NECHAMPS2012

New England Championships

NEIL SIMPSON, BRIAN STAS & CHRIS SARNOWSKI

ARE THE TOP THREE

JAKE VADER IS THE SPORTSMAN WINNER

OCTOBER 14, 2012-HALIFAX, MA -This year’s New England Championships attracted eight pilots for the twenty third annual running of this very successful Formula GX event. The location, this year, was the Wingbuster club field in Halifax, Massachusetts. The grounds were manicured and very green. The weather was seasonably warm however it was windy with an intermittent light rain which finally ended around mid-day.

Neil Simpson got off to the best start with a three cut round one win. In round two he faced off against Jake Vader who was the only other pilot to score a clean win in round one. Neil got a cut early, however, a lost airtime due to a fuel feed problem, resulted in a draw and a relatively low score for both pilots. Meanwhile Glenn Simpson posted his second 500 plus score with one cut win over Rick Clark. Brian Stas and Chris Sarnowski, after slow starts, each posted 620 point wins in round two. At the half way point Neil had the lead with 1240 points followed closely by Jake and Glenn both at 1030 points. In round three Neil got past Glenn with a one cut win while Brian was accomplishing the same thing in his match with Jake. Round three also saw Chris stay in the hunt when he flew Paul Kubek to a draw. Going into the final round Neil had 1860 points followed by Brian (1440pts) and Glenn (1330pts) . Jake and Chris were also close with identical cumulative scores of 1230 points. Round four started with battle royal between Jeff Vader and Paul Kubek. Jeff was leading two cuts to one when a mid-air in the closing seconds ended the match. In the next match Chris continued to fly steady earning a draw in a match with Rick. In the semi-final Jake and Glenn were matched up. Jake got a cut followed by a tremendous engine to engine mid-air that split the crankcases on both of their engines. In the final Neil and Brian faced off, they coasted in the beginning of the match and then went at it hard in the second half of the match each earning a cut and eventually a 510 point draw. The final order of finish was Neil, Brian, Chris and Jeff. Jake and Glenn tied for fifth, Jake taking home the Sportsman “gold” in the process.

The top three flyers plus the sportsman winner received beautiful awards. A special thank you to Joe Fustolo, unable to fly due to a back problem, came to the contest anyway and assumed responsibilities of head judge. Joe made everyone else’s day a little easier due to his generosity.

New England Championships

Formula GX Combat

8 contestants

16 matches - 3 mid-airs

(E) Neil Simpson-E.Brookfield, MA