1	Vadimir Horky/Josef Korec	CZ	401	At the ISRA Scale Racing World Championship, hold at LA, the queen pairing Vladimir Horky (IOC n°1)/Josef Korec (IOC n°6) has won the 124 Production World Cup. This was possible since at the other queen pairing Paul Gawronski/Paul Ciccarello, the last was missing, so that Gawronski had to start with Tracy Chin. At any rate the presence of Ciccarello should not have altered things, singe Gawronski/Chin were victim of technical problems. Far from the 40 teams at the start, as scheduled by organiser Ron Hershman, there were only 18 duos at the start, the lowest figure since the foundation of the ISRA. Horky/Korec were much faster than all others, and eventually there was only a heavy combat for the second place between Gick/Radisich (NZ), Gooding/Saunders (GB) and Krcil/Karlik (CZ) all three achieving nearly the same distance. Eventually Krcil and Karlik make the Czech success complete by finishing second, ahead of Gooding/ Saunders and Gick/Radisich. Greg Gilbert and Jay Guard came 3 laps short to finish among the top-3. A former winner, and excellent team racer, Einari Fyhr (SF) came no further than 6th, 7 laps out of the top-3. The fact that he had to race with a new team mate, Simo Kairistola, and not with brother Matti (as at all previous editions) may perhaps explain this 6th place. Several anounced top-racers were absent, among them the earlier named Paul Ciccarello, but also Lee Gilbert, Ian Douglass, Michael O'Donnell, Jason Stone and others.  Without Italians (last years winners) and Brazilians, there are not enough good racers in place to stop the supremacy of the Czech racers, already seen at the Nations Cup, where Czechia pulverised all other national teams. We can only hope that the presence of Paul Ciccarello at the next races can save us from the most boring ISRA Worlds since their creation. [JPVR]
2	Petr Krcil/Jiri Karlik	CZ	386
3	Charlie Gooding/Brian Saunders	GB	385
4	Dave Gick/Chris Radisich	NZ	385
5	Greg Gilbert/Jay Guard	USA	382
6	Einari Fyhr/Simo Kairistola	SF	378
7	Michael Rocha/Ted Essy	USA	374
8	Vlado Okali/Antonin Vojtik	SVK/CZ	369
9	Herman James/Joe Carr	USA	366
10	Lars Harrysson/Mikael Landrud	S	365
11	John Watts/Mick Langridge	GB	363
12	Sarkela/Southern	USA	351
13	Paul Gawronski/Tracy Chin	USA	348
14	Keith Gibson/Mario Azzopardi	GB/MALTA	347
15	Philip Helmuth/Paul Heath	USA/NZ	341
16	Loe Pirro/John Schoenfeld	USA	338
17	Tom Marsteller/Scott Kuhns	USA	330
18	O'Donnell/Rick Rochonie	USA	324

