FYLDE OPEN 24/25 January 2026

Round 1 of the 1/32nd Scale British Open Championship

Sponsored by Betta

The 1/32nd BOC got off to a great start this season with a quality field of 18 racers competing at the Fylde Open. At one stage 21 planned to attend so some careful furniture arrangement had been made to accommodate everyone & perhaps highlighted that it would have been uncomfortably tight if home members could race not to mention making it a late finish.

The meeting was marked by the very welcome return to BOC racing of Richy Kettleson.   

Shep set a blistering pace in Saloon qualy  some .117 faster than Barry Gilzean in 2nd. Rather surprisingly Martin Ellis was only 6th qualy but an unfazed run by him in the B final could only be neared by Shep in the A giving Martin his 1st win of the day.

In F1 Josh Bryant went staggeringly quick in TQing with a 4.551 some .121 ahead of Martin in 2nd. Despite a slipping gear after only a few laps Richy impressively managed to qualy 4th to make the A Final.

In the racing Martin was not to be denied & won by a near 3 lap margin from Shep while Josh had to settle for 3rd some 6 laps down.

Martin was on a roll with a 3.644 qualy in Sports just ahead of Josh.Shep just missed out on the A final by .006 to Simon Scott who was driving very well on his 1st visit to the track. Shep was looking very good in the B final which he won but had to slow down in the last segment as he was low on tyres.

This allowed the top 4 qualifiers to also finish as the top 4 overall. Gordon Dickson cemented his top main grade driver of the day status in finishing 2nd just over 2 laps behind the winner, that man Martin Ellis.

Congratulations to Martin on his triple success and a big thank you to all who took part in a very friendly spirited meeting which we hope all enjoyed .

Finally one other big thank you to Ian Fitzpatrick of Betta for providing sufficient prizes for all racers to go home with something  – much appreciated Ian.

Steve Sargent

1/32 BOC 2026  British Open Championship