August and September saw races 7, 8, 9 and 10 being held at Fenland and Wellesbourne.
Glorious weather greeted competitors and officials at Fenland for an excellent weekend’s racing. 12 competitors graced the start line on Saturday the 17th August. Some very close racing followed with Matt Summers in his RV8 taking the checkered flag to win the Grosvenor trophy with a phenomenally small excess distance. Following him over the line were Ben and Sophie Polwin in their RV7 and then race veteran and adventure extraordinaire Martin Goslin in his Robin DR400. Of the 12 competitors, 6 were disqualified for various reasons ranging from missing turnpoints to insufficient GPS data.
A lovely dinner was enjoyed by all at the Bull Hotel in Peterborough that evening and then on Sunday the 18th August it was the SBAC trophy up for grabs. 7 out of the 12 competitors managed to avoid disqualification which is at least a trend in the right direction and skimming over the finish line in first place was Jonathan Willis in his orange RV6. Ben and Sophie Polwin yet again took second with Martin Gosling third.
September’s race weekend was a contrast to Fenland’s when it came to the weather. Ominous rain clouds threatened to dampen the weekend’s activities and with the forecast being diabolical for the Sunday, it was decided to run the King’s Cup race on the Saturday in place of the Stewards Cup. Only 7 competitors made it to the start line owing to some of the entrants not able to make their long journeys due to inclement en-route weather. The race had some extra excitement when one competitor had to return shortly after takeoff because of an engine anomaly. The start line ground crew managed the situation expertly by releasing the last remaining aircraft early to clear the runway and thus allowing an immediate landing of the ailing aircraft. The early released aircraft subsequently had their finish time adjusted to account for this.
The course at Wellesbourne proved to be too challenging for many, as more than half the field were disqualified for missing turn points. First over the line to win the King’s Cup was Martin Gosling, second were the super consistent team Ben and Sophie Polwin and in third Simon Tilling in his North American Navion. Sunday’s weather was indeed as forecast and so no race was run.
The final championship standings will be presented at the Club’s black tie AGM dinner in November. It’s been a great season’s racing with a good number of competitors attending most races, in aircraft ranging from a C150 to RVs.
Handicapper Matt Summers with his excellent software has shown that aircraft can compete effectively on part throttle instead of full throttle which opens up the competition to Rotax powered aircraft as well as those running vintage engines such as the Gypsy Major.
The 3R’s Club is looking forward to a great 2025 season starting off with the free to attend Race School in April at Popham.
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