Race Report by Ian Fisher - Southern 32 Series Organiser -

Photos by Stan Kirk

Falcons – First win for Bournemouth’s Simon Francis

We had 17 entries and welcomed Bob Errington and Tony Preston‘s first appearances.  Andy Bishop beat Sarah H in the last spot run off to get into the D final.  Heather H then won a close race from Tony Preston, followed by Bill Jenner and Andy.  Alan Callaghan qualified unusually low down but then took an easy win in the C final ahead of a close trio, Paul Stacey, Graham Sampson and Marc Townsend.  The B final had 4 closely matched drivers.  Stan Kirk won by .25 lap from Bob Errington, Dan Trowse and Mike Gibbons barely a lap behind.

Simon Francis’ obvious skill combined with local track knowledge took him to the A final victory by just over one lap.  Sam Thrower held second place for most of the race but not the important last 30 seconds when Mick Kerr finally overtook him.  Adam Le Maistre trailed in 4^th after breaking the guide in a collision after dropping into the wrong lane.

His car revealing the Parma International 32 chassis with a bit of extra weight at the front of the pans and a good scale paint (and sticker) job on a JK Audi R8

Production – James Cleave dominant win from Chris Frost.  Simon Francis top C grade

There were 8 finals this time once Andy Bishop had won his second run off, this time eliminating last time’s Driver of the Day Paul Hefferman.  The H final had to be re-started twice for first corner collisions but then Sarah Herridge came through from last on the first lap with a steady drive to take her first race win in the series from Tony Preston, Andy B and Bill Jenner. Chris Stemman and Paul Stacey fought out the G final finishing in that order.  Neal Callaghan was just ahead of Heather.  Bob Errington had no trouble winning the F race from Marc T then Graham Sampson and Mike Gibbons.

Next, Ian Barker took the E race from Dan Trowse in his best result then Vince Lee and Stan Kirk.  Will Stemman went faster still to win the D final.  Mick K beat Sam T once again and Adam trailing in 4th.  Dick Smith was the class act in the C final then Alan Callaghan, Nick Thrower and Paul Austin.  Mark Witham lapped everyone winning the B final. Simon Francis was top C grade and just beat John Secchi and Dave Coward.  James Cleave sorted out his Eurotoy with some lead weight and then won the top final as he pleased.  Ian F looked safe in 2nd until he started falling off letting Chris Frost through.  They then both took turns to drop it but Chris held on to a deserved second.  Paul Harwood was not far behind Ian.

The result gave Ian Fisher the overall title.  John Secchi has an outside chance to overtake Paul Harwood for second.  Alan Callaghan has won the Grade C title.  There are still several other trophy winning places to be decided though! 

Link to  latest Championship positions

Le Mans 32 – Concrete Cows make 8 different winners from 8 races

16 teams lined up and we finished before 7pm by limiting the race to 4 runs of 6 minutes each.  Former Main Grade National Finalist Mark Wilkinson arrived at the ideal time to provide Ian Fisher with a team mate.  James Cleave guested for Concrete Cows.  With such short runs, close results were expected and so it turned out.  Netley Abbots, BISRA, Eces and Heavy Breathing all started well.  Netley led Eces at half time as the others fell back.  Netley ran into motor trouble in the 3^rd run dropping them back and giving Eces the scent of victory.  They had reckoned without the Cows though.  James took their last two runs and stormed through eliminating the deficit and winning by 1.5 laps from Eces.  Wellingborough Wizards also accelerated and claimed 3^rd place only just ahead of Netley and BISRA.  A very fast run by Chris Frost brought Bournemouth to 6^th within 1.5 laps of being 3^rd!  SiNGiT raced well finishing 7^th just ahead of Heavy Breathing, Yer Maun and Wreckless.  Bournemouth Too ran a Production car as usual and got a good result in 11^th.  The remaining places were taken by 1-0-2, JPS, Bournemouth Brats (a reliable and better handling car after attention from Chris S and Ian supervised by Paul H) and Timaru 2.  A last minute panic on set up meant that Impunity stripped their gears 1 lap into the race.  This couldn’t be fixed so they abandoned the first section and that lap, started a different car and pressed on for just 3 runs.  They needed 12 more laps to get out of 16^th but did well to persevere so well.

Loose Ends

• Thanks to Chris Frost, Paul Stacey and the other home club members for organising another super day’s racing.  Thanks to Derek Purkis as our host.
• Home Driver of the Day – Simon Francis - Falcon winner and top Grade C. (Honourable mention for Chris Frost, 2^nd overall and fast in the team race)
• Visiting Driver of the Day – James Cleave – No contest!  See the results.

Next Year

If you have any thoughts or requests for next year’s Southern 32 series please call me and discuss them, or bring your ideas to the North London race.  I’m thinking generally we don’t need much change since the series has been popular but suggestions already made include

·         Races more spread out over the year.

·         Rounds at some other tracks we missed this year.

·         Rounds at this year’s tracks.

·         Tweak the driver grading structure – I’ll find out how the Northern BSL one works.

·         Limit the number of substitute drivers a team can use.

·         Anyone got ideas on race lengths and meeting organisation to give reliable meeting finish times?  Is 6pm a sensible and achievable target?

·         Non-championship Falcon only races at interested Scalex orientated clubs with proper wood tracks.

Last Round this year:            North London SME, 8 December 2002.

Do try and send at least one club representative to take home your goodies if you can’t be there yourself!

Any queries on the series, call me on 020 8866 8571 - Ian Fisher

Click for latest Championship tables

 Southern 32 – The series for you!