NewEngChamps2013

New England Championships

NEIL SIMPSON, SHAWN COOK & GLENN SIMPSON

ARE THE TOP THREE

SEPTEMBER 1, 2013-HALIFAX, MA -This year’s New England Championships attracted nine pilots for the twenty fourth annual running of this very successful Formula GX event. The location, again this year, was the Wingbuster club field in Halifax, Massachusetts. The grounds were manicured and very green. The weather was warm and humid with rain for the first two hours of the event. The first five or six matches were flown in the rain this included a rain delay that lasted about forty five minutes due to a thunderstorm getting a little too close for comfort. By noontime it was all just a bad memory and the remainder of the day went smoothly and rain free.

Round one saw Paul Kubek, Neil Simpson, Ken Cook and Chris Sarnowski get off to good starts all posting scores in the low six hundred point range. In round two Neil got past Paul two cuts to one in a well flown match. Ken stayed hot with an airtime win over Joe Fustolo. At the half way point Neil had the lead with 1345 points followed closely by Ken, Chris and Paul. In round three Neil got past Ken three cuts to two in yet another well flown match. In the next match, Paul pushed towards the front with a one cut win over Chris. Later in the round Shawn Cook and Glenn Simpson, who had both been flying steady, continued that trend when they flew to a one cut apiece draw in a match that was a full five minute war. Going into the final round Neil had the clear lead, Ken and Paul were second with identical cumulative scores followed by Glenn and Shawn who were emerging as contenders. Round four started with battle royal between Shawn and Chris with Shawn getting a three cut to one win in a very exciting match that went buzzer to buzzer. In the next match Ken and Paul faced off, some good flying early and then a mid-air hurt both their cumulative scores. In the last scheduled match of the day Neil and Glenn flew to a one cut apiece draw. The final order of finish was Neil then Shawn followed by Paul and Glenn in a dead heat for third. In the fly-off for third Glenn got past Paul with a cut and some airtime, Paul suffering with an over lean engine run.

The top three flyers received beautiful awards. Thank you, as always, to the Wingbusters Model Airplane Club for allowing us to use their fine facility. It truly is combat heaven.

New England Championships

Formula GX Combat

9 contestants

18 matches - 2 mid-airs

(E) Neil Simpson-E.Brookfield, MA