---

ISRA WORLDS 2002: 132 F1
EINARI FYHR BEATS THEM ALL

November 7 - Although there were only 28 entrants at the 132 F1 race at the ISRA Worlds one had to wait one and a half day to finish this part of the meeting. With 28 F1 cars at the start it might have been a record following American norms, but it is far beneath the 71 we saw together at Helsinki 2000 or the 67 we found together at Ribera 2001. It proves once more that 132 F1 racing is not universally accepted all over the world. It is a 100% British "invention" with adepts restricted to such countries as New Zealand, RSA, Czechia, Finland, Italy, Latvia and Lithuania. That has been the reason why it was decided in 1985 to refuse an IOC-status to the so-called 132F1 World Championships. 132F1 racing is extremely expensive, but since a Briton, Charlie Gooding is heading the ISRA, it should be unthinkable to stop the formula at ISRA World Championships.
Fastest qualifiers, in that order, were Einari Fyhr (SF), Paul Gawronski (USA), Josef Korec (CZ) and Vladimir Horky (CZ). They were directly placed for the semi finals. Normally we should have expected that there should have been three consis with the 4 best of each consi making the move to the semis. But in order to spin out time (with hotels at such "democratic" price as $ 100 US per night, not directly the best choice) it was decided that the 20 fastest drivers (out of 24) after the consis could make the move to ...three semi finals. At those semis one didn't apply the snake formula, but one put the 8 fastest racers together in Semi C, deciding that the 8 best overall could make the move to the main. Strange rules! At the consis we lost only 4 racers, among them Mick Langridge (GB) and the unlucky Lars Harrysson (S). Fully predictable was the outcome of the three semis: 7 of the 8 entrants at Semi C made the most laps with in that order: Vladimir Horky, Paul Gawronski, Dave Gick, Jiri Karlik, Einari Fyhr, Josef Korec and Greg Gilbert. Only Antonin Vojtik did 2 laps less than the winner of Semi B: Brian Saunders, who was the last man to make the move. Here Chris Radisich was the wanboffer: envolved in a gruelling combat with Charlie Gooding and Brian Saunders, his motor fell out at the 5th segment. Gooding (mister F1!) himself missed the move too. The main final finished nearly in the same order as the qualifications: 1. Einari Fyhr (SF), 2. Paul Gawronski (USA), 3. Josef Korec (CZ), 4. Vladimir Horky (CZ), 5. Dave Gick (NZ). Saunders finished 8th and last. Fyhr - a typical all-rounder, as good with wing cars, scale cars and model cars, even one of the best modelers of the world - was setting the pace from start to finish. Towards the end Gawronski (who finished in the same lap as Fyhr) and Josef Korec launched a last attack on Fyhr, but couldn't prevent he was the meriting winner. Earlier this year Einari Fyhr won already the Finnish ES24 Nats. At the Benelux Open 124 G12, with 68 entrants, he finished second behind Frantisek Poledna. He, Gick and Gawronski are the only racers present at San Francisco able to beat Horky and Korec for the upcoming main events: ES32 and ES24. Meanwhile it is sure that another candidate winner is absent. At the qualifications for the ISRA ES32 EuroNats we found no Paul Ciccarello at the start. Here too entry was extremely low, not at traditional ISRA standards, with only 31 racers. Vladimir Horky TQ-ed in 4"636, followed by the surprising Henry James (4"645), and the unavoidable Einari Fyhr (4"744). Korec was 5th, Gawronski 6th. Thanks to Henry James the final result of this race could be perhaps less predictable as originally was thought. Who knows.  A last remark: the F1 race is without influence on the IOC-Ranking, since the race is not in the list of 27 IOC-races. (JPVR)

---

GOOD ENTRY LIST, BUT MANY TOP-GUNS MISSING

October 31 - What was predictable happened: the high hotel and transport costs to the ISRA Worlds had as direct consequence that only 20 non-American drivers subscribed (up to now). The fact that the chosen date conflicts with the Campeonato Brasileiro (how could such thing be possible!) has as direct consequence that no Brazilians - even not "Gugu" Bernardino - entered. Fully predictable too was that the high hotel costs should keep the racers from East-Europe away: nobody from Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia. Missing too are the excellent South-African racers where Gustav Heymann could have been a candidate for victory lane. Of the excellent Finnish racers (in progress since at least 8 years) only two show: Einari Fyhr and Simo Kairistola, but no Kimmo Rautama, no Matti Fyhr, etc. Sweden is only present with 2 racers, but no Janne Ekman. Even some top-racers from Czechia are missing: Frantisek Poledna, Jan Korec, Mikail Radkovic, Jaroslav Recek, Jiri Micek sr, etc. But where things went definitively wrong is that for the first time since years we'll have a World Championship without Italians: no Paolo Trigilio, no Salvatore Noviello, no Giovanni Montiglio, no Piero Castricone, no Daniele Malangone, no Paolo Niccolai. Among the Britons we are missing James Cleave, Geoff Mitchell, George Kimber, etc. Slovakia misses Jozef Lapcak, Jozef Miskolci, Marcel Prokop, etc. Moreover, once more, there is nobody from Germany, nobody from Spain, nobody from Portugal, nobody from Holland, nobody from Belgium. Last but not least there are nearly no youngsters, even not America's top: Neal Stewart and Matt Zenovitch. Eventually I can detect on the provisional entry list only 6 candidate winners of the main events (ES32 and ES24): Josef Korec (CZ), Dave Gick (NZ), Vladimir Horky (CZ), Einari Fyhr (SF), Paul Gawronski (USA) and Paul Ciccarello (USA). For the rest I find only 7 serious outsiders: Greg Gilbert (USA), Vlado Okali (SVK), Brian Saunders (GB), Charlie Gooding (GB) and the three remaining Czechs (any Czech is always a potential winner!) With only 9 nations present and half of the starters Americans we are miles away from the earlier editions of the ISRA Worlds. Perhaps we can say that even the final results should be predictable if that damned Dave Gick was not there: Gick is a phenomenon, as good as unbeatable. So my forecast is quite simple: the new World Champion Scale Racing will be or Dave Gick, or Josef Korec or Vladimir Horky. But is a World Championship without Noviello, without Bernardino, without Trigilio, without Poledna, without Montiglio, without Radkovic, without Cleave, without Recek, without Mitchell, without Castricone, without Malangone, without Heymann, etc. still a World Championship or only an illusion, kept alive by the conservatism of ISRA's leaders? Should they have accepted the deal to let fly over 20 Americans at IMCA's costs and to hold the race somewhere in Europe or in Brazil, where hotels cost not the half of the American price, we should have had some 100 racers at the start, out of much more nations than a poor 9. 

