Oakington Centralised Event - April 8th 2001

The 2nd Centralised competition of 2001 was held at Oakington on April 8th with the site being shared with the speed fraternity. The weather was dry albeit a bit on the cool side with signs of the recent deluges present in miniature lakes around the airfield.

9 Teams turned up on the day following a week where everyone was unsure whether or not we would be allowed on site due to F&M restrictions. In the end the Farmer was extremely helpful in letting us continue providing we took all vehicles through a disinfectant wash and that we all kept off grass areas within the site.

½A Team Race was also due to be held but, with only 2 teams turning up, this event was cancelled.

The F2C teams all found problems with the surface – many cracks are appearing despite work by the resident club and it is becoming a difficult site to race on – particularly with the modern lightweight F2C models.

During the first round many teams experienced difficulty obtaining a reasonable setting due to the cold air going through the models. The Mazniak motors seem particularly sensitive in this way and it is a common pattern to see teams putting the compression up to combat the cold air only to overheat half way though a race. The fastest time in the first round was a 3:46.6 by Heaton/Broadhead. Ross/Turner managed a 3:48.8 – a bit slow for them !

In the second round Ross/Turner improved to a 3:31.7, Tribe/Bollen put in a 3:47.2 and everyone else seemed to "give in". It was as if everyone was trying to remember how they made the models go fast last year as no-one seemed to be able to get it together.

After a ¾ hour lunch break the third round got underway and a few more respectable times were recorded with a 3:32.7 from Fitzgerald/Thomason, 3:36.1 from Heaton/Broadhead and 3:36.9 from Tribe/Bollen. Again most of the other teams gave up during their races.

The poor standard of racing continued and the 4th round saw just 4 teams fly and only two times recorded.

No-one was interested in flying a final so placings were decided on heat times.

The competition was again run by Dave Rudd.

F2C - Team Race Results

Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Heat 4

1

Fitzgerald/Thomason

ret

91.0

4

54.1

3

32.7

3

30.6

2

Ross/Turner

3

48.6

3

31.7

ret

44.0

dnf

3

Heaton/Broadhead

3

46.6

4

03.4

3

36.1

ret

50.0

4

Tribe/Bollen

3

53.1

3

47.2

3

36.9

ret

01.0

5

Fry/Whorton

4

23.6

ret

44.0

ret

68.0

3

48.8

6

Hill/Metcalfe

5

06.6

ret

27.0

dnf

dnf

7

Barker/Tompkins

5

15.0

ret

72.0

5

07.1

ret

01.0

8

Miles/Yeldham

5

10.7

ret

57.0

ret

50.0

ret

95.0

9

Holmes/Robson

ret

21.0

dnf

dnf

dnf

 

League Points were awarded as follows :-

Ent

Plc

Fin

Imp

Tot

Fitzgerald/Thomason

1

5

0

0

6

Ross/Turner

1

4

0

0

5

Heaton/Broadhead

1

3

0

0

4

Tribe/Bollen

1

2

0

0

3

Fry/Whorton

1

1

0

0

2

Hill/Metcalfe

1

0

0

0

1

Barker/Tompkins

1

0

0

0

1

Miles/Yeldham

1

0

0

0

1

Holmes/Robson

1

0

0

0

1