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2008 Welsh Open F3F

13 - 14 September 2008

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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

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Day 2, Sunday 14th

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After Hours

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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

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