August 2010 Round 6 FEKC Championship
Good weather and good grids greeted Forest Edge’s round 6 of the 2010 Championship, alas the computer timing system that is now mandatory on all MSA tracks had different ideas and decided to shutdown after heat one that meant lapscoring was back to good old fashioned manual for the remainder of the day.
In the Minimax class the day’s pacesetter Elliot Hall sat on pole, David Wright alongside with Harry Sturt ominous on row two, Hall could not get off the line clean, with Wright moving inside leaving Hall to retake the lead by the second corner. The two youngsters pulled away from Sturt with Wright glued to Hall’s bumper for eleven laps, with three corners to go Wright timed his move to perfection and moved inside of Hall at Midgetts, defended the last two corners to take the win from Hall, Sturt third.
The Cadet final was stunning, George Thomson’s Honda on pole grabbed a great start, Jordan Richards tucked in behind with Mateo Zanetti, James Thomson, Matthew Edon and Jason Duffett all nose to tail for the first few laps. Nothing could separate the youngsters for the whole race with each of them taking turns to lead which had the spectators enthralled and Comer power versus Honda power proved the validity of libre grids. Richards led with two laps to go and looked to have a small lead, went wide at Midgetts, Thomson in his Honda seized his chance, regained the lead and held to the finish line to keep Richards behind by half a kart length. Matthew Edon secured fastest lap to take second Comer home just behind Richards, James Thomson third. Jason Duffett secured second Honda, Bradwyn Jones third.
Junior Max again produces a field full of quantity and quality, Kieron Gifford on pole got a storming start and pulled away in the early laps from Mac Austin, Harry Rootes and Charlie Turner. Lap three Rootes moved into second, lap later Austin regained his place with Rootes looking to drop back into Tuners reach, at half way the trio began to reel in Gifford with Rootes setting the fastest pace of the four drivers. Across the line Gifford took his lights to flag victory from Austin, Rootes alongside across the line with Turner just behind.
Rotax Dean Hale edged away from Stephen Andrews and Michael Cheek early in the race leaving battles behind for the final podium places, Cheek challenged Andrews leaving the "door open" allowing Jonathan Drabble to edge through, Cheek regained his place after a few corners but this gave Andrews space to pull clear and at the finish line the order was Hale, Andrews, Cheek, Drabble.
In most classes having exclusion for being underweight renders a successful driver distraught, in 177 it has mixed feelings but the master of Kieron Woolgar suffered a heat exclusion for not taking that extra burger at lunchtime and compromised his final grid position. Nick Maton suffered a bruised rib early in the day leaving Steve Pratt on pole to make the day his, driving a controlled race to claim first place from Michael Parsons and Jamie Drabble who were both able to match the leaders pace but held each other up in the early stages allowing Pratt to break clear. In Masters Woolgar had his work cut out, taking a few laps to settle, edging past Pete Thomas on lap 5 then set about after Charlie Watson, Watson never put a foot wrong the whole race to take the win from Woolgar who came across the line glued to Watson’s bumper.
Two thirds of the championship over and all are still up for grabs with no clear favourites emerging, September and the darkening days approach promising a move into wet weather territory for the latter half of the year perhaps throwing up some potential new leaders!