Could a podium be more predictable?
March 2010 |
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At the end of last year Steel announced they would be retiring. I don’t think anyone ever believed they would not enter this year and indeed they turned up with Marc Craddock in place of the EasyKart bound Jamie Jakins. Graeme Coombes and Pete O’Connor are also joining the fray later in the season to join Cockmeister Clackett. O’Connor broke the umbilical cord with RBB and his vacated seat was filled by Club100 returnee Liam “Hit man” Hegarty and another old face in the form of “Dangerous” Dave Lewis joined Galliard for one race before being replaced by the legend from round 2 onwards. After a miserable 2009 and a number of failed contract negotiations with at least 3 teams over the winter, Jordan Hill secured a last minute deal to join his granddad’s Wolfie team.
High Times and Vagisil were both promoted from Clubman and, with both teams sporting premier sprint drivers, are sure to be running near the front this year. 3Cubed were back in the Prems as well after their successful year pot hunting in Clubmans.
Reigning Clubman champion Rich Higham gave his views on his team’s chances this year.
“It’s always a bit of a lottery in the wet but we’re hoping for a strong season and hopefully we’ll move towards the front of the grid by the end of the year.”
The day dawned wet and overcast and qualifying saw Just So take the pole from Red Steel. Trevor Randall lined up third for Target Racing in what would be their swan song. Reigning Clubman champions High Times proved their credentials with fourth. Further down the order Club16-48 were disappointed after suffering at the hands of yellow flags and traffic. Wolfie, RBB and Galliard also had their work cut out for them.
Pole sitter Phil Ingram seemed confident before the start and thought that Just So being the only title contender with the same line-up as 2009 could play to their advantage.
“Obviously me, Brian and Stu work well together and we gel as a team so I reckon it could work out this year. The kart feels good now but it’s a long race so we’ll have to see what happens. We should be on the podium today.”
The front runners got away at the start and there was a lot of jostling for the lead between Just So, Steel and Target with Wolfie also joining the party. Vagisil had eased their way up the order in the early laps and started menacing the leaders. The top two started to slowly pull away from the chasing pack and it looked like Steel had the edge in the opening stint.
Steel and Wolfie were two of the first to pit with Just So stopping a couple of laps later. With the track starting to dry by half distance, it became obvious that some teams were suffering with a lack of top-end. None more so than Target, who lost compression in their engine and in doing so lost a certain top 6 finish. Their misery was compounded with an altercation with Club16-48. A coming together between Lee Kemp and Phil Kendall ended in a collision. Phil Kendall gave his views of the incident.
“I had re-taken Target for sixth but then was bundled into the barriers coming downhill from the second hairpin. As Lee knows I was a tad upset but he is adamant he was pushed into me so-that's life. Sixth would have been great so ninth is quite disappointing.”
Galliard were at a loss to explain their lack of pace and never featured near the front. Chris Hoyle gave his frank views:
“The kart lacked something but we’re not sure what. Either we had a slow kart or we were rubbish. I can't decide which - possibly both. The only consolation is we beat the old timers at Wolfie and Target Racing have already buckled under the pressure of the impending season so we get their top driver from round two.”
RBB were also struggling; new recruit Hegarty admitting to being off the pace and making a few errors while he re-acquainted himself with Club100 after a 3 year absence. Nevertheless, a consistent performance from all of the drivers added to the misfortune of others meant that they would soon find themselves in a position to score some useful points. Their dinosaur of a team-mate, Hit Man Hegarty who was also celebrating his 40th birthday, gave his personal opinion of his return during the race:
“It’s good to be back in the paddock but I must say it’s the first time I’ve driven these new karts in the wet and, having only driven them for ten minutes in the dry, it is a bit difficult. I’ve never been told I’m a second off the pace before so that was a bit hard to take after my first stint but there is room for improvement.”
Wolfie were looking competitive until Jordan Hill infected the kart with the destructive oils in his fingers and the chain snapped, forcing them in for long repairs that dropped them to dead last.
As the race wound down, it was the same old story with Red Steel winning from Just So Racing. No surprises to see Tanked Up in third and the championship is obviously going to be fought between these 3 teams this year.
Dan Butler was the team spokesman for Steel after the race. Did he think that the changing line-up would affect the team this year?
“I don’t think so. Lee is doing the whole season and Marc is doing a few. Pete is coming in for Rye and when I leave in August those two might share the drive with Jamie and possibly Graeme Coombes also standing in. We’ve all raced with each other before in various different forms so it shouldn’t be a problem.
“Today was pretty standard. We had a bit of a tricky start and I was behind Phil for a while. It took a few laps to get past him and pull a gap. Marc did a brilliant stint and pulled a nice gap as it started to dry. We then just took it easy and drove cautiously without taking any risks so it was an easy job in the end.”
