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The National Club Team Championship was run on 28
September at Raceway UK. This is the first time since 1978 that the
team race has been run on a separate week end from the individual
Nats. It was a very popular event, there were 12 teams of 4 drivers
competing, only to the individual 1/32 Nats has seen more competitors this
year.
Many thanks to Terry, Sally and Toby Clark for hosting an
excellent meeting. Terry did most of the race control, his calm
authority and lightning reactions on track calls was certainly a major
contribution to making it such an enjoyable week end. |
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| Here's the line up in the parc ferme
before the start with each team's pair of cars. Note that most
of the teams had pairs of bodies specially painted for the event.
Each team ran for 23 min in each lane, teams following the standard colour
rotation with 8 teams on the track and 4 sitting out each segment..
After each segment, 4 teams moved to their next lane, and were joined by
the 4 teams that had just sat out a segment. Here's a diagram of how
it works. |
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| The race started with Pinewood leading the first
segment from North London with "Trotters Independent Traders" in
third. While the Trotters were not eligible as a club team (having
drivers from various parts of the Country rather than all members of one
club - drivers I might add with a great many National Championships
between them!) they certainly added interest to the race. In the
second segment North London took the lead, with Ipswich moving up to
second ahead of the trotters. Pinewood continues to be very fast
when on the track, but pit stops with gear trouble kept them well down the
finishing order. Oaklands Park took third from Trotters in segment
4, only for the Trotters to move up to second in the next segment,
ahead of Oaklands, while Ipswich dropped back to 4th. Segment 6 saw
Ipswich displace Oaklands from third, and the club from Birmingham dropped
another place to 5th with a fast finishing Luton car taking 4th only
minutes from the end. Well done to North London SME - National Team
Champions again - but this time several teams made them fight for
it.
Photos -
The winning team drivers with their trophies (l to r) Ian Fisher, and
the brothers Greg, Mark and Paul Harwood.
The winning car showing a little body damage after 3 hours hard
racing. They only used this car - never needing to take their number
two car out of the parc freme. That tells you something about
Ian's preparation, and the quality of the driving. The Betta chassis
is one of the pair they used to win this event last year! Just about
everybody else switched to their second car - and several second cars were
a bit past their best before the end!
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| Position |
Team |
Total Laps |
Drivers |
Fastest segment driver |
Fastest segment laps
/ lane |
| 1 |
North London |
2326.89 |
I.Fisher, G, M, & P
Harwood |
P.Harwood |
309 |
| 2 |
Trotters |
2281.84 |
C.Gooding, S.Kearey,
B.Saunders, J.Watts |
B.Saunders |
299 |
| 3 |
Ipswich |
2251.07 |
R.Mack, N.Obee, A.Smith,
M.Thomson |
R.Mack |
299 |
| 4 |
Luton |
2220.38 |
S.Alton, J.Cleave, C
& W Stemman |
J.Cleave |
308 |
| 5 |
Oaklands |
2217.39 |
R.Parker, C & G
Thomas, G.Woodward |
G.Woodward |
287 |
| 6 |
Riverside Exiles |
2180.73 |
A.Brown-Searle, K.Noon,
G.Stephenson, M.Stewart |
A.Brown-Searle |
292 |
| 7 |
Netley |
2148.86 |
C.Frost, M.Langridge,
D.Smith, M.Witham |
M.Witham |
282 |
| 8 |
Pinewood |
2097.81 |
M.Crofts, K.Gibson,
J.Penn, J.Wells |
M.Crofts |
303 Black |
| 9 |
Crawley |
2085.85 |
P.Farthing, C.Hunt,
L.Parsons, K.Saul |
L.Parsons |
285 |
| 10 |
Wellingborough |
2084.89 |
David and Davey Farrow,
M.Kerr, A.le Maistre |
M.Kerr |
288 |
| 11 |
Ipswich B |
1656 |
B.Church, K.Doubleday,
A.Humphries, J.Hyde |
A.Humphries |
268 |
| 12 |
Roedale |
880 |
V.Lee, J.Symons, B.Tapp,
S.Watson |
V.Lee |
275 |