British National Championships 2001 - FAI T/R Event

Good weather greeted the flyers on arrival at Barkston for the 2001 National Championships.

Round 1 started at 1:30 on the Saturday with the weather bright, sunny and a light breeze blowing across the airfield. The UK's top team of Ross/Turner set the pace early on with a 3:15.4 in the second race. The only other good time recorded during the first round was a surprise performance by Smith/Brown. Flying in only their second event of 2001 and accidentally using a steel fronted Mazniak model when they intended to use an aluminium unit Steve and Colin had a perfect race and recorded a 3:21.1. No other teams managed to break 3:30 despite perfect racing conditions.

The second round began at 2:45 on the Sunday afternoon and it was Heaton/Broadhead who led the way this time with a 3:18.2 in the second heat - taking advantage of an easy run with McPeake/Hall running in on the first take-off and Sharp/North being considerably slower in the air. Smith/Brown recorded a decent back-up time of 3:25.6 and Fry/Whorton a 3:28.5. Again - no other teams broke 3:30 and the semi-final cut off was to be 3:49.9 (Tribe/Bollen taking the last slot)

The semi-finals began at 11 am on the Monday and the first race saw Heaton/Broadhead having setting problems - needing a comp adjustment on the first stop and recording 3:36.6. Ross turner put in a 3:22.5 and Fitzgerald/Thomason a 3:24.7 in the first race with their new Yugov equipment. Disaster hit the race between Smith/Brown and Langworth/Campbell with all teams going well until Bernie Langworth landed at full speed in Smith/Browns segment wiping out the wing on the latter team's model. Much discussion took place as to whether Bernie had slipped but from the video that was been taken it would appear that he simply landed to the wrong segment. A refly was awarded to Smith/Brown but, in the event, they withdrew at 63 laps. Miles Yeldham put in a 3:38.5 to take 4^th place at then end of round one and Barker/Tompkins a 3:45.4.

The second round of Semis began with a good race between H/B, FT and L/C. Langworth/Campbell recorded a 3:26.8 with Heaton/Broadhead on 3:28.7 and Fitzgerald/Thomason on 3:32.2. There was some discussion because H/B believed they were ahead of L/C but the timekeeper's watches had to be taken as final. (At the time it was a crucial issue as the teams were fighting for third spot in the final) Fry/Whorton put in a 3:38.0 making the best of poor settings and Ross/Turner a 3:17.9 to take pole position. The real surprise came when Larsson/Gustavsson had a refly with the reserve teams of Walker/Peart and Barker/Tompkins. Walker/Peart ran in on the first take-off and Barker/Tompkins were off the pace in the air. As a result the Swedish pair grabbed their opportunity and recorded a 3:21.5 to gain access to the final. They admitted that the setting would not have lasted a true 3-up race but took advantage of their luck.

So - the three teams for the final were to be Ross/Turner (3:17.9) Larsson/Gustavsson (3:21.5) and Fitzgerald/Thomason (3:24.7). The race got underway successfully with all three teams rotating well but disaster struck at the second stop. Malcolm Ross seemed to have cutting problems when Brian called him in and in his attempts to stop the motor hit the lines of Larsson's model causing it to Crash. The race was stopped with R/T disqualified and a rerun for the remaining two teams. In the refly Fitzgerald/Thomason had overheating problems with several adjustments required and Larsson/Gustavsson strolled on to victory in 7:19.0 around 14 laps ahead of Fitzgerald/Thomason on 7:45.5 - a rather disappointing final.

There was much comment about the standard of judging and timekeeping over the weekend leaving a rather sour taste around the proceedings. The folks who complain need to consider how the Nationals are run with minimum resources and much help from volunteers to whom we must be extremely grateful. Perhaps these folks should offer their services and see if they can make things run more smoothly ????

Thanks must go to Dave Rudd as overall C/L co-ordinator and Andy Daglish, Ted Horne, Alan Fritz and Dave Fry for their efforts of help at different times during both the event and the run up to the weekend.

League Points were awarded as follows :-