Barkston Nationals – August
28-30th 2004
The first day of
the 2004 Nationals Champs gave us excellent weather with the sun shining
pretty well all day and a breeze that was light enough to allow easy three up
races.
Racing got
underway at mid-day on the Saturday and it was Smith/Brown who led the way in
the first round with a nice 3:15.8. Ross/Turner put in a 3:20.0 to claim
second place and Langworth/Broadhead were in third spot with a 3:25.9. Mike
Fitzgerald was flying with Mark Thomason for the first time this year and they
recorded a 3:29.9 just 0.4 seconds ahead of Swedish visitors
Larsson/Gustaffson with a 3:30.3. Derek Heaton had paired up with USA visitor
Wallick and they recorded a 3:35.4.
The other two
rounds were held on the Sunday and we were greeted with a heavy wind on
arrival at the airfield. Discussions were held and it was decided that
three-ups were going to be very dodgy and all racing would be flown as
two-ups. In actual fact no-one broke the 3:30 barrier on the Sunday and the
only changes were in the minor placings.
Monday was not
quite as bad (albeit a bit windy) and the semis were held as three-ups.
Fastest in round one were again to be Smith/Brown and Ross/Turner with 3:20.6
and 3:21.0 respectively - Fitzgerald/Thomason holding 3rd place with a 3:29.0.
Langworth/Broadhead did not take part in the semis at all due to Bernie
suffering from a strange virus and not feeling safe to fly.
In the second
round Heaton/Wallick had a good run - albeit rather controversial. Wallick
loosed his model under the gliding model of Barker/North causing them to stall
into the wind and crash in. The GBR/USA combination was allowed to fly on for
a tank - then disqualified - then re-instated. Derek Heaton refused to land
his model when instructed to do so following the disqualification and the time
was allowed to stand. In my mind this was a totally incorrect decision as
their take-off under a gliding model had clearly caused Barker/North to crash
and as a result they were able to fly the rest of the race virtually solo -
resulting in a 3:19.3 which was the fastest time in the semis.
In the final all
was going well for the three teams during the first two tankfulls but the
Heaton/Wallick model fell apart in the air on the 66th lap (possibly broken
wing at the first stop) and the other two teams were able to fly the rest of
the race two up. It was fairly close between them but Smith/Brown finished
four laps ahead with a 6:51.0 - Ross/Turner coming home in 6:58.9.
All in all it was
a very disappointing event this year with many teams reluctant to fly in the
rough conditions and resulting chaos for Dave Rudd in handling the draw. He
did in fact, on several occasions, have to resort to organising races for
"whoever wanted to fly"
Thanks to Dave
Rudd for running the F2C event at this years Nationals
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British Nationals - August 28th-30th 2004 |
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F2C - Team Race Results |
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Heat 1 |
Heat 2 |
Heat 3 |
Semi 1 |
Semi 2 |
Final |
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1 |
Smith/Brown |
GBR |
3 |
15.8 |
dnf |
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dnf |
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3 |
20.6 |
dnf |
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6 |
51.0 |
2 |
Ross/Turner |
GBR |
3 |
20.0 |
dnf |
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dnf |
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3 |
21.0 |
dnf |
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6 |
58.9 |
3 |
Heaton/Wallick |
GBR/USA |
3 |
35.4 |
3 |
48.0 |
dnf |
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ret |
33.0 |
3 |
19.3 |
ret |
66.0 |
4 |
Fitzgerald/Thomason |
GBR |
3 |
29.9 |
dnf |
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dnf |
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3 |
29.0 |
dq |
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5 |
Barker/North |
GBR |
3 |
41.8 |
3 |
59.6 |
dnf |
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4 |
00.6 |
3 |
38.8 |
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6 |
Fry/Whorton |
GBR |
ret |
89.0 |
3 |
32.9 |
dnf |
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3 |
43.1 |
3 |
39.7 |
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7 |
Holmes/Robson |
GBR |
3 |
57.2 |
4 |
08.2 |
3 |
53.8 |
5 |
16.2 |
ret |
01.0 |
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8 |
Larsson/Gustavson |
SWE |
3 |
30.3 |
3 |
40.5 |
dnf |
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ret |
99.0 |
ret |
01.0 |
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9 |
Walker/Peart |
GBR |
ret |
01.0 |
3 |
52.2 |
dnf |
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ret |
01.0 |
ret |
85.0 |
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10 |
Starkey/Bollen |
USA/GBR |
dq |
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4 |
37.6 |
dnf |
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ret |
01.0 |
dnf |
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11 |
Langworth/Broadhead |
GBR |
3 |
25.9 |
dnf |
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dnf |
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dnf |
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dnf |
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12 |
Bainbridge/Metcalfe |
GBR |
3 |
56.7 |
4 |
37.6 |
dnf |
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13 |
Miles/Yeldham |
GBR |
3 |
58.9 |
ret |
71.0 |
dnf |
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14 |
Riley/Robinson |
GBR |
4 |
06.8 |
ret |
70.0 |
dnf |
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15 |
Tribe/Bollen |
GBR |
dnf |
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dnf |
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dnf |
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