2026 Won O Won Sports/GT Championship May 4th

1/32   Nationals   2026

Monday’s racing was for the fastest class - Sports/GT.  As in F1 just about the whole field were running brushless motors although a few bought along their strap motor cars as back ups.  

This year the  BSP/CAT Audi body is no longer eligible so there were plenty of new bodies in use.  The Mack Glickenhaus, Betta Ferrari 499P and Betta  Aston Martin Valkyrie proved the most popular shells.

Mick Metcalfe  completed a hat trick of best presented bodyshell awards with his Betta  Valkyrie.

Qualifying

Lee Parsons took top qualifying with a new track record of 4.726 seconds,  the only track record broken at this year’s Nats.

Close behind  Lee were James Cleave 4.741, Will Stemman 4.749 and Ross Grogan 4.790.  Ben Tapp was top main grade on 5.151 - 15th overall.

Main Grade Final

Mick Metcalfe’s
Aston Martin Valkyrie

Heats

Ralph West led the F heat early on but blew his board, leaving Steven Pratt to win on 222 from Stephen Brown. The E heat had Mick Metcalfe lead from start to finish, and end on 237. Initial he was chased by Steve Sargent and Pat Skene, but Steve ‘spun’ a pinion, and Pat had his Veloce motor expire, so Paul Lyon (making a welcome return to 1/32 Nationals racing) finished second and Bob Hallums third. The D heat had a 3 way battle for most of the race, with Steve Taylor finally pulling away from Gibbo and Paul Harwood. Steve’s total was good enough for him to claim the top Clubman award. Micky Ovens led the first 5 segments with Richard Mack in the C heat, until Micky had to stop for a gear change, which dropped him to 3rd behind Bob Budge. Richard finished on 261 to go top, Micky got back ahead of Bob for second, and Gordon Dickson in 4th all beat Steve’s total from the previous heat. In the B, Ben Woodward led most of the way from Gavin Wills, until he got hit in an accident and stripped a gear. Gavin took the overall lead with 266, with Greg and Mark Harwood 2nd and 3rd. In the A heat, Chris Thomas quickly dropped out of contention after a motor change. James Cleave led most of the way from Will Stemman and Josh Bryant. Will dropped out near the end leaving Lee Parsons and Ross Grogan to finish 3rd and 4th. Simon Scott and Dave Stevenson just missed the ‘cut’, so joining the first 4 in the Open final were Greg and Mark Harwood, Gavin and Richard Mack.

Main Grade Final

The main grade finalists were : Mark Steventon on red, Gordon Dickson on white, Keith Gibson on green, Bob Budge on Orange, Ben Tapp on blue, Marc Croston on yellow, Steve Taylor on purple and Mick Metcalfe on black. Bob and Gibbo led after the first segment from Steve Taylor. Mick Metcalfe started slowly on black and was back in eight. After 2 segments, Gibbo and Bob were 6 laps ahead of Mark Steventon, and Mick was up to 6th. At the halfway point Gibbo led by 2 laps from Bob, who was 7 clear of the group of Steve, Mark, Gordon and Mick. 45 laps while on yellow and orange enabled Gibbo to widen the gap over Bob to 5 laps, while Mark was back in 3rd place at three quarter distance. While Gibbo ran out a comfortable winner by 10 laps over Bob, Ben Tapp overcame. 2 lap deficit to grab the final podium spot, and Gordon also got by Mark in that’s 30 seconds to finish 4th. Mark was 5th, Mick 6th, Steve 7th and Mark 8th.

Final

On to the last event of the weekend - the Won o Won Open Sports final : Richard Mack on red, James Cleave on white, Gavin Wills on green, Ross Grogan on orange, Josh Bryant on blue, Mark Harwood on yellow, Lee Parsons on purple and Greg Harwood on black. Josh took an early lead from Ross and James - all 3 quickly into 4.9 second laps. In the second segment Ross go in front but only 1 lap covered him, James, Josh and Mark. In segment 3 James logged 48 laps to lead by 3 laps from Ross and Josh. In segment 4 Ross did a 4.758 lap ( a new race lap record ?). But James, Josh and Lee were all in the 4.8’s, and James had stretched his lead to 4 laps over Josh and Ross, with Mark 5 laps further back. In segment 5 Ross and Lee both lapped in the 4.7 s (Ross 4.727), but James was still 4 laps clear of Ross and Josh. Richard had a long pit stop, Gavin had to change a gear, and Josh changed tyres. With 2 segments to go, James led by 3 from Ross (and would finish yellow/orange to Ross’ black/yellow). Josh and Mark were tied a further 7 laps back. Then Greg, Lee, Gavin and Richard were all separated by a few laps. Those last 2 segments saw James pull further ahead, as Ross had a quick pitstop to effect repairs, and Josh eased away from Mark. Mark's 4th place was another excellent result for him, but James became the 2026 Won o Won 1/32nd Sports/GT Champion - and took a clean sweep of all 3 titles.

      Steve              Mick           Ben               Mark         

Keith                Bob                  Mark                Gordon

Thanks to everybody who made this a great meeting,  particularly race controller Ray George and the catering by Sammy and her team.

A special thanks to our generous sponsors Ian Fitzpatrick , Keith Gibson and Dave Harvey.      

We’ll be back at National Centre in Corby on 18/19 July for the Brushed Nationals.

Chris Frost

Full Sports/GT Results

Race Reports     Saloon     |      F1      

Web site by Chris Frost, race report by Mark Witham

© Copyright British Slot Car Racing Association  2026  Photos copyright C.Frost 2026 All rights reserved

         Greg           Lee              Mark                      Josh                    Ross                   Gavin                 Richard        

James Cleave’s winning car

Congratulations to James Cleave on winning all 3 classes.   The history of the 3 trophies beside him? The F1 and Sports trophies date back to the very first slot racing Nationals held in Watford in 1964, the saloon trophy dates from the first time a saloon class was raced at the Nationals in 1966.

Start of the Final