Round 1 – Sun 19th April, Exeter MBC, Dragonfly Lake, Crealy Park, Exeter

Report by Russ Chilcott & Mark Shipman

The 2009 Championship series kicked off as tradition dictates, with round 1 hosted by Exeter MBC at Crealy Park on 19th April. We arrived on site in the most perfect spring day, with bright sunshine and just a light breeze coming from the south west.

Surprisingly, with so many changes to the class rules at the last AGM, the turn-out was very good with 58 boats entering in the six classes. These were entered by 31 members which is one of our highest ever attendance, 6 of whom were junior (under 16 years) members, so the future is looking bright for FE racing in the south west.

The Dragonfly Lake is slightly on the small side especially for the surface drive brushless class, and it really seems to have shrunk slightly over the years as the new breed of FE racing boats get progressively faster. But it does have excellent on site facilities, parking literally lakeside and plenty to do for the family while their dad’s play with their boats!

With so many boats entered and a tight course all but one class were split into two heats, with the lower numbered boats all racing together in heat one.

After a quick skippers briefing, the racing began as usual with the R2R boats:

R2R (Ready to Run)

The numbers entering in this “entry level” class had dropped slightly last year as many had moved into other class, so it was good to have 12 boats racing for the start of a new series. It was also very good to have three “Rookies” racing in a SWAMBC round for the very first time, Torran Hayward (Yate & Sodbury MBC) and two junior members Rebecca Taylor (Yate & Sodbury) and Adam Truscott (Stithans MBC).

From the start it was another junior racer Michael Hickman who set the pace with his trusted “Shockwave” boat, scoring 15 laps in his first two races, a lap clear of everyone else. Rebecca showed the boys how’s it’s done as she finished in 3rd place in her first ever race, but this was her best result on the day and a DNS (Did Not Start) in race 4 dropped her to 6th place, but still not a bad start against a strong field of experienced R2R Racers.

John Browning, Mark Sutton and Alex James (another junior) closed the gap on Michael by race 3, but another 15 lap score in race 4 secured Michael the R2R class win with an impressive score of 45 laps, 29 seconds. John (not a junior!) was clear in 2nd place (42L, 55s) with Alex James (40L, 34s) finishing in 3rd spot just 16 seconds ahead of Mark.

Formula 2

The Formula 2 class was also well support with a dozen boats entered to race. Two Torbay members Rob Parsons and Aran Bond both racing Toys’Port Jokers (Kontronik FUN480-42 and Lehner 1530/8 respectively) were very quick right from the outset both scoring 25 laps in race 1, they then increased their lead over everyone else in race 2 as Rob scored another 25 laps, with Aran just behind on 24. These were impressive lap scores on any course, especially one which does not leave much room for error.

Roger Clark, Graham Fright and Bill Hickman were the best of the rest in the first two races, but going into the days 3rd and final race it was head to head between Rob and Aran, though in reality they were racing in two different heats. Aran’s final race was cut a bit short as he came a little too close to a duck on the far side of the course, as all the skippers had already been warned, he was promptly DSQ (Disqualified). He finished 2nd for day (49L, 30s). Roger won the final heat having his best race of the day to guarantee a 3rd place (48L, 22s) Robs final race also finished fairly soon on lap 6 as a “racing incident” with Russ Chilcott much improved Tsunami resulted in Rob’s prop being damaged. But he had already won the day in F2 with a very good score of 50L, 15s - his first ever class win.

Formula 3

Like the R2R’s the Formula 3 boat’s are the only other class to remained totally unchanged from last year. Still racing on brushed (19T stock) motors on Nimh (max 3300) cells this class seems as popular as ever with 11 boats entered at this round.

Despite being one of the slower classes now racing in the SWAMBC series, these boats continue to produce some of the closest racing, with the lead changing lap by lap. There was simply nothing between most of them all day, in fact only 2 laps separated the top 5 boats in race 1, in race 2, there were 6 boats 2 laps apart and then in race 3 the top 7 boats all finished the race with just a couple of laps between them all! With such close racing every second counted as they passed the finishing line, so the Race Officer Malcolm Franks and the lap Counter/Caller were kept busy all day.

Despite his DNS in race 1, Alex James came back superbly in race 2 and 3 with consistent scores of 17L, 7s and 17L, 16s to win another class for the juniors (34L, 23s) by just 1 lap and 10 seconds ahead of the current F3 Champion Roger Clark (33L, 13s). Graham Fright (33L, 20s) took 3rd place snapping at Rogers heals just 7 seconds behind. The close racing is reflected in the days overall scores with the top 8 boats finished the day just 5 laps apart.

Formula 4

The Formula 4 class has had a complete overhaul, with just its name and the “any hull, drive system” rule remaining the same as before. The class is now for brushless Mega 22/30/2 motors only, racing on 4S1P Lipo cells and must weigh a minimum of 2kg.

With all the changes it was still good to have 8 completely new boats ready to race at this meeting.

