Pepinster International F2C Event - August 14th-15th 1999

The 14th Control Line International at Pepinster, Belgium was held on August 14th – 15th and saw a good entry with 30 in Aerobatics, 18 in Team Race and 8 in Speed. Only 3 teams from Great Britain were present for the Team Racing event a small number following recent trends but largely due to the close proximity to the Piennes International (the previous weekend) and the British Nationals.

The weather for the whole of the meeting was very mixed with sessions of rain, wind and sunshine but it was, fortunately, dry for most of the racing. The plan had been to run 2 heats on the Saturday but, due to the excessive rain this had to be changed to fly the second round on the Sunday. The team Race Jury consisted of Dave Rudd (GBR), Jochain Shiffler (GER) and Daniel Dextre (BEL)

In the first round times were relatively slow with Titov/Yugov (RUS) leading the field on a 3:27.2 and the USA father-son team of Ascher/Ascher in second spot on 3:28.4. None of the British pairs were able to break the 3:30 barrier and the event was wide open for change in the next round.

Flying began at 10:30 on the Sunday morning with those present having enjoyed a good fondue banquet on the Saturday night (and an unlimited flow of beer and wine until around midnight). Sunday started wet but improved early on before the racing began and the second round saw many improvements on the times recorded the previous day. Surugue/Surugue (FRA) put in an excellent 3:20.8 to take the lead and Ascher/Ascher improved to 3:22.0 (one of their best ever times). Langworth/Campbell (GBR) put in a 3:25.8 and Dessaucy/Dessaucy (BEL) a 3:26.5 but all the other teams again failed to break the 3:30 mark.

In the third round Maret/Perret (FRA) put in a good 3:21.1 to claim their spot in the Semis and Langworth/Campbell improved with a 3:24.8. Due to a couple of teams not flying, Fitzgerald/Thomason (GBR) and Heaton/Broadhead (GBR) had a two up at the end of the round – the former team capitalising with a 3:27.2 but Derek and John just missing out on the semis by 1/5 sec.

The semis were to see just five teams break the 3:30 barrier but with the top three all going inside 3:22. The French pair of Ougen/Surugue led with a 3:20.9 after the first round with Langworth/Campbell in second spot on 3:23.7. In the second round Surugue/Surugue put in a 3:21.2 and Titov/Yugov a 3:21.6. Maret/Perret also put in a 3:23.3 but this was only good enough for 4th position. No reflies meant that Heaton/Broadhead did not get the chance they had been hoping for and it was therefore two French teams and one Russian in the final.

The final started off ok with all three models having similar airspeed but Surugue/Surugue on a 33 lap range with the others opting for 40 laps per tank. At each pitstop Titov landed his model to Yugov and Ougen followed him in one lap later forcing Victor Yugov to hesitate on his flicking and thus delaying the Russian team each time. The race carried on in this way until lap 136 when the French pair caught the Russian lines as they landed and were thus disqualified for failing to overfly by the regulation 0.5 metres. (a coincidence that the same thing happened to Surugue/Surugue at Piennes the previous week) The Russian pair were unable to continue which left Surugue/Surugue to fly to a finish with a decent (but not impressive) time of 7:02.1

The prize-giving saw a nice selection of trophies with junior awards being presented in both Team Race and Aerobatics. Thanks must go to Jean Dessaucy and his hard working team for ensuring the meeting was a success.

F2C - Team Race Results

Heat 1

Heat 2

Heat 3

Semi 1

Semi 2

Final

1

Surugue/Surugue

FRA

3

38.1

3

20.8

dnf

ret

97.0

3

21.2

7

02.1

2

Titov/Yugov

RUS

3

27.2

3

33.1

3

33.3

3

30.0

3

21.6

ret

136.0

3

Ougen/Surugue

FRA

3

29.9

3

29.1

ret

98.0

3

20.9

4

22.3

dq

4

Maret/Perret

FRA

ret

68.0

ret

35.0

3

21.1

3

27.2

3

23.3

5

Langworth/Campbell

GBR

3

46.7

3

25.8

3

24.8

3

23.7

3

26.2

6

Dessaucy/Dessaucy

BEL

3

36.3

3

26.5

dnf

3

30.6

3

36.4

7

Asher/Ascher

USA

3

28.4

3

22.0

4

05.9

3

51.5

3

31.4

8

Fitzgerald/Thomason

GBR

3

32.2

3

50.5

3

27.2

3

37.1

4

00.0

9

Metkemeijer/Metkemeijer

NED

3

40.1

3

31.3

3

36.9

4

09.8

3

37.1

10

Heaton/Broadhead

GBR

3

48.8

3

34.4

3

31.5

11

Delor/Constant

FRA

3

33.8

dq

ret

47.0

12

Wakkerman/Vandeweerd

NED

3

41.0

3

36.9

3

36.3

13

Leupold/Engfer

GER

3

37.0

ret

35.0

ret

68.0

14

Marschall/Kuckelhorn

GER

4

14.8

3

49.0

3

45.3

15

Delrue/Liber

BEL

ret

97.0

4

01.9

3

46.7

16

Kollar/Kollar

FRA

4

03.8

4

01.5

4

00.3

17

Bucci/Perret

FRA

ret

00.0

4

08.0

4

41.9

18

Beringer/Beringer

FRA

4

09.8

ret

36.0

4

15.4