The 6th Grand Prix of Luxembourg

7 - 8 September 2002 - Piennes, France

A small entry of just twelve teams did not prevent this being an excellent competition that was very well organised and very well juried. The weather conditions were better than expected, being sunny and warm (23C) with moderate wind. The schedule was for two rounds of heats on the Saturday and a third round on Sunday morning followed by the semi-finals and final later in the afternoon. Slick organisation and the relatively low entry saw it all over by 5pm on Sunday, including the prize giving!

The first round of heats on the Saturday afternoon saw four teams beat the 3:20 mark – the fastest being Ougen/Surugue of France with a 3:14.6, followed by the only British representatives Heaton/Campbell, who made 3:16.4 in the first race with a new Yugov 15 engine. The impromptu French/Italian team of Pascal Surugue and Elvis Pirazzini recorded 3:16.8 and Fabrice Picard and Claire Perret of France went very well for a 3:19.0. The second round produced improvements only for Radicchi/Lanzoni of Italy who made 3:20.8 with a Mazniak engine, and Heaton/Campbell who used their number two model for a personal best of 3:14.2. Round three on the Sunday morning saw another quick time recorded - 3:11.8 from Martini/Menozzi in a two-up race for the fastest time of the meeting.

With just twelve teams entered, the number of semi-finalists would be only six. The first round of semis did not produce the expected fast times, dropped catches seeming to be endemic amongst most of the teams! Leading at this stage were Picard/Perret with a 3:21.4, Heaton Campbell were second with a disappointing 3:24.9 following some tardy pitstops and in third spot were Dessuacy/Dessaucy of Belgium with only 3:44.3! The second round of semis saw Martini/Menozzi move into third place with a 3:25.2 and Heaton/Campbell take the lead by recording yet another personal best of 3:12.3, with quick pitstops this time. Ougen/Surugue and Surugue/Pirazzini could have also expected to be in the final but both suffered from variable settings to record (for them) slow times.

At the start of the final, Picard/Perret and Heaton/Campbell were both away promptly gaining a full lap on Martini/Menozzi. Heaton/Campbell got another lap advantage on the other two teams in the first tank by virtue of better airspeed and gained another at the first pitstop. Martini/Menozzi dropped the catch at their second pitstop and that basically settled the outcome of the race, as Heaton/Campbell had four laps advantage by this stage. Their lead over Picard/Perret was increased by two or three laps in each tank full and even a compression adjustment at the last pitstop could not prevent Heaton/Campbell running out easy winners in the very fast time of 6:35.7, twelve laps ahead of Picard/Perret.