UK Karting - MBKC 3S Club Championship Race Report

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MBKC - 3S Club Championship

MBKC - 3S Club Championship
Round 2 - Three Sisters - 30th January 2005

A huge entry for the second round of the Winter Series were greeted by a dark and drizzly opening to the meeting, not what the weather forecasts had promised unfortunately. The drizzle provided another major problem on the day, in that the circuit had collected a lot of mud from a motocross event the previous week. On dry practice this was causing a few problems with grip levels, but in the drizzle it became a major problem. As already posted on the website, MBKC offer their apologies for the problems, and the mess, the matter has been taken up with ARDS and the situation will not arise in the future.

Whilst most drivers were having to tread carefully during the heats, thankfully the sky began to clear during the early afternoon, drying the track up, and the finals were able to take place on a virtually dry track.

First final of the afternoon is traditionally the cadets, and once again these youngsters provided a fine opening spectacle. In the S60 class Middlesex based driver Mackenzie Taylor took up the running from the second lap holding off the determined efforts of Abigail Gerry for lap after lap with a fine example of classic defensive driving. James Tunnicliffe, who had done really well in the heats, posted the fastest lap of the race, but could only settle for a very comfortable third slot. Pre race favourite Chris Warburton finished fifth, some ten seconds back. Consolation for Abigail in second is that with Taylor being a guest driver, the result will not impact on her championship points.

Running on a split grid, a very small field of W60 cadets saw a great battle between the front pair of Jordan Keelan and the novice driver Jacob Hunstone, who actually won the opening round and posted the quickest lap in the final. Keelan held on well however in a tight finish to take the spoils by 0.449 secs. Bradley Ord was a very distant third, over a lap down.

Second final up was the senior TKM event, and this already looks like providing an absolutely fascinating championship. Numbers are rapidly returning in this class, a full grid of 34 competing, and with the likes of reigning club champion Andy Wilson, the emerging talent of James Duxbury, making the seemingly effortless transition from the junior TKM class, and a host of other talented drivers all capable of big things, this is starting to look like a real cliff hanger only two meetings into the new season. This particular final was contested by three real `heavyweights`in the shape of Wilson, who claimed the early advantage from the front row, poleman Duxbury and the consistent Paul Monks who had looked quick all day. For several laps it was a very tight affair between Wilson and Duxbury, but on lap eight, a mistake by Duxbury saw him drop back and, though retaining second spot, gave Wilson the space he needed to turn what had looked a desperately tight affair into an ultimately fairly comfortable victory. Duxbury`s slight lapse had also seen Monks close right up in third spot, and, on the penultimate lap, he spotted his opportunity to ghost past and take the second place. This class is sure to provide a great number of twists and turns during the course of this season.

Third final of the day was the minimax event. This quickly became a fascinating battle between the two frontrow drivers Oliver Webb and Joe McKeand, with Webb taking up the early advantage and holding it for three laps, before, on lap four McKeand nudged past into the lead, these two by now a long way clear of Jack Harvey and Jonathan Crankshaw battling for third place. In the later stages Webb grabbed the lead back briefly, but it was quickly reclaimed by McKeand, who held on to just take the victory, despite a desperate late rally by Webb, who just failed to get up on the line, McKeand taking the victory by a mere 0.070 secs. Crankshaw came through in the later stages to take the third spot, Harvey coming in fourth.

A slightly improved gearbox grid provided some good races throughout the day, and the final, for a while anyway, looked like it was going to provide a real tussel, with big hitters Andrew Hazlehurst, Sam Moore and Hywel Lloyd looking the pick of the field, and so it proved with Hazlehurst taking the early advantage from Lloyd and James Price, before a mistake by Hazlehurst saw Lloyd and Price go past. Then on lap four, and fairly unusually for the gearbox class, all kinds of odd incidents began to take shape. Hazlehurst had muscled back into the lead, before getting too wide going down the long straight and bringing the front wheel into contact with the grass verging, sending himself spinning out of the race, then, on the same lap, Price too spun out entering Rogersons, this left Lloyd with a huge advantage from Sam Moore, who had apperared from the various spin outs to take up second spot, and though he finished the race in second he was later excluded for taking a wrong route on the circuit as he avoided an incident, thus elevating the third place driver Ian Thompson into second place with fourth placed Jack Linfoot then becoming third. No doubts about the victor though, following the exclusion, Lloyd took it by more than nine seconds.

Junior TKM, despite being down on numbers a little is another class that looks like providing a lot of exciting racing throughout the season, with many of the drivers looking very evenly matched. After a bit of chopping and changing in the early stages, Andrew Potter took up the advantage and began to pull clear, but he then made a bad mistake on Rogersons and, although holding on to the lead, never seemed to fully recover his composure, and another mistake at Lunar then saw him drop back. A real mix up at Lunar next time round saw the places really take a big shake up, with poleman Philip Smith coming out of it very well to take up a fairly comfortable lead, from James Campion in second and Robert Stanley taking up a very close third spot. Stanley briefly battled through into second place, but a little contact between himself and Campion saw him edged back into third, then for a short time Billy Patterson came through into third spot, but then a mistake saw him lose it back to Stanley. On the final lap, there was no doubt about the winner, Smith had the race sewn up by a comfortable margin, but it became a real battle between Campion and Stanley. It looked like Campion had the advantage, but Stanley came back in the final few yards to see them cross the line together. The timekeepers gave the second spot to Campion, but it was a desperately close affair.

