Nationals F2C Event - August 26th-28th 2000  

The 2000 British National Championships were held at the normal venue of Barkston Heath, Lincolnshire between the dates of August 26^th and 28^th. The weather on the run up to the competition was extremely mixed and several people drove through torrential rain to get to the site on the Saturday morning. In the end however the weather was kind to this years championships and the events were allowed to take place without hindrance.

With several racing disciplines to run it was decided to only hold two rounds in F2C so as to save time – a backward step as far as I was concerned at a time when most internationals are moving towards three round events to encourage attendance by giving participants more flying. BMFA rules state that events should not be run unless there are at least 10 entrants which means that we should no longer be running 1/2A and Class B Team Race – this would allow us to give participants in the more well attended disciplines an extra round each and thus encourage participation in these events.

Round 1 began at midday on the Saturday with 16 pairs involved. There were no extra-special times recorded in this round but there were 6 teams with a 3:30 or better. Fastest were Ross/Turner with a 3:25.4, closely followed by Langworth/Campbell on 3:26.8 and Fitzgerald/Thomason on 3:27.6. Tribe/Bollen put in a surprise 3:30.5 to hold 5^th place at the end of the 1^st round – this with Taffy Bollen’s new motor, home made using a few commercial parts and a case casting from Brian Fairey

The second round of heats was held at 3 pm on the Sunday and was very disappointing with only one pair managing to improve in the top few – Smith/Brown with a 3:24.1. Thus the cut of for the semis was a very slow 3:59.2 with Larsson/Gustavsson in 1^st reserve slot on 3:59.9.

Both rounds of semi finals were held on the Monday morning with round one starting at 10:30 am. As Fitzgerald/Thomason did not turn up for the first heat this was cancelled until the end of the round with reserves Larsson/Gustavsson being told to prepare themselves. In the second heat Smith/Brown put in a 3:25.1 and Langworth/Campbell a 3:26.6. Ross/Turner then put in a 3:15.3 – the fastest time of the competition – with Heaton/Broadhead putting in a 3:26.7 in the same race (Malcolm Ross and Derek Heaton clearly disagreeing on conduct in the middle as they could be seen demonstrating with each other after the race had finished). In the rerun of heat one Fry/Whorton then put in a 3:25.1 – equalling the time of Smith/Brown and putting them in joint 2^nd place at the end of the first round of semis. (note the motor used here was an older Vorobiev unit – not one of the latest "super" motors)

In the second round of semis Smith/Brown returned a 3:23.5 to move clear 2^nd and then Langworth/Campbell put in a 3:22.1 to ease Steve and Colin back into 3^rd place and put Fry/Whorton (who retired on 77 laps) out of the final. Ross/Turner then put in a smooth 3:20.2 showing the now accepted consistency of our top team.

The F2C final, the last event of the Nationals, was thus between Ross/Turner, Langworth/Campbell and Smith/Brown and all three teams entered the circle with choice of segments in that order. After the warm-up had begun some confusion was caused when, as a storm was brewing up, Ross/Turner decided to move their pitting position to one of the free ones. Normally Smith/Brown take front slot when they have the option and had done so on entry to the Circle but there was no time for further changes and the race continued using these positions. There is nothing I can see in any rules to allow an objection to this as long as a free slot was taken but my question is "where should the timekeepers be" as there is not time for everything to be moved. Perhaps they should stay at the original segment and count the first time the relevant model passes them as the start of lap 1 ? – how about this as a discussion point ?? -= Should the warm-up have been restarted ??

The race was a fairly uneventful one with all teams close until the finish and none of them sure about the result until they looked at the clocks. Langworth/Campbell had slight starting problems which may have just lost them the race which finished with Ross/Turner putting in a 6:53.4, Langworth/Campbell a 6:59.3 and Smith/Brown a 7:06.0.

The event was run by our usual CD – Dave Rudd who also acted as overall racing CD with help from a number of people for various disciplines.