Round Six - Black Ditch Pond - Puriton Somerset - 27/28 July 2002

A new course in the South West of the country, Somerset. The event was on a main holiday weekend with good weather forecast. With heavy traffic, getting to the race meeting was an adventure in itself. Simon Scotney's hovercraft was driven into by a lorry! Fortunately, the trailer took the damage and the hovercraft was delivered to the track on the back of an Automobile Association recovery truck.

The course was "compact", 40 seconds per lap. Basically an oval, with transitions on the straights. On the back straight were two dog legs, one land and one water. The land one was more significant depending on the wind strength and direction. The transitions had been properly excavated but due to length and height difference between pond and land it was effectively a launch pad.

The photo above of Conrad Beale number 22 was par for the course. All of us were like this every lap. They say, jokingly, that F1's are now so powerful that if you sit them on their tail they can achieve vertical climb. 'Bout right !!

In the foreground is Tony Goldney who sat this event out, recovering from his tumble at Claydon

Saturday - Race One.

Despite being on Pole I was out accelerated by Daniel and Robin. Conrad came through from the second row by the end of the first lap. That really was it for me for this race. I pushed hard but could not make any impression on the guys in front who were battling hard for the top three places. Daniel held on to the lead, with Robin chasing hard to stay in front of Conrad.

Overtaking on this track was not easy if the craft were evenly matched. Perhaps a flyer out of the last water turn to get alongside and risk the transition side by side was possible, but really it was better to hope for a slightly open door and be ready to barge through.

Race Two

I won this one. Been a while since I last said that. A topsy turvey race full of incident, Daniel was on Pole. At the two minute warning sign he tried to fire up the lift engine the pull start jammed and he was left engineless on the grid.

Conrad and Robin got away in front of me. All of us were flying... literally, out of the water on each lap. Perhaps the landings caused some grief as both Robin and Conrad had minor problems that required them to stop and fix, allowing me, Sean and Peter Gill through. In the meantime Daniel had got going and was chasing hard.

At this point I ploughed in. Coming out of the last water turn on route to the land transition. Whether the lift engine died before the plough in or stopped when I shipped water into the duct I really don't know, anyway I got it restarted and joined the race again just as Sean went past....

I caught him after the main land turn, he went a little wide on the entry to the dog leg and I was able to barge past on the inside for the lead.

Sunday - Races Three and Four.

Despite recovering from the South West Branch hospitality at the "Cider" evening, I was all fired up from my win in the last race. I went out to practise on the Sunday morning only to have a rude awakening when the lift engine frame snapped clean in half, shedding the drive belt and leaving me sliding out of control towards the water transition banks at some speed. I bounced of the protective bales and spun into the water. Being sideways across the course and stationary on a semi blind water transition is not the place to be. I hit the thrust throttle and sledged the craft (without lift) to the recovery point.

The frame failure was complete. We had no option but to revert to an old engine frame and direct drive lift system. The conversion of the lift system and modifications to exhaust, fan guard and blades was completed in short order, Ken, my Father and I getting a "sweat on" as the gap between practice and the F1 race is not a lot if major repairs are required. The direct drive lift system does not allow the Rotax 253 to run in the optimum power band so lift air flow performance was at a stroke reduced. This translated to "plough ins" on the water. The drop down onto the water was particularly difficult and I had several minor incidents during the course of Sunday. I can only say that I finished races. Due to attrition and some drivers not racing as they were saving their craft for the world championships, enabled me to pick up enough finishing points to gain a podium for the weekend.

So, we are all set for a grandstand finish to the 30 race UK F1 National championship, at Rother Valley in a couple of weeks......... Whether teams Eagle or Pintail will become the F1 champions will be decided, probably in the last race of the year, an exciting weekend is in prospect........

The course had some gulleys and very spiky grass which took their toll of the skirt on the right hander after the start. Not helped by having to revert back to a less powerful lift fan setup on the Sunday. This close-up taken during the transition to land during a race on Sunday shows the wear.

The water turn was best taken tight and with maximum power to kick the craft round the tight course...........

...it was also the best place to overtake particularly in the Open races. Here Sean (10) in the process of overtaking several F2/3 craft gets a face full of Jonathan Spedding (1). The camera angle does not quite show that craft number 1 is actually overhanging the front of craft 10

Daniel was left at the line when the pull start jammed on the Westlake lift engine. He eventually got going several laps down but chased hard.

Sean left me a gap on the land dog leg that I was able to use to regain the lead.