LONGBENTON OPEN MEETING 2003

1/32 BOC round 9

    The British Open Championship returned to Longbenton  for the finale of  the 2002/3 BOC series.

   The Saloon A Final

Stuart Strachan reports (and presents the trophies) - 

Also thanks to Mick Langridge who took time out from winning the National Grade B Championship to take the photographs

Congratulations must go to Brian Saunders for a clean sweep of wins on a track he seems to like very much.  He was pushed in each class by Paul Harwood, Charlie Gooding and  one or two others and in most finals the lead changed hands a few times before the finish.  Here they collect their prizes (l to r) Charlie, Paul, Brian and Steve Sargent.

It was good to see young Alex Newton (below left) and Kevin Noon (below centre) back in action after a couple of years off.  Both both did very well on a challenging track.  Another good performance was Grade C winner Pat Skene (below  right)

We also saw the new BSP saloon chassis (Brian had the first one at Bath for a photo opportunity, but I don't think he raced it) which looked good and went very well.   There are now several very good saloon chassis around which has seen the saloon class getting quicker and quicker.  The best F1 scores were some way behind the best Saloon scores at Longbenton.

Just for information, we have also seen significant improvements in the Production 1/32 class.  Although not raced in the BOC, our track record fora 12 minute segmented final is around 108 laps, this is faster than both Saloon and F1 and only a dozen laps less than the 1/32 Eurosport record! This is surely one of the reasons for the success of the BSL/S32 series - low cost, quick cars and highly competitive racing.

Click here for photo report from Andy Brown Searle

Champions

James Cleave had already won the Championship with 2 rounds to spare.  Congratulations to Mick Langridge - grade B Champion and 9th overall.

A full report, and full championship table will be appearing in "Slot Car Racing News".

Brian's 3 winning cars.