The 15th International Control Line Contest
12 - 13 August - Pepinster, Belgium
Report by Dave Campbell
This is always a very pleasant and well organised competition to be at and this year was no exception. In fact, the super weather made it better still. Both days were blessed with wall-to-wall sunshine, temperatures of 28 to 30 degrees C and almost flat calm. A small but select entry of seventeen teams enjoyed two fine days of racing under the watchful eyes of a firm but fair jury who had no real problems to deal with during the course of the competition.
The first round of heats on the Saturday afternoon saw three teams beat the 3:20 mark - current World Champions Maret/Perret leading with a storming 3:13.4 from their number three (!) model, the best two being salted away for next year. Heaton/Broadhead and Langworth/Campbell flew the flag for GB and recorded 3:17.1 and 3:19.6 respectively. H/B used a new Mazniak and model that seemed to like the hot weather whilst L/C used a Yugov YV15. The second round was flown late on Saturday afternoon and only produced one "quality" time - a 3:19.8 from Borer/Saccavino who also used a YV15. Round three on the Sunday morning saw another French quickie recorded - 3:13.7 from Ougen/Surugue using (guess what?) another YV15. This motor seems to be the flavour of the month amongst the top European teams.
The semis produced some close racing with excellent times recorded by the top five teams. It is some competition when a 3:17.6 gets you only 5th place! What was unique was that all three finalists recorded exactly the same time to qualify for the final - 3:16.7. I do not know of any other instance in the history of T/R when this has happened.
Segment choice for the final was therefore sorted out by back up times. Not that it mattered, as there was now no wind whatsoever, so the teams split the circle into three equal parts. The final promised to be close and it certainly was in the early stages. Maret/Perret had the slight edge on speed but did not have the best pitstops, so at the halfway stage Langworth/Campbell were leading by 2 laps from Ougen/Surugue. At the 4th stop L/C chipped the prop on landing and this took the edge off the setting leading to a compression change at the next stop. Meanwhile, M/P had setting problems and retired on lap 149 as they were by now some way behind the other two. The damaged prop on L/C’s model slowed its speed considerably and this allowed O/S to catch up and take the lead to finish in 6:55.3, some 13 seconds ahead.
Results
Pos. Team Nat. Heat 1 Heat 2 Heat 3 Semi 1 Semi 2 Final
1. Ougen/Surugue FRA 0:00.0 3:39.9 3:13.7 3:16.7 0:00.0 6:55.3
2. Langworth/Campbell GBR 3:19.6 3:43.8 3:19.1 3:20.7 3:16.7 7:08.4
3 Maret/Perret FRA 3:13.4 0:00.0 0:00.0 3:19.1 3:16.7 149 L
4. Surugue/Surugue FRA 3:35.7 3:23.8 3:31.6 3:17.1 3:34.1
5. Heaton/Broadhead GBR 3:17.1 3:33.5 3:57.6 3:31.5 3:17.6
6. Muller/Saccavino SUI 3:27.2 0:00.0 3:20.2 3:27.9 3:27.2
7. Metkemeyer/Metk NED 3:26.7 0:00.0 3:27.0 0:00.0 3:40.3
8. Dessaucy/Dessaucy BEL 3:29.8 3:24.9 3:28.0 3:48.4 0:00.0
9. Borer/Saccavino SUI 0:00.0 3:19.8 3:20.0 0:00.0 0:00.0
10. Leupold/Engfer GER 0:00.0 0:00.0 3:30.2
11. Marscall/Kuckelkorn GER 3:31.8 Disq. 3:49.6
12. Kollar/Kollar FRA 3:51.1 3:33.1 3:56.0
13. Kaminsky/Moskalets UKR 3:36.3 3:45.2 0:00.0
14. Vendel/Gemert NED 3:40.7 0:00.0 0:00.0
15. Giger/Studer SUI 3:43.8 0:00.0 4:00.4
16. Delrue/Liber BEL 0:00.0 4:24.6 4:08.2
17. Piccard/Vincenot FRA 0:00.0 0:00.0 4:23.6