Positive is the fact that Ron Hershman is a good organiser. So we can be sure that there will be no situations as at last year's Ribera, where we had to wait several days just to know the top-8s! Now we know at least the entry list BEFORE the start. Last year we had even no idea who entered, even several days after the race was finished. Hershman has developed a decent web site and promised to keep us informed nearly on line. Let's hope that Paul OWH Kassens will be present, because his covering of the past USRA Nats proved that he knows very well his job. Perhaps some racers, not in the list, can show at the very last moment. Otherwise this will be the mindest of all ISRA Worlds organised since 1993. A World Championship with only 9 nations present is not very representative for our complete globe! [JPVR]

DRIVERS ENTERED FOR THE ISRA 2002 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

2002 ISRA WORLDS: SAN FRANCISCO (USA), NOVEMBER 2-9 RON HERSHMAN SAVES THE SHIP April 20 - Eventually, five months later than promised - scale racers know when and where the ISRA Worlds will be organised. It will be on November 2-9 at the Park Place hotel next to the San Francisco Airport. Organiser Ron Hershman of Fast Ones confirmed by mail that the contracts are signed and that the racers can rerserve rooms at sharply reduced ISRA prices of $ 99.00 US per night, that is the average month wage of a racer coming from Slovakia, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Russia, etc. The IMCA proposals to combine ISRA and IMCA Worlds in order to have this year a representative and extremely cheap and democratic World Championship could not be accepted since the deal dates - we were said - from November 2001. Our spokesman added that just that was a typical democratic decision by the racers themselves. It is still the question how many top racers will be present. The idea that there will be at least 40 American top racers seems an illusion. The US - 250,000,000 inhabitants - counts less scale racers than an average British or German club. The truth seems that next to pure slot-racing enthusiasts (style Charlie Gooding, Kimmo Rautama, Giovanni Montiglio) other persons, racers with pure commercial interests, were pushing to go (once more) to the States, not to South-Africa or New Zealand (counting at least 50 times so many scale racers as the US), not to Japan or Australia, where they can not sell so easy the parts they transport in their luggage. The issue is predictable: once more no racers from Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, etc. Perhaps a missed chance, obliging most racers to invest in travelling and hotel costs which could have been saved if a co-operation between ISRA and IMCA should have been realised. Info concerning financial problems of the organiser (Ron Hershman) seem not to be well founded and being nothing more than traditional gossip. So Ron is the man who saves the ship, even if it seems more and more that it is The Ship of Fools. Indeed, you must be a little bit crazy to enforce the majority of scale racers to spend lots of money in travelling and hotel costs by sending them to San Francisco, when there was a much cheaper solution by flying 12 thru 24 Americans over to Ostend (place of the 2002 IMCA Nations Cup) at organiser's costs. So the ISRA Worlds were not to be saved, and our proposals had no chance to succeed. Picture: The Ship of Fools (ca 1490) by Hieronymus Bosch. Jean Pierre VAN ROSSEM

---

EEC (European Endurance Championship) 2002:

