Stiddard Trackside Racing  Saturday 09 July 2005

GP Series Round 5 & GP Premier Series Round 10

Ellough Park Raceway

Driving the track at Ellough Park more then makes up for the long haul up to Suffolk. Having said that, a number of teams choose to drop Ellough as one of their mandatory dropped races.

In terms of the championships they couldn't be much closer. In the GP, Ox Team is the team to beat and only JD Vipers have managed to do that this year so far. Roadrunners on the other hand have not as yet won but have been consistent all year and remain the main threat to John Oxburrow.

In the GP Premier it is extremely close at the front with only two points separating B&R and Titan Motorsport. There are a number of teams snapping at their heels and it is far too close to make a prediction as to who is going to take this championship.

Timed Qualifying

So to qualifying at Ellough Park and with a number of teams having tested on the Friday it was a "game" of two halves, the teams that had tested on the Friday held off going out too early and let the other teams lay down some rubber in pursuit of a set up.

B&R Racing did their usual 3 laps and parked it with a time to beat. Only Special Racing Projects managed to do that in the closing stages in true Sennaesque style. RKC Racing 1 did a good job to go third with Roadrunners taking GP pole and 4th overall.

KKC put it 5th and looked sharp and threatening while alongside them the Auto 1 Racing guys looked well balanced and tidy. That's the kart, not them! Obviously!

Zero Racing in 7th looked like they were on a mission with both David and Simon on the pace. Auction My Igloo had a semi-unfamiliar look with Danny Scott absent with work commitments and Ian Norman sidelined with a broken hand following a sprint accident last week. Subbing for them was sometime AMI driver Tiffany Chittenden and Sean Durkin. Both quick drivers and 8th place on the grid was slightly disappointing by there standards but given the circumstances of unfamiliar kart and no testing time they should be content with this as a starting point to work from.

Kartsmart are now back to a team of two and Gary Worthington and Matt Coles went about their business with focused determination. They weren't too unhappy with 9th as a basis to work from. Titan Motorsport on the other hand were struggling with a new seat in a bid to ease the rib trouble both drivers had been suffering over the last two rounds. 10th place was going to mean a lot of work to get them back up to the sharp end.

Jason Redding of Red MAX was going it alone today with Steve Johnson and Stephen Argent-Moss not able to race. Jason was only contesting the AM Premier race and the kart sounded well, allowing Jason to take 11th slot with a time well on the pace.

John Oxburrow had a tough session and could only manage 12th place.

He had everything to do from here to keep his season on track. Talking of which RKC Racing 2 have struggled to get the most out of the 99 kart in recent races and they were brandishing a new seat here in a bid to get comfortable in the kart. It didn't help the handling and left them in 13th place.

2old2b Racing struggled to find a set up in qualifying and 14th place reflected that to the point were they made big changes after qualifying in an attempt to get the kart to handle.

Red Stripe Racing really struggled in qualifying, both drivers were in so much pain after qualifying that they took no further part in the days proceedings. They were gutted but concluded there was no point in damaging themselves for the rest of the season.

JD Vipers really struggled in qualifying and used the time to get John Bennett comfortable in the seat. 16th was as good as they could manage and 3rd in GP. Axles of Evil had the back end stepping out and tried all sorts to get it under control but ran out of time and finished 17th while Hammonds Heroes, Barry Hammond managed only a handful of laps and closed out the grid in 18th.

Race 1: GP Round 5 and GP Premier Round 10

B&R blitzed the field in the opening laps to open a 2 second gap to Special Racing Projects with Ed Munns propelling Roadrunners into 3rd and the lead of the GP race. Only 22 seconds covered the top eight karts after 15 minutes of hard fought racing.

Falling foul of mechanical gremlins very early on were Auction My Igloo when Tiffany Chittenden lost a chain and KKC started a morning of Battery testing. They managed destroy two in about as many laps and didn't know why. It's still a mystery now, so if you know why a MAX should eat batteries ring 0800 BATTERY BASHER (only joking don't really call). Also in mechanical trouble was RKC Racing 1 who slowed and limped back to the pits, soon after to rejoin in 12th but 2 laps down and just ahead of team mates RKC Racing 2 with Barry Ives at the wheel.

