follow... but, in the meantime thank you to Dave for being the perfect host as always and to everyone who participated, making this such a fun event.
Post edited by: JohnP, at: 2008/07/23 10:19
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The evening began with Dave lining up the cars ready for the Concours vote:
Thirteen cars were ready in time for the first race and numbered according to finishing position in last years championship or, in the case of new competitors, by date entered.
Everyone present voted for their three favourite models (I was going to make a joke here but thought better of it) in order of preference - not an easy choice for anyone given the high standard of the turnout.
Further voting will take place at each round and Dave will announce the Concours winner once the series has been concluded.
Onto the racing. Each car ran in six two minute heats with all the drivers having a turn with each car.
Heat one started with Bryan's Scuderia Centro-Sud BRM on red lane driven by Mac, Charlie's short nose BRM on blue driven by Paul C and my own BRP-BRM driven by Dave on yellow:
These drivers held station for the first thirteen heats as each drove the cars in turn.
Heat 2 featured Mac's Ferrari, Bills Porsche and David's sharknose Ferrari:
Heat 4: Graham's BRM, Paul E's Cooper, and Jim's Lola:
Heat 5 saw Alexis' Ferrari pitched against the BRM's of Bryan and Charlie as the cars were driven in rotation by each of the drivers:
We had a short break for snacks and drinks at the halfway stage before racing resumed with a further 13 heats with Bryan, Paul and myself taking our turn at driving.
Here then are the overall stats for the evening:
Reading across you can see the number of laps recorded by each driver for a particular car (listed by entrant) followed by its total over the six heats and final position/rank. Reading down reveals lap totals for each driver with Dave J taking the honours here.
All the cars were competitive this year and thankfully breakages and failures were few and far between: Alexis' sharknose suffered a broken nose, Jay's Brabham had a braid problem (dropping it down the order) and Dave's BRM had various bits fall off just like the real thing!
Here to round off then is a shot of the start of heat 6 with Bill's Porsche, Mac's Ferrari and my own BRP:
... and, I couldn't end without saying thanks to Charlie for his smooth running of race control and for keeping the spreadsheets up to date, enabling us to keep track of proceedings throughout the evening.
Kind regards John
Post edited by: JohnP, at: 2008/07/23 15:51
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Hobby
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Re:Race Results: Round One - Blackpool - 2008/07/23 16:22Hi John, Thanks for the report, It looks as if the series will be much closer this year! Well done to Graham, a whole winters tuning has not been in vain! It looks like Mr Lawsons models are well to the fore as well, all his models in the top 8? Should be a fasinating series, Its off to your track next then John? Well done to all the drivers, and Dave J on his tremendous driving (if not race car prep!) Kind Regards Bill.
Post edited by: Hobby, at: 2008/07/23 16:23
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GRAH1
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Re:Race Results: Round One - Blackpool - 2008/07/23 17:17I think we all had a great time last night and no one was more surprised than me when my car came out on top I think it was down to grip and good luck and some great driving by all involved . One notable performance was Alexis ferrari getting into the points with his first f1 proxy attempt .All the entrys were a credit to there builders and owners ,Condolences to John P as his BRP was really superb but lacked grip once this is sorted Im sure it will be on the podium.
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alexis in greece
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Re:Race Results: Round One - Blackpool - 2008/07/23 17:44First of all thanks to Dave for organising this proxy series and to all the drivers for driving around our cars. Great report and photos. Cheers to Graham for his win. The 6th place was the biggest surprise of my life as this brass chassis was number 1.5 (i like to think that the 1st one beeing a combination of brass and plastic is number .5). As for the Ferrari's broken nose it was allready broken once and put back together , just before the final assembly,the car slipped through my hand and fell one floor down landing on the nose,I was lucky enough to find all the bits but had no time to build a new body. Looking forward to the next event Best Regards Alexis
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I can't imagine a better venue and group of people to have at the first race and really wish it wasn't so far away to attend during a working week.
It is good to see that the field is a bit more competitive this year with no Tail End Charlies and looking at the lap chart there was some pretty close racing.
The Southend Slot Car Club's squad had slightly mixed fortunes and I was expecting a slightly better result with my Sharknose (just shows how wrong you can be!) but it was good to see Paul's Cooper T60 getting second, if I remember rightly last year at Blackpool it went fairly well but had a couple of bad heats that dropped it down the order. It was also nice to see Joel's Ferrari has proved more reliable this year after its rebuild.
A special thanks to John for remembering to charge his camera batteries this year and providing those great photos and results tables. Also a very big thank you to Charlie for running race control when I'm sure he was keen to race the cars.
All the best David
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JohnP
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Re:Race Results: Round One - Blackpool - 2008/07/24 11:30Just to add that on checking the spreadsheet against the handwritten copy I did spot a discrepancy for one of Dave's heats. On making the correction this relegated myself to last position but then I did say the results were subject to official confirmation! The other side effect was to improve Graham's driver ranking. Everything else seems to check out so, going by the '60s system of scoring, this leaves the champiionship point standings as follows:
Bill, yes the next round will be on home territory - fingers crossed I do better here! The date is likely to be Tuesday 5th August but I will need to confirm.
David, I omitted to mention that your sharknose's guide appeared to be on the loose side at one stage so there may be better to come once I've had a look at it.
Post edited by: JohnP, at: 2008/07/24 11:35
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Jay Hardy
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Re:Race Results: Round One - Blackpool - 2008/07/24 14:14What a great job guys! I was certainly hoping to be more competitive this year and maybe it will if it will hold together for the upcoming races. This is a fantastic event for me and I am just honored to be able to participate. Looking forward to the next race on August 5th.
Jay
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GRAH1
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Re:Race Results: Round One - Blackpool - 2008/07/24 22:45Jay I thought your car drove really well very stable and easy to push through the bends ,if you hadnt lost a braid then it would have been higher placed but thats racing I guess and theres plenty more races for it to stretch its legs and hopefully get on the podium
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JohnP
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Re:Race Results: Round One - Blackpool - 2008/07/25 11:45I've made most of the repairs following on from Tuesday's meeting. The worst damage was to Alexis' Ferrari although it was reassuring to learn that it had already been broken once!
I epoxied the nose back together and have used surface filler on top. Alexis, I'm not sure how well I could colour match to the overall finish but if you want me to try please let me know. Personally I quite like the battle scarred look!
Dave, I have refitted the screen and exhaust to your BRM and it is looking quite tidy apart from a paint scrape and one missing mirror. Have to say, that black can motor of yours is ballistic but has little braking effect. It really doesn't suit the hairpin at the end of the main straight here so I'm not sure how long my handy work will last!
Jay, your Brabham has shiny new braids and I have refitted the screen and repaired the driver.
David, I have tightened your guide a little which I think improves stability.
Jim, your Lola has a tendency to lift at the front under hard acceleration. This was initially noticed at Dave's but wasn't too much of a problem. On my track your car has great traction going onto the main straight and will throw itself out of the slot. The chassis seems fine (no tweak, etc.) so if you have no objection I will just add a little weight up front.
All the best John
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