July 2011 Round 5 FEKC Club Championship
July 2011 Round 5 FEKC Club Championship and Help For Heroes Festival
Round 5 of the Forest Edge Kart Club 2011 Championship was also the second annual running of the Help For Heroes Charity Festival with over 215 drivers in attendance. The Army Catering Corps again provided all weekend catering and added full paintballing this time for interested parties, it was a great weekend with trolley races, auctions, raffles and abundant generosity that ensured a total of £10,600 was raised for this great cause adding to last years total of £10,700! Over the two years the club, drivers, spectators and sponsors have helped to raise over £21,000!
Hugh Robertson, MP, Minister for Sports and the Olympics, “I am absolutely delighted to offer my support to this year’s karting event to raise money for Help for Heroes. Having served in the army myself, I know that this money makes a huge difference and it could not go to a more worthy cause.’
The club had planned on an August date this year so not to clash with Goodwood however, with the Catering Corps volunteers heading off to Afghanistan in that month the event was rapidly changed to accommodate their presence at the circuit!
Next year the club is looking for 300 drivers and already looking at televising the event on Motors TV, so the hunt is now on for a title sponsor for the event which continues to swell in both driver numbers, credibility and enthusiasm for this great charity, all sponsors details are on www.fekc.co.uk.
To round off the whole weekend the racing was not too bad either, 32 Comers were first to take to the track for their final, Brandon Hague had pole, Jake Blackledge second, with row two hosting Sam Faulkner and Max Bird. Lights to green Hague took a perfect start to remain in the lead, Blackledge lost out unable to get to the inside and saw Faulkner, Bird and Thanassi Barnicoat move ahead to tuck in behind Hague. Up to lap seven a train of seven karts had Hague still at the front, next lap Barnicoat seized an opportunity to move to the front, Hague down to second and with the final lap beckoning it was Faulkner who assumed the lead but it was a race that could have seen any of the top six win. Last lap two corners from home Blackledge recovering from earlier moved into the lead at Midgets, Max Bird following through and side by side across the line it was down to the timing system to award Blackledge the win from Bird, Barnicoat, Hague, Mailer and Faulkner! Less than 3/10ths of a second separated the top five on the track at the chequered flag and 5/100ths second between their overall lap pace showed a race that could have had anyone of six winners!
The Honda cadets for their final had Elliot Harvey looking strong on pole, Sam Pooley second, with Harry Carter and Brandon Patrick behind, Harvey with growing maturity managed a great start to move clear, Fletcher Trueman took advantage of the large grid to catch the battling pack unawares and move into second at the end of the first lap displacing Pooley and Carter. Lap 4 Harvey still looking comfortable in the lead, Carter back into second with Trueman dropped to sixth, try as he could Harvey could not get away from the battles behind but the one to watch was Myles Apps who had started row 10 and gradually lap after lap edging closer and closer to the front. A stunning drive from Apps saw him in the lead on the start of the last lap, coming out of Bus Stop Harvey got a better run and moving into Midgets managed to move back into the lead to take the flag ahead of Apps, Edwards and Patrick.
In Minimax the front pair of Jordan Gilbertson and Jordan Richards were put to the back of the grid for excessive speed leaving Lewis Bowles and Myles Potter to move up and think their Christmas’ had all come in one go! Bowles drove a consummate race to take a lights to flag victory with the fastest lap. Gilbertson and Richards were moving through the field attempting to recover their grid slots, on lap 7 Gilbertson edged past Potter to take second place and try to make a dent in Bowles lead which was on this occasion to prove unassailable. First home, Bowles followed by Gilbertson, Potter and Richards.
Another big Junior TKM grid, this month Robin Sedden pole managed the start to perfection, keeping Tom Hackett tucked behind for the first half of the race, lap eight James Webster recovered from a bad start to second past Hackett and in spite of some blistering fast laps could not close enough on Sedden and had to settle for second with Hackett taking the final podium step.
In Junior Blue Will Goodhew maximised a good early start to pull a lead lap by lap from Ben Pearson.
Thirty Junior Max took to the grid for their final, Elliot Hall, Levi Coombs, Kieran Gifford and Ben Cheeseman occupied the front slots, Hall was slow to get away, Coombs moved into first at Haynes Loop, Hall tucked in behind, Gifford with David Wright coming through from row 4 to sit behind Gifford. Lap two Gifford moved ahead of Hall and right onto Coombs’ bumper. Coming out of Bus Stop on lap three Wright got the better exit and into Midgets moved inside both Hall and Gifford to now sit just behind Coombs. Into Tollys Gifford’s kart ended up on top of Wright leaving Gifford heading for the Clerks office and an exclusion, with Wright also out of the race it gave some respite to Coombs who pulled away from Hall each lap to retain his H4H McLaren trophy, Hall second, Sam Cassidy had a solid drive to come through to secure third from Ollie Pidgeley and Ian Bolland.
