Barkston Centralised Event - October 10th 2003

The forecast was good for the last meeting of the season which had been re-arranged to take place at Barkston Heath due to problems with the Dartford site. The early morning drive up saw hot air balloons in the air so we expected a good day. Unfortunately, when we arrived on site, we were greeted by a heavy (and gusty) wind which made flying rather difficult. Before any draw took place it was agreed that 3-ups were going to be a problem with only two sensible pitting positions available (and problems with one of these) so all races were two ups.

 

Mike Fitzgerald and Taffy Bollen flew together and were fastest on the day managing to record 4 times in the difficult conditions and with a fastest of 3:28.8. In one race they lost the rear underside from the model but were, strangely enough, allowed to continue with the body portion lying on the concrete (totally against the rules of course and rather stupid on safety reasons – particularly on a day such as this). Dick Miles and Gordon Yeldham managed to put in a couple of times to take 2nd place with a best time of 3:34.7 with Fry/Whorton in third place on 3:49.3. Overall – you had to be happy not to write off any equipment in these conditions.

 

Thanks to Bernie Langworth and John Broadhead for turning up and running the competition for us.

 

  F2C - Team Race Results                
                   
    Heat 1   Heat 2 Heat 3 Heat 4
                   
1 Fitzgerald/Bollen 3 41.6 3 32.1 3 38.3 3 28.8
2 Miles/Yeldham 3 34.7 ret 67.0 3 37.3 dnf  
3 Fry/Whorton 3 54.6 3 49.3 dq   dnf  
4 Barker/North 3 56.9 ret 93.0 3 52.2 dnf  
5 Walker/Peart 4 19.7 4 12.9 ret 68.0 dnf  
6 Ross/Devenish 4 46.6 ret 32.0 dnf   dnf  

League Points were awarded as follows :-

  Ent Plc Fin Imp Tot
           
Fitzgerald/Bollen 1 3 0 0 4
Miles/Yeldham 1 2 0 0 3
Fry/Whorton 1 1 0 0 2
Barker/North 1 0 0 0 1
Walker/Peart 1 0 0 0 1
Ross/Devenish 1 0 0 0 1