Blackpool Slot Car Club

November 2010

2010 Falcon Pro Finals at Raceway 81 Newcastle
The culmination of the closest and best racing avaliable in the UK today. What can we say, myself and Martin have raced in this series since its conception in 2008 and this year we managed to persuade Shep to have a go. Most of BSCC club members raced at our round and Wayne and Chris managed a few more rounds, all enjoying the format and closeness of the racing.

Chris

2010 BSL Finals at Silverstone Moto Arena. A mixed bag of results for club members.

As defending champions of the BSL Enduro team race we wanted to put on a good show this weekend and fielded 2 teams, lots of work and testing went into the 2 team cars, perhaps too much testing really! A combination of the race format being changed half way through by, and it has to be said, the extremely poor organisation and running of the event coupled with some unforseen mechanical issues, including but not limited to worn oillite bearings causing gears to be stripped (since when did a new set of oillites turn into oval shapes after an hours racing?), worn out brushes in a motor (why did someone place JK Hawk brushes into a GP 12 motor Martin?) and the fact that we were up aginst some of the best slot car racers in the UK meant that neither team won.To be honest we still to this date do not know the final results so we cant even argue amongst ouselves which team did better ! Such are the vagaries of BSL racing :) At least we had a chance to debrief the race and all of its faults at a team meal in the Green Man, a well known watering hole for after race debates near the home of British motor sport. A great meal, lots of laughs and a great desert, even if one team member was unable to partake in what he ordered!

Sunday dawned and an unplanned team get together in a nearby McDonald's (it's a slot car racing rule) preceded another days racing. Again lack of organisation and planning meant for another really, really late finish. By that time most of the Blackpool Slot Car Club members had lost the will to continue, if not live! At the end of it all we had a few notable trophies, well Shep did ! .The roll of honour starts with Paul Shepherd, winning the overall BSL 1/32nd championship for the umpteenth year in succession, after finishing 5th to Martins 3rd in the A Final. Wayne managed a very creditable 6th in the B Final to take top Novice at the event and 2nd in the Overall Novice title. Meanwhile in the C Final Stephen held off Chris to take a 1, 2 for Blackpool Slot Car Club and Matty came in 4th in a closley contested D Final. In the team race the championship had already been decided and won by our friends and keen race rivals from Dudley Chris and Graham Thomas, well done guys! But after the long, long team race the pair of Martin and Chris racing as Hot Shots part Deux finished second in the championship (again!), Paul and Wayne racing as Coastal finished third in the championship and Stephen and Matty racing as Dad's Taxi finished 5th overall. To have 3 teams in the top 5 is quite an achievment especially considering that the 3 teams did not compete at all of the rounds. Next year we expect a 1 2 3 finish !