EEC 2002 IOC-RACE ROUND #1, MRTU 8-HOURS (NL)
Kühn-Vandenbempt-Van Ginderhuysen

March 31 - Round #1 of Raymond van Campenhout's EEC2002 - a cheap and good racing formula - deserved much better. Indeed, only 12 racers, spread over only 4 teams showed for the MRTU 8-hours at Holland's Uden. Last year there were still 19 entries with two British teams. This year the strong Riverside team was absent, what is fully understandable after Riverside Raceway had to close its doors. So no Andy Brown-Searle, no John Brown, no Andrew Aynsley at the start. The lonely Briton at the start was Adrian Gay, completing the two-man MRTU team with René Bastiaans and Marc Raaymakers as local racers. The other local, Theo Vanginderhuysen made this year team with Raymond Kühn (last year's winner) and Alex Vandenbempt. This trio won earlier this year the Maromme 12-hours in France with Marc Raaymakers as fourth racer. Eventually two French teams showed, one with Marc Joyeux, Georges Louis and Ludovic Louis, the other with Henrique Dehais, Benjamin Gontier and new comer Rafaël Bullian. Just as at Maromme the Slotracing Merlijn team (Kühn/Vandenbempt/Vanginderhuysen) was outstanding from start to finish. They achieved 5,388 laps, what is 440 laps less than the previous year. In 2001 5,388 laps was only good for a 4^th place on 5, now it was more than enough to win, since the Hexagone team (Dehais/Gontier/Bullian), finishing at the 2^nd place, came no further than 4,657 laps. In 2001 this should have been …541 laps less than the last place. So a serious backsliding as compared with the previous year can hardly be denied. It is not easy to explain how this is possible, especially since the formula is an excellent one. Perhaps the date (Easter!) was not the best choice. On the other hand the MRTU Uden was the centre of a controversy when the direction decided to cancel the traditional MRTU Grand Prix only one week before the start. So there was some confusion if the race should be on, yes or no. At any rate, without British entries, the EEC2002 is not what it was last year. After the race no IOC-points could be attributed to the racers, due to the fact that the minimum of 15 entrants was not fulfilled. Positive was that 11 of the 12 entrants were IOC-ranked experts, guaranteeing a professional race.

Pos.	Team	Racers	Laps	Points
1.	Slotracing Merlijn	Raymond Kühn (B), Alex Vandenbempt (B), Theo Van Ginderhuysen (NL)	5,388 laps	60 pts
2.	Hexagone	Henrique Dehais (F), Benjamin Gontier (F), Rafaël Bullian (F)	4,657 laps	54 pts
3.	MRTU	René Bastiaans (NL), Marc Raaymakers (NL), Adrian Gay (GB)	4,569 laps	25 pts
4.	MMT	Marc Joyeux (F), Georges Louis (F), Ludovic Louis (F)	4,454 laps	48 pts

---

EUROPEAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 2, MERLIJN 24-HOURS (B)
CLEAVE, P. HARWOOD, FISHER & LUCAS WIN!

September 17 - The traditional Merlijn 24-hours, for 124 Open G-12, went for the first time without the local top-racer Willy Heerwegh, who decided to race no longer 24-hour races. His team finished second. Winners were the Britons from North-London with four excellent drivers: James Cleave, Paul Harwood, Ian Fisher and Alan Lucas. A second British top-team with Bob Hallums, Mark Harwood, Steve Francis and John Secchi finished third. Then came the three French team. Absent were the two IMCA-teams, a Belgian and a Dutch one, the first since two of its racers had last minute work obligations, the second since they found the cost price of such race (12 pairs of tires, 2 or 3 motors, 10 spur gears, etc?) too high. The race was 24 hours on 24 on line at the Internet. There was a night section of 8 hours. After a difficult start things go apparently much better for Raymond van Campenhout's EEC 2002. Racers called it a perfect organisation and ensured to come all back next year. In 2003 the championship will go over 5 rounds, with one in France and probably one in Germany (at Minden). Since there were no entrants from Holland, only from Belgium, U.K. and France, the minimum conditions for attribution of IOC-points were not respected. The next race goes in England, unfortunately as the same date as the ISRA Worlds. We can only hope for Raymond van Campenhout, who is the father of all EEC races, that he'll find enough good racers at the start, the ones he largerly deserves for his relentless efforts. [JPVR].

