Stiddard Trackside Racing  Sunday 2 October 2005

 

GP Premier Series   Round 15   at Bayford Meadow

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.

Copyright Neil Ashcroft - www.Fastroc.co.uk

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!

Copyright Neil Ashcroft - www.Fastroc.co.uk

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.

Copyright Neil Ashcroft - www.Fastroc.co.uk

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.

Copyright Neil Ashcroft - www.Fastroc.co.uk

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.

Copyright Neil Ashcroft - www.Fastroc.co.uk

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.

Copyright Neil Ashcroft - www.Fastroc.co.uk

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!

Copyright Neil Ashcroft - www.Fastroc.co.uk

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!

Copyright Neil Ashcroft - www.Fastroc.co.uk

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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