Stiddard Trackside Racing
Sunday 2 October 2005
Report by Neil Ashcroft
What do Alain Prost and Mike
Williams (of B&R Racing) have in common? No not that, I can't write
that its not nice! They both managed to spin out, unassisted on the
warm up lap before the race had even begun, but more of that in a
minute.
This was the penultimate round of
the Premier championship and with everything in the balance no-one
could afford to drop the ball. So who did, and who picked it up?
Let's find out.
Timed Qualifying
RKC Racing 1 stole pole on the last
lap by 3 hundredths of a second from B&R Racing who had hung on for
the last five minutes and thought they had it. SRP who looked very
quick dropped to 3rd with Kartsmart along side them in 4th after
holding pole through the middle part of the session.
KKC looked resplendent in the new
Tonykart and put it 5th, first time out. With Auto 1 Racing beside
them having run the engine in on the 88 kart during qualifying and
only getting in one flying lap, good effort!
EE-Sport looked quick in free
practice, as they did at Whilton Mill last month but unlike Whilton
Mill, they managed to go quicker still in timed qualifying and put
it 7th on the grid. Red Stripe Racing's James Michell and Tom
Robinson were back to full strength following some seatwork with
Tillett and a 12 hour mountain bike night race in Thetford Forest,
as you do! Well, it obviously works for them and the guy's looked
like they could be giving some of the front runners a tough
afternoon.
The second team to run an engine in
during qualifying was Zero Racing, who managed a 9th slot but were
not happy with their performance; and were looking for something
else before the race to get their pace back.
2old2b Racing qualified in 10th
place but looked much quicker then that! Discretion however, being
the better part of valour, they paced themselves. Auction My Igloo
on the other hand were having a nightmare with the Leopard engine
and managed to seize it in qualifying, eleventh being the best of a
bad lot.
Titan Motorsport following a
"heaven & hellish" Whilton Mill continued their poor luck with a
snapped chassis here in qualifying and they had to resort to jumping
across onto their old ProMax chassis with the MAX bits bolted on.
This put them at the back of the grid alongside KKC 2 on the PRD
Fireball after a seizure during qualifying prevented them from
putting in a lap time too.
GP Premier Round 15
As I said that the top of the page
Mike Williams managed to lock up and spin on the warm up while
trying to put some heat into the tyres and brakes. He did manage to
regain his slot before the race proper but it took a little while to
get the egg off his face.
A clean start saw RKC 1 lead from
B&R and SRP but the talking point of the first thirty minutes was
the drive of Rob Parfoot in the Titan Motorsport kart. He went from
the back of the grid to 3rd the hard way, by overtaking everyone in
his path in a demonstration of superb driving and blistering pace in
the "cobbled together" 75 kart. I bet the Titan boy's wished their
chassis had snapped earlier in the year!
Elsewhere, a racing incident saw
SRP and KKC have a coming together with KKC having to be extracted
to the pits for repairs while SRP managed to continue on in 2nd
place. This finished KKC's challenge and left them not happy,
obviously. Auto 1 took an early bath with yet another blown engine,
only 16 laps into the race. That's 2 races on the bounce that has
seen blow ups for Mike and Graham.
Red Stripe Racing were most
definitely on the pace and demonstrated their qualifying pace was
not a fluke and they managed to get up to 5th place. Kartsmart on
the other hand were off the pace and finally diagnosed a power valve
issue and a slow puncture. It never rains but it pours! Bayford has
been a bit of a "bogey" circuit for the Kartsmart boys in recent
times and today just added to the gloom, effectively finishing off
their race and they could only push for minor placing's after that.
2old2b Racing were having a
storming race and had worked up to 3rd place with the loss of B&R
with a snapped bumper and brake fade. The 2old2b racing boys were
there on merit and looking sharp with Ian, Derek, Chris and Malcolm
all doing there bit for the team. AdrenalinX will be pleased and
quite rightly so.
EE-Sport were running consistently
well while out on track but lost time in the pits with a number of
issues that cost them dearly with a lost chain being the final straw
in breaking their challenge here. Take heart though gentlemen, the
accolades will come if you can match your pit work with your race
pace.
Titan threw a chain and with it any
chance of glory here. One consolation for the team was that team
mechanic, Dave Randall drove in the latter stages to get a signature
on his licence and did a great job for the Titan team helping them
to a 10 place finish.
KKC2 spend most of the race in the
pits but looked to have the pace when they were running. Clutch
failure and the afore mentioned seizure saw them finish a lowly 11th
at the end. Only Auction My Igloo and Auto 1 had worse days!
So to the battle for the top steps,
RKC 1 and SRP were bumper to bumper for the last 10 laps and Ricky
Comber withstood tremendous pressure from Dave Hunter to bring it
home for the win only 3/10th of a second separating the two at the
flag. After three hours of racing what a fantastic result! 2old2b
Racing took a great third and Zero Racing overcame adversity to
claim 4th from Red Stripe Racing who took the final trophy and
podium step.
Post Race Analysis
A diminished grid for this round
did not diminish the quality of the racing from all the teams. There
was some glimpses of brilliance throughout the field, Jo
Giovannini's banzi qualifying lap to grab pole, Rob Parfoot of Titan
Motorsport's fantastic drive from the back of the grid, SRP's race
pace throughout the three hours. Red Stripes great return to form,
to name but a few. Drive of the day though has to go to 2old2b
Racing for shear dogged determination, great all round performance
and a well deserved 3rd place. For me it's what makes this
championship great.
So we go to the last round at Lydd
on the 6th November, I'm sure there will be some fireworks on
display and what a great finale to the season we can expect. Be
there, you know it makes sense!
From left to right
in pairs: Zero Racing, Red Stripe Racing, RKC Racing, Special Racing
Projects and sitting (because they are?!) 2Old2B Racing.
Full Results
Neil Ashcroft -
Fastroc
-
Media in Motion
All photographs are
copyright Neil Ashcroft
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