Red MAX Racing were running very well in 5th place and were there on merit not luck. Jason Redding normally runs well at Ellough but today was definitely on it! Titan Motorsport had made up a couple of places but were still struggling with the seat.

Ox Team's John Oxburrow was relentlessly pounding in the laps and moving steadily up the field towards Roadrunners in the GP race and 2old2b Racing were looking competitive after the dramatic changes they had made.

Then came an incident, which left a bad taste in everyone's mouth for pretty much the rest of the day. Special Racing Project's Jason Jones came up on the rear of Barry Ives in the 99 kart. Given the series doesn't use Blue flags it was down to Jason to safely get past the RKC 2 kart. For a couple of laps Jason made contact with the rear of the RKC 2 kart at pretty much every corner with it ending tears at the run into the final hairpin before the chicane when RKC 2 ended up in the tyres and the SRP kart stopped facing back down the track. Jason was black flagged for the incident and duly came in to be lectured by Paul Beatty and held for a couple of minutes. When he was released he rejoined the track, low and behold, directly behind RKC 2. Unfortunately it was a case of groundhog day and the same thing happened again. Only this time tempers were more then frayed. This time the SRP's kart was recovered back to the pits and the RKC 2 kart returned to the pits where a very unfriendly confrontation took place. The net result was that Barry Ives had to sit out the rest of the day. All in all this is not what this championship is all about and in my opinion there are lessons for everyone to take away.

Back to the racing, after the fuel stops were complete both Ox Team and Titan Motorsport were in 2nd and third places and when B&R made an early last stop they were leading until the final stops had been made.

A big shunt near the end of the race involving Auction My Igloo, RKC 2 and Zero Racing left both Zero and Auction My Igloo out of the race.

At the flag though B&R took the victory but a strong drive from Ricky Comber and Kevin Schofield who was standing in for Jo Giovannini drove a very strong race from the early troubles to take second place. Ox Team took the GP win and 3rd overall from Kartsmart who drove a sensible, solid race. Auto 1 Racing finished as the 4th placed Premier team from A very pleased Jason Redding in the Red MAX 95 kart.

Titan Motorsport missed out on a trophy when Martin O'Neill had an altercation with the tyres at the final chicane when two into one wouldn't go with the 27 kart of JD Vipers Julian Hunt.

Roadrunners finished second in GP and 8th overall one lap up on 3rd in class Hammonds Heroes in 9th. This was a good drive from Barry Hammond to come from 18th on the grid.

2old2b Racing and RKC 2 finished on the same lap in 10th and 11th places with a tough day had by both. JD Vipers finished 4th in GP and 12th overall with no major problems but just lacking outright pace here at Ellough. Hardly surprising as it's their first time here and John Bennett hasn't driven competitively for over a year.

Special Racing Projects finished 13th after all that and Zero Racing, who had been running well up until the crash finished 14th. Axles of Evil were still having handling issues and could only get it to 15th. Auction My Igloo and KKC finished in the pits. Which was one better then Poor old Red Stripe who never left the pits. All in all it was a tough day at the office.

Post Race Analysis

It would be wrong to focus on that unsavoury incident and let it overshadow some great racing. B&R drove a great race, as did RKC Racing 1 and Ox Team in the GP. Kartsmart, Auto 1 Racing and Red MAX all worked very hard and fair for their podium places. Barry Hammond in his first full year of senior racing drove a great race to finish 9th overall given he started at the back of the grid.

It saddened me to witness the tension in the pits and I for one have no interest in seeing it happen again. Enough said.

The GP Premier Series Round 11 followed this race.

Stiddard Trackside Racing - Saturday 09 July 2005

GP Premier Series Round 11

The Race

What the field lacked in size it made up for in quality in this 3 hour racing fest. Let me take you through it!

