September 2010 Round 7 FEKC Championship
With September, Forest Edge’s 2010 Championship moves into the final third of the year with some classes seeing potential winners starting to firm up, this month’s race was greeted with changeable conditions giving Dads and mechanics more tyre changing experience than a Formula 1 team in Belgium!
A delay of over an hour in the first two races of the day with red flags in Cadet and Junior Rotax looked to put the whole day in jeopardy to the diminishing light conditions of a cloudy wet Autumn day, however the officials managed to get the times back on track to round out a great days racing with ever changing weather conditions.
The Cadet B final was lucky to start the finals in the dry, this was a luxury that was not to greet too many classes on the day with many flattening impact driver batteries on the grid due to so many changes.
The combined Minimax and Junior TKM was the first A final to take to the track with David Wright pole, Lewis Bowles alongside, row two Alan Rees and Harry Sturt. Wright got a great start off the line, into the first corner Haynes Loop he had two lengths advantage over the following trio, Sturt edged past Rees on lap two right onto the bumper of Bowles, Wright took full advantage of the battling behind and drove unchallenged to take the victory. Last lap three corners to go, Rees out braked Sturt into Midgetts edging up to third and at the line finished just behind Bowles to take the final podium. Junior TKM peter Newman took top spot from his sister Jodene.
Rotax again full of quantity and quality had Michael Kent pole with Dean Hale sat alongside looking ominous with raw pace, Kent’s great start saw Hale on the outside going into Haynes Loop allowing rapid starting Jonathan Drabble and Michael Cheek to move up with Hale looking to get back to the inside. Cheek seized early advantage moving past Drabble which allowed Kent time to break free, 2 laps later Drabble regained second from Cheek and the pair matching leader Kent’s lap times moved clear of a battling pack led by Scott Smart. At the line Kent finished clear of Drabble and Cheek who came through from rows five and six respectively with great drives, Scott Smart fourth, fastest driver on circuit Dean Hale had to settle for fifth finishing alongside Smart on the finish line.
Combined 177 and Masters Jamie Drabble took a lights to flag victory on track and in 177 class after falling behind Steve Pratt early in the race, lap three Drabble edged past Pratt and started to eke away with Michael Parsons glued to Pratt’s bumper. Lap 10, Drabble clear and moving to first 177 win saw the competition of Pratt disappear with an exploding clutch leaving Parsons to secure second, Rob Roddy third in his first race off Novice plates. Masters saw three pacesetters, Charlie Watson, Peter Thomas and Kieron Woolgar all vying for the win, early Thomas was the front runner with Watson pressurising and Woolgar having to work through from row 5 to get on terms. Lap 10 Woolgar now right behind both Watson and Thomas, out braked both and led heading into Haynes Loop, however carrying too much speed into the corner forcing himself wide, Watson took full advantage and slipped back past Woolgar and Thomas and held first place right to the line. Woolgar recovered after overcooking his earlier move consolidating to finish third right on the bumper of Thomas.
First place across the line in Senior TKM fell to Stewart Morris.
In Gearbox the 250’s provided a thrilling final between Kenton Ashforth and Gary Arlot, at three quarters length nothing could separate the pair apart from a technical implosion on Arlot’s machine leaving Ashforth with a unchallenged finish. James Berio pulled away from Ashley Ashforth to secure first place.
Junior Max again shows full grids, Ollie Pidgley on pole looked sideways to see Sam Cassidy, Matt Chant behind, Pidgley got a storming start, Cassidy tucked in behind, Chant got edged out allowing Archie White and Harry Rootes to move up to join the fray. At the halfway stage Pidgley looked as if he had the race in the bag with Cassidy dropping back by about 6 lengths, behind the leading pair White and Rootes were joined by Ian Bolland with the trio pushing each other hard. Three laps to go Cassidy seemed to find an extra couple of horsepower and starting the penultimate lap he was back on Pidgely’s bumper, two corners to go the yellow flag was waving for a recovering backmarker. Cassidy’s chance for the victory looked to have gone with Pidgley looking secure and composed, last corner no yellow flag, back marker negotiated by the duo, Pidgley braked for Tollys, Cassidy somehow managed to brake later and just managed to get inside with the 50 metre run to the finish line. Coming out of Tolleys, Cassidy seemed to get the better traction and crossed the line half a kart length ahead of Pidgley to finish of a great race by the Juniors.
The Cadet libre A final, George Thomson on pole with Yukinori’s Ishii’s Honda alongside giving the four strokes a front row lock out, at the start Thomson pulled clear, Jordan Richard’s Comer tucking in behind with Ishii back amongst James Thompson, Jason Duffett and Matteo Zanetti. The front pair of Thomson and Richards worked well together to pull clear of the following pack who were constantly swapping positions and starting to lose sight of the frontrunners by battling. Two laps to go Thomson and Richards stopped working together and being well clear now started to look for the victory, swapping positions at each corner and leaving no one to guess whether Honda or Comer would prevail. Three corners to go Richards moved into the lead and looked as if the victory was his, Thomson had not given up and moved into the last corner ahead to hand the win to Honda and Thomson, Richard took first Comer home and fastest lap. Behind James Thompson had got tangled up with battling against Duffett and Ishii with all three moving up to third at various points, at the line Thompson had a great last lap and took third on track from Duffett and Ishii, Zanetti a kart length behind to take third Comer. Marcus Boyd just back from a broken foot injury took first place in WTP.
Two rounds left and with Round 8 being the John Fleming Memorial for 177 in remembrance of this talented young man who was taken so early a week after August’s race, promises to show some great racing!