It was very nice to see a rare return of a small field of JICA drivers ahead of February`s `0` plate meeting, and, though a small field, the racing was both intense and competitive. The final saw Oliver Rowlands power into the lead initially from row two with Richard Bradley and Jordan Lennox Lamb taling up second and third, however the positions swapped and changed on a regular basis, with Nigel Moore also very prominent. Bradley took up the mantle briefly before Rowlands gained it back, then Moore came to the fore, (sorry about that) and it looked on the penultimate lap that it would be Moore, having opened up a small advantage, who would seal the victory, but a slight mistake saw Bradley edge past at the death and though Moore tried to get back at the finish, Bradley just about held on to take the spoils by just 0.007 secs, Rowlands, by now a couple of seconds back in third spot.

On a split grid with the JICA drivers, a large field of Junior Rotax entries also had a good battle, the ultra consistent ex minimax champion Liam Fenwick making a seamless transistion into the junior class and, again here, powering into the early lead from his pole slot, followed by Greg Harper and last months winner Daniel Cammish. Once Fenwick hits the front he has shown time and again that his defensive driving skills are second to none, and so it proved again with Harper trying constantly to probe for an opening only to find the door close on him each time. Indeed it may have been sheer frustration that caused Harper to make a late mistake to see Cammish overhaul him into second place, but Fenwick it was taking the lights to flag victory and he is surely going to be a major player in the 2005 championship.

The penultimate final saw what was again a slightly disappointing Rotax 177 entry, although interest was added by the seasonal bow of the `Brummie`Welshman, ex champion Tony Hughes. In fact, Hughes didn`t look particuarly ring rusty as he took victory in heat two, but he found the going a bit tougher in the final as poleman Dean Bednarek took up the mantle on lap three after Paul Manton had held the lead in the early stages. Once in front however, Bednarek made it count and he eventually took a fairly comfortable victory by nearly half a second from Manton, and also had the quickest lap of the race. Graeme Hunt drove a consistent race to pick up third spot with Hughes off to soak his aching bones in fourth spot.

The final race of the day was the eagerly awaited Rotax Max final which attracted an incredible entry of 45 drivers, and also unfortunately provided the days only red flag incident, when Kirk Cattermole drove straight into the marshalling station entering Lunar on lap 2. Although racing continued for a couple of laps, it was clearly a dangerous situation with Cattermole still in the kart and the flags came out. At that time Paul Pendlebury and polesitter Matt Bedford had been having a great battle together with Lloyd Savage and Richard Singleton. Upon the nine lap restart things changed slightly with Savage making the best start, heading Bedford with David Bellchambers coming through into third place. A mistake by Bedford saw him drop back into fifth and, briefly Singleton got up to grab the lead from Savage, however the ex champion quickly regained the advantage. All sorts of things were happening a little further back, as Pendlebury spun out after contact with Bellchambers as the two vied fo third slot. However, Savage it was taking an excellent victory from Singleton with Bellchambers in third, Bedford taking fourth spot following the demise of Pendlebury. Best wishes for a speedy recovery go to Cattermole who was taken for treatment.

Report by: Mel Tipton

Results

Full Race Results from Round 2...

FORMULA W60 CADET
Mackenzie Taylor (Zip/Comer)
Abigail Gerry (Zip/Comer)
James Tunnicliffe (Zip/Comer)

FORMULA S60 CADET
Jordan Keelan (Zip/Comer)
Jacob Hunstone (Tony/Comer)
Bradley Ord (Zip/Comer)

FORMULA SENIOR TKM
Andy Wilson (Venom/TKM)
Paul Monks (Venom/TKM)
James Duxbury (JKH/TKM)

FORMULA MINIMAX
Joe McKeand ( /Rotax)
Oliver Webb (Gillard/Rotax)
Jonathan Crankshaw (KMS/Rotax)

FORMULA 125 OPEN GEARBOX
Hywel Lloyd (Energy/TM)
Ian Thompson (Energy/TM)*
Jack Linfoot (Tony/TM)*
(*Sam Moore finshed second, but excluded for breach of regulations)

FORMULA JUNIOR TKM
Philip Smith (JKH/TKM)
James Campion (JKH/TKM)
Robert Stanley (P1/TKM)

FORMULA J.I.C.A.
Richard Bradley (Wright/Maxter)
Nigel Moore (Birel/Parilla)
Oliver Rowlands (Top/Comer)

FORMULA JUNIOR ROTAX MAX
Liam Fenwick (Tony/Rotax)
Daniel Cammish (Intrepid/Rotax)
Greg Harper (Tony/Rotax)

FORMULA ROTAX 177
Dean Bednarek (Tony/Rotax)
Paul Manton (Gillard/Rotax)
Graeme Hunt (CRG/Rotax)

FORMULA ROTAX MAX
Lloyd Savage (Mach1/Rotax)
Richard Singleton (Sodi/Rotax)
David Bellchambers (Tony/Rotax)

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