Over thirty Rotax’ looked ahead to see Craig Mooney on pole loose out to Stephen Andrews at the end of lap one and drop down the field to 11th place. Andrews moved into the lead and looked unchallenged early on in the race, Dan Dunham with a difficult start dropping from second down the field started to make ground on Michael Cheek and Barry Thomsit who were all homing in on Stephens. At the mid way stage Thomsit had displaced Cheek for second and now sat on Stephens’ bumper but was unable to find a way through with Stephens covering the overtaking moves on the last two laps. Lap ten Dunham edged past Cheek and these two were to be separated by 1/1000th of a second on the finish line to provide one of the closest finishes the club would see! Jonny Drabble secured fifth place to have the top five all covered by only 7/10th of a second at the line!
If there were prizes this weekend for the best turned out kart it would undoubtedly have gone to the Senior TKM polesitter of Sam Grogan who had KartDavid produce some stunning Help For Heroes graphics kit for a resplendent TonyKart. It was perhaps fitting that Grogan took and unchallenged win and with that to retain the H4H trophy that he secured in 2010 to have a very popular win!
There was only to be one winner in Formula Blue with the top three finishing in their starting order, Craig Copeland headed away from Chris Derrick who did not have everything as easy as Copeland and in the latter stages had to battle off Ian Branfield to maintain his second place, Branfield step three on the podium.
Gearbox poleman Ashley Ashforth had a nightmare lap one dropping down to ninth and a mountain to climb, Andy Bird quickly took advantage of moving to the front to pull away from the field with only Kenton Ashforth able to better Bird’s laptimes but having to start from tenth Ashforth had to settle for third place from Bird and Gary Arlott who had moved into second on lap three and had a very solitary raceJ
Thirty Four drivers made up the combined 177/Masters class with Jamie Drabble sitting right at the front and for six laps maintained his advantage until Paul Warrener moved into the lead at Midgets, Drabble had not given up and was 1/100th second quicker, Warrener head down drove a faultless second half of the race to give Drabble no opportunity to pass and at the line had half a kart length lead from Drabble with third placed man Steve Pratt finishing sixth on track and looking for a new chassis claiming softening problems or weight problems as the other drives claimedJ Masters saw Kieron Woolgar drop a few places early to Mark Redding and Pratt to run most of the race as fifth on track, lap six he moved ahead of Pratt and into fourth, Joe Holloway at this stage was the quickest Master and coming through from 12th was moving past one driver per lap, penultimate lap and into Midgets he scythed past Woolgar to finish less than a second behind Redding and rueing a better start position for the final!
Another successful event for the club, the charity and all who graciously donated or took part, next years H4H Festival will look to have an approved “H” plate for the winners along with television if a sponsor can be found between now and then!
Comer Cadet 1st Jake Blackledge, Sodi
2nd Max Bird, Zip
3rd Thanassi Barnicoat, Shark
4th Brandon Hague, Shark
5th Harry Mailer, Shark
1st Novice Ben Hewitt, Zip
Honda Cadet 1st Eliott Harvey, Project 1
2nd Myles Apps, Wright
3rd Ryan Edwards, Project 1
4th Brandon Patrick, Project 1
Minimax 1st Lewis Bowles, Storm
2nd Jordan Gilbertson, Kosmic
3rd Myles Potter, Alonso
4th Jordan Richards, Gillard
Junior Max 1st Levi Coombs, Tony
2nd Elliot Hall, Gillard
3rd Sam Cassidy, Kosmic
4th Ollie Pidgley, Tony
5th Ian Bolland, Maranello
Junior TKM 1st Robin Sedden, Gillard
2nd James Webster, Tony
3rd Tom Hackett, Intrepid
4th Calum Wooldridge, Tony
Rotax Max 1st Stephen Andrews, CRG
2nd Barry Thomsit, Tony
3rd Dan Dunham, Parolin
4th Michael Cheek, DR
5th Jonny Drabble, Gillard
Senior TKM 1st Sam Grogan, Tony
2nd Jamie Hadley, Alonso
Senior Blue 1st Craig Copeland, Minarelli
2nd Chris Derrick, Tony
3rd Ian Branfield, Tony
Junior Blue 1st Will Goodhew, Kosmic
2nd Ben Pearson, Tony
250 Gearbox 1st Andy Bird, Anderson
2nd Gary Arlot,
3rd Kenton Ashforth, Jade
125 Gearbox 1st James Berio, Birel
Rotax 177 1st Paul Warrener, Sodi
2nd Jamie Drabble, Gillard
3rd Steve Pratt, Tony
4th Rob Roddy, Gillard
177 Masters 1st Mark Redding Gillard
2nd Joe Holloway, Intrepid
3rd Kieron Woolgar, X30
4th Christophe Dutertre,DR
Report Colin Wright
Next race Sunday 7th August.