They were raced in two heats of 4, but by the day’s final race 3 had RTD (Retired) so with the agreement of the drivers the remaining 5 were all raced together for race 3.

The usual oval was dropped in favor of a two buoy “sausage” course, but this layout still proved a little tricky for some, the odd duck and dead boat made things even trickier for everyone!

Most races were pretty much a short sprint between the two buoys, then slowing down enough to negotiate the hairpin turns before another blast of speed across the lake.

The current F4 Champion Adrian Hingston racing a “Toys’Port Sycron” managed the course by far the best of everyone, keeping the balance of speed and control as he clocked 29, then 26 and finally 31 lap scores in his 3 races. His total of 60L, 35s was some distance ahead of the rest. Its looking like he wants to keep hold of his No1 race number for another year! 2nd place (54L, 8s) on the day was Mark Shipman with his “Head of the River 32in Cat”, a good recovery as he failed to start race 1. In 3rd spot another 10 laps down was Russ Chilcott (44L, 0s) “Hopf EVO Nightmare”.

Hydro 1

The 5 boats entered were all raced together in one heat, in hindsight this may have been a mistake on the tight course!

Like all the surface drive boats they struggled to find the best racing line, some racing a little too close the buoys and then having little or no room to turn and get back around onto the straight run across the lake. The incredible acceleration of these boats could be really appreciated as they passed close to the bank.

Roger got into the “grove” early on and was the most consistent over the three races, getting his Chris O modified hydro around the course with a winning score of 32L, 19s. Alex James completed a superb days racing with a hat-trick of top 3 place as he took the 2nd place in Hydro 1 (31L, 22s) just a lap behind Roger. Chris Osman was 3rd in 22L, 4s.

Mono 1

With 10 boats entering this class, Mono 1 continues to get the highest entry of the three brushless, surface drive, oval racing classes. The 10 were split into two heats of 5, and just like the F3 class they produced some really close, exciting racing all day.

While many spent time self-righting themselves before racing to their next incident, Malcolm Franks steered his “Dragstar” around the course, while not the fastest on the water, it handled the tight turns very well. He scored 22 laps in each of the first two races and led the field with just one race to go. Four others had closed the gap a little by race 3, but it was Mark Shipman racing his Zardoz Max who left his best till last as he scored a massive 24 laps, some 2 laps more than anyone else had done all day. This leapfrogged him into the top spot ahead of Malcolm. Mark finished his day with 45L, 42s, a lap head of Malcolm on 44L, 4s. Chris Osman and Adrian Hingston scrapped for the 3rd spot, sometimes a little to close. In race 2 as the boats crossed the start line at full speed Adrian’s other Synchron spun right in front of Chris’s Zarzilla (own build Zardoz/Gozilla hybrid). Chris’s boat hit the Synchron broadside going airborne at least 3 meters above the water, before splashing down quite some distance along the course. Amazingly Chris recovered his boat almost undamaged and was out again in the final race, finishing his day in 4th place (43L, 12s) Adrian, who was lucky to have a boat still in one piece, nicked 3rd spot on a score of 44L, 29s.

Summary

By 4.30pm the final race was run, the scores quickly added up and the prizes awarded by the host club Secretary Dave Aylott to the top three places, with a lolly going to those in last place. There were six different winners from the six classes, which is very healthy for the series overall. Michael drove very well to take the top spot in R2R (he’s easily the best driver in the Hickman family now!), Rob had his first ever class win in F2, Mark’s late charge to nick the Mono 1 class plus Adrian’s F4 win by some margin were all impressive. But the stand out drivers on the day were Roger Clark and Alex James. Both entering 3 boats, Roger winning in Hydro 1, a 2nd in F3 and a 3rd place in F2 was good, but that was matched by Alex with his win in F3, 2nd in Hydro 1 and 3rd in R2R – and he’s a junior!

The weather could not have been better, with the help from the host club Sec. Dave things moved along very smoothly. All the Race Officers did a superb job of “managing” their classes, not that easy at times! There were a total of 34 heats, but with a quick turn around between races and members ready to “do their duty” we even had time for a 25 minute break during the day. This also allowed everyone time for recharging, repairs, a bite to eat, power their noses and more importantly - have a chin wag!

The Crealy Park Management were lakeside at one point during the day and were very impressed by the racing they saw and even made comment about our consideration towards the wildlife.

Hopefully, providing we are invited again and can find a course layout which suites all classes and drivers, we will return to Crealy next year, as it still remains one of the best venues we have in the south west. If the island could be moved back 20 meters - it would be THE best venue in the south west!

Thanks once again to the Exeter and District MBC, their members, the ladies who run the excellent raffle and the “Host with the most” – Exeter Sec. Dave A.

Last years hugely successful series was always going to be a hard act to follow, but this round was a great start to the 2009 Championship, hopefully there is plenty more still to come.

It’s off to the large expansive of open water of the Sutton Bingham Reservoir next, as the Yeovil and District MBC will be our hosts for round 2 on 17th May.

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