At the start B&R rocketed into the distance until they had an altercation with Clive Hewitt in the RKC 2 kart and bent an axle. This left Auto 1 Racing and Auction My Igloo to fight for the lead and what a fight! Tiffany Chittenden had driven through the field to take it up to 2nd from a start towards the back when they too had a coming together which left Tiffany in the back of the ambulance getting the fingers on her hand taped up. Auction My Igloo now have two drivers with strapped fingers relating to Karting incidents!

Special Racing Projects now had the lead from Kartsmart and Titan Motorsport, both of whom looked very strong. Auto 1 Racing was back up to 4th after there unscheduled stop just ahead of RKC Racing 1. Axles of Evil were upto 6th place and only 2.3 seconds off RKC 1. RKC Racing 2 were right up their exhaust pipe and waiting to pounce.

Further back Malcolm Rich was driving as well as I'd seen him and running with the big dogs, 2 laps up on KKC who had a different kart for the afternoon race and were running much better. Nick Moss of KKC was helping RKC 2 in the afternoon race after they found themselves a driver down. The entire paddock was asked and Nick was allowed to drive with Clive to get RKC 2 on the grid. Unfortunately there was no way of securing lead to the 99 kart as neither Barry or Clive need any, however Nick is a racing snake and needs more lead then a church roof so even with the clever plan of only running for 20 minutes and coming in with over half a tank of fuel he was still well underweight and had to assume the position for a couple of minutes.

Ed Munns was running with Auction My Igloo in the PM race and Ed was driving a great race but was out longer then he expected and he was shattered at the end of his stint. Elsewhere, Zero Racing finally parked it after the guys tried to get it to drive but the morning incident had bent the 14 kart, making it very uncompetitive.

Kartsmart took the lead with some clever pit strategy and then simply drove away from the rest with Titan Motorsport taking the fight to them right up to the end. But Gary Worthington and Matt Coles controlled the race well from the front with good communications and pit work, oh and the driving wasn't bad either!

The Auto 1 boys ran very well and took a well deserved 3rd from Special Racing Projects and RKC Racing 1 who had a massive coming together on the last lap when Dave Hunter clipped the tyres coming out of the chicane and Kevin Schofield had no-where to go and he caught the 55 kart a glancing blow which catapulted him at speed into the opposite tyre wall. Kevin walked away unhurt which is more then could be said for the No.1 kart which had a very bent rear end. It was too late to make any difference to the finishing positions.

KKC finished a good 6th and it was great to see Ian and Nick Moss racing each other in that brotherly love sort of way that gives and takes no quarter! RKC Racing 2 finished 7th despite have long pit stops due to Nick being underweight and Auction My Igloo finished a creditable 8th despite Tiffany's shunt. 2old 2b Racing finished 9th on there replaced engine and Axles of Evil finished 10th with a measured drive. B&R Racing were 11th after that bent axle, one place ahead of Zero Racing who retired in the pits.

Post Race Analysis

Although the field was diminished due to the long haul of Ellough the quality of racing in the 3 hour Premier race was very good. Kartsmart drove a fantastic race and dominated the 3 hour race as convincingly as B&R had dominated the 1 ½ hour in the morning.

Titan Motorsport came back strong in the 3 hour and did their title chances no harm with 2nd place. Malcolm Rich drove very well for 2old2b Racing and overall the 42 kart looked much more competitive here this afternoon.

Drive of the day is a tough call between B&R and Kartsmart and the only thing separating them, in my opinion, is that Kartsmart took the 3 hour race which by definition is harder, therefore drive of the day goes to Kartsmart. I can't separate the drivers as both Matt and Gary drove faultlessly. Well done gentlemen.

Back on local turf for the next round (well mostly local) at Buckmore Park. Lets hope it is also a return of common sense, good manners and the missing teams. The championship deserves it and so do the teams.

Neil Ashcroft - Fastroc - Media in Motion

All photographs are copyright Neil Ashcroft

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