Odiham Centralised Event – April 2nd 2000

F2C - Team Race

A poor turnout on the day was unfortunate, possibly caused by some terrible weather in other parts of the country. As it happened Odiham missed out on the rain and a pleasant days racing was had by the six teams that turned up for the F2C event. Three goodyear pairs were also present so the F2C teams were given a few breaks while the goodyear boys had a go.

4 Rounds of racing took place and Ross/Turner lead the way as usual putting in a string of low 3:20s followed by Langworth/Campbell showing consistency with a best of 3:23.7 and three more times within 3:33. Fry/Whorton put in a 3:33.1 in the first round but this was to be the only decent time they recorded as they tried out other models during the rest of the day and never really had a setting in the following races.

Radcliffe/Yeldham came extremely close to snatching the third place into the final when they put in a 3:33.3 (just ).2 secs too slow) using Gordon Yeldham’s Mazniak gear.

At the end of the heats we were left with just Miles/Banks to fly and, as no volunteers were found to rotate with them, they were given a solo run – recording a 3:38.5 as a result.

Smith/Brown tried all day without success to get reasonable settings on there Mazniak gear and the best they could achieve was a 3:55. These motors show so much potential in practice but its amazing how many teams fail to achieve with them in the races. If Steve and Colin cannot get reliability it does not bode well for the lesser experienced teams who are purchasing this equipment.

In the warm-up for the final Andy Whorton’s Mazniak broke its shaft while running (this appears to be rather a common instance recently for a number of teams) but the Contest Director was kind enough to allow a replacement model to be brought in.

In the final Fry/Whorton landed three times in the first 30 laps to back the comp off and had to retire when the model pancaked in on the third landing – the model sitting there looking very sad with both wingtips on the ground !

Both of the other teams needed adjustments during the race but Ross/Turner came in first with a time of 7:14.6 some 7 laps ahead of Langworth/Campbell who finished in 7:28.9.

At the last pitstop Langworth/Campbell damaged the rear underside of their model and then at the end of the race Ross/Turner ran in and ended up near the Fry/Whorton model followed by the Langworth/Campbell model running into them thus leaving all three models in a damaged state on the far side of the circle from the pitmen. What a mess ! – I wish the camera had been ready.

Thanks to Chris Barker for arranging the Venue (he is based there !) and also to Dave Rudd for running the event and providing a number of workshop goodies as prizes.

League Points were awarded as follows :-