1.	North London SME	James Cleave (GB), Paul Harwood (GB), Ian Fisher (GB), Alan Lucas (GB)	15,802 laps
2.	Slotracing Merlijn	Theo Vanginderhuysen (B), Raymond Kühn (B), Alex Vandenbempt (B), Adrian Gay (GB)	15,151 laps
3.	SCD Walmington	Bob Hallums (GB), Mark Harwood (GB), Steve Francis (GB), John Secchi (GB)	14,921 laps
4.	Grand Mare Team	Valentin Woutisseth (F), Damien Bourne (F), Aurélie Desnard (F), David Besnard (F), Louis Ludovic (F)	14,824 laps
5.	Hexagone	Rafael Bullian (F), Henrique Dehais (F), Olivier Demoget (F), Thierry Paris (F), Patrice Richard (F)	12,569 laps
6.	M.M.T.	Marc Joyeux (F), Georges Louis (F), Nicolas Dupré (F), Frédéric Barthelemy (F)	12,076 laps

---

United Kingdom 2002

SAUNDERS WINS ES24 & G-12 AT BSCRA 124 NATS
Charlie Gooding wins Saloon - First 2002 IOC Races

Wildfields Farm, January 25-27, 2002. I don't know who has "woodyatoaklands" as pseudonym (Graham Woodward?) but let's thank Heaven that he or she exists, because otherwise we could still wait a couple of week on the results of the two first IOC races of the 2002 season: the ES24 BSCRA 124 Nats and the Open G-12 BESCRA 124 Nats. At Wildfields Brian Saunders succeeded coming up to his 1999 performance, when he won ES24 and Open G-12 and finished 3^rd at 124 Saloon. This year Brian won again ES24 and Open G-12, and finished 4^th in 124 Saloon. The last race was won by England's legend Charlie Gooding, winning his 10^th 124 BSCRA title. Saunders is up to 6 titles. Although venue was a bit higher than last year, several good racers were absent. Among them George Kimber, Geoff Mitchell, James Cleave, Steve Sargent, Chris Frost, Daniel Thornton and Stece Sweetman. It total 38 racers showed. Five among them succeeded achieving a top-8 place at the three races: Saunders, Gooding, Paul Harwood, Keith Gibson and Ian Fisher. Another BSCRA legend, Bob Hallums, entered only the Open G-12, where he came no further than 9^th.
At 124 Saloon Charlie Gooding gave another proof that he's always the best British saloon racer. In his long career he won no less than 10 times the Saloon Nats: 6 times at scale 1/24^th, 4 times at scale 1/32^nd. Not Brian Saunders (less brilliant with simple production cars), but Paul Harwood and Ian Fisher were his most dangerous opponents. They finished in that order with Saunders coming home as 4^th. A newcomer in 124 BSCRA Statistics was M. Crofts, finishing 5^th ahead of Ralph Parker (no Sandy Parker this time to win concourse), Graham Woodward and Keith Gibson.
Open G-12 was the first IOC race of the season. Here Charlie Gooding did what he could to stop Brian Saunders, eventually at no avail, since Brian won his second BSCRA Open G-12 Championship. Third place went to an astonishing Kevin Doubleday, scoring 6 IOC-points, and climbing up in the IOC-classification from rank 453 to rank 332. Ian Fisher and Paul Harwood brought their cars home as 4^th and 5^th. Two British racers scored their first IOC-points: Mike Crofts, finishing 6^th and Will Stemman, finishing 8^th. None of them entered earlier a BSCRA 124 event. Last year there was a Chris Stemman at the start (just as this year), but I'm not aware if Will Stemman has a familiar link with Chris.
At ES24 Brian Saunders won for the fourth time. Earlier he won the ES24 BSCRA Nats in 1998, 1999 and 2001. Only in 2000 he lost from Charlie Gooding. This year Steve Kearey - improving year after year - was his most direct opponent, finishing 2^nd, ahead of Paul Harwood, Charlie Gooding and Graham Woodward. Other top-8 ranks went to Ian Fisher, Keith Gibson and Mike Langridge. The BSCRA Nats were also round #1 of the 2002 BOC 124. In total 11 British racers scored points for the IOC-rabking. With 20 fresh IOC-points Saunders moves from rank 53 to 42 in the IOC-list. Charlie Gooding remains the best ranked British racer: with 12 new IOC-points he's now 37^th instead of 39^th. Having collected 9 IOC-points over the two races, Paul Harwood is now 53^rd instead of 61^st. With 6.5 new IOC-points Ian Fisher moves from rank 85 to 76. There are now 10 British racers ranked among the 100 all-time best in the world. Please consult the updated IOC-list. More info to be expected at Chris Frost's web site and at the BSCRA web site. We received no pictures of the races.

ES24	124 Open G-12	124 Saloon
1. Brian SAUNDERS (10 IOC pts)	1. Brian SAUNDERS (10 IOC pts)	1. Charlie GOODING
2. Steve Kearey (7.5 IOC pts)	2. Charlie Gooding (7.5 IOC pts)