2003 Marconi Foundation Proxy Races

Class B (Open Wheels racing cars, no traction magnets)

The race

Kathryn Walwick walked away with this one, her Brabham-Alfa F1 rocketing four full laps ahead of the beautiful Mickey Thompson of Jim Cunningham. The Brabham was based on a Ninco chassis and an unknown resin body, the whole car purchased for all of ten dollars. Philippe de Lespinay lodged a Slot.It NC2 replacement motor, a new rear axle as the gear was chewed up and a TSRF guide cut and bolted in a fixed position. A set of Indy-Grips were stuffed on the stock rear wheels. The car was smooth, easy to drive and fast. It had plenty of grip and felt like a mild magnet car. The drivers loved it and just drove the thing to a convincing win, but its ho-hum body finish killed its chances, bumping it to fourth overall. Jim Cunningham had the horsepower in the gorgeous M/T but it still lacked grip and was a bit slow around some corners. The dead stock Beardog McLaren of Marc Dodinot nearly edged it, finishing in the same lap only a few paces behind. Jim Cunningham's splendid  Bugatti T59 was one lap behind, but its narrow tires, narrow track and concours points gave it the overall win by a clean margin. Matthieu Visser's Tyrell was in the same lap as the Bugatti, but was penalized for ground clearance and excess width, causing it to fall from fifth to eight in overall standings. Next was Alan Schwartz's Alfa, using the same chassis as on Russell Sheldon two-time winning Alfa 8C. But it lacked traction and speed to aim higher. Concours points and no penalties served it well and it finished in the money. Bill Hoskins BRM V16 finished 7th, a pleasant but slower car. Its Concours points bumped it up to sixth overall. Al Penrose's beautiful Scalextric Lotus 12 was seven laps in arrears, and was hurt by its penalty points due to its excessive width. Robert Cline's Paxton turbine car had decent grip  but had a slow motor, so it wandered its way to ninth.  Its Concours points helped it to a seventh overall. Spanish entrant Alfonso Reyes had a hapless Tyrell P34 that kind of wandered its way around the track. More work is needed here. John Roche's Auto-Union was strangled by too much weight and crawled its way in the long straight in a vain search for some speed.. But the judges liked it and it gained lots of points to a ninth place.

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Kathryn Walwick's 1982 Brabham-Alfa F1 was the class of the field for speed and handling. The car was just great to drive and made one forget how bad a stock Ninco chassis really is before it was modified by the Proxynator. A Slot.It replacement mill and a pin-type guide, as well as a floating front acle and added weight made all the difference. Ninco, have a good look as your cars should be this good. The car was purchased for $10.00 from a SCI subscriber 3 years ago but had a gear failure in the past two editions of the race. It was found that the chassis was cracked. A simple repair sealed the fate of this race.

			Marc Dodinot entered a dead-stock Beardog McLaren with the two traction magnets removed, and it looked and ran just beautifully, but not fast enough for its Little Ripper motor to keep up with the lighter cars. A gorgeous car that fortunately suffered no physical damage during the race.
			Class "A" winner Matthieu Visser entered this Tyrrell )1, but it just dod not work well on this track and was excessively large for a 1/32 scale car. Nonetheless it was a valiant effort and helped Matthieu to compete for the overall championship and the Athina Zakarda trophy.
			Al Penrose, guru of BWA Minispeed in Canada, submitted this cute Scalextric Lotus 12 GP car, fitted of course with BWA wheels, inserts and Ortmann tires. Other than being substantially wider , the chassis was simply well prepped and the car ran sweetly if a little slower than others.
			Robert Cline sent this rough and ready Paxton and it ran much better than his previous entries. Robert is making sure progress towards the front.
			This car was sold to Alfonso Reyes from Madrid, Spain who entered it in the race. There was little time to prep it but it ran, kind of, mostly lacking traction from its enormous rear tires. The body is resin and the driver is AWOL.
			John Roche from the UK has been a strong supporter of the Marconi Proxy races, but was professionally very busy and sent this overweight Auto-Union at the last minute. The car just carried too much weight and lacked straight line speed. The body was nicely done but could stand a better finish. A valiant effort nonetheless.

The Concours d'Elegance

Hands down, it was the Bugatti T59 expertly built by Jim Cunningham that took the honors. It already won before, and deservedly. Not only it looks good but it was the driver's favorite car to drive, "akin to a Cadillac". What to say, except bravo to a great little car, still powered by its BSRT HO motor. Alan Schwartz' Alfa took a deserved second and Jim Cunningham's Mickey Thompson finished the podium. Bill Hoskins' BRM led the rest of the pack.

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			Alan Schwartz Alfa was his best effort to get close to the front as yet. The car, based on a Sheldon brass chassis, was effective and reliable. It looked pretty good too, but the color was all wrong, as it should have been painted in deep maroon to match the Scuderia Ferrari "8C".
			Another Jim Cunningham entry, this splendid Mickey Thompson "Allstate Spl" had the sad privilege to have killed its driver, the great Dave McDonald, at the 1964 Indy 500. The model is superb but its chassis was more suited to a wooden track where it excels.
			Bill Hoskins BRM V16 was more efficient than the real car, as it was a nice little car to drive. What it lacked in speed, it made up in driving pleasure. While not the standard previously shown by model master Mark Gussin, it was nonetheless a very nice looking car. Good show, Bill!

Class B results

Final Placings

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