April 2010 Round 2 FEKC Club Championship
The second round of Forest Edge’s 2010 club championship welcomed the first round of these years KZ2 British Championship and excitingly some dramatic track changes that saw lap records tumble in most classes and present two fantastic new corners with stunning overtaking opportunities.
The first final out was a full grid of Rotax with Scott Smart sitting on pole, Michael Kent alongside, Smart took full advantage of the start to get an early march over Kent and the following pack, with last month’s winner Dean Hale looking ominous qualifying in third. Smart looked to have peaked early and on lap seven both Hale and Kent squeezed through and edged away, George Lovell coming through from unlucky thirteen had everything to do and toward the race end managed to move into third place to secure the final podium from Hale and Kent. With the lap record smashed Hale, Kent and Lovell ALL equalled each others lap time to the thousandth of a second to set up a thrilling Championship for 2010 that can see any of eight or so drivers capable of clinching. Drive of the final came from Dan Bushell who had to settle for a grid spot of 22nd, but made rapid progress lap by lap to eventually finish in a well deserved fifth place a couple of kart lengths behind Smart.
In Minimax, last year’s WTP Champion David Wright sat on pole amongst a strong grid with Elliot Carter second and Kieron Gifford third placed getting some practice for the forthcoming Super 1 round. First corner Wright drifted wide allowing Gifford, Carter and Jordan Carr through, Gifford pulled clear, Wright back into second place after lap three with solid committed overtaking leaving Carr and Carter to battle amongst themselves allowing Gifford and Wright to move clear. Driver to watch was Elliot Hall coming through from row 7 moving into third at the three quarter stage edging past X30 shod Alan Rees but the youngster had left it too late to make a dent in Gifford’s unassailable lead, Wright second and Hall third. A cruel twist of fate saw a change of wheels put Hall 0.2kg underweight and all his hard work undone with exclusion promoting Rees onto the final podium slot. Previous Minimax lap record was smashed by Gifford and Wright proving the new track’s pedigree in producing lap after lap of clean committed overtaking.
Senior TKM’s Joshua Waters on pole secured a great start pulling away from Stewart Morris who found himself battling with Martin Kirby and early on Daniel Watson. Watson faded quickly resulting from a wrong tyre pressure choice, Kirby and Morris continued to tussle handing an advantage to Waters who with head down drove faultlessly and unchallenged to the flag, with nothing to choose between Kirby and Morris. At the line Kirby took second by the slimmest of margins from Morris.
Senior Blue, with an NKRA round looming next month unexpectantly did not see a big turn out to test the new track, which allowed Robin Stoddart-Stones to win from Ron Shone.
The Cadet libre grid was red flagged at turn 1 with Marcus Boyd’s WTP rolling after clipping the rear tyre of another kart, an accident that looked ominous resulted thankfully in only a bent rear bumper and steering wheel saw Boyd take the restart and restore his confidence to take first WTP home. Jordan Gilbertson on pole drove away from the field to take first place on track and Comer but unlike all the other classes cadets were not able to get close to the lap records proving that the youngsters were well suited to both track formations. George Thomson’s Honda that qualified in second place got to the front of a growing “snake” of Comers and Hondas that at the end of the race saw six drivers separated by less than 8/10ths of a second and race positions swapping at every corner. Brandon Haque toward the end of the race held Thomson on the outside of “Midgetts” to pull through to take second place comer with Thomson battling with James Thompson, Oliver York and Jason Duffett, positions were up for grabs for all, York looked to have done enough to take third on track only to drop in one corner down to fifth allowing Thomson and Thompson to squeeze through, which gave Duffett the chance to move to the back of the “snake” and look inside York into the corners on the last lap, although not enough time remained for Duffett’s Honda to put any moves onto York.
The Juniors in Rotax had young Jack Mayle take a lights to flag victory with a mature drive dispensing with the lap record on the way, although fourth placed finisher Michael Gibbins took that from Mayle on his last lap. Abigail Smith and Ollie Pidgely provided the action at the front of the race, Smith starting third, Pidgley fifth both took advantage of Mayle’s front row colleague Owen Hunter unable to get to the green lights leaving them to push each other vigorously to the flag and Pidgley did well to take the final podium slot on his first race as Junior at Barton Stacey.
A full grid of combined Rotax 177 and Masters saw lap records decimated, Steve Pratt on pole drove away to take the win, Nick Maton looked close in the early stages, toward the final third of the race Stefan Elswood gained on Maton looking to provide a close finish for the second place, then a mistake at Midgetts by Elswood pushing wide gave Maton the opportunity to pull away again to take second behind Pratt. “Master” J Martin Gadd was only fractionally slower than the younger 177 chargers and from sixth place had an unchallenged race to secure fourth on track and first Master home from old charger Pete Thomas who for the last three laps had Kieron Woolgar and Charlie Watson glued to his bumper, Woolgar finally getting to grips with a change of chassis and Watson looking fitter for this race J and being able to push for the whole race!
The youngsters of cadets took to the track again for the last race of the day following the fantastic race that was KZ2 dramatically won by Sam Moore coming from the back, with the cadets lining up for devil Take the Hindmost. Matthew Edon lately off his novice plates drove without any mistakes and problems a very mature race and looked at every stage to have the race under control even when with the final lap saw a Honda and another Comer latch onto his bumper, Edon looked completely unfazed and took a well deserved win in arguably the most thrilling race of the weekend.
Round two down, new track changes welcomed by all, a great days racing, KZ2 showing stunning speed proved that FEKC continues to be the track to race at for all classes, grids continue to grow and May welcomes NKRA and hopefully the Sun!