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RAFMSA Karting Championship

RAFMSA Karting Championship
Round 2 - Llandow - May 2006

The second round of the 2005 PAX Insurance assisted RAFMSA Kart Championship held in May 2006 at the Llandow Circuit in South Wales, was another roaring success with serving drivers and associates once again traveling from as far as Scotland and Northern Ireland. It also saw the return to form of the Iame Leopard engines.

Saturdays practice was mostly held in very wet and slippery conditions with the majority of sprint race drivers only managing a couple of sessions. All that is, except Marcus Ramsden who gamely went out on every test session, pounding round with a commendable dedication. A complete contrast to last year’s series runner up Dean Maratty (returning after missing the first round in April at Rissington), who was seen to stand in the relative comfort of his awning all day, watching the practice sessions.

The co-run Endurance race team event was held on the Saturday afternoon from 4pm to 8pm and is reported upon separately.

Sunday’s race day for RAF Premier sprint classes dawned with beautiful sunshine that was to thankfully last all day. Heat one saw Ash Prime take the lead from Dean Maratty on the first lap then build a small lead, before his tyres started to go off. By lap three Dean was closing the gap when Ash crashed out spectacularly coming out of the “Esses”. As parts of kart and dirt flew across the track the first 2 following drivers avoided the debris. Not so the hapless Nez Ross who slid wide, straight into the prone outfit of Ash. The race was immediately red flagged and the scene that was revealed to the field of slow moving drivers as they made their way past to reform on the main straight was not encouraging. Both drivers where lying still, Ash in what was left of his kart and Nez pinned beneath his. The paramedics quickly arrived and to the relief of all had both drivers up and walking back to the pits after treatment and assessments.

After the 15-minute delay to recover the drivers and their bent karts the heat was restarted from the original grid positions over the full 12 laps. Dean moved into the lead but was soon passed by the flying Marcus Ramsden on the excellent new section of track. Marcus stretched a comfortable 20 yard lead and it looked like the heat positions were decided, until Dean’s kart started to suffer from fuel starvation and dragging brakes. With 2 laps to go Kevin Meynell and Dave Hancock who had been having their own furious private battle passed Dean for 2nd and 3rd places, Dean eventually held on for 4th and only just made it back to the pits where his brakes locked solid.

Heat two saw Marcus and Dean move from 10th and 11th on the grid to finish 1st and 2nd with both displaying sharp overtaking moves on the way. Marcus however was just that bit more positive and once again pulled a comfortable lead to take the heat, with Kevin Meynell coming third.

Heat three was a close replay of heat two with Marcus and Dean moving through the field to take the first two positions with, Marcus driving once again superbly to another comfortable win with Luke Bourne driving to a fine third.

The front of the 16 strong Premier Grid for the final:
Pole Marcus Ramsden
2nd Dean Maratty (RAF Aldergrove)
3rd Kevin Meynell
4th Chris Hughes
5th Luke Bourne
6th David Hancock

The start of the final saw Dean Maratty surge into the lead on the start followed by Chris Hughes and Luke Bourne. Marcus Ramsden initially fell back to 4th but took no time in moving back to 2nd. By lap three Marcus had caught Dean once again at the new section of track and passed him easily. So with Marcus once again in the lead and starting to pull away things looked very familiar. A few laps later however it became apparent that Marcus was no longer stretching his lead and Dean was in fact closing the gap. With Dean now hauling Marcus in under breaking into the “Esses”, on acceleration through the “Kink” and again on the brakes into “Raymond’s Bend” it was apparent a race was eventually on for the lead. A lap later Dean passed Marcus at the end of the main straight under late braking and set off with clear track ahead. Marcus was not done and set about hanging on to the new leader and two laps later he cleanly moved back to the front at (You can guess it!) the new section of the circuit.

Marcus Ramsden leading Dean Maratty in the final

The remainder of the 15 lap final saw Dean closing under braking but finding his way inch perfectly blocked by a hard working Marcus who was progressively struggling more and more with his fading tyres. The last lap saw both the leaders make slight mistakes as they ran onto the final straight, Marcus ran a very tight defensive line into the final hairpin, Dean took the faster wide approach and both karts set off for the short run to the finish line almost level, but not quite… Marcus crossed the line less than a karts length ahead of Dean with Luke Bourne coming in a distant third ahead of the amazingly rebuilt and well-driven kart of Ash Prime.

Viv Ward and Mick Harding have a coming together

Final positions were:
1st Marcus Ramsden CRG Rotax
2nd Dean Maratty Tony Leopard
3rd Luke Bourne Tony Rotax
4th Ash Prime Tony Rotax
5th Chris Hughes Mari Leopard
6th Kevin Meynell Tony Rotax

After an excellent weekend the RAFMSA would like to thank the Llandow Circuit, all its officials, staff and regular club drivers for their help and support.

Report Nez Ross
Photo Vincent McKenzie

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