April 2011 Round 2 FEKC Championship
April 2011 Round 2 Forest Edge Championship
Over 150 drivers arrived for April’s second round of the Championship and also welcomed the first separate grids for Honda’s and Comer’s which was reciprocated from the drivers with even more cadets than usual!
First final out Junior Rotax had the top eight separated by less than four tenths on lap times throughout the day, Jack Mayle looked strong on pole, with Kieran Gifford alongside. Mayle got a great start, Gifford tucking in behind, Eliot Hall moved into third from fourth, David Wright from sixth into fourth. Lap two Wright edged past Hall going into Bus Stop with the front pair nose to tail, on the fourth lap Gifford moved inside Mayle at Haynes and immediately started to edge away to take a well deserved win. Wright closed on Mayle, lap five edged inside at Midgets only for Mayle to move back in front heading into Climate, last lap Wright had a tow from Mayle in Bus Stop and had a run up to Midgets, contact from the pair saw Mayle wide with Wright inside to take second, Mayle third. Sam Cassidy fought hard to keep fourth from a charging Josh Lomas coming through from eighth.
In Minimax Jordan Gilbertson and Lewis Bowles on pole and third got a great start that saw second placed man Myles Potter stuck on the outside of Haynes, allowing the front pair to break away from the pack. Behind them a tussle with Harry Sturt, Jack Constable, Myles Potter and Sam Stansbury all pushed each other for the final podium position, Constable coming from eleventh just ran out of laps with Sturt securing third and the final podium position. Up front Bowles had Gilbertson behind entering the last lap, last corner Gilbertson outbraked Bowles, contact ensued with Gilbertson recovering first to take the win, Bowles consoled with second and anew lap record on lap 11.
In Rotax Jason Gardner sat on pole with a full grid behind him, with tussles in the first corner took full advantage to pull away lap on lap to take a well driven unchallenged lights to flag victory. Behind Gardner it was difficult to keep up with the changes, Rob Gilford came through from 15th to secure second, Michael Cheek drove a stunning race coming from nineteenth and looked to have settled for the third place on the last lap, yet Matt Parker hadn’t given up and slipped inside at Haynes to hold onto the final podium position leaving Cheek fourth and James King in fifth.
For the first time the club ran a separate Comer and Honda grid in response to driver’s requests. Comers took to the track, Jake Blackledge’s Sodi sat on pole, but it was Max Bird who got the best start coming from third get through to first place after lap one. Thanassi Barnicoat battled to first then back to second, throughout the whole race the trio swapped positions right up to the last lap when Bird got the best run through Bus Stop giving him a kart length’s gap to take the win from Barnicoat with Blackedge right behind. Bird and Blackedge set identical times for the final and close to the club lap record. James Thompson held Matteo Zanetti and Ollie Ellis-Richardson at bay to secure fourth by the slimmest of margins between the second trio.
Next final out, Honda Cadets had Fletcher Trueman on pole, Yukinori Ishii alongside and last month’s winner Samuel Pooley sitting ominously behind Trueman in third, lights go green and with that through went Pooley into the lead for the move into Haynes Loop. Throughout the race Trueman pushed Pooley hard with Felix Meek coming from row three to join the fray in the latter stages managing to pull clear from Elliot Harvey with Ishii dropping back to fifth. At the line Pooley held off Trueman from Meek to make it a win two month’s running.
A margin of 4/100ths of a second was all that separated the final positions in the Junior TKM race, Tom Hackett on pole looked to have a great start and pull clear from the field, Robin Sedden coming from fourth had other ideas and with two laps to go had pulled right up to Hackett’s bumper. Coming into Tollys for the last time Hackett just managed to get the better traction and held first place from Sedden with Calum Woodbridge only a couple of kart lengths back.
The combined Masters and 177 needed four heats such is the growth in the class at Forest Edge, Jamie Drabble pole, Steve Pratt alongside, Pratt got a better run out of Bus Stop and by Midgetts had moved into the lead and just edged away by a length from Drabble. Master Joe Holloway had moved into third early on, Paul Warrener on lap 4 assumed third place and moved up to the leading pair in the closing laps, with two laps remaining Holloway moved back to fifth on track with Daniel Watson moving through to secure fourth place. Holloway took first Master from Kieron Woolgar having to settle for fastest lap after one poor heat avoiding spinning karts at Bus Stop left a qualifying slot on the fifth row to take second from Graham Mackie.
Senior TKM had first three separated by less than a second with Josh Waters winning from Matt Greatley and Andrzej Zolty.
Round 3 on May 1st sees the first Forest Edge three day race weekend, welcoming Super 4 and the Royal Wedding Bank Holiday to start April 29th with two days practiceJ
Comer Cadet 1st Max Bird, Zip
2nd Thanassi Barnicoat, Shark
3rd Jake Blackledge, Sodi
4th James Thompson, Zip
5th Matteo Zanetti, BRM
Honda Cadet 1st Samuel Pooley, Project 1
2nd Fletcher Trueman, Project 1
3rd Felix Meek, Project 1
4th Eliot Harvey, Project 1
Junior TKM 1st Tom Hackett, Intrepid
2nd Robin Sedden, Gillard
3rd Calum Woodridge, Tony
Minimax 1st Jordan Gilbertson, Storm
2nd Lewis Bowles, Storm
3rd Harry Stuart, Alonso
4th Jack Constable, Tony
Junior Max 1st Kieran Gifford, Gillard
2nd David Wright, Gillard
3rd Jack Mayle, Tony
4th Sam Cassidy, Kosmic
5th Josh Lomas, Gillard
Rotax Max 1st Jason Gardner, Tony
2nd Rob Gilford, Sodi
3rd Matt Parker, Alonso
4th Michael Cheek, DR
5th James King, Gillard
Senior TKM 1st Josh Waters, Birel
2nd Matt Greatley, Alonso
Rotax 177 1st Steve Pratt, Tony
2nd Jamie Drabble, Gillard
3rd Paul Warrener, Sodi
4th Daniel Watson, Gillard
5th Michael Parsons, Maranello
177 Masters 1st Joe Holloway, Intrepid
2nd Kieron Woolgar, X30
3rd Graham Mackie, Gillard
4th Jim Plunkett, Birel
5th Chris Hartridge, Gillard
Report Colin Wright