2008 Welsh Open F3F
13 - 14 September 2008
Kev Newton does his thing in Round Three
Lean and Mean
This year's Welsh Open took place less than a week after the Viking Race. With the resulting extra pressure on organisers and competitors, entry was restricted to a rather more manageable 45 pilots (compared with 55 last year), and the duration - normally three days - was reduced to two. Nevertheless, it still had all the flavour of a major F3F event, with several top pilots from around the world in attendance. It was great to see old friends from Spain, Germany, France, Norway and Hong Kong, and some new faces as well.
The comp
For the first time in weeks, the rain actually stayed away. Too good to be true? Yes - we had to contend with variable wind conditions instead! That, combined with thermic conditions, made for a mixture of happy and frustrated pilots.
On both days the start was delayed while we waited for the wind to blow, but thanks to some excellent calls by CD Kevin Newton, the delays were minimised by having the course set up in advance on the correct slope. As a result, we managed to fly one and a half rounds on the first day (Mickey's slope).
The flying on Day 2 took place on the back of the Wrecker. We managed to complete both Round 2 and Round 3, but sadly the comp had to be abandoned when the wind died just short of the minimum 4 rounds required for a Eurotour score.
Based on the scores over the three rounds, John Phillips (Masterpiece) was declared Champion by a whisker from Espen Torp (Ceres), with Pierre Rondel in third spot (Ceres). Fastest time was 42 by JP. Well done to all. A summary of the results is at the end of this page.
Acknowledgements
CD'ing and organisation on the slope were spot on. Thanks are due to Kevin, Andrzej, and all those who helped with buzzing etc. Kevin in particular had returned from the VR only a few days prior to the Welsh Open, and had therefore devoted all of the last three weekends to competing and organising! A marathon indeed.
Thanks also to the competitors who made the journey from abroad to make this another fine event.
Sponsors
Raffle prises of a Banana and Air One Mini were generously donated by SlopeRacer.co.uk. Please show your appreciation by having a look round their web site, there are lots of goodies on show, all of them with wings! Thanks also to Wan Kin for donating Sanwa servos for the winners.
Photos
Day 1, Saturday 13th
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Day 2, Sunday 14th
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
After Hours
 |
 |
 |
High res images
High res are available on my SmugMug gallery.
Results
(thanks to Andrzej Tabero)
1 John Phillips 2798.45 2 Espen Torp 2793.67 3 Pierre Rondel 2728.32 4 Mark Southall 2723.23 5 Mark Redsell 2684.15 6 John McCurdy 2651.75 7 Greg Dakin 2622.83 8 Jon Edison 2585.77 9 Angus Lee 2584.05 10 Andrzej Tabero 2583.81 11 Carlos Cantero 2577.62 12 Franz Demmler 2567.80 13 Ronny Sandslett 2566.97 14 Graham Reed 2559.79 15 Mark Passingham 2550.00 16 Mike Shellim 2539.55 17 Peter Gunning 2516.02 18 Ian Mason 2515.66 19 Ronald Broughton 2484.85 20 Mike Evans 2464.66 21 Mark Abbotts 2451.09 22 Tom Macpherson 2443.17 23 Andy West 2422.22 24 Fernando del Barrio Moreno 2414.41 25 Tom Erik Smedal 2379.66 26 Keith Wood 2371.21 27 Steve Clutterbuck 2363.97 28 José Luis Alvarez 2353.11 29 Reto Fiolka 2343.22 30 Mick Walsh 2339.81 31 Mike Young 2334.76 32 Tom Noble 2330.59 33 Joel West 2325.71 34 Kevin Newton 2323.50 35 C M Cheng 2292.22 36 Mark Freeman 2280.29 37 Gary Harrison 2276.86 38 Ken Woodhouse 2253.52 39 Paul Jubb 2228.70 40 Julian Perrott 2218.99 41 Richard Bago 2198.67 42 Wing Wong 2012.42 43 Vic Eldridge 1887.89 44 Frank Hulton 1555.32 45 Stefan Bertschi 1516.23 Teams 1 Big Air Team 7688.99 2 teamfast2furious.com 7643.78 3 GoFast TurnHard 7639.34 4 Dreaming Team 7511.39 5 Swillers 7426.35 6 The Southern Numpties 7405.90 7 Muppetts 7283.26 8 SWSA 7244.28 9 Wales Z 6990.73 10 Hong Kong 6888.69 11 Team Rejects 6646.44 12 TopMiBot 6370.37