Sunday 26th May - SLS Round 1

Timetable

Live Timing

Round 1 Report....

Super Lap Scotland - The UK's newest lap-time challenge event.


The UK's NEWEST racing series held it's opening event at Knockhill Racing Circuit on Sunday 26th May and was voted a great success. Super Lap Scotland, in association with RA Motorsport Developments and the Knockhill Motor Sports Club, is a lap time challenge event that will see competitors from four different power to weight classes aim to be the quickest driver over the 1.3 mile Knockhill Circuit.

The rules and class structure will equalise the most powerful cars on the planet with even the most modest of road cars.

The whole aim of Super Lap Scotland is to offer competitive motorsport action for everyone from the track day driver, the Hot Hatch driver through to some of the most extreme cars around. It is a genuine alternative to track days and a stepping stone to full blown circuit racing.

KMSC Chairman Stuart Gray said "We are all thrilled with the quality and breadth of cars entered for round one. Some of the most famous cars and drivers in Scotland have entered and I can only thank them for showing such faith in a new championship. Our Twin Track Two Day event at the end of July promises to be even better and are looking forward to it already." At the opening event an impressive twenty-two drivers took to the circuit in various makes of car including Evos, Imprezas, Focuses, Clios; and even, a TVR Tuscan and Noble M400.

The format of the event sees all the cars share the track in two 15 minute practice sessions during the morning, before moving onto the point scoring qualifying and final sessions. For the qualifying sessions, a maximum of 5 cars at a time are released onto the track in 10 second intervals for a warm-up lap followed by a two "hot" laps and then a cool down lap whereby they try to set their fastest time possible. Each car gets a total two qualifying runs, giving them best opportunity to set a class leading time.

It was Russ Paton in his EVO who headed the overall timing sheets during qualifying, with a time of 55.104 narrowly beating Charlie Shaw. Showing just how close the competition was, the top 4 (Paton, Shaw, Freeland and Davisdon) qualifying times were all within half a second of each other.

During a thrilling finale to the event, whereby competitors get just a single hot lap to record their best time; it was a four way battle between Charlie Shaw (Focus), Russ Paton (Evo), Alan Freeland (Evo) and Graham Davidson (Noble). In the end, it was Shaw and his legendary Ford Focus that would take overall Super Lap glory with an incredible lap time of 54.592 seconds, pipping Alan Freeland (Class B) to the win by the smallest of margins; indeed, only 0.287 seconds separated the pair on the timing sheets in the end. On his Super Lap, Davidson lost the Noble and spun, missing out on recording a time, blaming unfamiliarity on cold tyres for his error.

A jubilant Shaw declared:

"I loved it, the pressure l was under for that one lap wasn't like anything else l've experienced in my racing career. For all my weekend's work to come down to one final lap, it just made it really intense."

Elsewhere there were class victories for Alan Freeland (Class B) who easily took victory with Davidson's spin, Bob MacKay (Class C) edged a newcomer to Sprinting, Formula Ford 1600 racer Michael Gray in a Subaru Wagon which was loaned to him by owner James Braid. Class D had a selection of cars including a completely standard 911 Carerra 4S belonging to veteran racer Olly Ross winning the class from Craig McDowall (Astra) and David Herd (Fiesta). Gray added, "It's great to see the like of Olly out there in his standard car and we are hoping for more standard road cars, be they Subaru, Lotus or Honda's at the next event."

The next event on the Super Lap Scotland calendar is on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th July with two events, on two days, in two directions, on the one weekend and the one venue.

For a full album of Round 1 Pictures please visit - Flat Out

Words & Pictures courtesy of John Stewart / Flat Out Motorsport Photograhy

Results:

	Practice 1
	Practice 2
	Qualifying - Classes C and D
	Qualifying - Classes A and B
	Super Lap Final